Printing Process

Printing Process

1. Screen Printing

   • How it works
     • A screen is made from a piece of porous, finely woven fabric (polyester/ nylon) streched over a wooden of aluminium frame.
     • A stencil is used which blocks off areas of the screen with a non-permeable material.
     • Stencil is a negative of the image to be printed, so the open spaces are where the ink wil appear.
   • Advantages
     • Stencils are easy to produce using Photo-emulsion technique.
     • Versatile- can print on virtually any surface
     • Economic for short, hand-produced runs.
   • Disadvantages
     • Difficult to achieve fine details (photographic screens able to produce fine detail)
     • Prints require long drying time.
   • Materials used
     • Paper
     • Boards
     • Cardboard
     • Plastic
     • Rubber
     • Metal
     • Ceramic
     • Glass
     • Fabrics
   • Used for...
     • T-Shirts
     • Posters
     • Metal Signage
     • Point-of- Sale displays

2. Digital Printing (think of laser printing)

   • How it works
     • Use laser guided electrostatic energy to transfer tone powder obnto paper in the form of text and images.
   • Advantages
     • Excellent visual quality of prints.
     • Very cost effective for up to 1000 prints as no plates are required.
     • Set up costs are very low.
   • Disadvantages
     • Unit costs are high
   • Materials used
     • Paper
     • Boards
   • Used for...
     • Books
     • Lables
     • Brochures

3. Letterpress

   • How it works
     • Is a relief printing process. Ink is applied to the surface of the reversed, raised type
     • The type is pressed onto the paper to reproduce the positive image.
   • Advantages
     • Tooling costs are low- especially if blocks are reused.
   • Disadvantages
     • Labour costs are high due o level of craftsmanship required.
   • Materials used
     • Paper
     • Boards
   • Used for...
     • Low volume production of books
     • Posters
     • Packaging labels
     • Flyers
     • Invitaions

4. Offset Lithography

   • How it works
     • Works on the principle that oil and water do not mix, but repel each other.

5. Offset Lithography

   • How it works
     • Works on the principle that oil and water do not mix, but reple each other.
   • Advantages
     • Inexpensive printing process
     • Can print on a wide range of papers
     • High printing speed
   • Disadvantages
     • Can only be used on flat material
     • Colour variation due to water/ink mixture
     • Set-up cost make it uneconmic on short runs
     • Only suitable for mass production
   • Materials used
     • sheet materials (paper, card, board and metal)
   • Used for...
     • Posters
     • Books
     • Newspapers
     • Packaging
     • Credit Cards
     • Decorated CDs

6. Flexogrphy

   • How it works
     • Uses a relief-type printing plate with raised images; only raised images come into contact with the paper during printing
   • Advantages
     • High speed- printing process
     • Relatively expensive
     • Fast-drying inks
   • Disadvantages
     • Set-up cost high so would rarely be used on print runs below 500,000
     • Difficult to reproduce final detail
     • Colour may not be consistent
   • Materials Used
     • Sheet&Rolls of paper
     • Card
     • Plastic
     • Corrugated card
     • Glass
     • Metal
     • Metalized films
   • Used for...
     • CartonBoard containers
     • Plastic Bags
     • Chocolate Bar wrappers

7. Gravure

   • How it works
     • Image is engraved onto a copper-plate cylinder.
     • Uses a rotary printing press
   • Advantages
     • High Speed printing process
     • Good quality results on low quality paper
     • Consistent colour reproduction
   • Disadvantages
     • High cost of engraved printing plates and cyclinders
     • Only efficient for long print runs
     • Very expensive set-up costs
   • Materials Used
     • Rolls of paper
     • Plastic Packaging (Polyethylene PP, Polyethylene PE, Polythylene terephthalate PET)
   • Used for...
     • High quality art books
     • Postage Stamps
     • Packaging
     • Expensive Magazines