Digital Printing Lowdown
The Lowdown on Digital Printing
Digital printing has elevated the overall quality of print media, especially when it comes to large format printing on diverse materials. Whereas old school printing typically ran on the classic Pantone colour scheme that allowed for international uniformity when stipulating print colours, digital printers run on CMYK. That’s not Greek, it’s short for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.
What’s the difference? Well, for one thing, the CMYK formulation allows for far more accurate colour matching and final printing – no more disappointment when your artwork arrives. Digital printing eliminates the possibility for confusion and a mismatch between a client’s expectations and the final results. Smart modern print houses will utilise CMYK digital printing to convert all non-CMYK shades, tones, and colours to the CMYK formulation. This allows for high accuracy and a consistent, quality print, even in large formats and on obscure materials.
Textile Printing Anyone?
Textiles too can be digitally printed, and here again, the digital printing process is improving results. It’s not just paper and similar sheet printing that’s experiencing a boost from new printing technology – the textile printing industry is also opting for digital printing for greater durability and superior results. No matter the material or format (although especially in the case of large format printing), it’s still critical to start with a quality, hi-res image to ensure great end results.
Truly professional printers will vet your artwork to ensure that it meets basic criteria, letting you avoid wasted time and expenditure on unsuitable source material. Especially in large format printing for trade shows and exhibitions, even vaguely flawed source images have those flaws woefully expanded and contrasted in large format, making them unacceptably visible, and spoiling the overall effect. The moral of the story? Always start with blemish-free imagery – make the effort to source and supply quality imagery, and the end results of even super large format digital printing will exceed your expectations.
Digital Now Rules Large Format Printing
Large format printing is really where digital printing comes into its own – again assuming you do your due diligence on the source material to ensure you’re starting off with quality imagery. Large-format prints materialise in an arena known for its excruciatingly detailed extrapolation of designs or photographs. Only the brave submits their suspect artwork for large format digital printing! Any slight flaw becomes magnified as the printer dutifully copies over every detail its eye can see, hence, again, source material destined for a digital print process must be flawless to begin with.
If that sounds intimidating, don’t worry. Alongside the technological evolution, printing people too have realised the need for them to insist on what they know, and today no truly professional printer will let you do an expensive, large format print run when they can see with their trained eye that the results are going to be poor. Large format printing is constantly evolving, and the best modern printers can process over 1000m² in a single working day! That’s a lot of promotional material.
Gawk is Digital Printing at Its Best
At Gawk, we live and breathe digital printing every day, and we surround the offer with a host of services all designed to enable just what you want from a printing and display supply house. We cater for walk-in trade and print reps too, and we guarantee the quality you’ll get from us will be top-notch.
Contact Gawk for accurate and prompt results you can be proud of. We’re a hugely cost-effective solution, and we’d love to bring colour to your presentation – the right colour!