8/13/2019 The Offset Advantage

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THE

OFFSET

ADVANTAGE

COMPARING OFFSET PRINTING TO DIGITAL PRINTING

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PrintNinja | 877-396-4652 | www.printninja.comCopyright 2013 PrintNinja LLC. All rights reserved. PrintNinja is a registered trademark o PrintNinja LLC. The PrintNinja logo and related marks are marks o PrintNinja LLC.

This guide is provided as a convenience to PrintNinja customers and while every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy, PrintNinja cannot be responsible or any errors or omissions.This guide may contain reerences and examples that eature products,services or brands that are the intellectual property o others.

These are included or illustrative purposes only and those products, services and brands do not endorse this guide or have any association with PrintNinja LLC.

The Offset Advantage

Offset printing, sometimes called lithography, is the gold standard o printing and is based on techniques that have beenaround or thousands o years. Originally carved stone and wood were used to transer inks made rom plants or otherpigments to suraces. Today, thats been replaced with metal and plastic printing plates, but the concept is the same.

Just like the carved stones, modern offset printing relies on raised suraces etched in a printing plate that pick up ink and

then transer it to paper. In our color process, or CMYK printing, this is repeated our times, once with cyan ink, once withmagenta, once with yellow and finally once with black (black is abbreative as K, which is short or key).

Offset printing offers, without a doubt, the best quality printing and the most options on paper stocks, coatings, finishesand other speciality add ons such as oil stamping, embossing or debossing.

The major downside o offset printing, however, is that the startup costs are relatively high since plates have to begenerated or each project and each time an offset printing press is run, there are both labor and material costs as thepressmen ensure the press is properly configured. However, once the press is started, the per unit price is low andbecomes even lower as quantity increases.

In theory, you could print just one copy o a project on an offset press, but since all the startup costs have to be absorbedby that one copy, that one unit could easily end up costing practically as much as 500 or more copies.

In contrast, digital printing uses large, commercial grade versions o laser printers. They typically use toner, are designedor ast production and do not use plates and thereore have very little, i any, startup costs. Digital printing is ofen availableat copy shops or office supply stores or can be ordered rom larger commercial printers. In most cases, larger operationswill have higher caliber equipment.

Good Projects for Offset Printing

Multipage products with higher page counts (over12) and larger quantities (over 500) such as books,novels, childrens books, picture books, catalogs andmagazines

Multipage projects that need speciality paper stocks,coatings or finishes

Multipage projects that need special eatures such asoil stamping, embossing, debossing and diecutting

Single page products in larger quantities (at least500 to 1,000), such as brochures, business cards orfliers. PrintNinja doesnt print these items, but they areavailable via a partner website, Chicago Pressmen.This site offers faster turnaround on offset printing forsingle page products such as brochures and businesscards and digital printing for low quantities on avariety of products. For details and pricing, visit www.

chicagopressmen.com. Projects that dont have an urgent deadline.PrintNinjas normal turnaround is 6-8 weeks. Visitwww.chicagopressmen.com for faster turnaround onoffset printing.

Projects that you either go through quickly or canstore easily over the long term

Good Projects for Digital Printing

Multipage projects with low page counts (under12) and smaller quantities (under 500) such aspresentation printouts, booklets or books

Single page products in lower quantities (under 500)such as brochures, posters and fliers.

Any projects you need in hours or a ew days Any printed materials that are subject to change

requently, such as menus, price lists and real estatefliers

Print on demand projects

For great prices on digital printing, including quantitiesas low as 5, visit PrintNinjas partner, Chicago Pressmen,at www.chicagopressmen.com. For comic book sizes, werecommend Quartet Digital Printing at www.quartetcopies.com.

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PrintNinja | 877-396-4652 | www.printninja.comCopyright 2013 PrintNinja LLC. All rights reserved. PrintNinja is a registered trademark o PrintNinja LLC. The PrintNinja logo and related marks are marks o PrintNinja LLC.

This guide is provided as a convenience to PrintNinja customers and while every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy, PrintNinja cannot be responsible or any errors or omissions.This guide may contain reerences and examples that eature products,services or brands that are the intellectual property o others.

These are included or illustrative purposes only and those products, services and brands do not endorse this guide or have any association with PrintNinja LLC.

The Offset Advantage

Offset Printing Digital Printing

Per unit cost or a 1,000 copy run* $1 $5+

Per unit cost or a 5 copy run* $200+ $8+

Typical minimum 500 1Available rom PrintNinja.com,

ChicagoPressmen.comLocal copy shops,

ChicagoPressmen.com

Full color available

Black and white printing available

Best color quality

Best black text clarity

Saddle stitch binding (staples)

Perect binding (glued with printed spine) LimitedSpiral binding

Hardcover binding Limited

Super ast turnaround

Dust jacket Limited

Full bleed Limited

Requires printing plates

Uses ink as printing medium

Uses toner as printing medium

High durability o printed images and text (low rub)

Paper weight choices Numerous Limited

Paper coating choices Numerous Limited

Paper finish choices Numerous Limited

*Estimates based on 24 page saddle stitched project with ull color throughout and standard paper selections and typical marketpricing. Actual prices may vary.