Buying a Digital Press (Now)? -- Waldman

Production digital presses are mostly electrophotographic (there's also magnetography and a few other technologies) devices that use no plates and can change images on-the-fly, hence true variable imaging. There's virtually no makeready.

Compared to an offset press, they are fairly simple to operate (don't need a traditional pressman) and the quality in both black-and-white and color is approaching offset. Many can print on almost any substrate and some can change papers on-the-fly. There are in-line finishing options available that can turn the digital press into a complete production center for automatically producing a finished product. With almost 80 percent of all multi-color offset jobs 5,000 pieces or less and with the industry growth of print-on-demand, this should be the goose that lays the golden egg.