Published: 27 May 2026

Sooner or later, anyone ordering print gets asked: "litho or digital?" Most people nod politely and hope the printer makes the right call. Fair enough. The difference between the two is one of those bits of trade knowledge nobody outside the print works really needs to know, until they do.

We run both at W. O. Jones, so we're not selling one over the other in this article. The two methods do different jobs, and the printer who tells you "we always use one" is usually telling you they only own one. Here is what each does well, where the line between them sits, and how we actually decide for a job when it lands on our desk in Llangefni.

What litho printing actually is

Litho, sometimes called offset litho, works by transferring ink from a metal plate to a rubber blanket, and from the blanket to the paper. One plate per colour. For a standard colour job that's four plates (cyan, magenta, yellow, black), all running at speed on the press at the same time.

Setting up those plates takes time. Once they're set up, though, the press runs fast and produces consistent colour from the first sheet to the last. The cost is heavily front-loaded: a lot of work to get going, then very little extra work per copy. Which is why the cost-per-unit on litho drops sharply as the run gets bigger.

We run industry-leading multi-colour Heidelberg presses for our litho work, the kind of kit that's properly engineered for runs from a few thousand to millions.

What digital printing actually is

Digital prints straight from the file, with no plates. The press lays down toner or ink directly onto the paper, one sheet at a time. No setup, no plates to make, no warming up the press. You can print one copy or a thousand, and the cost per copy stays roughly the same.

That makes digital faster for short runs and useful when you need to change something on every copy (different addresses on a mailing, for example, or sequentially numbered tickets). The trade-off is that the cost-per-unit doesn't really drop the way litho does. You pay roughly the same per copy whether you're printing 100 or 10,000.

Our digital kit includes a Konica Minolta digital press, running on silk, gloss and uncoated stocks up to 400gsm, with banner-length sheets up to 1.2m. Different press, different job, sitting alongside the Heidelbergs in the same building.

The fundamental difference, in one sentence

Litho has high setup, low per-copy cost. Digital has no setup, but the per-copy cost stays flat.

Everything else follows from that.

When litho is the right answer

Pick litho when:

• Your run is in the low thousands or higher. The crossover is somewhere between 1,000 and 3,000 copies for most jobs. Above that, litho is usually cheaper per unit.
• Colour consistency matters across thousands of copies. A litho press holds colour beautifully across a long run. Digital is close, but for brand-critical work where the first and last copy need to look identical, litho still has the edge.
• You're printing on certain papers. Heavyweight uncoated stocks, recycled stocks with texture, specialist papers, anything where you want the ink to lie into the paper rather than sit on top. Litho generally handles these better.
• You need Pantone spot colours. If your brand uses a specific Pantone reference (PMS 286, say), litho can mix that exact ink. Digital approximates it with its four-colour process, which is close but not identical.
• You're printing big things at quality. Brochures, books, catalogues, annual reports, premium stationery, anything where the buyer is going to hold it in their hand and judge the quality.

When digital is the right answer

Pick digital when:

• Your run is short. A hundred business cards. Two hundred event leaflets. Fifty proofs of a brochure before the main run goes to litho. Digital wins on cost and on common sense at low volumes.
• You need personalisation or variable data. Each copy slightly different (different name, different address, different barcode). Litho can't really do that. Digital was built for it.
• You're up against a tight deadline. No plates to make means no setup time, which means turnaround can be measured in hours rather than days.
• You want to print one and see it. Need a proof, a sample, a one-off? Digital. Litho doesn't work in ones.
• You're testing something. Trying out a layout, testing a leaflet design before committing to a long run, prototyping. Digital lets you iterate cheaply.

The middle ground

The honest answer for a lot of jobs is: it depends on the specifics, not on a rule. A run of 800 brochures could go either way. A short-run set of business cards in a Pantone colour might still call for litho. A long run on a fancy textured stock might still want litho even though digital could technically handle the volume.

This is where it helps to talk to a printer that runs both. We have no reason to push you toward one method over the other, because we charge for the print, not for the press it ran on. Our job is to look at the spec of your job and tell you which approach will give you the best result for the budget.

A simple framework for deciding

If you're trying to work it out before you call us, four questions usually get you most of the way:

• How many copies do you need? Under 500, almost certainly digital. Over 3,000, almost certainly litho. In between, ask the printer.
• Does every copy need to be identical, or does each one need to be different? Identical means either could work. Different means digital.
• Is there a specific brand colour you need to match exactly? If yes, lean litho. If no, either method works.
• How long have you got? Days mean digital is in play. Weeks mean litho is on the table too.

We'll ask you these (or variations of them) the moment you call. The answers are usually enough for us to make a sensible recommendation.

How we choose, on the floor

When a job comes in at our Llangefni works, somebody from the team looks at it and asks four things: what is it, how many, what stock, by when. The answer to those four normally points to one press or the other without much argument. If the job's marginal, we'll often quote both and explain the trade-offs.

We're not trying to be diplomatic about this. Litho is the better answer for most quality work at decent volume. Digital is the better answer for short runs and anything personalised. The middle ground is where the conversation lives, and that's where a real printer earns their keep.

Thinking about a project?

If you've got a job in mind, whether it's a long-run brochure, an annual report, a short run of business cards, leaflets for an event, a booklet, premium stationery or a personalised mailing, give us a call. We run both presses, we'll look at your spec, and we'll honestly tell you which approach will give you the best result for the budget. No upsell, no agenda.

Drop us a line, or have a look at the full list of what we do under one roof if you'd like to see what we mean.