Commercial Offset Printing vs. Desktop Printing

Ever been confused when somebody tells you to just send your file to your printer, or when someone asks you to talk to your printer? I mean, there's a big difference when you talk to a printer thing and a person printer. As one article said, when someone asks you to talk to your printer, it doesn’t mean that you should look like an idiot and try to talk sense to your laser printer or dot matrix, although from time to time, that may be a good idea to vent out your frustrations and ire to get the job done. Nevertheless, the phrase simply means that you should ask your commercial offset printer if you have any queries regarding your printing requirements.

When you go to a printing outfit for a professional print job, we call it Commercial Offset Printing. On the other hand, when you just get the assistance of your dot matrix to reproduce your file for you, that's Desktop Printing.

Man vs. machine

When comparing a commercial printer and desktop printer, the latter refers to the actual piece of hardware such as dot matrix printers, laser printers, and inkjet printers. They are usually applied in printing documents at home or in businesses. They are commonly small enough to fit on top of a desk or a table, thus the name. However, businesses may also use larger floor-model printers. Again, these are equipment used to print documents on paper or transparencies or other materials.

And as mentioned earlier, with a desktop printer, a digital file is sent to a printer connected to a computer (or its network) and the printed page is available in a short while.

On the other hand, a commercial printer is actually a business with its owner and employees as the printing professionals and experts. A print shop may have printer machines for digital printing but they also oftentimes have web or sheet presses for offset lithography and other commercial printing processes.

A commercial printer is a printing company that prints a file using one of a variety of methods, often involving a printing press. How the digital file must be prepared depends on the printing process to be utilized. Commercial printers usually require very specific file preparation or prepress tasks.

Spot the Difference

There are primary differences in offset printing and desktop printing. You have to consider the colors of ink and the way it is placed on paper, as well as the kind of equipment to be used for the task. The method of printing also dictates how the desktop publishing document must be prepared.

Both utilize the CMYK colors. Dots of Cyan (blue), Magenta (red), Yellow, and BlacK are placed next to each other in specific patterns that trick the eye into seeing millions of colors. In addition, offset printing can use premixed inks in a variety of specific colors as well as metallic and fluorescent inks. These are what we call spot colors.

Inkjet printing puts all the different ink colors on the paper in one pass through the paper.
Desktop printing usually utilizes some type of inkjet or laser printer. The inkjet printer has ink cartridges that place the ink directly on paper. These are self-contained units connected to a computer through cables. Offset uses a web or sheet press that may consist of multiple units. Photographic printing plates of the file to be printed are made, which then accept the ink and then transferred to the paper.

So next time somebody tells you again to "talk to your printer" you would be able to know that what he means is to consult your commercial print outfit about your print job, and not your dot matrix or laser printer.