When we decided enter into digital printing, we did a very strong selection process looking for the best digital press for our company.

We want a machine that could give us very close to the quality of our offset presses and we found it in the HP 3050. We were one of the first installs of this digital press.

Our 7-color machine can produce low quantities of whatever your needs are without sacrificing quality. This is the most versatile press on the digital market. It does spot color PMS for branding purposes and can print on all kinds of substrates from paper to plastics to magnetic material. This press prints variable data pieces that give you true one to one marketing tailored specifically for each individual based upon that individuals specific data.

Some HP Indigo 3050 digital press pictures:

The HP Indigo is a brand of digital press that uses a unique liquid ink called ElectroInk. The ink like other toner based machines use an electrical charge to control the location of the print particles. The advantage to this liquid ink over the toner based machines is the particle size is much smaller with ElectroInk. At 1-2 microns this gives sharp images, better solids and uniform gloss or layering of the ink. It doesn't look like a color copy it looks more like a lithographic offset printed sheet. The ink comes in a concentrated tube of paste and is loaded in to the ink tanks and mixed with oil to become a fluid mixture. The HP Indigo being a true digital machine can do variable data where images and text can vary from sheet to sheet. The HP Indigo is also the only digital press that will run true spot colors for branding and PMS matching. The press can also run hi-fi color which adds orange and violet to give more intense colors and a larger range of matching PMS colors. The HP Indigo comes in up to a 7-color digital press configuration.

Written by Buzz Tatom
buzz@odeecompany.com
The Odee Company, Dallas, Texas

Most knowledgeable printing veterans even believe that you can't print PMS colors when printing digitally. Most believe you must convert all PMS colorsto CMYK to print digitally. On most digital presses or digital machines this is true. Neither the Nexpress or the IGen3 will do spot colors.

There is one machine that actually does spot colors. The HP Indigo family will print PMS colors as true spot colors. The HP3050 in particular comes in up to 7-colors and will produce either hi-fi color or spot colors for true branding or matching of spot colors. While not cheap this is available to match that specific PMS match for demanding clients. This machine is the only non-toner based machine and that gives it the possibility of mixing base colors to match PMS's. Just thought you should know. You can do digital printing PMS Colors.

Written by Buzz Tatom
buzz@odeecompany.com
The Odee Company

The most common definition for digital printing is going to be taking an electronic file and going straight to a digital press. This is not entirely accurate because even in offset printing these days you take a digital file and go straight to plate that mounts on an offset press. For this article, we will use the most common definition to discuss or define digital printing. Digital printing can be done in black and white or in color. There are numerous machines that do digital printing. In the black & white you have primarily the Xerox Docutech and the Kodak Digimaster. In the color digital printing arena you have the HP Indigo, the Kodak Nexpress and the Xerox IGen3. The concept behind these machines is that there are no costly setups required for a job and so they can run small quantities at much lower costs than offset presses. Once quantities increase over say a few thousand sheets it becomes more economical to run the job on an offset press.

The digital press does run variable data where the image or text can change from press sheet to press sheet. Offset printing will not do this. Digital printing is also usually a quicker turnaround.

Most times digital printing is done by laying toner on a sheet vs ink like offset printing. The only exception to that is the HP Indigo which prints with liquid inks and the DI(direct imaging)presses.
The HP Indigo is the only digital press that can print true spot colors versus a CMYK conversion of process.

See also:
Offset Printing vs Digital Printing
All Digital Printing is not the Same
Digital Printing PMS Colors

Written by Buzz Tatom
The Odee Company

Most people have no idea what all the phrase "digital printing" can encompass. There are numerous quality levels and technologies that fit into that category. First of all, there is black and white digital printing and color digital printing. Black and white is almost always toner based machines such as copiers, Docutechs and Digimasters. Because it is toner based, quality is somewhat limited although the Docutech and Digimaster do a decent job for 600 DPI. Mostly used for text and line art they will do halftones to limited quality.

Color Digital Printing encompasses anything from color copies from a color copier to desktop printer to high end digital presses that can cost a half million dollars. You have toner based machines like the CanonCLC, IGen3 and Nexpress and then you have liquid ink presses such as the HP Indigo and DI presses.

All of these machines are trying to get as close as the offset look as they can. The toner based machines are going to have the layered toner look. The IGen3 and Nexpress do the best of this class. You will still see where one toner color has gone over another toner color and it is at a higher level but for most customers it is definitely acceptable. The liquid ink machines do a better job of offset look.

The DI(digital image)presses are offset presses so they win the contest on offset look. They cannot do variable data printing nor do they have the ink carrying capacity of larger offset presses so there are issues on certain jobs. The DI presses can do spot colors. The HP Indigo does a good job of simulating offset quality and does variable data printing. It is also the only digital press that does true spot colors besides the DI presses. The HP Indigo's limitation is in size at 12.5 x18.5" while the others will feed a larger size.

This gives you a little background to decide what kind of digital press you need to run your print job. Because they are not all made equal.

Here are references to some of the high end digital press manufacturers:
HP Indigo
Nexpress
IGen3

Also Read:
Variable Data Printing
Indigo Digital Press Inks
On Demand Printing
Digital Printing PMS Colors
Should my Job be Printed or Photocopied

Written by Buzz Tatom
buzz@odeecompany.com
The Odee Company

Quality of Digital Printing

So you want one guys opinion on color digital printing quality? Here it is.

If you are a mom and pop color copiers are an option although you don’t pay much more for much better quality. Toner based machines no matter how much they cost are still toner particles. Nexpress & IGen3 do a very good job but will still show their toner ancestry on many jobs.
These 2 machines will be very consistent on color from print to print.

The liquid ink possibilities include the DI(Direct Imaging) offset presses and the Indigo digital press family. The DI options are Heidelberg and Ryobi DI machines. These machines can’t do variable data and have a limited ink carrying capacity so can show more issues like ghosting and gradation problems.

They also will depend more on the skill of the pressperson for print to print consistency. The DI can print spot colors and uses temporary plates to produce each job.

The Indigo 3050 digital press has liquid ink technology and rivals offset printing in quality. It can do variable data printing and true spot PMS colors and will be very consistent from print to print. All in all if you want my vote for the best machine it would be the HP 3050 digital press because of the availability of doing variable data printing and quality rivaling offset.

It will be very consistent from print to print and can do spot PMS colors for branding or better color matching. It also doesn’t have that color copy ancestry look and will print screens and solids in a close to offset printing look.



See Also:
Digital Color Printing
Types of Digital Printing machines

First let’s start with the term digital printing :
Digital printing’s definition is taking an electronic file and directly from that file creating your final output without going to plates or any other type of intermediary step or proof. It can be black or color.

The black is usually done by copiers on the low end and machines such as the Xerox Docutech or the Kodak Digimaster. These machines are capable of @ 100 copies a minute. Even these machines use toner although they are capable of higher resolutions than copiers. Although, higher quality than copiers the docutech & digimaster still don’t rival true offset quality of true offset presses.

The reasons these machines evolved and have become so popular is the ability to do low quantities at reasonable costs. They are limited as to the products and substrates that customers will use these machines for.The evolution of doing this same thing to color was a natural evolution. The higher the quality the better it could replace offset on the low end of the quantity spectrum.

Also as color digital printing machinesimproved, customers deemed quality acceptable for more and more products and uses. Color copiers came first and use toner in the four base colors of CMYK to reproduce color photographs and images. The quality is on the low end for color and is susceptible to scratches and rubbing more than liquid ink. Then there is the classification of digital presses. There are toner and two types of liquid ink presses.

All of these color machines have strengths and weaknesses like any other kind of manufacturing process. Toner based machines are the IGen3 and the Nexpress. The quality is much better than color copiers but can still have toner look to them and sometimes don’t print smooth screenes. The only true offset entries are either Heidelberg or Ryobi machines. These actually produce temporary plates to produce the print job that is on press at that time.

This is true offset printing but has some limitations because the vast % of machines are small format and don’t have the ink carrying capacity that larger presses do. These machines also can’t print variable data printing where the image or text can be changed from sheet to sheet. The other liquid ink machine is the HP Indigo family. The Indigo 3050 can print variable data while rivaling offset quality.

The Indigo digital press family is the only machine that can print variable data as well as being capable of printing PMS spot colors as well. Customers will use this machine to print postcards, brochures, posters, sales sheets, flyers and any other printed product. These are your choices in digital printing. As final users have continued decreasing quantities of their orders and use more and more of customized marketing digital printing’s market share has increased. It is a powerful option to promote your business from small startups to large corporations.

Articles Related:
Digital Color Printing

Digital printing was invented for smaller quantity runs at lower costs but does a pretty good job of being eco-friendly. One of the reasons for the substantial growth in digital printing was the need for people to print smaller quantities due to information changing on their printed literature. This reduction in obsolescence has reduced the amount of old literature not deemed useful anymore being thrown away. While this was not necessarily by design this has saved a massive amount of trees by doing more relevant Just-In-Time printing.

Our digital press that we use is the HP Indigo 3050 press. This digital press does not have the variables and compounds that are used in Offset Printing that can result in higher waste and waste disposal. The Indigo 3050 does generate some wastes but none of these are categorized as hazardous according to Federal Regulation 40 CFR 261. All waste ink and imaging oil is disposed of with a recycler. Our ink is liquid Electro Ink that has no Air Pollutants as listed under Section112 of the Federal Clean Air Act.

The only Volatile Organic Compound(VOC's) that is produced by the Indigo 3050 is from the Imaging Oil and the emission level is lower than levels associated with a typical offset printing press. HP has stated that emission levels from a very similar press emits approximately 0.23 lb per hour when operated within manufacturers normal tolerances.

The Odee Company also purchases carbon credits from the Carbon Fund so that it is a Carbon Neutral Printing Company.

If you have the need for a eco-friendly digital printer please contact us.

Written by Buzz Tatom
buzz@odeecompany.com
The Odee Company

So many people ask me how our company started. The Odee Company was established in 1923 by a man named Will Odee. He had worked for Martin's Stationery and stole the customer list and mailed to existing customers saying Martin's was out of business and to get all your legal form needs from The Odee Company as well as your Dallas commercial printing needs. The two companies co-existed for almost 20 years before Will Odee decided to retire. Bob Martin purchased the company from Will Odee and his two son in laws ran it in one form or fashion for over 10 years. Jim Tatom bought Eli Reese's interest in 1975 and it has been in the Tatom family ever since. Present day it is run by Buzz Tatom who has been running the Dallas commercial printer since 1987.



The Odee Company is both an offset printer as well as a digital printer. The digital printing department runs a HP Indigo 3050 7-color digital press. The offset printing department runs Heidelberg presses from 2-5 color. Small format and large format presses for the short to high quantity print needs. Present day The Odee Company has over 40,000 square feet of manufacturing and storage, fulfillment space. In 1986, the promotional products division was established and is now run by Kathy Tatom the former Kathy Heruska. The promotional product division outsources overseas as well as domestically depending on customer needs and time constraints.

See also: Dallas Commercial Printing

Written by Buzz Tatom
buzz@odeecompany.com
The Odee Company

Digital printing continues to try and do more things that close the gap between digital printing and normal offset printing. Two examples are the ability of the HP Indigo digital press

Offset Printing vs Digital Printing

Most arguments you see on offset printing vs digital printing comes from the perspective of someone that has a interest in one or the other technology. We produce both offset and digital printing in our plant so we provide a rather neutral perspective on both sides.

Offset is usually looked at as the higher quality choice, although, digital printing has vastly improved to where the difference is pretty small now. Offset printing prints PMS colors easier and reproduces solid screen tints better. Offset prints higher quantities at much less cost than digital printing. The cutoff is usually anywhere from 500 to 2000 sheets. Quantity and timeframe are usually the deciding factors in whether to use offset printing vs digital printing. Offset printing gives you much better options of printing larger sheets as long as you are doing more than a few of any item. Most digital presses only print up to a 14x20 sheet although 12 x18 is the most common sheet size.

Digital printing is used primarily when you need something very quickly or in very small quantities. Digital printing also gives you the opportunity to print variable text or images where each sheet off the press is unique in some personalized way. Once a sheet is off a digital press it can be cut, folded or finished very quickly where offset printing must dry or be coated before handling. There are very few digital presses that print true PMS colors or Spot Colors.

When used right the two processes should be complimentary and not necessarily in competition with each other. If they do compete it is in a very narrow range of small quantities. Here is an example of a digital offset printing company with digital offset printing equipment.

Written by Buzz Tatom
buzz@odeecompany.com
The Odee Company, Dallas, Texas

See also:
All Digital Printing is not the Same
Variable Data Printing
Indigo Digital Printing

Digital Postcard Printing

Postcards or direct mail pieces can be printed on a digital press in very short runs. This is a very economical way for a small business to market to existing customers, as well as, new prospects. It used to be to print a postcard for your business you were looking at having to do thousands. Although, that is still available with offset printing it is now possible to print in much smaller quantities by printing on a digital press. Digital postcard printing is something we do economically in quantities of 100, 250 or 500. This can be done because you have no plates or setup in digital postcard printing on a digital press. So, next time you want to send out postcards to present or potential clients and need to do it in small quantities know that you can do it with digital printing.

See also:
All Digital Printing is Not the Same.
Variable Data Printing
Promotional Products Catalog

Written by Buzz Tatom
buzz@odeecompany.com
The Odee Company

When designing a document to be printed by a commercial printer, the novice designer may not know what happens when objects or text are not colored properly. We see a lot of colors that are simply chosen from a color pallet or a spot color. Some documents may have 10 or 15 different spot colors.

In most cases it is not practical & would be cost prohibitive to print all of these colors. In these cases when the file is ripped for printing, the rip will automatically convert these spot colors to four color process unless of course it is told not to. The end result of this is a simulation of the spot color that was chosen. Some colors are an exact match; such as PMS 485 will convert to 97% magenta & 100% yellow & when printed will be a very close match to the spot color. On the other hand, colors such as PMS 123 will convert to a dirty color of yellow instead of the crisp clean color that would be achieved if printed with the actual spot color.

To find actual representations you can visit this page .



Look at the solid to process guide. Although this book may seem expensive, it will save a lot of surprises when looking at the finished printed piece.

Oranges, blues & greens have been particularly hard to match when converting from spot to process due to the limitations of printing inks. One thing that has made a drastic improvement in reproducing these colors is the availability of printing a seven color process. This can now be achieved on short run print jobs using the HP Indigo 3050 digital press. HP has come up with what they call Indichrome technology. By adding a violet & orange to 4 color process, it is amazing how much closer & cleaner spot colors reproduce.

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Article written by: Jay Atkinson
He can be reached at: jay@odeecompany.com

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There are numerous digital online printing services for business cards.
I have some real thoughts on how best to do business cards digitally to insure success. First of all, I would not recommend printing business cards digitally on a gloss cover. All of us tend to abuse business cards more than other printed products. We sit on them, throw them in our purse and other chances for them to rub up against each other.

Digital printing inks are not always good at standing up to the rubbing abrasion and so they can scratch. You can limit this some by putting a coating over them but this is an added cost and will meet with varying success. Matte cover will not scratch as badly as the gloss cover so it will do better if you want a coated stock. It still will scratch under heavy use.

The best stock in my opinion to digitally print business cards on is a uncoated stock. I really like printing on 100# uncoated cover. This is a step thicker from 80# uncoated cover and will stand up to abuse very well. Historically, most business cards have been printed on uncoated stock so if you want to look established you are better off on uncoated anyway. Only since digital printing has grown in popularity has printing business cards on coated covers become more accepted. Some people don't want to print on uncoated because they lose ink density on uncoated. In digital printing, while you will lose some density of ink it is not as bad as printing on offset. This is due to very little ink absorption due to the digital printing process.

See also:

• All Digital Printing is not the Same
  
• Variable Data Printing
  
• Indigo Digital Press Inks
  
• Digital Printing PMS Colors
  


Written by Buzz Tatom
buzz@odeecompany.com
The Odee Company, Dallas, Texas