Design for print - Print Processes - Offset Lithography

Lithographic printing is well suited for printing both text and illustrations in short to medium length runs of up to 1,000,000 impressions. Typical products printed with offset printing processes include:

• General commercial printing Quick printing
• Newspapers Books
• Business Forms Financial and Legal Documents
• Offset Lithographic Printing Process Overview

Lithography is an "offset" printing technique. Ink is not applied directly from the printing plate (or cylinder) to the substrate as it is in gravure, flexography and letterpress. Ink is applied to the printing plate to form the "image" (such as text or artwork to be printed) and then transferred or "offset to a rubber "blanket". The image on the blanket is then transferred to the substrate (typically paper or paperboard) to produce the printed product.

On sheet-fed presses, the substrate is fed into the press one sheet at a time at a very high speed. Web fed presses print on a continuous roll of substrate, or web, which is later cut to size. There is a total of 3 types of offset printing: non-heatset sheetfed, heatset, and non-heatset web offset. The difference between heatset and non-heatset is primarily dependent on the type of ink and how it is dried.

Offset lithographic printing services are commonly referred to as Process printing, CMYK printing, 4 color printing and full color printing. Over the last 50 years offset printing has been the leading color printing process. Our Heidelberg Offset printing presses have and impression cylinder as well as inking and dampening system. The digital file containing the image that is to be printed is digitally imaged onto an aluminum printing plate. The printing plate is mounted and then clamped onto the image carrier (plate cylinder).Using an intermediate rubber blanket cylinder to transfer the image from the image carrier to the substrate (paper). As the plate cylinder turns, the dampening rollers wet the plate so the non-printing areas repel ink. The inking rollers apply ink to the image area which is offset to the intermediate rubber blanket cylinder, and then offset to the paper as it passes between the blanket and impression cylinders, hence Offset printing short for Offset Lithographic Printing. The principal behind offset litho printing is that water and ink do not mix.   Offset printing is the most effective strategy for getting color printed materials produced with the highest quality in mind. Offset printing produces images that are sharper and cleaner than letterpress printing because it conforms to the printing surface, creating accurate pictures. In addition to higher quality print products, offset printing has several other benefits. On large orders, offset printing can help keep costs down - the more copies that are made, the lower the price per piece will be.   PrintingCenterUSA has both color offset printing and short run digital printing presses, enabling business owners to make the most cost-efficient decisions for their printing jobs without sacrificing quality. Our offset printing presses can create marketing materials that are both tremendously accurate and vibrant.