Digital printing for software manuals
Do you:
- Produce a premium software product?
- Ship your (printable) software documentation as PDF files, with the expectation that your customers will print copies?
Don't! Digital printing technology ('print on demand') is ideal for producing software documentation, as many software companies have already discovered.
Volume
Many software houses ship one major release every year and have many minor releases in that time. Digital printing means that it is economically viable to print documents in extremely small print runs (a few tens of copies).
Turn-round time
Digital presses are slower than litho presses. For print runs of only a few hundred copies, this is not an issue. For small print runs, the turn-round time of digital printing is far faster than that of litho printing, because the set-up time is less. At TechScribe, we send a press-quality PDF file by email to our preferred printing house. Two days later the documents are bound and ready for collection.
Price
Traditional litho printing has a high set-up cost, whereas for digital printing, the set-up cost is very low (our printing house does not even make a charge for setting up). The toners that are used in digital presses are more expensive than printing inks. However, the page-cost is lower for litho printing than for digital printing.
For small print runs (less than about 500 copies), digital printing is likely to be cheaper than litho printing. When you want just a few copies, digital printing is the only economically viable solution (assuming that you want a professionally printed document). So, what are the costs? Typically, for twenty documents, 100 sides, colour, A4, wire bound with front and back covers, you can expect to pay £10 to £12 a unit.
Print quality
Traditional litho printing is better in quality than digital printing, but for practical purposes, digital printing produces excellent quality output. Digitally printed documentation that is produced professionally will always be far superior to the output that can be produced from an office printer. Be aware that with digital printing:
- Toner used in digital print has a shiny appearance on the page. This is usually only noticeable on relatively large areas of colour, and for text is not usually an issue.
- In theory, it is possible to match colours exactly using the Pantone system. In practice, this is not the case. If you need to guarantee perfect colour reproduction, use litho technology.
File formats
Most digital printers can accept PDF files. Most software applications can print to a PDF file (either natively, or by using third-party technology). You can create your document using whatever tools you like (Word, Visio, Quark Xpress, FrameMaker and so on). Generate a print-quality PDF file (rather than one that has been optimised for viewing over the Internet), and send that to your printing house.
Suppliers of digital printing
TechScribe does not offer a digital printing service. (Of course, if you purchase our documentation services, we are happy to arrange printing for you.)
We are happy to recommend Mensa Printers (www.mensaprinters.co.uk) for your software documentation printing.
See also 
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