Last updated on January 6th, 2022
In the printing industry, going digital is the new buzz word. Simply put, digital printing is the contemporary method of production which selects print areas from electronic (digital) files. It includes creating your artwork on a computer and then sending it for direct printing on the product(s) of your choice.
This printing technique is a modern alternative to traditional printing methods such as flexography, lithography, letterpress, gravure, and others.
Going digital eliminates complex mechanical steps needed for old printing techniques such as making color proofs, films, making plates, and manually stripping all the pieces simultaneously.
PrintShop by Designhill has a long-term goal of going digital. We have adapted the print areas to adjust digital printing on each product. We have done it for almost all our products so that they can fine-tune with the associated pallet sizes of the digital printers.
Whether you’re aware of this transition or not, but it is going to impact your products. Keep scrolling to understand the impact of print areas and going digital, along with the benefits.
Benefits Of Switching To Digital Printing
01. Easy Customization
Amid many benefits of going digital, customization is of utmost importance. Going digital is the most affordable solution you can have. It lets you customize marketing materials like brochures, business cards, t-shirts, and more.
For example, you need to print different recipients’ name on invitation cards. You don’t need to change the whole design of the card. All you need to do is to change the small area containing the name.
02. Reduces Complexities
Going digital eliminates underlying complexities in the production process. It helps save time and trims down errors. As a result, every graphic designer, including you, can deliver the product(s) in a shorter duration.
03. High Quality
Going digital is proportionate to high-quality outcomes. Digital printing provides impressive quality as compared to other printing methods. The colors turn up brilliantly on the prints.
Also, there are hardly any issues with the harsh lines. As far as the quality of the custom t shirt, brochure, card, label, or flyer is concerned, it remains the same as that of the first one in digital printing.
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04. Speedy Process
If you want your graphic design ideas to turn out brilliantly on a product with fast turnaround time, going digital is the best solution. Unlike lithographic printing, you don’t need to prepare plates or something. Digital printing just requires minimal set-up time.
05. Versatility
As compared to the traditional print, digital print is highly versatile. There are many digital printers that include the largest media range; for example, HP Indigo printers. It enables you to print on more than three thousand certified substrates together with darks, synthetics, and metallics.
06. Cost-Effective
Because digital printing method doesn’t include printing plates, you don’t have to pay more. You don’t have to invest your money to buy plates either.
Print Area Issues Before Going Digital
For most of the products listed on PrintShop, the print areas come predefined. But when digital printing wasn’t available, the print areas of the products used to go beyond the size of the products.
This restricted the ability to adjust every single order. Also, in some cases, the print areas were adjusted in such a way that the design would fall on zippers, seams, pockets, and other areas.
This compelled designers or artists to do manual work. It also involved longer product time, dissatisfied customers, and of course, unappealing products.
But with digital printing techniques becoming a norm, these issues are resolved. A graphic designer just has to upload the design on a product, and the print area will be adjusted automatically.
According to a report unveiled by Smithers Pira in 2017, digital printing accounts for about 16.2% of worldwide print market value. It also accounts for 2.9% of the volume which will accelerate to 3.9% of volume by 2022.
How It Works
Before you sell your art, you should know how digital printing method works. First of all, an image is sent directly to the printer with the help of digital files in TIFF, PSD, PDF, or other formats. Going digital is highly beneficial for products that need detailing and have orders in small quantity.
Here is how it works :
i. Utilizing the graphic design ideas, the file is created with a clean and high-resolution as per the size requirements.
ii. Crop marks and bleed have to be added as required. Crop marks refer to the lines appearing on the corner of the print. After bleed trimming, crop marks make sure that the final trimmed document should not have any unprinted edges.
iii. Before sending the file to the printer, you need to convert your electronic image or text file into JPEG or PNG file formats. These are called raster image files. Depending on the software, PDF files can also be used for printing.
Conclusion
Going digital is the new concept in the industry today. It offers both features and flexibility over traditional printing methods like offset or flexographic. At present, we expect our designs to be printed on materials with utmost accuracy and vibrancy. Artists need printers to be able to produce high-quality printing of their artwork or design and that too, with fast turnaround. That’s the reason we have included going digital in our long-term goal. If you’re a graphic designer, you can take advantage of the predefined print areas, prepare unique designs, and sell your artwork online with ease.