Digital color printing began around 1993 by two companies, Indigo and Xeikon.  Approximately 140,000 digital printers with speeds of 35/40 pages per minute and above have been shipped worldwide however only 120,000 remain in active use, some in companies like Washington, DC printers.

Digital printing can be divided into several categories:

·         Document-oriented or paper which is mostly toner and some inkjet

·         packaging or POP oriented, also mostly inkjet with some toner

·         wide format oriented, which could be a flatbed or roll-fed in is primarily inkjet

·         industrial/special oriented, mostly inkjet with some toner

Each of these digital printing categories has been growing rapidly over the past several years.

An Arlington printing company has adopted the digital color printing method, which has increased considerably faster than the computer-to-plate method.

Document-oriented or paper printers are available at different levels of usage by different individuals and companies:

• desktop printers, typically under 10 pages per minute
• copier/printers, typically 10 to 30 pages per minute
• mid-level printers, produce 40 to 60 pages per minute
• production level printers, produce 70 or more pages per minute

Digital printing refers to a printing process that does not use a consumable image carrier, a plate, and a fixed image.  The process is based upon the re-generation of printing information for each sheet of paper for a particular job.  Inkjet, solid ink and toner are all considered digital printing. CtP – imaging plates off-press and DI printing – imaging plates on-press are not considered digital printing even though they may use digital technology.

Over the last several years, digital color printing speed has increased and this is expected to continue.  The paper sheet size has also continued to grow over the past decade or so.  Sheet-fed printers routinely handle 12 x 18 inches and now we are seeing paper that is 13 x 19 with larger cuts of paper just around the corner.

Slower printers, those of 60 pages per minute or less are more common in smaller printing establishments such as a printing company Washington, DC.  As digital color print volume increases, medium and larger size printers will become the norm in many print shops.