1 Sep 2008
By Gerald Garrett
The next time you read a newspaper, browse through a magazine or even glance at brochures in the mail spare a thought and think about what it takes to print and publish such vast amounts of information and graphics. Offset printing is responsible for almost 40% of all printed material that you see around you.
It would be difficult to create a complete list of the applications of offset printing. If something needs to be printed, offset printing can do it. Here are some examples of the applications of offset printing to get you thinking on the entire scope of offset printing.
- Newspapers are probably the most visible example of offset printing that is a part of everyone’s life. Every morning you are greeted with an application of offset printing. It is to the credit of the speed of offset printing that such high volumes can be generated every single day.
- Books are another application of offset printing without which life would simply not be the same. Whether for education or entertainment, books are the life source of many a people and they have offset printing to thank for making books affordable.
- The law too has to thank offset printing for making the legal process more streamlined. Large volumes of legal forms and documents are printed using offset printing.
- Businessmen would be lost without offset printing. Important financial data is at their fingertips thanks to offset printing.
- The marketing and advertising industry would regress by centuries if it weren’t for offset printing. The entire direct marketing industry would perish. Offset printing is used for printing flyers, brochures, PR material and a host of other marketing applications.
Thus, offset printing affects every aspect of our lives – social, economical, educational, professional, legal and even our relationships! Hallmark just wouldn’t have the same effect without offset printing now would it?
Offset printing is the most commonly used printing method today. Over 40% of all print jobs are carried out using offset printing. Offset printing works in a simple manner. It uses three cylinders to transfer the image onto the substrate. The first cylinder is mounted with the printing plate. The image on the printing plate is ‘right’ reading or written with the right side up. The first cylinder is inked and the image transferred or offset onto the second cylinder, which is mounted with a rubber blanket. The image on the second cylinder is thus reversed or becomes ‘wrong’ reading. Finally the image is transferred from the blanket cylinder onto the third cylinder or the substrate. The substrate is mounted on the third cylinder also known as the impression cylinder. The image once again is reversed and becomes ‘right’ reading or right side up in the final printed version.
A unique characteristic of offset printing is that the image and non-image areas are on the same surface level. The printing method uses the chemical fact that oil and water do not mix to print from a single surface level. In fact, offset printing acquired this method from lithography and thus it is often referred to as litho offset printing as well.
Types Of Offset Presses
Offset presses are primarily of two types:
- Sheet-fed Offset Printing Press: In this kind of offset press the printing is carried out on single sheets of paper as they are fed to the press one at a time.
- Web-fed Offset Printing Press: In this kind of offset press the printing is carried out on a single, continuous sheet of paper fed from a large roll. The sheet is then cut into individual sheets of desired sizes.
There are many more differences between the various types of offset presses.
The Offset Printing Process
The offset printing process requires a fairly large investment in equipment and set up. However, once the infrastructure is in place, offset printing itself is relatively inexpensive. There are many things to know about the offset printing process from creating the artwork to operating the press and binding.
Applications Of Offset Printing
Offset printing invades every aspect of our lives from influencing education through the printing of books, periodicals and other reading material to the packaging industry by creative printing of packages for consumer goods. The many applications of offset printing would be difficult to put down but suffice to say that the world would be a much less fun place to live in without offset printing.
Thus, offset printing is the printing technique that has made newspapers possible, books affordable and marketing and promotion the weapons of the common man.
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