"Digital printing": Laser printing, ink printing, sublimation printing and Co.

Digital printing: concept and printing process

The term digital printing combines various printing processes, which are characterized by the fact that there is no fixed printing body. The print template only exists digitally – it is created with or uploaded to the computer and transferred directly to the material to be printed using the printer. Digital printing is one of the non-impact processes (NIP) because there is no contact between the artwork and the substrate.

Digital printing enables the smallest editions to be printed, starting at 1 piece. A wide variety of materials can be printed using this process: paper, plastic, stone, glass, wood, metal, etc

The most commonly used digital printing methods are: laser printing, inkjet printing, thermal sublimation, thermal transfer, 3D printing and modern photo printing.

Laser printing (electrophotography)

In laser printing (also known as electrophotography and toner-based digital printing ), the toner powder is transferred to the paper by photo semiconductors and an intermediate carrier. Laser printers work on the principle of electrostatic forces. Many products can be printed with laser printing - from invitations and documents to glossy photos and brochures to signs. This type of printing is used very often in photo book, label and packaging printing. Obvious advantage of this process: time- and cost-effective, individual print, photo-realistic, bright, saturated colors. Depending on the substrate and the colors used, a distinction is made between solvent printing, UV direct printing and latex printing .

Solvent printing is a digital printing process that works with solvent-based inks and is part of large format printing. In this process, adhesive foils, tarpaulins, vinyl nets, posters, exhibition walls and much more can be printed. Solvent printing is characterized by very UV-resistant and strong colors and is used both indoors and outdoors.

In UV printing (also called UV direct printing or direct plate printing ), the UV inks are used. It's a new dimension in sign printing . Here the printing is done directly on the substrate, often acrylic glass or PVC. The process can also be indirect if the sign is printed on a special adhesive high-performance film that is then glued to the sign material.

Another process in large format printing is latex printing . This type of printing uses special latex inks that do not contain any hazardous substances that pollute the air. In contrast to solvent printing, latex printing complies with the strictest ecological standards - it is environmentally friendly - and is also suitable for the food industry. The prints are water resistant, the colors do not fade and are also scratch resistant. In this process, for example, PVC tarpaulins, banners , stickers, wallpaper, textiles, etc. are printed.

inkjet printing (inkjet printing)

In inkjet printing (or inkjet printing ), in contrast to laser printing, tiny drops of colored ink are sprayed onto the paper or textile. This type of printing is divided into large format printing and high-speed printing (high-speed inkjet) and is used in book production, interior design and textile printing.

In addition, inkjet printing is used in transpromo, mailing, newspaper and magazine printing. High speed and print quality speak for this printing process. In the large-format area, inkjet printing allows webs to be printed with widths of up to five meters.

thermal transfer printing

Thermal transfer refers to the indirect printing processes in which the print is made from a transfer layer onto the print material by means of a heat treatment. This subheading includes flex/flock foil transfer printing and digital transfer printing .

The print image is applied to a special single-color transfer foil using flex/flock foil transfer printing , cut out and weeded. Then the image is pressed with a transfer press and heated at the same time and thereby transferred to the printing material. This method is suitable for motifs with only up to 3 colors in vector graphics: lettering, pictograms and logos or similar.

Digital transfer printing differs from flex/flock transfer printing in that the graphic is not applied to the monochrome transfer film but to the white transfer film and eco-solvent inks. Multicolored printing with color gradients can also be implemented. The further printing process is completely similar to flex/flock transfer printing.

sublimation printing

Sublimation printing (also known as thermal sublimation printing ) is the printing process in which the sublimation colors change from their solid state on the intermediate carrier to the gaseous state without becoming liquid. This process takes place with a transfer press, which fixes the print motif on the material with high pressure and great heat. Thermosublimation is used in a wide variety of areas: fashion and clothing, promotional gifts and industry, mugs and souvenirs, among others

3D printing

The newest and rapidly developing process is three-dimensional printing , or 3D printing . The objects to be printed are first created with the computer and then printed with a 3D printer. Here, special materials are either built up in layers or removed. Nowadays, 3D printing is used with powder, with melted materials and with liquid materials. 3D printing is mainly done using two types of printing systems - Cartesian and Delta, which differ from each other by the type of movement.

The Cartesian 3D printers move from left to right, front to back and top to bottom. They usually have a square-shaped movable print bed, are not large and are relatively cheap. These printers are optimally suited for the production of wide parts and large-format constructions.

The Delta 3D printers have the circular print bed and three arms, usually made up of a parallelogram. The line of motion depends on changes in the angles of these parallelograms. These printers are ideal for building tall objects. Unlike the Cartesian 3D printers, the Delta 3D printers are larger, more difficult and need more complicated calculations, but they work faster and without noise.

3D printing is used in various fields: in medicine (fruits, bioprinting and prostheses, medicines), in aviation, automotive and aerospace industry, in architecture and construction, in education and cartography, in food industry, in fashion (clothing and shoes) , for customization, for the production of works of art, souvenirs, toy figures and toys, domestic robots and 3D printers, musical instruments, furniture, jewelry and others

Modern photo print

Nowadays , modern photo printing , which is done with suitable photo printers, is booming. The photo printers can be both laser and inkjet printers. The manufacturers offer photo printing in both small and large formats such as canvas prints or aluminum Dibond prints . With canvas printing, the photo is printed on photo canvas using special processes. The print quality of large areas mainly depends on the photo resolution: the higher it is, the better quality the canvas will be.