Factors

Screen Printing

Digital Printing

Lithography

Quality

Perfect for achieving a heavier film of ink suitable for Outdoor & Point-of-Purchase materials

Perfect for achieving detail needed for ultra-large advertisements and displays such as building wraps & vehicle graphics

Perfect for achieving fine detail needed for small photographic advertising materials

Turnaround

Working days from approval of artwork:
Outdoor - 3 to 4
Point-of-Purchase - 5 to 7
Corrugated - 10+

Working days from approval of artwork:
Outdoor - 2 to 3

Working days from approval of artwork:
Point-of Purchase - 3 to 5

Economy

Economical quantity:
Outdoor - 15 to 300
P-O-P - 1000+

Economical quantity:
Outdoor - 1 to 15
(depends on product

Economical quantity:
Outdoor - 300+
Point-of-Purchase - 2500+

Applications

All Outdoor poster formats and in-store Point-of-Purchase advertising material

All large format one-off work such as Vehicle Graphics,
Building Wraps, Contravision,
Bus Backs & Banners

All types of corporate identity & branded promotional materials such as Brochures, Bunting and Sales Aids

Screen Printing
Screen printing is one of the most versatile forms of print reproduction. Once thought of as being oriented to short production runs, modern high speed technology allows for medium volume production where brilliant, accurate colours are necessary.

The Process:
This process uses a fine mesh screen made from nylon (originally this screen was made of silk - hence the name "Silk-Screen Printing). The screen is stretched tightly over a frame. Areas of the screen are then blocked out with a stencil. Ink is placed on the top of the screen and the material to be printed upon is placed underneath.
The ink is then forced through the stencil by a squeegee blade to reproduce the original image onto the substrate below. The stencil prevents ink going through in the non-image (background) areas. This process is repeated for each of the inks needed in the job. For a full colour 48-Sheet for example, this would require each of the 12 sheets of substrate to be passed through the printing press for each of the four colours needed (Cyan, Yellow, Magenta & Black - CYMK).

Advantages:
Screen printing is not limited to press size or the shape of any substrate. The thick film of ink that the process leaves gives a distinct appearance that is an advantage for most screen printed products. Because of the thick film of ink, screen printing can even print white on black, as well as printing metallic and fluorescent colours to much better effect than other processes. Also, the stencils are economical to produce and short runs are more economical than with other processes. Another obvious advantage is the wide range of materials on which printing can be done. This process is the most economical to perfectly print short to medium-sized runs of large-format outdoor posters and
in-store Point-of-Purchase.
 

Digital Printing
Digital printing reflects recent advances in printing technology and is an exciting new process in the production of ultra-large advertising materials.

The Process:
Digital printing uses a 4 colour ink-jet process to print all required colours at once. The printer takes the artwork and transfers the images digitally to the printing cylinder without requiring a stencil (screen printing) or a plate (litho printing) to be made -ie. the job is printed straight from disk.

Advantages:
Digital printing is ideal for ultra-large sizes or short runs of full-colour jobs which would be otherwise uneconomical to print through screen or lithography processes due to higher initial set-up costs. Digital is also ideal for jobs that need to be printed quickly as no plates or screens need to be produced and all colours are printed at once. This process can print up to 300dpi print quality. Digital printing also makes it easy to change design elements within a run. However, while there are economies ofscale with digital printing, they are not as great when compared to Screen prices for larger runs.
 

Lithography
This is the most popular of the different printing processes for large volume runs, and is also termed offset, offset lithography, or litho offset.

The Process:
Lithography uses the principle that oil and water do not mix. The image areas of the metal plate to be used in printing are treated chemically to accept grease (ink) and reject water, and the non-image areas are made to accept water and reject grease. Rollers then coat the plate with both oil-based ink and water. The substrate is moved into place over the plate and when both are run through the press, only the image area is printed.

Advantages:
This is the best method to ensure faithful reproduction of fine detail and also provides the ability to print fine-screen halftones. Litho is also more suited to larger runs than screen or digital. (Due to the scale of runs in the Polish market, most posters at Print & Display (Polska) are offset printed. In this context, the latest ‘direct to plate’ technology allows for artwork on disk to be directly converted to plates without the intervening need for film.)