Which technology is best for web-to-print, litho or digital?

　　W2P PRINTER
　　Matteo Rigamonti, chief executive, pixartprinting

　　"If you look at the market, it’s true order volumes are decreasing, but it’s still unusual to find an order of fewer than 200 copies. And that’s the point. Digital printing technologies have not changed much over the past few years but there really is something to make us look at offset technology again. And with our in-house-developed ‘Uragano’ software we have got the breakeven point down to between 200 and 250 copies, so for us the offset systems are almost always economically more efficient. We are not lovers of either digital or offset – our aim is to be competitive and we will choose whichever system can deliver that."

　　COMMERCIAL PRINTER
　　Freddie Kienzler, managing director, Formara

　　"I’m delighted that Heidelberg know how we can all make a fortune and all we have to do is to buy two pieces of Heidelberg equipment. I seem to remember hearing the same thing when Indigo launched at Ipex all those years ago. As for what is best for web-to-print, litho or digital, we are very happy being able to offer both solutions. The customer generally doesn’t care how it’s done as long as it is on time at the quoted price and with the expected quality."

　　W2P PRINTER
　　Gary Peeling, managing director, Precision Printing

　　"It is application dependent. Thanks to litho imposition techniques it is possible to compete in the short-run arena, but it is ultra-short run, which is the growth area of web-to-print, which it will never be able to compete on. When doing one or two copies you are never going to go for litho over digital, so ultimately, no, litho isn’t better than digital, especially as the run lengths get shorter. Around 200 copies could be done if you are litho-ganging. Of course inkjet will then come along and mess all that up again."

　　COMMERCIAL PRINTER
　　Alan Bunter, director, Remous

　　"Digital will always be the leader, but it does depend on the specification of a job. Obviously, litho will come into play for long leaflet runs. The sort of people ordering on the internet aren’t going to be putting too many orders in which require litho work; they will be ordering 500 business cards not 10,000 brochures. With digital you have a fixed cost, so it is simple to calculate a price; it is something you can leave a customer to do over the internet. Litho takes a little more thought, there are things to consider and digital will always win from that point of view."