The Digital Printing Age
By Nikole B - MONDAY 14th December 2009
Since its conceptualisation and implementation in the fifteenth century by Johannes Gutenberg, printing has come a long, long way. Screen printing has contributed a lot to printing's present prominence, printing supplies (particularly screen printing supplies) are now sold by the bulk and in retail, and digital printing has now finally come of age and is ready to usher a new period for printing history. Over the past year, the digital colour print market has undergone dramatic and spectacular changes.
For example, a large number of newly developed inkjet colour printers are presently arriving, which will provide companies with more options when addressing industrial-level direct mail and transactional application. This event will also offer them an alternative to pre-printed colour shells to boot. Before, corporations were limited to either multiple, lower-speed engines or Kodak Versamark printers to handle high-volume production. At present, several competitive choices are now obtainable. Nowadays, most printing supplies are also of the inkjet variety as well.
The Present Developments of the Digital Printing Industry
Moreover, recent announcements to expand the choices and capabilities of current digital colour presses have created big waves in the printing industry. New innovations such as new coatings, MICR inks, improved printing supply rationing, and broader page formats now enable digital colour printers to create a more assorted array of printing applications such as short-run newspapers and checks. These features will drive digital colour printing into mainstream acceptance and provide a defining moment in digital colour production.
Organisations can also decrease the number of steps needed to implement digital colour applications by using the wider production capabilities of today's digital printers. For instance, the new MICR-ink-based colour presses enable corporations to develop check applications with colour on a single engine, which gets rid of the waste linked with the practice of item matching. This also results in better utilisation of one's printing supplies as well. Also, digital printing solutions allow enterprises to make use of glossy coatings, which in turn enable them to develop digital colour marketing materials without the need for post-processing.
The Impact of Digital Colour on Business Communications
These new developments, features, and innovations has made it possible to publish documents that were once limited to monochrome (care of the previous expensiveness of digital colour printing) in full colour, which also changes the manner by which companies communicate with their clients and consumers. Furthermore, it presents businesses the chance to take advantage of and derive benefits from such exchanges.
As a direct result of the growth of digital colour publication in business interactions, the digital printing industry now recognises the different customer reactions to various colour elements. To be more precise, research shows that the implementation of colour printing in documents improves response and recognition rates of a respective consumer base.
Companies presently use colour in a strategic manner depending on the intent of a text, correspondence, or print document. Eye-catching colours, complex charts, data-driven graphics, and images are now being used on messages containing important information. Readers usually respond to these colour graphics in a positive way; these subtle aesthetic techniques have paved the way in making a document easier and quicker to understand.
The Improved Digital Print Process
At any rate, digital colour production needs more than just a colour printer. A colour management system, print stream transformation, Printing Industry, printing supplies management, colour image editing, software solutions for colour document composition, colour production and prepress expertise, and correct allocation of resources are all required necessities to a digital production workflow. Just because it has become easier and less costly to obtain and use a digital printer, it doesn't necessarily mean that the process of digital printing itself is easy.
What's more, colour specialists are often used to publish quality colour output. All the way through the design stages, prepress experts manage and fine-tune colour images as well as layout colour documents properly for an intended digital colour press. Once everything is at the press stage, a colour-knowledgeable user makes sure that the colour remains precise and accurate for the entire production run.