MyPrintingTutorials.com-Printing Tutorials Offset Printing Digital Printing A Guide to Offset and Digital Printing

Digital Duplicators are a good choice for filling the gap between copiers and offset machines. They have some limitations however. The print quality of photos is not that high. The cost of printing is high compared to offset above 300 copies. The cost of printing comes to around 10 paise per page plus the cost of the master which comes to around Rs. 17/-. The costs are for the Gestetner Duplicating machines available from Ricoh. One ink cartridge costs around Rs.800 to 900 depending on the region. The total number of copies from an ink cartridge is around 8000 to 12000 depending on the ink coverage and the number of copies printed with one master. There is ink wastage when the master is thrown away. So the fewer copies you print with a single master, the lesser will be your total output from one ink cartridge. The plus side is that they are quite fast and so is suitable for on demand printing. Copy shops which print high volume copies may benefit the most as most customers will pay the price of copying in a duplicating machine. Offset printers can also benefit from its fast turn around of short run jobs.

Posted under Digital Printing

Truepress 344 from Screen is a 13.4″ x 18.5″ digital offset press. The speed of the machine is 7000 copies per hour. The machine is capable of producing four color separated plates inside its two printing units. It takes only around 15 minutes to complete a short run job of about 1000 copies. The cost of printing excluding paper comes to around Rs.1300/- for 1000 copies. It may be slightly more or less depending on various conditions. The make ready time is 5 minutes. The cost of the machine is a little more than Rs. 2 crores ( Rs. 20 million). The machine is available from Screen. Proteck is the dealer for Truepress 344 in India.

Posted under Digital Printing

Digital offset presses like Truepress costs around Rs. 2 crore and above. The cost of plates and printing comes to around Rs. 1300/- for a four color job for 1000 copies excluding paper cost. The plates are imaged inside the press and a four color job can be completed at less than half an hour. This would be an A3+ job. The life of the machine according to the manufacturer comes to around 10 years. One point to remember is that at this price you could get a Japanese 4 color traditional offset press with double the printing size. Only thing is that you would have to spend around additional Rs. 50 lakhs for a ctp system.

Posted under Digital Printing

What Information Are You Really Searching For?
a digital multi colour printer,price around 40-50 thousand, wchich can print marrige card etc. & other papers at low cost

bijankanti

ANSWER

Hello and thanks for joining the site. If you are looking for a low cost printer with decent quality and very minimal cost per page, then you can go for the Epson R230 printer with a six color CISS (Continuous Ink Supply System). The only problem will be the speed of the printer. However for few copies of prints per day it will just work great. Or for that matter, you can go for any printer with CISS capable system. You have to ask your printer dealer for this. The CISS system costs around Rs. 2500/- here in my place. The printer R230 will cost around Rs. 7,000/-.

Robert

Posted under Digital Printing

QUESTION

Hello Robert,

Thank you very much for the information.
I’d request you to suggest me about paper stuff.
I am sorry, I am really dumb about printing industry. I’d like to go to another city and find out
information. But I’d like to have first hand information and tips from you on paper.
Kindly answer my questions.

• How much would a 11×17 paper would cost in India approximately?
• Are there any different qualities of paper? Can you please name them and price for each page?
• Do offset and digital printers use same paper or different?
• Which paper consumes less ink?

Thanking you…

Regards,
Vijay

ANSWER

Hello Vijay

11×17 inch paper would cost around Rs. 3 to Rs. 5 depending on the thickness of the paper which is known as grammage of the paper or gsm (grams per square metre). Paper cost also depends on the quality of the paper and may reach upto even Rs. 100 for an A4 size sheet. Sheets which can be run in digital machines depend on the type of printer you are going to purchase. Not all sheets can run on all printers. You have to check with the seller regarding this. The same goes for offset printing. Glossy paper will consume the least amount of ink and coarse paper like newsprint consume more ink. For offset printing the ink density is therefore adjusted in prepress before printing depending on the type of paper to be printed. For digital printing such adjustments are usually done by the printer while selecting the paper type before printing. Have a nice day.

Robert.

Posted under Digital Printing, Paper

A question from one of our readers

QUESTION

Hi Robert,
I’ve gone through your site “my printing tutorials”…
It is very informative.

I’d like to choose a color printer/copier to print school text books for kids.
I’d like to take your advice on this.
What is the best color copier that has lowest cost per page to print a color page?

I am thinking of Toshiba e-Studio2830c or e-Studio281c or Ricoh Aficio MPc3300 or MPc2800.

In your blog you mentioned few lines about Ricoh Aficio MPC 2030
“The drawback of this machine is the high cost per copy. An average A4 size page costs around Rs. 2.5/- at 10 percent coverage.”
Can you suggest any printer with low cost per page at 10 percent coverage?

I’d be able to think of  any machine around  7 lakhs or so. (15000$).

I’ll be too glad if you can spare sometime and reply me.
Thanking you so much.

Regards,
Vijay

ANSWER

Hello Vijay,

You will not get many printers with low cost per page at 7 lakhs. At this range you may get the xitron prism printer or some of the models from xerox. You can enquire with the xerox dealer for more information. You will get the konica minolta 6501c for around 30 lakhs which has a very low cost per page at around Rs. 5 for any coverage for a 13 x 19 size page with outstanding quality. Most of the xerox printers at around 7 lakhs will cost you around Rs. 8 to 10 per 12×18 size page at any coverage if you go for the company policy of charging per copy printed irrespective of coverage. The only feasible models according to my opinion will be from xerox. Ricoh printers have a very high cost per page compared to xerox though there may be a difference in quality. I am not very sure of toshiba.

Robert.

Posted under Digital Printing

Recently we placed an order for the Konica Minolta LD 6501 digital color printer. The samples that were shown were outstanding and as good as the best offset printing available. The printer can print on a wide variety of sheets including non tear-able paper. The wide variety of paper it can print on is due to the low heat generated by the printer compared to other laser printers. The speed of the printer is 65 pages per minute and the maximum size that can be printed is 13×19 inches. The company offers a policy where it charges around Rs.5.5 per page printed depending on the region where the machine is installed. The Rs. 5.5 covers all consumables including ink and parts such as belts and rollers. The life of the machine is 6 million copies or 5 years. Some special paper that it can print on are golden and silver sheets which are very suitable for invitation cards. The price of the machine comes around Rs. 20,00,000/- including tax. If you have a UV coating machine then the quality of the  finished prints can be enhanced even further. A small UV coating machine from www.jonaphoto.com will cost around Rs. 2,00,000/- including the curing machine.

Posted under Digital Printing

The c6501 replaces the older model c6500. The printer is built to run like a press and the life of the machine is 6 million prints. The cost of the machine is around Rs. 25 lakhs. The cost of printing per page is Rs. 5 irrespective of color coverage as you have to make this payment to the company. The print quality is comparable to the best of offset printing. The maximum printing size is 13 inches x 19 inches. The maximum speed of printing is 65 pages per minute. It is a good business option for those who don’t prefer to go for the higher priced machines like the Hp Indigo.

Posted under Digital Printing

A good site that I have found for purchasing ink cartridges is www.inkcartridges.com. The website offers  cartridges for all types of printers of all brands. Laser toner, ink cartridges and printer ink are available at wholesale prices. You can search their catalog for the ink that you require and alongside you will find all the printers that are compatible with it. Shipping is free for all orders of $50 or more within the continental US. Ordering is easy and online. Credit Card as well as Paypal is accepted. You will find cartridges, toners and ribbons of brands such as Hp, Apple, Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson, IBM, Kodak, Konica Minolta, Lexmark, NEC, Okidata, Panasonic, Ricoh, Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba, Xerox and more. If you are not satisfied with the purchase there is a money back system where you can get refund for the purchase. InkCartridges.com is a one stop shop for all printing ink requirements.

Posted under Digital Printing

It seems there is only one good ink coverage calculator on the internet which is Apfill Ink Coverage Calculator from www.avpsoft.com. If you are a professional printer then you need the pro version which calculates cmyk coverage. If you add the total percentage of cmyk, you get the total ink coverage in percentage with respect to the paper size. It is very easy and convenient. The pro version costs around 99 dollars. It is helpful when you have to give competitive rates without suffering loss.

Posted under Digital Printing