You’ll find that in a print shop we have a lot of concern for plates. We are constantly talking about them, making them and getting them into the press. Of course these are not commemorative plates that we are talking about here, but rather printing plates.
So what is a printing plate and what is it for?
A printing plate is usually a sheet of thin metal or polyester that is impressed with the image to be printed. The image is usually transferred to the plate by photochemical means or through a machine known as a CTP (computer to plate) platewriter. The plate is then mounted onto a press cylinder and put into operation. From there it presses into the press blanket, which in turn impresses the final image onto the paper.
If you are designing a project for full color process CMYK printing then each of those four colors will have their own printing plate. Likewise if you are working with 2 or 3 PMS colors, then each of those inks will have their own plate. Each plate in turn impresses its color, and at the end how they are placed and layered on the paper creates the final image.
There are of course many types of printing plates, but here at cutpasteanprint we primarily use aluminum and polyester plates. The former are more durable and we use them for larger run project, or that will be printed several times. Aluminum plates can cleaned, stored, and used over and over again. We also use polyester plates for shorter run projects with less complicated graphics. Our plates are –with rare exception–printed on a platemaker, which is great because it means we don’t have to use and store a lot of chemicals in our shop. Making it both a healthier and greener place to be.
