Digital printing and screen printing have both created professional-quality products for years. It is one with right for you depending on your artwork, your order, and what you’re going to use it for. Suppose you’re a startup looking to order really small volumes. In case, you’ve got a design with loads of colors in it, like a photo, or you’re looking for a print-on-demand service, digital is definitely better for you. Let’s explore the big picture of online printing and offset printing options.
Offset Printing
Offset printing ruled the printing world until the entry of digital printing. Digital printing entered the scene later. Offset printing is time-consuming and requires large quantities.
Digital Printing
The digital printing enables printing in a short time and in small quantities. ZEROPIXEL offers a complete range of digital printing services in Pakistan. Offset printing is a time-consuming technique, whereas digital printing is faster.
Offset Printing Range
Offset printing cannot deliver high-quality graphic designs. However, online printing services provide the best graphics output. Offset printing is cheaper as compared to digital printing is a costlier affair. Offset printable jobs save on labor costs, whereas digital printing needs continuous work on a single job. Offset printing uses printing plates. Meanwhile, digital printing is a method of printing directly from a digital image to various media.
Which Print Method is Better?
What you want to know now is which one of these print methods is better. The thing is, there’s no direct answer to this question because both print methods have important strengths. Which one you choose should really depend on some details about your order and what’s important to you.
What Quantity Required To Be Printed?
Quantity just means the number of pieces of apparel that are printed with the same design. This could be different types of apparel as long as nothing about the design changes.
Screen Printing Takes Limited Printout
Screen printing has a minimum quantity of 12. That’s because it has an extensive preparation and setup time. So if you’re looking for fewer than 12 pieces, digital printing is your solution. That’s really the strength of digital printing—setup is so quick that you can order even just one T-shirt if you want to choose.
Digital Printing Offers Wider Printing Services
Digital printing will have much more variety in terms of the type of apparel and various colors of the apparel you print on. I found ZEROPIXEL among the best online printing services in Pakistan. However, it’s because screen prints work well on any kind of fabric-not excluding 100% polyester performance fabrics and many other synthetic mixes.
Moreover, digital printing does work well with 100% cotton and its blends. So, it is offered only on items and colors that we have tried and are sure about the quality of print.
Photo-friendly Printing Goes with Digital Printing
Photos and artwork with many colors are much better suited to digital printing, especially if you are doing fewer than about 24 prints. That’s because the photorealistic images print much better through the digital printer.
Screen printing is actually a much better option and a much more affordable option if you’re not doing too many colors or if you’re ordering larger quantities.
Cost Comparison of the Two Printing Options
How are digitally printed and screen printed orders priced?
Cost drivers for both print methods are:
Digital Printing Cost
The apparel printing
Printing business can run with digital printing for anything from very cheap to high-end fashion depending on the style and the brand.
The number of printing places
One would have the print on the front while two had prints on both the front and the back.
The difference in the price is that, if you want to print the design on a white T-shirt or even a darker-colored T-shirt, it increases the number of layers of white ink, which would print the design on the darker-colored fabric.
Screen Printing Cost
For screen printing, two additional cost factors are:
The number of colors in your design.
The number of pieces of apparel you want printed with the same design.
You can check out our quote calculator to get an idea of how these different cost factors and two different print methods will affect your order. Both technologies used in printing work have different cost ranges in terms of collective printing.
Conclusion
One final thing to consider is how important color matching is to your print. Because with screen printing, we mix and print each color individually, we can match the color to a specific brand or logo. Digital printing requires nothing but an input to be printed as precise as the input design is. So, if you need your print to match a Pantone color, for instance, screen printing is the best option.
