Offset printing
Offset printing is a commercial printing and produces a high quality piece of paper. In offset printing the photo is transferred into a metal plate, which are usually made from aluminum, and then from the plates to a rubber blanket. Due to the technique used for this type of printing there should be an amount of 1000 piece needed. This type is also known as offset lithography or litho-offset.
How is the Process
Offset lithography is consist of etched metal plates, water-repellent inks, water, blanket cylinders, and impression cylinders.
- Before starting a new print procedure, you should replace the printing plates.
- At first, you should print a number of pages so that you will be sure if the quality is optimal. This is the “make ready” time and it could last up to 15 minutes.
- In offset printing, you should make separate plates and blanket rollers for each color of ink, which you are going to use, in printing process.
- An image is transferred to an offset plate, which is chemically treated so that ink only “sticks” to the image areas, which reject the water. Areas without images reject the ink.
- The ink on the plates is transferred to a rubber-wrapped “blanket” cylinder.
- The ink reaches the paper when the inked blanket cylinder rolls over the paper.
- The rubber blanket gives unlimited flexibility, allowing printing on wood, clothes, metal, leather and rough paper.
- On the next step impression cylinders apply pressure to the paper so that the ink transfer to the material surface.
- Due to the type and size of printing, you can use different types of presses, plates, and inks. Getting help from an expert will lead you to use suitable material. This will help you to print the right amount. As an example, some types of presses are better for 1000 number printing, on the other hand some are suitable for 250 large in size piece.
- Offset printing uses four color known as CMYK:
- ‘C‘ is a color in the blue/green which is known as Cyan.
- ‘M‘ is a color midway in the red/blue which is known as Magenta.
- ‘Y’ is the yellow color
- ‘K‘ is the black color which is known as Key
Different Consistence
Modern offset printing is done on a press, which is basically made out of three rotating cylinders.
- Plate cylinder
- Blanket cylinder: covered by a sheet of rubber.
- Impression cylinder: Presses the paper into contact with the blanket cylinder.
Types of Offset Printers
a) Sheet-fed Press
Sheet-fed offset printing presses run individual sheets in various sizes. A full size sheet is around 1*0.75 meters. They are suitable for printing marketing materials.
b) Web offset
Web-offset printing presses use a large roll of paper. They are suitable for printing catalogues, magazines, etc. Web offset is more inexpensive than sheet-fed press.
- Cold-set web offset
- Heat-set web offset
Price
What you should consider while choosing between different types of printing is that the price of each copy in a 250 amount of order in offset is upper than the price of each piece in a 10,000.
Outlook
Offset and digital printing machineries both have improved in the past years. In digital printing the printing quality has become advanced and the efficiency of offset printing. Offset printing requirement and equipment have enhanced, including software, which enable offset presses to produce fast-turnaround in printing projects.
Digital Printing vs Offset Printing
Advantages of Offset Printing
- They are cost-effective in large amount
- Provide a widespread variety of different materials as like as paper, wood, clothes, etc.
- Contain different types of modern inks as like as metallic, fluorescent, etc.
- Highest quality of printing with the todays technology
- Fast enough for large amount of printing projects
Advantages of Digital Printing
- The overall cost is less in little amount or small projects
- You can print whenever you want, any amount you need (you can even print 1 or 20 as easy as possible)
- Printing in black and white is less expensive using digital printing
- Flexibility for different details printing as like as names, addresses, codes, etc.
- The most novel technology we have today which is getting better by passing time
Both offset and digital printing are novel and handy methods. You should utilize them by discovering your need in the printing process. As we mentioned above each of these methods have their own merits. As a tip, if you require a large amount in a printing project, it is of high importance to use the offset. By using the offset method, you will also benefit from a much wider variety of custom papers and specialty inks, such as fluorescent inks in the offset process. On the other hand, if your project is small, nearly less than 100, digital printing is your solution.
Offset printing technology uses plates, which transfer the image onto a sheet of paper. They are widely used in large amount projects as like as marketing or commercial. The bigger the project, the less expensive it be.
