Offset printing is the reason a 5,000-copy magazine run costs a fraction, per copy, of the same job run digitally. It's an older technology than digital printing, and for the specific job it's built for, it hasn't been replaced.
How offset printing works
Offset printing transfers an image from a metal plate to a rubber blanket, then onto paper, rather than firing ink directly onto the page the way a digital press does. Each colour needs its own plate, made before the run starts, which is the source of both offset's biggest strength and its biggest limitation.
Why it wins on high-volume runs
Once the plates are made, the per-copy cost of an offset run drops sharply as quantity increases, since the expensive step, plate-making, is a fixed cost spread across the whole run. For a magazine, book or brochure printed in the thousands, that makes offset meaningfully cheaper per copy than digital, and it also holds colour more consistently across a very long run.
Where digital printing wins instead
Digital printing skips the plate-making step entirely, so there's no setup cost to spread across a run, which makes it the better choice for shorter runs, proof copies, or anything that needs variable data (a different name or number on each copy). Below a few hundred copies, digital is usually both cheaper and faster than offset; above that, the balance tips toward offset.
Choosing between them for a print job
- Short run, proof copies, or variable data needed: digital printing.
- Long run (roughly 1,000+ copies) of a fixed design: offset printing.
- Tight colour consistency across a very large run: offset printing.
- Quick turnaround on a small quantity: digital printing.
