# Is digital printing lower carbon than offset for short runs?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/digital-vs-offset-printing-carbon-short-runs

Offset carries a fixed cost per job, plates, make-ready sheets and wash-up, then little energy per copy. Digital has almost no fixed cost but more energy per copy. So short runs can favour digital and long runs offset. Compare per copy at your run length, using your press meters.

## What differs

- Offset: plates, make-ready sheets and wash-up, then low energy per copy.
- Digital: no plates, little make-ready, higher energy per copy.
- Paper per copy is the same once printing starts.

## Break-even

The crossover run length depends on your presses. Meter a few jobs on each and compute kWh and waste sheets per copy at different run lengths.

## What to report

Report per copy with the run length stated, and include plates and make-ready waste in offset figures.

## Worked example: 300 copies (illustrative inputs)

- Offset, 300 copies: 40 kWh make-ready + 0.02 kWh x 300 copies = 46 kWh
- Offset CO2: 46 x 0.710 = 32.66 kg, 0.109 kg per copy
- Digital, 300 copies: 0.08 kWh per copy = 24 kWh x 0.710 = 17.04 kg, 0.0568 kg per copy
- Paper per copy is the same in both and is added separately

Energy values are illustrative; measure your own presses per job.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads the energy invoices behind the making stage into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, and keeps material invoices on the Scope 3 trail. Material factors come from your supplier or a named database and are labelled with their source, so the product figure can be traced line by line.

- [Offset printing per tonne](https://senseible.earth/answers/offset-printing-carbon-footprint-per-tonne-of-print)
- [Book printing per copy](https://senseible.earth/answers/book-printing-carbon-footprint-per-copy)
- [Notebook per unit](https://senseible.earth/answers/notebook-carbon-footprint-per-unit)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-database/?lang=en)

Last reviewed 2026-10-21.