The Transformation of Commercial Printing by Digital Printing Processes
Digital printing processes are rapidly transforming all segments of commercial printing. These digital technologies require no physical film or printing plate as a master, just data in electronic form, which greatly simplifies setup and make-ready. Printing of short runs down to a run length of one is very practical with digital print, as is just-in-time fulfillment, customization, and remote or distributed output. Digital print can also enable a service-based business with higher margins than manufacturing-based analog print, which has become largely commoditized. Major digital print technologies include ink jet, dry electrophotography, liquid electrophotography, and laser-scanned silver halide. The substantially different operating principles and materials used in each of these technologies results in a markedly different mix of image quality, throughput, cost per page, equipment cost, and media flexibility attributes for each of them. As a result, the adoption of particular digital print techniques varies substantially by market segment. For example, in photo printing, laser scanned silver halide is widely used in centralized fulfillment of individual photos, while both dry and liquid electrophotography are commonly used for photo books cards/calendars, and ink jet is important in retail photo kiosks. The capabilities of digital print are complementary to those of analog commercial techniques such as offset lithography, gravure, and flexography, which excel at long runs.
Eric G. Hanson
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories Palo Alto, California, USA
国际会议
The 31st International Congress on Imaging Science(第31届国际影像科学大会 ICIS2010)
北京
英文
24-26
2010-05-12（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）