Commercial printing has always been a relatively traditional, slow-developing industry. Color business, even small batches of business, had to be printed by a sheet-fed offset press. In the middle, the output film, the printing plate, and the preparation before printing are processed. After printing, wait for the prints to dry and send them to the stapling workshop for binding.
At the same time, the color copiers looked behind the scenes, but they couldn't make it through. They watched the small batch printing business sent to the offset printing shop as usual. Color photocopying retailers say their products are best suited for producing short-lived businesses. However, more and more copiers are now being used for printing, mainly on-demand printing, and some commercial printers use color copiers for a variety of reasons.
The speed of color copiers has been greatly increased, prices have been steadily lowered, and the function of the controller (front end) has been exponentially enhanced, and color management has also made great progress. Compared to a few years ago, it can now be used without great expense. Strength can get a good color effect, and the cost per page has dropped to a very low.
The biggest advantage of using color copiers for production is the price. Now these machines can print 30 to 50 pages per minute, and its price is the same as the price of a 5-page copier only 8 or 9 years ago. Now quite a few people think that 5,000 or fewer batch jobs are best suited for color copiers.
Due to the characteristics of the direct mail market, such as the requirement for product quality close to the quality of offset printing, the ever-increasing media processing capabilities and flexibility, indicating that direct mail is best suited for production using color laser copiers or printers.
It is for these reasons that the color copying machine may take some of the tasks originally undertaken by the offset press. Also, the sharp increase in business in the field of color reproduction is due to the fact that black and white documents were originally required, and now the explosion of color documents is required.
With the improvement of the quality of copier products, and people's requirements for the production cycle is getting shorter and shorter, and the number is getting less and less, color copying has begun to grab business from the offset printing office, and the copying machine is faster and of better quality. Better paper handling capacity and flexibility, as well as the ability to handle a variety of different media, make each machine more powerful.
The retailer admits that this also depends on the type of document the customer needs, because there are still some customers who are just satisfied with the color print, rather than very satisfied. For example, there are some places where the color reproduction technology cannot be reached at the high frequency end of the spectrum.
If someone wants a shiny manual printed on special media and needs some special post-processing, color copiers cannot replace lithography, which is related to the types of documents the customer requires. However, for leaflets, direct mail, etc., the products output by the copiers can meet the requirements of customers in terms of quality, time period, and low cost.
However, we believe that color copiers and lithographic printing will also exist in the field of commercial printing, because they can meet a variety of different application requirements, and most manufacturers demand both technologies. They need to consider what kind of equipment to use according to a variety of specific conditions, such as: the number of operations, operating cycle, variable data, and the ability to print through the network. The main advantage of digital printing is that traditional lithographic printing cannot satisfy online publishing.
Basic Features When you buy a color photocopier, retailers often recommend that you buy machines with high quality output, flexible paper options, and powerful color management capabilities. This is because in the printing environment, it is possible to use color copiers to print various types of short-lived or sample proofs as offset proofs, and therefore must have strong color management and production capabilities.
Nowadays, the ability to select paper has been greatly improved. Users can use 90 or 100 pound paper for printing, and all can achieve a stable output. The most important reason for choosing different papers for processing is that there are two engines in the machine, one behind the other, four independent rollers, so it is possible to image the paper on a straight path, which is different from the previous machines.
Printers should look for a retailer with experience in operating digital color products. Copiers should have greater latitude and flexibility to satisfy their own workflow. Modularity and scalability are also key factors in the transition from traditional to digital.
Retailers insist that offset and color copiers can form a perfect combination in the commercial printing industry with their respective technical characteristics. When printers are under tremendous pressure for production, color copiers can make up for a large gap in time.
So what else can we expect from the color copier in the future? Vendors say they will see continued economic growth, improved image quality and production capacity, and these improvements will help printers attract more and wider range of businesses.
Available products Minolta has developed two new color copying/printing devices with front-to-back printing cylinder technology—DiALTA CF2001 and CF1501, which output color prints at 20 pages per minute and 15 pages per minute, respectively. The selected print controller, with it, DiALTA CF2001 and CF1501 can achieve network printing capabilities.
Xerox's DocuColor 2060 has an output resolution of 600 x 600 dpi and an output rate of 60 pages per minute. The Xerox DocuColor2000 series is designed to meet the growing demand for large-capacity digital color production, broadening the scope of business and the range of media that can be used.
The Oce CS 150 and Oce CS 200 are cheaper. It is a small batch digital printing solution that can output 2,000 letter-sized prints per hour, either on one side or on both sides. Or, more than 700 pill-size prints per hour, they can keep printing more than 5,000 pages at a time. Standard digital settings - 400dpi resolution and 8-bit color depth can make the product's color very accurate.
The Canon CLC 5000, which was introduced in the first quarter of 2001, has a capacity of 5,350 sheets and a speed of 50 pages per minute. The CLC 5000 is proud of its four-roller technology and production of 20,000 sheets a month. It can use a variety of different papers up to 140 lbs.
The Ricoh Color 6000 Series digital system features 8-bit, 600 dpi sharp copy and print quality. It prints at 10.5 pages per minute full color and 40 pages per minute black and white.