Direct imaging presses are a good choice for those who want the quality of offset printing with the advantages of a digital workflow. A direct imaging press is basically the same as a conventional offset press except that the image carrier (plate) is imaged directly on the press with digital information. When a new plate is ready to be imaged, the plate is automatically fed onto the plate cylinder from a spool.

Compared to offset presses without direct imaging capabilities, the preparation time per job is greatly decreased when using direct imaging presses. Many of the manual analog steps of conventional prepress and presswork are eliminated, such as producing films, preparing the films for platemaking, creating plates, and mounting and registering plates on the press.

Direct imaging presses are not as economical as digital copiers, digital desktop printers, and digital presses for producing the smallest print runs. They are, however, more economical than digital presses or desktop printers for producing large press runs of static documents due to the higher printing speed they are able to attain. They also provide similar quality as conventional offset presses. Most direct imaging presses produce printed documents that have a minimum resolution of 1270 dpi which is suitable for producing nearly 90% of all print jobs.

Some DI presses are able to print different versions of a document during a single press run, even though they cannot accomplish true variable information printing like a digital press. For example, a five-color press can use four print units for printing the full color static portions of a document and use the fifth unit to print the different versions of text that are needed. The plate on the fifth unit is reimaged at the appropriate intervals for each version that is required. After the plate is imaged, the printing proceeds until it is time for the plate for the next version to be imaged, and so on. The result is a document that has the same layout and color elements, but differences in the text for each version. This is a much better process compared to conventional printing in which a separate base run is printed and then the sheets are run back through the press at a later time to print the different versions of text (sheet-fed press), or when using a roll-fed press, having to print the static portions along with the text for every version.