What’s the difference between a digital press and a copier? This was the question posed in the LinkedIn discussion group “Digital Printing.” The explosion of input that resulted reflects the intensity of emotions on all sides of the issue.

There are those who hold that it is the printing process that defines a press. Others see speed, printing tolerances, and other technical specifications as more important. Yet others look at how the press is operated, tolerance for downtime, or the applications it runs—even marketer opinion.

Paul Vermeersch, print specialist at Printconsultant.eu, explains the view that presses and copiers can be defined by how the ink or toner is laid down on paper. “If you consider a digital press [to be] a digital version of a printing press, only HP Indigo presses use parts of gravure and offset principles (liquid ink and indirect print with plate blanket and pressure cylinders),” he writes. “Most others today are sophisticated high-end xerographic color printers.”

Joel Lukacher, technical director at Family Labels, Margate, FL, is representative of the view that speed, printing tolerances, and other technical specifications are more important to determining a pedigree. “Both [digital presses and copiers] use photo xerography. The difference is the faster speed (70-200 ppm), tighter tolerances, and the tighter color controls. Also, a digital press would have more sophisticated inline bindery options, such as a saddle stitcher with three-knife trimming.”

The challenge, as discussion participants pointed out, is that some of the higher end color copiers offer faster speeds and tighter tolerances, too.

“Faster speeds don’t necessarily mean a press can give you higher quality, and what about inkjet technology?” asks Rick Ciordia, regional sales manager at MGI USA, Inc., whose question sparked the discussion. “Will inkjet technology take over xerography? The Indigo 7000 is closest to a traditional press, but its liquid ‘ink’ is just a very fine toner suspended in oil.”

Ciordia suggests that a better start for distinguishing between the two might be wide color gamut, FOGRA/GRACOL certification, tightness of register, and color consistency over the length of the run.

The limitation on using the length of run as a determining factor, points out Andrew Simmons, publisher at DigitalPrint 360, however, is that these devices aren’t always run in their designated duty cycles. “I know NexPress owners that only print 75,000 impressions a month and Konica Minolta [owners who are] doing 300,000 a month.”