When you are having something printed for yourself or your business, such as your letterhead or business cards, you will no doubt have an idea in your mind of how that should look as a finished product. And as with any creative print project, the options are numerous. One thing you will encounter initially is the choice between digital and offset printing.
Most people are familiar with digital printing. Much like an office laser printer, a digital press will spray toner on a sheet and fuse it to the paper by heating the page.
Offset printing on the other hand is something with which many people are less familiar. In commercial printing though, it is still the most common type of printing and makes many of the printed items we encounter possible – like newspapers and books.
So what is it?
Well, offset is a process of printing that uses traditional inks (either Pantone inks or process CMYK) to make an image. In an offset press there are several cylinders, one which holds the plate (that is a metal or plastic sheet that contains the image to be printed) and is covered with ink. The next cylinder holds a rubber blanket – which is a little bit like a stamp. The third cylinder holds the paper, envelope, or other surface on which you will print on.
As the cylinders start spinning pressmen will add ink into the machine. The first ‘plate’ cylinder is coated with the ink and then presses the image into the ‘blanket’ cylinder. Then this ‘plate’ cylinder meets the final paper or impression cylinder and impresses the image to the paper. This creates the final product such as your business card or stationery.
And as a process, it has many advantages. Through the plate system, offset printing allows for consistent quality over large print runs. And, comparatively speaking, those printing plates can be used a long time since the plate does not actually come in contact with the paper. This offers great cost savings when making a large run of many thousands of an item.
Beyond the Basics
Continuing on from this basic description of offset printing, there are many variations and layers of complexity to the process. Depending on the industry or application there are several different kinds of presses and production systems. You can read more detail about offset printing here.
At our shop we have relatively small sheet-fed presses (feeding sheets of paper as opposed to long rolls) that operate in a way very much like the process described above. These presses make for a great finished product that both looks great and is reasonable to produce. Of course every printed job has its own unique characteristics, so if you are wondering about which printing process to use for your next project, why not stop in and talk with our team? Or ask some questions below.
We look forward to helping you.
