
Offset printing may still provide the clearest print quality available, but digital printing allows for much faster speed and this may be necessary in a fast-paced, business environment. Digital printing is not only fast but it is dynamic and susceptible to change in a manner which offset printing is not – making alterations to a work-in-progress can be handled in minutes and not hours or days.

Offset printing makes use of plates and ink to create an image on paper (though originally, the technique was used to create images on tin in industrial England). This requires plates to be created which is time consuming and labor intensive; the plates are created by burning and mounting reverse images upon the film, typically now computer driven, and by adjusting the output to balance the color and contrast.