Digital printing
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Part of the series on the |
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| Woodblock printing | 200 | |
| Movable type | 1040 | |
| Intaglio | 1430s | |
| Printing press | 1454 | |
| Lithography | 1796 | |
| Chromolithography | 1837 | |
| Rotary press | 1843 | |
| Flexography | 1873 | |
| Mimeograph | 1876 | |
| Hot metal typesetting | 1886 | |
| Offset press | 1903 | |
| Screen-printing | 1907 | |
| Dye-sublimation | 1957 | |
| Phototypesetting | 1960s | |
| Photocopier | 1960s | |
| Pad printing | 1960s | |
| Laser printer | 1969 | |
| Dot matrix printer | 1970 | |
| Thermal printer | 1970s | |
| Inkjet printer | 1976 | |
| 3D printing | 1986 | |
| Stereolithography | 1986 | |
| Digital press | 1993 | |
| Frescography | 1998 | |
Digital printing is the reproduction of digital images on a physical surface. It is generally used for short print runs, and for the customization of print media.
The process differs from lithography, flexography, gravure, and letterpress printing in several ways:
- Every print can be different, because printing plates are not required, as in traditional methods.
- There is less wasted chemical and paper, because there is no need to bring the image "up to colour" and check for registration and position.
- The ink or toner does not permeate the substrate, as does conventional ink, but forms a thin layer on the surface and may in some systems be additionally adhered to the substrate by using a fuser fluid with heat process (toner) or UV curing process (ink).
Because there is less initial setup, it is useful for rapid prototyping, and cost effective for small print runs.
Digital Printing is used for personalized printing, or variable data printing (VDP or VI), for example personalized children's books, which are customized with the specific child's name and images. Print on Demand (POD) systems also use digital printing, for short run books of varying page quantities, and binding techniques.
[edit] Examples
Some examples of major commercial digital printing systems (digital press) are the imagePRESS by Canon, the HP Indigo press by Hewlett-Packard, the VarioPrint [1] from Océ, the InfoPrint, [2] a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, the iGen 4 [3] from Xerox, the Xeikon presses from Punch Graphix Int. [4] and the Meteor DP Series [5] from MGI [6].
[edit] References
[edit] See also
- Variable Data Printing
- Digital image processing
- Display device
- Digital photography
- Graphical output device
- Society for Imaging Science and Technology, IS&T
- Giclee Fine Art Printing
- Computer to film
- Computer to plate
- Frescography
