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

Latex printers from Hp are meant for outdoor and indoor signages. Latex inks are odorless and environment friendly. Signages and hoardings from latex printers were widely used for the Commonwealth Games publicity in New Delhi. The smaller printer from Hp with a width of 64 inches comes to around Rs. 25 lakhs. The cost of printing comes to around Rs. 6 per square foot excluding the cost of media, labor and rent. This is at about 60 to 70 percent ink coverage. This printer seems to be a better option than the Epson GS 6000 eco solvent printer which is around 18 lakhs. Various media like flex, vinyl, etc can be used and printing on carry bags using recycled materials can also be done. With the health hazards associated with solvent and eco solvent printers, latex is a good investment to make.

Posted under Solvent Printing

Laser Engraving is suitable for a large number of gift items and souvenirs. Engraving can be done on wood, acrylic and other items. The cost of operating the laser machine comes to around Re. 1 per minute excluding labor and rent. The laser engraving machine from Presto comes to around 6 lakhs depending on the configuration and model. This machine would be from Taiwan. Chinese machines are cheaper but quality may be inferior.

Posted under Uncategorized

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

M/s Sona Commercial Pvt. Ltd. is a leading supplier in India of digital paper and other imported papers. You can ask them for a catalog and price list before placing any order with them. You can contact Mr. Mukesh at his email – mukesh@sonacommercial.com for the eastern region. Their website is www.sonacommercial.com.

Posted under Paper

QUESTION

Hello Rob I ‘m a U.S national and I have a printing press based out of India but I want to expand it to the USA. I want to start to distribute/export Polyester laser plate. I was wondering if you would be able to help me out or give me any advice.

Thanks
Bharat

ANSWER

Hello Bharat,

There are some manufacturers of polyester plates in India. I am not sure of the others and I don’t remember their names also right now. The only ones that we use are from Technova. But I believe their plates are distributed in the US by Hurst Chemical if I am not wrong. Technova plates are suited for all types of laser printers and their cost is also quite cheap compared to ones such as from Xante. I believe it might help you if you contact Technova directly in India or Hurst Chemical in the US. I think it might be best to become a distributor of Smart Plates by Hurst Chemical.

Robert.

Posted under Pre press

Inkjet printers are expensive to own not because they are expensive but because the cost of the ink cartridges are usually very high and sometimes goes up to almost as high as 50 precent of the cost of the printer. The blunt fact is that most of the manufacturers of these printers make money not out of the printers but out of the ink cartridges. As a result of this high cost, there are many third party vendors who offer cartridges for as low as 75 percent the price of an original cartridge. Depending on the budget you may try these cartridges as they don’t cost much and if the quality is acceptable to you then you may be saving a lot of money in buying cartridges. You may try this site http://www.inkwarehouse.co.uk

Posted under Ink Jet Printing

A question from one of our readers

QUESTION

Good Morning Robert,

I am very sorry to trouble you again. Vendors here are not so clear with the explanation.
All they do is praise their brand name.

I tried to google but couldn’t get accurate information.
Some color laser printers print at 600×600dpi…some at 1200×1200 and
some at 2400×600 dpi.

I am unsure which one to choose to print proof for school books.
I also would like to print my own brochure, pamplets and visiting cards.
Kindly advice me on this. I’ll be happy with less pages per minute model.
Speed is not the criteria here.

• Xerox phaser 6125 says it can print upto 600×600x4 dpi.
  What exactly does this x4 mean? Can you please let me know?

Requests:

• What exactly is the print resolution in educational text books like CBSE/Ncert Books?
• What exactly is the print resolution in brochures of vodapone or any corporate stationery?
• What should be the print resolution on visiting cards?

Kindly educate me and resolve my doubts.
Thanking you once again…

Regards,
Vijay

ANSWER

Hi Vijay,

You can go for a entry level Konica Minolta Multi Function color laser printer which would cost under Rs. 4,00,000/-. The cost per A3 size page would be around Rs. 8 depending on the ink coverage. At 100% coverage the cost is around Rs.14 to 15 excluding paper and including wear and tear of the machine for an A3 size printout. The speed is I think around 25 pages per minute. I am not sure about the model but it is in the bizhub category. You can go to this website http://www.biz.konicaminolta.com/ to see the printers. These printers come under the category of business automation as the quality is suitable for everyday office printing. You can print fairly good enough quality with these printers. Visiting cards, brochures and pamphlets won’t be a problem. The only thing you have to keep a check on is your cost of printing. For higher copies it may be cheaper to outsource it to your local offset printer.

CBSE textbooks are printed in high quality offset machines and you won’t get that color quality in the machine I mentioned above. But mostly textbooks are not in color and any offset machine could give you a decent quality in one or two colors. Vodafone brochures are also printed in high quality offset printing. There are some printed through variable data digital printing too. But these are all printed in high quality machines whether they be digital or offset.

For most printing jobs whether they be digital or offset, 300 dpi pictures are sufficient. To learn more about dpi (dots per inch) and lpi (lines per inch) you will find plenty of material in Google.

Hope this helps.

Robert.

Posted under Resolution

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