Are colour copiers taking work from offset presses?
In March, New York research firm TrendWatch Graphic Arts
announced that RIP-driven copier/printers are becoming part of the regular
workflow of many graphic arts companies of all sizes across North America for short-run
and variable printing—and not just the simplest or lowest-quality jobs,
but “robust” variable printing. In other words, colour copiers are taking on
short-run printing that used to be produced on small offset duplicators and
presses.
“We’ve noticed a shift in the types of companies who are
buying direct-imaging presses,” says Betty LaBaugh, Public Relations Manager
with Presstek in Hudson, New Hampshire. “On the one hand, there are the
companies with conventional offset presses and on the other hand, those with
toner-based copiers and printers are interested in a new kind of technology,
but for different reasons. The conventional offset printers are looking to
accommodate shorter runs while improving their efficiency; companies with
toner-based printers and copiers are looking toward slightly longer runs and
economies of scale. So while these two types of companies are trying to solve
opposite challenges, they sometimes arrive at the same place.
“Most people still recognize that offset quality is still
superior to digital presses’,” says Steve Klaric, Product Manager, Sheetfed and
Small Format Presses at Heidelberg Canada.
The conventional division of the printing industry into
small, medium and large printers and instant print shops has long since gone.
But printers in Canada are still struggling with finding their own niche in
this constantly shifting market.
“The primary buyers of digital presses have always been the
classic commercial printers, typically large and medium-size printers,” says
Avi Basu, Indigo Category Manager for Hewlett Packard. “But there is a
significant group of non-conventional customers: many smaller, innovative
companies with no prior experience in printing who offer a wider range of
marketing services.” This group accounts for 10 to 15 percent of HP’s new
customers in the digital printing market, Basu says.
So are RIP-driven digital devices taking work away from
offset presses, as TrendWatch says?
“Our HP Indigo press isn’t taking work from our offset press
— it’s bringing in more work,” says Savino Schincaglia, Director of
Technology and New Business development with Markham-based marketing
communications firm Rayment and Collins. Since installing their HP Indigo 5000
digital press last February, the company has been able to offer a wider range
of services, including hybrid printing: jobs that combine both offset and
digital printing.
Demand drives the industry
What’s behind these changes is customer demand. Printing
buyers from corporations, ad agencies, publishing firms and governments want
smaller quantities of printed products, want them printed faster, and they
don’t hesitate about looking for a better price from another printer.
At one time, even ten years ago, “short run” meant 1,000 to
5,000 copies; today, shorter runs are measured in the hundreds, or even fewer.
Customers are asking for more smaller quantities to reduce their inventory
costs, obsolescence of documents, or to align its documentation processes with
“just in time” manufacturing.
“1000 to 2000 copies is the sweet spot for either our Komori
or our HP presses,” says Schincaglia. However, a more important factor than
quantity is the turnaround time the customer wants that determines which
printing technology Rayment & Collins will choose. “You can put almost any
print job on the offset press if you have enough time. We find, though, that
with a 12 x 18 – inch four-over-four job, 1000 copies is about the point
where you should go to a small press from digital output.” But that can change
if the customer needs the work quickly. “Offset printing just takes longer,
even with CTP—the ink needs time to dry after printing and so much more.”
Kodak Graphic Arts now identifies short runs as anywhere
from 100 to 1000, right for “digital printing” on systems like its NexPress or
the Indigo or iGen systems. Run lengths from 400 or so, up to 20,000, are ideal
for direct imaging presses like its own DirectPress 5034 DI (based on Presstek
direct imaging technology). Only at run lengths greater than 15,000 or so does
Kodak admit that “traditional offset” is the most efficient choice. Yes, there
is a great deal of overlap in those numbers, to account for differences in the
varying complexity of printing jobs. And any “one to one,” or completely
variable printing has to be done, of course, on a digital press, no matter what
the length. (Long runs of completely variable printing would include utility
bills, for instance.)
While run lengths are getting shorter, customers are also
asking for greater variability in their printing jobs: more versions of
documents, more regions for publications. Manufacturers and distributors are
handling a far wider range of types of products and a far greater number of
different products than ever before. Just think of how much more choice there
is in your grocery store today, in terms of more choice between brands, but
also more types of products of all brands. And all of them need documentation
at some point.
Hence, a greater number of printing jobs, each with a
smaller quantity of copies.
Turnaround isn’t what it used to be, either. Printing a
medium-length run of 10,000 copies used to take the better part of a week, once
prepress, platemaking, printing, drying, folding and binding were taken into
account. But the digital presses and the response of the traditional offset
printers have made that idea seem, well, quaint. “Customer demands are getting
more extreme all the time,” says Paul Tasker of MAN Roland. “The offset printer
is getting turned into an instant printer.”
“Customers are sending us final files for fast output, so
short-run printing is getting into the on-demand world,” agrees Schincaglia.
But let’s not forget that printing technology can be the
spark that starts these shifts in demand. Until the digital press came along in
the early 90s, it simply wasn’t possible to produce 10,000 copies of a
four-colour newsletter in a day, and four-colour brochures in quantities under
1,000 were prohibitively expensive. Now, print buyers know that no matter what
their need in terms of colour, quantity, deadline and price, there’s a solution
somewhere.
Short run and quick turnaround
Small presses historically have done the great majority of
small jobs for small, medium and even large printing companies: all those
little jobs that add up into such a huge volume. This includes product
brochures, pamphlets, stationery, business cards, restaurant menus and
placemats, folders and booklets and sales sheets and reports.
The price and running costs of small presses, as every
printer knows, make them profitable for shorter runs and faster turnaround. But
those definitions are changing, too.
Smaller presses are also getting more efficient, driving
that minimum profitable quantity range ever lower. One of the main cost factors
is waste from makeready — the number of sheets it takes a press to get
“up to colour.” Those waste sheets have to be paid for, which drives up the
price of short runs. Heidelberg’s Anicolor press, introduced at the IPEX trade
show in the U.K. in the spring, can reportedly get up to colour in four sheets.
This is a dramatic improvement in the waste, and hence the minimum cost of
offset printing. If it catches on in the industry, and if other press
manufacturers bring out similar technologies, this will again change the colour
printing industry.
Technological response
Canadian printers large and small have responded to these pressures
by investing in technology that makes them more flexible and more efficient. At
the top end, the manufacturers of the largest web and sheetfed presses have
added automation at the loader and delivery ends. Prepress has been totally
transformed, almost totally automated to the point where it’s next to invisible
in some print shops.
Meanwhile, copiers and other toner-based printers are
getting better: better in output quality and in colour fidelity. Colour control
and workflow software are largely responsible for boosting quality, but so are
improvements in toners, pigments and in the internal technology that fuses
toners onto the page.
Copiers like the Canon Laser Copier or the Xerox WorkCenters
are being used for work that was once the exclusive domain of the offset press.
“Better prepress software, colour control systems and workflow are improving
the output from copiers,” says Paul Tasker, manager of MAN Roland Canada.
Smaller presses have gotten better, too. Many of the same
advanced features migrated downward onto these less-expensive models: digital
press controls, increased quality control and better prepress are making them
more efficient and keep pushing colour output quality higher. CTP output and
processless plates help drive costs down. New technologies such as automated
washup and plate loading push makeready time shorter; getting the press up to
colour takes fewer sheets so there’s less waste. Computer-integrated
manufacturing (CIM) technology and processes, which use digital technology to
run press controls at optimal levels, ensure that presses and other equipment
run at peak efficiency.
“Some of our
customers can make a profit on press runs of a couple of hundred,” Tasker says.
“It’s all about efficient makeready and getting jobs out the door”.
Overall, larger printing presses are being used to produce
ever-shorter run lengths, quantities that only a few years ago would have had
prohibitively high unit costs. Larger printing firms have been going after
smaller markets, sometimes muscling out the mid-sized, locally-owned companies
that once dominated that sector. The medium-sized printers have thus had to
move downward to compete aggressively against the smallest printers, even the
instant printer.
“A lot of printing companies are installing digital printers
and copiers. Many of the largest printing companies have digital divisions
today,” Tasker says. And instant printers with only toner-based copiers are
also investing in small conventional offset presses.
But with better technology and more automated features
available, many of the small printers have started to move “up-market.” The
clear distinction between the sectors has broken down, resulting in a highly
competitive market with, in many cases, depressed prices.
“Print buyers are happy to find that they can suddenly
afford four-colour printing on a job that they previously could only afford to
print in two colours,” says Betty LaBaugh of Presstek.
New workflows
This isn’t necessarily good for printers or for the overall
printing market in Canada; in fact, Graphic Arts magazine found that for most
categories of four-colour offset printing, Canadian printing firms are no more
expensive that the most aggressive printing firms in Asia, who sell their
services in North America solely on price.
But printers who invest in high-speed digital presses such
as the Indigos, iGens and NexPresses can now go after a new market that simply
wasn’t available before: variable printing. Fully variable colour printing for
personalized direct mail was the whole reason that digital presses were
invented. Don’t forget TrendWatch’s report that lower-end, and cheaper,
RIP-driven colour laser copiers are doing sophisticated variable printing. This
is actually a significant growth market for printers of any size.
“Your success in digital printing depends on the smarts you
apply to the data you have,” says HP’s Basu. “How do you use or mine that data?
That’s more of a marketing or information technology mindset, and the classic
commercial printer doesn’t have that. “ He adds “the two technologies are
definitely more complementary than competitive.”
More choice
On the upside, the printing firm that can take a strategic
view has more choice available for satisfying those rising customer
expectations: toner-based, RIP-driven electronic copiers with high-quality
image output; high-volume digital presses; efficient direct-imaging offset
presses; efficient and easy-to-use conventional, small-format offset presses;
efficient and highly automated mid-size and large format sheetfed offset
presses; and let’s not leave out a complete range of web offset presses.
All offer more automation, easier controls and higher
quality output than before. Most important, they also offer the printing
business the flexibility to allow it to respond to changing and increasing
customer demands while remaining profitable.
New printing technologies from colour laser copiers to
digital presses are actually opening up new opportunities for Canadian printers
in variable printing, with fast response and hybrid printing.
“Having a digital press has actually brought us more work
for our offset press,” concludes Rayment & Collins’ Schincaglia.
