What is Digital Label Printing?

Simply put digital printing means producing a printed image that doesn’t use traditional printing plates. Basically, you go direct from an image on a computer to an image on paper. Digital label printing is just digital printing on label material.

If you own a laser or inkjet printer then you are doing digital printing. Whether it is a $40 inkjet printer or a million dollar digital printing press, the process is basically the same. The printer takes a computer image, which by definition is a digital image, and translates all the 0’s and 1’s into the appropriate color at the time of printing. Most color digital presses use four color process printing (see article in our last issue) which can produce millions of colors through a combination of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.

Comparing digital printing with traditional printing is useful to help understand how digital printing is different. Traditional printing uses a complex process with several steps. First, film is created for each color that is being printed. Then a printing plate is created from this film. Then the plate is mounted on a cylinder. Finally the cylinders for all the different colors are lined up and you can start printing. In digital printing a computer allows us to bypass all this.

Digital printing has secured the niche for short runs because of this reduced setup time. Not only that, but with digital printing every label can be different. But for long runs of the same label you are often better off with traditional flexo label printing. In the label printing world digital printers print at 25-50 feet a minute, traditional label printing is typically 150-300 feet a minute.