Hybrid Offset and Digital Printing Gives These Three Printers Production Flexibility

By Mark Smith

Making the Digital or Offset Call

How do these three companies decide what production path to use, and to what extent is the client involved in the decision?

“There are a fair number of customers out there who will say they see a difference between the color quality of the output from an offset press vs. a digital press,” reports MSP Digital Marketing’s Jonathan Fogel. “Both (HP) Indigo and (Xerox) iGen have made a lot of strides in terms of color reproduction, but the output of a Presstek DI is much closer to conventional offset than any type of toner-based digital press. With the DI, you’re really giving the customer offset quality.”

Overall, though, Fogel says there has been a trend of customers becoming less involved in the mechanics of jobs. “More and more we see customers taking a ‘just get it done’ kind of attitude, so long as the quality meets their expectations and, in our case, the results of the campaign meet their expectations.”

The decision about how to produce a job is made by MSP’s production and manufacturing team and is set when a job is estimated, Fogel adds.

According to Dustin LeFebvre, there is a segment of Specialty Print Communications’ (SPC) customer base that echoes Fogel’s observation. “There are a number of companies that have hard rules against digital printing because of banding and print quality issues. There still exists a perception, and I believe reality, of a print quality difference in the technologies.
“I still see complications with the real heavy solids, especially rich blacks for a high-end brand,” LeFebvre continues. “We've run into a number of times when a client has said, ‘Absolutely not, you can do it that way (digital). I don't care what it costs.’”

Efficiencies, turnaround demands and job requirements are the bigger factors in determining the production path, though, he says. Often, the decision just comes down to which production method is going to cost the least to produce the job. But if, for example, a client wants a piece to go out two days after the data file is delivered, “there's no way we could print, variable image, finish and mail a million pieces other than via in-line finishing and imaging,” LeFebvre notes.

Swapping out images and text for a variable piece means doing the job digitally, either on a digital press or with inkjet heads, he adds. “We believe our four-color hybrid imaging is really opening up a new world. It's combining the efficiencies of web in-line finishing with the functional variety of variable data and images.”

To increase its production flexibility, the company is color matching across press platforms, reports John Gaspari, vice president of operations. “In our sheetfed and web area, we have fingerprinted our presses and we continue to go through that process, including working on G7.”

In the case of The Kennickell Group, variable data means the work goes on its Kodak Nexpress, says President Al Kennickell. Static jobs come down to quantity, although there is some flexibility in the break point. “If you’ve got an 11x17˝, four-over-four piece, for us it costs about the same to print it on our half-size press (Heidelberg Speedmaster 74), so we can run it there or on the Nexpress and sell it for about the same.

“One of the biggest surprises for me, which I figured out the first month we had the Nexpress, is most people don’t care (about offset vs. digital). They’re happy with the work that comes off the digital press,” Kennickell continues. “So if it fits on the Nexpress, you run it there. If it fits on the offset press, you run it there.

He agrees with LeFebvre that pieces with areas of heavy solids are a special case and favor offset production. “If we are running something with straight process color, however, we don’t even tell the customer. We just run it where it makes the best sense.”

Kennickell also sees the same trend among buyers in the market as Fogel. “Certain pieces do still have to be absolutely perfect, but the average customer is a little less demanding today with what you print on your offset press than they were 10 years ago. Digital is usually more about small runs.”

Hybrid print production, or the integration of digital and offset printing, can take multiple forms and be defined in different ways. Examples include digital imprinting of preprinted offset shells, running inkjet heads in-line with a web offset press or binding line, and building a common workflow for processing files output to a digital press and computer-to-plate system. While the concept may not be new, printers are finding ways to put a new spin on it.

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Hybrid Production : Mix and Match Printing