Digital printing is here!

Digital printing is here!
Adobe Education
We've been hearing about "on-demand printing" and "short-run printing" for several years. The technology to perform digital printing has been in use for some time, and each year brings greater ability to produce quality results.
The economics of printing Çƒ?just enoughÇƒ?
Short-run printing has always been an appealing concept. It allows customers to economically print one or a few hundred copies of a publication at a fraction of the total cost of traditional large offset printing runs, some of which may sit on shelves for so long that they become outdated. Waste due to obsolescence can now be eliminated. Companies can print high-quality literature incorporating the latest information tailored to immediate requirements. Being able to afford short runs of literature with the right messages for small groups of key customers is another boon of digital printing.
Short-run printing with custom results
Digital printing provides the ability to customize a few pieces, or even every individual piece, of a print run. That capability simply doesn't exist with offset printing. Grow Network, a division of McGraw-Hill, recently produced 65,000 entirely customized workbooks via database-driven digital printing with short turnaround and very short runs. Each student who failed the statewide Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test received a unique workbook with remedial exercises for weaknesses revealed in their test results. The additional customized effort resulted in an 85% success rate on the TAKS exam when it was retaken, versus the traditional 72%. The ability to produce 65,000 different publications in short order is a testament to the power of digital printing.
Designer skepticism
A key obstacle to the broader use of digital printing has been designer skepticism about print quality. Graphic Design USA surveyed readers this past summer and found that designers are specifying digital printing more often and more consistently than ever, and are happier with the results, though perhaps still a bit unconvinced of color accuracy claims. The publication notes a significant gain in acceptance over the prior year's survey results.
Widespread acceptance?
Frank Romano, professor emeritus at the School of Print Media at Rochester Institute of Technology, says he thinks digital printing is doing very well but is a long way from widespread acceptance. Michael Josefowicz, special projects manager at the Parsons School of Design's Publishing Center, maintains that widespread acceptance will require digital printing suppliers to provide routinely reliable results with appropriate pricing and excellent customer communications. Josefowicz sees "pockets of real competence starting to break out all over the country," and he believes that digital printing has already made major inroads in certain locations. With strong customer benefits, high-quality color output, and growing acceptance by graphic design professionals, short-run digital printing is becoming a standard.