Ninefold PrintPeople look for a number: print under X digitally, over X offset. There isn't one, and quoting a fixed threshold is a reliable sign that somebody is describing their own equipment rather than your job.
The two processes have different cost structures, and where they cross depends on the job.
The actual difference
Offset transfers ink from a plate to a rubber blanket to the sheet. Plates have to be made and the press has to be brought up to color, which wastes sheets. That is the setup. Once running, each additional sheet is cheap.
Digital puts toner or ink straight onto the sheet from a file. No plates, no makeready, effectively no setup. Each sheet costs roughly the same as the last, whether you print ten or ten thousand.
So offset is a high fixed cost with a low running cost, and digital is a low fixed cost with a higher running cost. Everything else follows from that.
Why the crossover moves
If setup were constant, there would be a single crossover quantity. It is not.
- Sheet size. A large offset sheet may carry many copies of a small piece. The setup is spread across all of them at once, which pushes the crossover down.
- Number of colors. Offset setup grows with each additional plate. A one color job reaches its crossover far later than a six color job.
- Ink coverage. Heavy solids consume more makeready sheets on offset and more toner on digital, and they do not scale the same way.
- Stock. Some stocks run better on one than the other, which can settle the question before economics does.
This is why the honest answer is a comparison for your job rather than a rule.
What else changes with the choice
Cost is not the only difference, and on some jobs it is not the deciding one.
| Digital | Offset | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Effectively none | Plates and makeready |
| Cost curve | Nearly flat | Falls steeply, then flattens |
| Spot colors | Simulated in process | Can be mixed as real ink |
| Stock range | Narrower | Wider, including heavier boards |
| Variable data | Straightforward | Not practical |
| Sheet to sheet color | Very consistent | Consistent once running |
Two of those rows decide jobs on their own.
Spot colors. If a brand color must match exactly, offset can mix it as a physical ink. Digital simulates it from process colors, which gets close and sometimes not close enough. For a logo that appears next to an existing printed piece, that difference is visible.
Variable data. If every piece carries a different name, address or code, that is digital. Offset prints the same image every time by design.
Where it stops being about the press
Once a job has finishing on it, the printing decision is frequently made by the finishing rather than the other way around. Foil, embossing and die cutting happen after the ink, often on separate equipment, and a shop that runs one process well may not run the other at all.
The same is true of cartons, where cutting, creasing and gluing require converting equipment a general commercial printer usually does not have. Choosing digital or offset is a smaller decision than choosing a shop that can do the whole job in one building.
The practical approach
Do not pick a process. Specify the job and ask for both.
Send the stock, the quantities, the colors and the finishing, and ask for the job priced digitally and offset at two or three quantities. The numbers will show you the crossover for your job, which is the only crossover that matters.
If one shop can only quote one of them, that is worth knowing too. It does not make them wrong, but it means their recommendation is constrained by what they own.
That constraint is why we match each job to a manufacturer suited to it instead of running everything through one plant: the press suited to a short digital run is rarely the one suited to a hundred thousand cartons, and neither is the one suited to a foil job. More on how that works.