Can Offset be the future of Printing in the USA?

[prwhite]

In an excellent commentary at WhatTheyThink about offset printing effectively competing with digital machines in the quick turn, short run European marketplace, Andy Tribute contends that offset printers in the US have largely given up on trying to make their offset shops more competitive with digital printing.

Andy cites examples of European printers who are able to compete with digital, using their existing offset presses, through the use of immaculate planning and precise management of workflow methods. Andy thinks that US offset printers also can profitably compete with digital by more investment in digital pre and post press workflow software.

Is anyone on this forum finding this to be the case?

 

[gordo]

I think that most printers in the US have already made the investment in pre and post press workflow software. That happened with the move to CtP in the late 90s and early 2000s.

I think the problem is not technical it is cultural. Most printers that I've met are not customer centered. As such they take a reactive approach to change. If the way they have been doing business allows them to keep the doors open then they stick with it until forced to change - usually by their competition.

As far as investing in new hardware, like presses is concerned, that is a question of economics. How significant a positive impact would a new press make that is perhaps only incrementally more advanced than what is already on the shop floor?

Interestingly, the shop that Andy referenced as a good example has virtually no information on their website about what services they actually offer or how they are the better choice for the print buyer. They seem to specialize in ganging jobs to reduce costs. Hardly innovative or an example of applying new technologies.

Best, gordo

 

[mazengh]

just a note here... ganging jobs can get very sophisticated... from automatically gathering submitted jobs the grouping them by the same substrate and printing procedure to separating them for different post press finishing and automatically sending parameters for ganged jobs, after they are separated from the parent sheet, to the post press equipment for further processing... I've researched a lot of software and a lot of it lacks what's necessary and the level of required automation to allow offset to compete with digital... look at flyeralarm, the german website for ganging. It's killing the digital market... Why? because it's a highly automated process, not just a website.

 

[Deleted member 16349]

In an excellent commentary at WhatTheyThink about offset printing effectively competing with digital machines in the quick turn, short run European marketplace, Andy Tribute contends that offset printers in the US have largely given up on trying to make their offset shops more competitive with digital printing.

Andy cites examples of European printers who are able to compete with digital, using their existing offset presses, through the use of immaculate planning and precise management of workflow methods. Andy thinks that US offset printers also can profitably compete with digital by more investment in digital pre and post press workflow software.

Is anyone on this forum finding this to be the case?

Some blame has to go to the journalism profession in this industry for the drop of interest in offset.

When journalists, who are not really able to evaluate new technology or new science that well, have been telling their readers for years and often that digital printing is the future, what should one expect the general community to think.

If every industry news source tells you the same thing, it is hard not to believe it and therefore people tend to act based on that perception.

 

[pressmanic]

I operate a GTO in a shop with an IGEN and an Indigo and am able to run profitably right alongside
them .We are ctp and using Kodak thermal direct chem free plates .

 

[CKP]

I think that most printers in the US have already made the investment in pre and post press workflow software. That happened with the move to CtP in the late 90s and early 2000s.

I think the problem is not technical it is cultural. Most printers that I've met are not customer centered. As such they take a reactive approach to change. If the way they have been doing business allows them to keep the doors open then they stick with it until forced to change - usually by their competition.

As far as investing in new hardware, like presses is concerned, that is a question of economics. How significant a positive impact would a new press make that is perhaps only incrementally more advanced than what is already on the shop floor?

Interestingly, the shop that Andy referenced as a good example has virtually no information on their website about what services they actually offer or how they are the better choice for the print buyer. They seem to specialize in ganging jobs to reduce costs. Hardly innovative or an example of applying new technologies.

Best, gordo

Both cultural and technical problem... CtP and pre/post press workflow softwares are just a part of the equipments had making offset more competitve. A keypoint is the strong colour management and the automated colour control systems. You will find on the website of the UK printshop this small sentence at the section Equipments: "All presses with inpress control (inline Spectro)" It ensures NOT ONLY the standardized printing at the highest quality level, BUT it makes extremly short-time make-readies possible! And this technology is not only with the latest press models available, but there are in Europe thousands of retrofitted presses running with posteriorly installed colour control systems. Our solution Color Key Pro - also the inline solution for webpresses - can be connected even the oldest CPC consoles of Heidelberg (and also to other manufacturer's consoles of course) and provides cutting edge technology for the owner of an old press. That's why europen printshops keep their's offset presses and they can be competitve against digital.
Our company group owns both offset and digital printshops (with all sizes of printers from A4 to 5m wide) in the same house. The jobs are routed by an intelligent calculating software to the right department. 300-500 sheet jobs are often running in the offset pressroom, because IT WORTHS more than on digital!
Cheers, Peter

 

[DotBox]

Just an opinion here.

I've been running offset printing presses almost my entire adult life, about 30 years. The future of short run color work is digital. It took digital "presses" almost no time at all to grab a big chunk of the market and it's only going to get worse. If I owned a small shop, I would just embrace the digital side and get it over with.

The future of offset printing is long-run, big-format, high-quality work, areas where digital machines cannot yet compete and may well never be able to. If you want to stay in business as an offset printer, go as big as you can as fast as you can. If you can't or don't want to do that, convert to mostly digital equipment and you'll be better off.

Why fight progress? The progression of digital is just the way it is and I don't even mind it. As an offset printer you need to adapt to the market, so it's either small digital, large offset or some combination of both...which is what we do in my shop already.

 

[Russ_G]

With the cost of supplies and service contracts on the digital equipment the tipping point of cost for running say a 4pg dulplex color job offset vs. running the same job digital is only about a thousand pieces. Digital has it advantage of course with short run books and variable data. I'm sure with the right volume of digital work this could balance out, but it hasn't for us.

 

[rich apollo]

Sorry, but, "No." I'm not buying it. Offset has its niche, so does digital. It's foolish to hold slavishly to the past. I heard recently that instead of traditional offset shops investing in digital equipment, digital shops are buying offset presses.

 

[prwhite]

Here's an interesting statement from Barb Pellow in her recent article at WhatTheyThink about Web-to-print. This points out the need for all printers to adopt more efficient work flows.

"Although Web-to-print solutions are normally tied in with digital printing systems, they are fundamentally a portal. Your business can also leverage the solutions to market and sell other products and services such as offset printing, promotional items, and kitting/fulfillment."