Why digital printing will complement – not kill – offset

As we saw recently at drupa, the printing industry is an ever-changing world.

With new technology advancements rapidly coming to market, one dependable constant is that there will always be ample discussion around “what’s next.” And it’s easy to see why. Who wouldn’t want to know which innovations will emerge to make our working lives easier, performances better and our businesses more successful? While some predictions highlight incremental change, others forecast sweeping changes that overturn the current way of doing things.

Granted, more often than not a new piece of technology renders its predecessor obsolete – a natural outcome of our relentless pursuit for faster, more powerful and advanced tools to get the job done. Nostalgia aside, surely there aren’t many of us who miss the limitations of the typewriter, floppy disk or dial-up modem?

But it’s worth remembering that video didn’t kill radio; they just found different roles – and for the same reason, digital printing won’t kill offset.


The fact is digital printing is thriving across a range of media. What’s more, it is complementing offset. It stems from the same reason video and radio continue to coexist: Each exceeds at different things.