How Does Digital Printing Differ from Traditional Methods of Printing?

The advent of the printing press changed the world. It made the written word accessible to everyone, for a price that most could afford. It took the laborious process of hand-copying manuscripts and automated it, allowing multiple copies to be created within a very short time. However, printing technology has continued to evolve. Today, you’ll find both traditional and digital printing in Toronto. How do they differ?

Speed

One key area of difference between traditional printing methods and digital printing in Toronto is speed – digital is faster. Traditional methods are certainly still employed, and are necessary for professional quality in many areas, but when turnaround time is vital and you’re working to deadline, digital printing comes to the rescue.

Digital Image Based

Digital printing and traditional printing methods differ in other ways as well. One of those is the image source. While traditional printing methods often rely on a hardcopy version of art or images to be printed, digital printing relies on a scalable, customizable digital image (usually a vectorized image for complete control of scale).

Cost

There’s really no dollar for dollar comparison between digital printing and traditional printing, because the factors and needs in both differ from job to job. However, digital printing can be less expensive at least for shortruns. That’s because there’s less work needed to prepare for the print run (which also saves time). In larger print runs, traditional methods are still the most cost effective, though.

In the End

When all is said and done, there’s no “better” solution – the right choice for you will depend on a number of factors, including your deadline, the print run size, the paper/material options you need to use and much more. The best way to ensure that you get the right printing technique for your job is to work with a company like VCM Interactive – we offer digital printing for Toronto area clients, but we can also provide a whole range of traditional printing options. Contact us today to request a free quote on your needs.