Sheetfed Offset, Web Offset, Digital : Defining Crossover Points

The New Math

While it's fair to say that conventional offset printing's higher front-end costs make it less suitable for smaller quantities, what is also true is that technological improvements—both groundbreaking and incremental—continue to push offset run lengths down, keeping the competitive pressure on digital printing (in the case of sheetfed offset) and on sheetfed offset itself (in the case of web offset). Needless to say, these improvements are changing the calculus associated with the quantities that can be run profitably on offset equipment.