Litho vs Digital Printing: Which Is Right for Your Job?

Commercial print jobs run on one of two technologies — lithographic (litho) or digital — and choosing correctly affects your price, turnaround and colour accuracy. Here's the honest, plain-English version.

How Each Works

Litho transfers ink from custom-made printing plates onto the paper via a rubber blanket. Making the plates costs money and time up front, but once the press is running, each extra sheet is very cheap. Digital prints straight from the file — no plates, no setup — like a very sophisticated office printer scaled up to commercial quality. If you're curious where "digital printing" actually came from, see our history of the laser printer and desktop publishing.

The Cost Crossover

Because digital has no setup cost, it wins on short runs — one copy costs roughly the same per unit as fifty. Litho's setup cost spreads thinner the more you print, so somewhere in the high hundreds to low thousands of copies (depending on size, stock and colours), litho becomes cheaper per unit and keeps getting cheaper. There's no single magic number — which is why we quote jobs both ways when they sit near the crossover.

Quality & Colour Differences

• Both produce excellent full-colour CMYK print — for most jobs, you won't tell them apart.
• Pantone (spot) colours: litho can print an exact pre-mixed brand colour; digital simulates it from CMYK, which is usually close but not chemically identical. If exact brand-colour matching across a large corporate run is critical, litho has the edge.
• Large flat solids tend to print slightly smoother on litho.
• Turnaround: digital is faster — no plates to make.
• Versioning: digital handles variable data (different names, numbers or codes per copy) natively; litho can't.

Rule of Thumb

We use the right process for each job across our business stationery and print range. Message us with your quantity and spec — we'll recommend honestly.