The Future Of Offset

Particle Politics

In fact, some suggest the level of quality afforded by ink may at this point be offset's saving grace.

"Once someone figures out a productive way to make a variable data ink device, you're going to have something, because the limitation of toner is that there's a particle involved, whereas with ink the particle is microscopic," says Ron Kendig, marketing director of direct imaging products at Heidelberg. "You have a much higher quality with ink. Will offset go away? It's hard to say, but obviously we don't think so. There's still a huge market for things that have long runs and high quality."