What is Digital Printing and How does it Work?

Your promotional items supplier tells you that the only way to achieve your logo onto a particular product is by digitally printing it.

There are a few reasons that this might be the case.

1. Your Artwork is Photographic in nature
2. Your artwork has colours blending into each other
3. Your artwork is very detailed and needs to be produced in a very small print area.

In some cases a gradient can be produced using screen printing or pad printing but usually the gradient is quite corse and does not come out all that well…

So How Does Digital Printing Actually Work?

In most (if not all) printing processes the ink is applied to the product or paper by touching an ink exposed surface to the product.

With digital printing the ink is fired from a print head nozzle at the product.

Or fired at a transfer paper which will then later be heat transfered onto the product.

Pros

• We can produce a full colour photographic print onto promotional products with digital printing.
• It can be cheaper for small runs on certain products.
• We can produce a higher level of detail for small text.
• We can do faster turnarounds in some cases.

Cons

• We cannot accurately reproduce pantone colours with digital printing.
• Sometimes the transfers are of a lower quality than full litho printing.
• Sometimes the durability of the print is lower than that of screen printing or pad printing (i.e. not dishwasher safe in the case of mugs).