Sheetfed Offset, Web Offset, Digital : Defining Crossover Points

Printing Impressions' sources for the following report are Jack Emery, vice president of Data Solutions Management for Sandy Alexander (Clifton, NJ); Bob Anderson, president of Prisma Graphic (Phoenix); and Herb Zebrack, president of Lithographix (Hawthorne, CA).

As usual, the devil is in the details. All press manufacturers have their estimates of where crossover can occur on their equipment; however, when printers have jobs that could be run on either their offset or digital equipment, or on their web or sheetfed offset presses, how they decide where the crossover point is located is frequently more nuanced than a "simple" cost-per-piece calculation. Other considerations include: