Facts Regarding Offset Printing Techniques

Author: reikopena | Posted: 02.04.2012

Offset printing is a printing technique where the inked image is transferred from a metal plate to an intermediary surface such as a rubber blanket and finally to the printing surface. This is a common printing technique used in a lot of print shops for producing superior quality documents in large volumes. As compared to other printing techniques, offset printing is more economical and cost effective and needs little maintenance, though; the set up cost is high.

A major benefit of offset printing is that the image can be transferred to various mediums other than paper like fabric, rubber, metal, wood, and even leather. Its common applications consist of magazines and newspapers, stationeries and books. There are two types of offset printing press:

• Sheet–fed offset printing press: In these presses, the printing is done on single sheet of paper.

• Web-fed offset printing press: In these presses, printing is done on a single, however, continuous sheet of paper.

Most modern offset presses utilize the technique of computer to plate rather than the old, conventional technique of computer to film, and this enhances the quality of printing. There are diverse advantages and disadvantages of offset printing services. The advantages are:

• the printing quality is high and the images are sharp, clean as well as clear.

• This printing method is extremely cheap and therefore, widely accepted.

• The ink amount or flow can be controlled as well as adjusted with screw keys.

Though, there are certain disadvantages as well:

• As compared to photogravure or rotogravure printing, the quality of image can be slightly second-rate.

• There are chances of the plates becoming sensitive because of chemical oxidation. It can lead to printing on non-image areas.

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