It is inevitable for businesses to not partake in the act of printing. From meeting minutes to billboard signs, printing has become a large part of communicating and achieving desired goals in around the industry.

The printing process is a straight forward concept to apply to anything. Printing is now not only done on newspapers, but also on T-shirts, mugs, and other household items. There are many different printing processes to consider, each with their own advantages. To understand how the printing process works, is to understand which process will be best suited to meet the needs and goals of the consumer.

Equipment used during the printing process

The equipment used during the printing process will differ in the type of printing that will be done. Usually there is some type of printing machine involved that makes for the actual printing, as well as certain specialized cartridges. The exception will, of course, be engraving, where an engraving machine and engraving components are used.

Different categories of printing

As already stated, different printing methods will deliver different results and advantages. Printing has been submerged into every sphere of our daily lives, that they can be grouped into four different categories. Firstly, commercial printing is responsible for a wide range of commercial products such as stationery, magazines, and brochures. Packaging printing focusses its methods on printing different kinds of packaging such as boxes, bags, or cans. Publication printing is the most common and this is the kind of printing that is used for printing newspapers, magazines, or books. Lastly, in-plants printing is the printing facility that forms part of a company and it only produces printing for its own employer.

Different types of printing

In these categories of printing one can then determine a wide range of printing types, where each one differs vastly from the other:

• Offset lithography: this is the most common printing process and can be divided into sheetfed and web offset. Sheetfed uses paper sheets as printing material, whereas web offset uses rolls of paper. During offset printing ink is transferred off the metal plates to a rubber cylinder and then onto paper. The type of offset printing you will use will depend on the product you would want printed.

• Letterpress: this type of printing is also often called ‘relief’ printing. This type of printing is done on a higher level than the product’s surface. A common product of letterpressing is rubber stamps.

• Gravure printing: this type of printing is usually used to print a mass of impressions, like newspapers, magazines, or brochures. It can also be used for upholstery printing or wallpaper printing.

• Engraving: this type of printing is used to print on steel. Steel dies are either cut or chemically etched to hold ink. Then paper is forced against the surface of the steel or the plate and by using very high pressure, it causes an embossed or raised impression.

• Digital printing: this is a fairly new form of printing where either ink-jet cartridges or toners are used. During digital printing a brand new image file is made from the digital file every time. This makes for efficient printing at a lower cost.

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