Printing Press Details

Offset Lithography

Advantages
Consistent high image quality. Offset printing produces sharp and clean images and type more easily than letterpress printing because the rubber blanket conforms to the texture of the printing surface.

Quick and easy production of printing plates.

Longer printing plate life than on direct litho presses because there is no direct contact between the plate and the printing surface. Properly developed plates running in conjunction with optimized inks and fountain solution may exceed run lengths of a million impressions.

The more you print, the less you pay per page, because most of the price goes into the preparation undergone before the first sheet of paper is printing and ready for distribution. Any additional paper print will only cost the client paper price (and ink), which is very minimal.


Web-fed litho

Info
"Web-fed" refers to the use of rolls (or "webs") of paper supplied to the printing press. Offset web printing is generally used for runs in excess of 10 or 20 thousand impressions. Typical examples of web printing include newspapers, newspaper inserts/ads, magazines, catalogs, and books.

Web-fed presses are divided into two general classes: "Cold" or "Non-Heatset," and "Heatset".

Heatset offset web presses utilize drying lamps or heaters to cure or "set" the inks. Heatset presses can print on both coated (slick) and uncoated papers, while coldset presses are restricted to uncoated paper stock, such as newsprint.

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Offset printing is the most common form of high-volume commercial printing, due to advantages in quality and efficiency in high-volume jobs. Many modern offset presses are using computer to plate systems as opposed to the older computer to film workflows, which further increases their quality.

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Computer to Plate

Advantages
In CTP, one generation (transfer of film image to the printing plate) is removed from the printing process, increasing sharpness and detail.

Plates are produced in less time, are more consistent, and at a lower cost.

CTP can also improve registration and image-to-edge repeatability over traditional methods.

CTP, the media is registered (held in precise position) in the platesetter during imaging, and does not rely on a separately-aligned pin grid, as is the case with film. Defects due to dust, scratches or other artifacts are minimized.

CTP systems can significantly increase print shop productivity. The fastest platesetters can output more than 120 12-inch plates per hour, punched and ready to hang on the press.