Quality hat-trick: Onlineprinters sets standards Certified quality in offset and digital printing as well as post-press

The purchasing behaviour of customers has changed over the past years. They tend to order smaller print runs more frequently and products need to be available on shorter notice. To accommodate this trend, Onlineprinters has stepped up its digital printing operation. Today, the company prints almost 25 percent of all customer jobs digitally compared to just five percent in 2014. "Over the past two years, we have multiplied our digital printing capacity at our German production sites alone. We mainly use HP Indigo technology which resellers appreciate because of the high quality it delivers," says Roland Keppler, the CEO of Onlineprinters, one of Europe’s top-selling online printers.

PSD seal for digital printing

The ProcessStandard Digital (PSD) defines high quality standards for digital printing processes. The associated quality management comprises all organised measures and quality assurance activities in digital printing (e.g. maintenance, quality assurance and training) aimed at improving products, processes or services. In June 2019, Onlineprinters received the PSD digital printing seal based on the requirements of ProcessStandard Digital and the ISO 15311 digital printing standard to make the quality hat-trick complete. "Small print runs and fast turnover are a major trend and so digital printing is booming. Customers expect stable results of their print jobs and the only way to achieve this is through certified production processes. It’s all about developing standards that are independent of production processes," says Thomas M. Schnitzler from CtP & Print QualityControl, who accompanied the certification process of Onlineprinters as a Fogra Digital Print Expert.

PSO seal for offset printing

Onlineprinters has been providing certified quality according to ProcessStandard Offset (PSO) for more than ten years already. The company’s production department was first certified to PSO back in 2006. PSO is the "gold standard" of the printing industry and describes an industry-centred and standardised method for the production of printed products that complies with the international ISO12647-2 standard series. PSO assures print production quality from data acquisition all the way through to the final print. Ugra, the accredited Swiss Center of Competence for Print and Media Technology, performed the certification audit for Onlineprinters and awards the Ugra seal according to PSO.

Certified quality in post-press

Quality is key – this also applies to the post-press processes of Onlineprinters according to ISO 16762 which include all steps required to make the product ready to be shipped to customers such as folding, trimming, punching and binding. In 2017, Onlineprinters was one of the first online print shops in Europe to have its post-press operations certified and has been allowed to carry the Ugra label for certified product quality according to PSO including post-press. All certification requirements were fully met.

The video "A look behind the scenes of Onlineprinters":
http://bit.ly/onlineprinters-en-video

The video "How an offset lithography printing press gets installed":
http://bit.ly/onlineprinters-en-printing-press