The Doc appreciates a good debate, in particular when it’s about a new technology taking over the land of an entrenched technology. In this case, there is an interesting debate rampant among a number of printing blogs as to whether or not inkjet is going to take over the printing world and replace offset technology (which uses plates and ink). Offset printing has been the mainstay of profitable printing for a number of decades, having itself replaced the more labor-intensive style of printing called letterpress.

But now offset faces a danger from two fronts. On the one side, high-speed toner-based printing devices have been taking over the short-run end of the market (usually defined as 5,000 copies or less). And now, thanks to breakthrough in speed, high-end inkjet devices are gaining ground as well.