Sheetfed vs. Web Press Printing
Some clients choose to have their custom publications printed on sheetfed presses, while others use web presses. What's the difference?

Sheetfed
With a sheetfed press, individual sheets of paper are fed one at a time. The process is relatively slow but facilitates accurate adjustments, since it allows a print technician to run a few preliminary sheets to fine-tune the registration, color and other quality factors. It also allows for a wider variety of paper types to be used than a web press can accommodate. Sheetfed presses are great for short- to medium-run printing, and the end result is typically a very high-quality product.

Web Press
For medium to long print runs - 20,000 copies and more - a more economical choice is the web press. This type of press uses large, continuous rolls of paper rather than individual sheets. The rolls are fed through the press at high speed, making printing fast and efficient. In fact, web presses can process 40,000 images per hour, as compared to the 10,000 per hour of a sheetfed press.

While with sheetfed presses, all binding takes place off the press, with web presses the paper is trimmed to the correct size and folded while still on press. This automated folding capability offers dramatic savings. Today's web press output also rival the quality of sheetfed presses.