Essential guide to Sheetfed Printing and Web Printing

Your essential guide to the best of printing choices

There is one choice in printing that you cannot afford to get wrong.  The choice between web offset printing and sheet-fed printing is massive and can mean all the difference to your and your customers’ sense of satisfaction with the end product.  All the best commercial printers will offer you the choice – something that we at Printing Services London can do for you.  Read on and find out whether you should be choosing sheet-fed printing or web offset printing.

What is the difference?

Put simply, sheet-fed printing is when an individual sheet of paper is fed into a machine.  Imagine a metal hand scooping up your page and sliding it one by one into the copier.  All paper originally comes from a roll but the difference with sheet-fed printing is that the sheets are cut before hand.  Lithographic printers are handy because if they go wrong it is easy to get the print job back on track again, so delays are cut right back.

Web offset printing? Well this is when a continuous roll of paper is fed through the printing press and then it is cut to size afterwards. As it is pretty difficult to move the rolls and the sheets have to be cut at some point, afterwards in this case, all the machinery is on one spot.  This machinery is expensive but the rolls of paper not so much as pre-cut sheets – saving you some money.  Web printers are awesome beasts – a real conveyor belt of movement – quick and efficient.

Why do I care?

Well, the choice makes a difference to cost and to the speed of the print.

If you want a cost-effective mass production print, then web offset printing is perfect.  The machines are super-fast.  So, if you are interested in magazine printing or brochure printing companies, then you need someone who can offer web offset printing.  Ideally you will want to go to 10,000+ copies.  Once your order is up and running off the printers you will be amazed at the speed and the efficiency.

Web offset printers come in different sizes, offering you great choice. You can select 16pp, 24pp, 32pp, 48pp and 64pp – pp meaning printed pages.  So, your brochure, catalogue or your newspaper can be the size that you need it to be.

Sheet-fed printing is amazing for quality colour printing.  The sheets fed in one at a time on pre-cut sheets allow for a top-quality finish.  You can also have the option of adding special Pantone colours to your print.

This sort of printing is best in batches of 500+.  You can enjoy top quality magazine printing in runs ideally up to 10,000 copies. The finish time is quicker with sheet-fed printing and you get a choice of sizes from B3, B2 to B1.

In short…

So, what can Printing Services London offer in terms of choice:

Web offset printing is:

-> Quick
-> Efficient
-> Great for mass production
-> Much cheaper in the long run if you want a lot of prints
-> Flexible, with the number of pages offered ranging from 16pp to 64pp

Sheet-fed printing is:

-> Good for smaller print runs
-> Amazing for quality colour printing
-> Quicker in finish time
-> Great for choice, with B3, B2 and B1 sizes on offer.

As printers in London, we know we need to offer our customers the best choices to get the best products.  By offering lithographic printing, web printing and digital prints, we give our customers the chance to customise their print order.  Your needs are bespoke and we are able to treat you as individual.

Call us today for a quote.