The first mechanical printing press was invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439. This press began the age of printing when books could be mass produced and were available to the average person because they were much less expensive to make than previous books. Much later, electric printing presses were invented, which made the production of printed items even easier.
Digital printing presses began being used in 1993. The idea of a digital printing press began with the development of the computer. The evolution of digital printing is somewhat complicated, but Xerox played a large role. Unlike other printing methods, digital presses can print a different image on each paper, while other types of printing involve plates that each get used over and over.
With digital printing presses, a digital image is put into a computer, which can then be transferred onto a variety of surfaces, including photographic paper, paper stock, vinyl and film. Digital printing uses dry ink printing machines such as wide ink jet printers and thermal printers. Digital printing is usually used for shorter print jobs and for custom printing.
Digital printing presses don't have levers, gears or oil baths and produce much less waste than other printing methods. Since the advent of digital printing, other printing machines such as web presses have also evolved and now are easier to operate with fewer gears and levers in an attempt to compete with digital printing.
Today's digital printing presses can be linked to a network and print images sent from anywhere in the world. The computers on these presses can also produce an image, giving a preview of how a book or booklet will look when it's finished. As technological advances are made, digital printing will continue to see incredible improvements in efficiency in the years to come.