Offset printing
What is offset printing?
Offset printing carries ink from a plate to a rubber blanket and from there onto the paper. Each colour needs its own plate, so setting up the press costs time and money while every additional copy costs very little. From a few hundred copies upwards it usually works out cheaper than digital printing, and it holds colour more consistently across a long run.
Example
An A4 leaflet in four colours. A digital press has no setup, so the cost per copy is flat — say €0.25. Offset needs plates and make-ready, say €180 once, after which a copy costs €0.04. The two meet at 180 ÷ (0.25 − 0.04) ≈ 860 copies. At 500 copies digital costs €125 and offset €200. At 3,000 copies digital costs €750 and offset €300. The figures are illustrative and come from a printer rather than from us; the crossover moves with the format, the stock and the number of colours, but the logic holds: setup is paid once, copies are paid for one by one.
Why it matters for a business
The run length chooses the technology, and the technology decides how the file is prepared. Offset holds a solid, even colour across the whole run, prints Pantone inks, and handles a wider range of stocks, including heavy boards and coated surfaces. That is why catalogues, books and packaging are printed this way. Digital wins on small quantities, short deadlines and anything where every copy differs — a name, a number, another language. The budgeting consequence: order what will actually be used within a year. Cost per copy falls with volume, but a brochure that goes out of date in the stockroom is not cheap at any price.
What to ask
- How many copies will we really use within 12 months, and how quickly does the content date?
- Pantone or CMYK — is there a brand colour that CMYK cannot reach?
- Will there be a proof, and is it a colour print or a sheet off the press?
- What do another 500 copies cost inside the same run?
- What is the lead time, and does it include finishing — varnish, creasing, folding, die-cutting?
Files for offset are prepared as part of the print materials we design, and they go to the print house you choose — yours or one we work with.