Understanding The Offset Printing Process

November 23rd, 2009 by Mike

Foreword By The Editor

The most popular form of distribution for newsletters nowadays is electronically, which is why most of the articles here are written from that point of view. However, we are still not quite at a stage of development where email and e-newsletters are totally dominant. Therefore, there is still a place in the scheme of things for transferring the written word and images to paper… and will be for some time yet. This article by Augusto Tan briefly outlines the most popular everyday printing process for small business purposes.
Mike Alexander
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Why Use Offset Printing?

: Image via Wikipedia

Most companies need a printing service on a regular basis, whether it is for marketing purposes or for internal communication. Therefore it is helpful to learn about the basic working of the commonly used printing process called offset printing.

Both users and printers like offset printing because of its cost effectiveness for the production of large numbers of prints. This is the reason good printing service providers recommend the use of offset printing for bulk prints.

Offset printing uses oil based ink, which does not mix with water. The offset printing process is so called because the designs are transferred indirectly from metal plates to the paper by means of rubber blankets as the medium.

The Offset Printing Process

The procedure begins with the development of the designs. Film negatives were employed in the past for making images and then copying them to aluminum based printing plates. But, a modern printing company would now develop the plates directly by using an image setting system. This plate is then put on a cylinder in the proper configuration. Water and ink, in that order, is spread on the image plates. While the ink gets stuck to the image, the water gets attached to that part of the plate where there is no image so that the ink does not spill beyond the image.

Finishing Up

After painting it with ink, the image is kept on a rubber blanket which is on a different cylinder, resulting in the image to be inverted. The image is then printed with its correct side looking up by cutting sheets of papers into the appropriate size and placing them on a third cylinder.

Printed sheets are stapled, glued, or arranged in any other manner as needed and the printing company delivers them after giving some finishing touches.

About The Author

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