Win/Win: How Digital Printing is Eco-Friendly and Faster to Turn

For a long time, the printing industry gave little consideration to the environment. Instead, it prioritized aspects like reliability, resolution, and cost-effectiveness, which often take center stage for any business in any industry. But, with the rising call to protect the environment, people are increasingly considering the effects that conventional printing has on the environment. 

 

This has led to the rise of digital printing. For years now, digital printing has changed the printing industry by providing an eco-friendly way to print materials. Businesses that embrace digital printing make a significant contribution to environmental preservation in various ways.

 

Below we explore five ways that digital printing is eco-friendly and faster to turn:

• Digital Printing Makes Electronic Approval of Proofs Possible

Digital printing has made it possible for people to send and approve proofs electronically. This is a total shift from the conventional printing where jobs had to be set up, plates generated, the paper stringed through the press, printed, and then cut down to size. This entire process had to be undertaken for just a few copies of a document or business card. 

 

But online printing has changed this. With digital printing, businesses can tell how their final product will look like even before printing has been undertaken. For instance, if you plan to undertake digital postcard printing, you’ll be able to view the designed samples online and even approve them. Since digital printing technology eliminates the need to print samples off the printer, businesses are able to save money and time when approving document designs. 

 

In some instances, designers need clients to proof documents, particularly when they’re trying new materials or ink colors. Getting the client to proof the documents makes it possible for designers to meet their expectations. Digital printing makes it easier to proof the documents because they only need to print a single document for the client to see all the design features. This makes digital printing less wasteful compared to the conventional form of printing. 

 

• Digital Printing Reduces Cost

The use of digital printing is less costly than the traditional form of printing. By eliminating the use of plates, digital printing lowers the average cost of printing documents, especially in cases when businesses only need a small volume of materials. This makes it easy for businesses to print different marketing materials including flyers, business cards, brochures and business forms. Most importantly, the low cost of digital printing makes printing business materials in full color more viable. It also allows businesses to print their documents to size, which means less wastage for the business. 

 

• The Chemicals Used in Digital Printing are Less Toxic

When it comes to reducing the use of toxic chemicals in printing, digital postcard printers are the future. Printers that use traditional forms of printing require high amounts of chemicals to generate a single piece. For example, printers must invest in darker rooms in order to generate polyester or rubber plates. Conventional printers should also get the right solvents for removing ink from rollers. The solvents must be kept away from water because they get polluted any time they come into contact with water. The chemicals that are used in digital printing are far much less toxic than these—which makes it more eco-friendly. 

 

• Digital Printing is Fast and High Quality

The steps involved in digital printing are simpler compared to those involved in conventional printing. The traditional printing process is more complex to set up, which slows the process down. Digital printing, on the other hand, is faster and therefore takes less time. This means businesses can place printing orders and have them delivered on the same day. This high printing speed means that digital printing companies reduce carbon emissions significantly.

 

At the same time, digital printing delivers quality work for businesses. Digital printers are capable of producing vibrant colors with sharper shades, lines, and hues compared to conventional printers. This is because all these aspects can be controlled to the level that clients want. The quality of printing is consistent throughout, from the very first copy all the way to the last one. 

 

• Digital Printing is Highly Flexible

Every business has its own printing requirements for marketing materials. Since businesses target different customers, personalization of marketing materials becomes key. To achieve this, companies want to print materials that meet the needs of specific markets even as they run tests on specific products. Depending on their target markets, businesses will often print marketing materials for use in the short run. Conventional printing techniques are not able to meet this need. 

 

This means that businesses that want to print low volumes of materials end up with large batches of marketing materials that they don’t need. This not only results to wastage of paper, it also negatively affects the environment. On the other hand, digital printing offers businesses the flexibility to print any number of materials they need because the information is not engraved on a master plate. 

 

• Digital Printing Makes Prototyping Easy

When starting out, businesses are not able to place large printing orders. They tend to make small printing orders as they try to gauge what aspects of the business work and which ones don’t. However, printing business materials in small quantities is often costly when done using the conventional printing techniques. 

 

Even though only a small amount of the printed material will be used, businesses that use this printing technique end up with piles of paper that they don’t need. This wastage is costly for the business and undermines environment conservation efforts. Digital printing solves this problem by enabling businesses to print low volumes of materials at a low cost. 

 

Final Thoughts 

Even though digital printing uses paper, the amount of paper that is used in this form of printing is significantly lower compared to conventional printing. The low paper consumption reduced wastage, and fast printing speeds makes this kind of printing more eco-friendly than other forms of printing.