Since the mid 2000s digital printing has accounted for over 10% of the 46 trillion pages that are printed around the world annually.

Digital printing is used at home, in offices and by large scale printers and can be subdivided into two different formats of printing. These digital print formats are:

Small Format Printing: This digital printing format is used in homes, businesses and offices everywhere. The print size is up to ledger size paper sheets

Wide Format Printing: This digital printing format is used for drafting and design establishments. The print size varies from 3' to the large 914mm wide roll paper prints.

Common printing technologies used in modern printing

There are a number of modern digital printing technologies that are used in printing houses around the world. The list below includes some of the most well known and popular digital printing processes.

Blueprint Printing Technology: This is one of the chemical related printing technologies.

Daisy Wheel Printing Technology: With this printing technology pre-formed print characters are each applied individually during the digital printing process.
Dot-matrix Printing Technology: This is one of the older digital printing technologies and produces a pattern of dots thanks to an array of small printing studs.

Line Printing Technology: This print technology forms print lines on the paper that make up the characters on the page.

Heat Transfer Print Technology: This print technology is similar to that used in early fax machines and modern receipt printers. The printing process applies heat to special paper which then turns black to form the necessary printed images.

Inkjet Print Technology: This type of printing includes bubble-jet printing in which ink is sprayed onto the printing paper and creates the desired image.

Electro-photography Print Technology: During this printing process the toner is attracted to a charged image and then developed as if it was a photo.

Laser Print Technology: When this type of printing technology is utilized it uses a type of xerography in which the charged image is written onto the printing surface pixel by pixel using a fine laser.

Solid Ink Print Technology: When this print technology is used cubes of ink are melted to make the ink or liquid toner.

Which is the better Digital Print Technology?

Digital printing is a much cheaper option to the more conventional style of printing. For the most part toner digital printing systems are the better option due to the fact that they are more economical than the other print technologies in the long run.