Frithpark Blog

Printers & Printing

By Nikole M - FRI 21 MAY 2010


There are many types of printing processes, especially with new and improved home printers available on the market today. Printing now includes lithography, gravure, screen printing, letterpress and flexography as well as inkjet printing and laser printing. Spot color printing is the process in which there are custom mixed inks used to create specific colors, and this is commonly used in package printing where large areas of the same color are used. When using process color printing, there are 4 inks used including yellow, black, magenta and cyan. These colors are the basics used in photography printing as well as personal home printers. Letterpress printing is the oldest form of printing, and began in the early 15th century. Ink was applied to raised areas of metal, which were cast in relief to make type forms. Then the raised areas were placed under pressure to paper to transfer the image on the forms. Flexographic printing is described as soft plates with very fluid inks onto nonporous materials like foils. All plates used to be made of rubber, and is still preferred when creating many copies of the same image on one cylinder. These plate molds made of rubber are made as impressions of original reliefs like engravings and then many plates are made for this purpose. This is the longest and most time consuming printing process due to the fact that so many plates must be created and then mounted onto a cylinder for printing to take place. Gravure uses ink transfer mechanisms different from most others. The printing surface is made up of a cylinder that has many small cells, each of which is to be an image to be printed. The cylinder is dipped into a fluid ink and then rotates. A doctor blade runs over the entire cylinder and wipes the ink from the surface so that ink is only left in the cells. The ink then moves to a paper web and is pressed against the cylinder under pressure to create an image. This type of printing is commonly used for black and gray images or multiple gray tones. Ink jet printers spray drops of ink onto a page to make images, while laser printers shine laser beams to make images on a drum. The drum rolls through toner and then the electrically charged drum picks up portions of the ink. LED printers use light sources to make an image on the drum much like laser printers. Dot matrix printers use pins and a ribbon to make letters and pictures on a page. Lastly, dye sublimation printers are mostly used by professionals in graphic arts to heat ink into a gas, and then the printer uses it much like inkjet printers.

Digital and Colour Offset Printing Comparison

By Nikole M - MONDAY 26 OCT 2009


Digital printing and colour offset printing have both become the direct inheritors of screen printing's previous popularity and dominance in the printing industry. Yes, screen printing supplies are still in circulation, and screen printing is hardly an obsolete printing process, but it has clearly been overtaken by both the colour offset printing and digital printing methods.

A standard office's printing supplies usually refer to that of the inkjet variety, while colour offset printing technology has become the approach of choice when it comes to publishing bulk order output. In any case, here's a brief yet comprehensive comparison between the two most popular printing technologies that companies can avail of at present.

Digital printing technology has several unique options that separate it from offset printers. For example, companies can rely on them to get on-demand printing services whenever or wherever it's needed. Do you need a hundred copies of application forms or test papers for your human resource department's use? Then digital printing technology is here to serve you. So long as your printing supplies are fully stocked, the digital printer will deliver everything that you need.

With digital printing, you can request any number of materials that you require while stipulating the exact date you need these prints done. What's more, your orders can be fully customised to your specifications as well. Whether you want your printout on long bond paper or short bond paper-or even other substrates like an artist canvas, glass, vinyl, and textile-a digital printer will accommodate your requests.

On the other hand, offset printing remains the king for instances where you need bulk orders or volume outputs regardless of whether they're for local newspapers or book publishing. The publishing industry still finds offset printing the best and most cost-effective solution out there for their everyday publishing needs.

Even though this traditional type of printing method doesn't offer the on-demand services that the digital printing process is famous for, once a production plate needed for your printing process has been created, volume orders can be easily finished and distributed without much hassle.

When it comes to a small number of prints, stick to the limited yet sufficient capabilities of the digital printer; in turn, when it comes to publication-level requests, nothing short of offset printing (and, to a lesser degree, screen printing) can be relied upon.