Tuesday, October 16, 2012

A Brief History of Digital Printing

Digital printing may sound like an up-and-coming commercial printing technique, but it has actually been around for almost 20 years. Since its inception in the early 1990s, digital printing has become an economical and efficient way to print all sorts of projects, especially short-run jobs or those that require a lot of customization.

The Birth of Digital Printing

Digital printing was developed after personal computers became a fixture in many American homes. In the early 1990s, computer and photocopying companies developed a new way of printing that allowed projects to be printed directly from a file on a computer.

Due to its versatility, the market for digital printing took off in the late 1990s. Digital printing is now expected to compete for nearly 20 percent of the commercial printing market by 2016.

How Digital Printing Works

Unlike traditional printing presses, which use plates to create a master copy of a printing project and use that to recreate many, identical copies, digital printing recreates an image of the file every time it prints. Digital printers take a computer file and translate the data from that file directly to the press and onto the page using electricity. Digital printers often use toner or dyes rather than ink.

The Benefits of Digital Printing

Digital printing is a versatile and economical choice for many printing projects, including print marketing campaigns that are tailored to recipients. Since digital printing does not require plates, it is easy to run projects with variable data and economical to run shorter jobs up to 10,000 copies.

Digital printers can be connected to a computer network, which allows Twin Cities printers to run a printing project at the touch of a button. This makes it easy for clients to email a file to their favorite printer with instructions, have the printer run the project and pick up the end result.

Digital printing is a cost-effective printing option for Twin Cities businesses. If you’d like see how digital printing could make your short-run printing projects more economical, call Matreks Printing today at 952-746-4010.

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Matreks Printing
Adam Johnston
8317 Pillsbury Ave So
Bloomington, MN 55420