digital offset printing?
Out of context: Reply #17
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- Scotch_Roman0
OK here's the deal. This has been discussed here many times before, by the way.
Offset printing by definition uses plates which are then inked—and through a blanket which acts as a sort of filter and transfer device—make an impression on paper. Thus the name offset, which means setting off the ink through a transfer device. Lithography is another term for the same thing (sometimes called offset lithography). Offset printing is done using either web (large rolls of paper) or sheetfed (pre-cut sheets fed one at a time) presses, but the ink transfer system is essentially the same. Most sizable print companies have both web and sheetfed presses. Web presses are most often used for high-quantity catalogs and magazines, etc.; sheetfed presses tend to run smaller quantity jobs, such as stationery, annual reports, folders, and almost any job run on cover weights.
The original offset presses, which are becoming increasingly rare, used photographic images which were taken of the artwork; the film, when developed, is burned using light and chemicals (much like a photographic print) onto the printing plate.
Digital offset presses cut out the photo/film step entirely. The art is directly imaged from a computer onto the plate. Everything else from that point until the finished printed piece is basically the same as old-fashioned offset printing.
Digital printing, whether it's done with an Epson, Xerox, HP Indigo or Nexpress, does not use plates of any sort. All of them use CMYK cartridges of one kind or another with direct imaging. Indigo presses are unique in that they use CMYK + GO (green and orange) for six-color process simulation. A good Indigo press can come very close in quality to a six-color (hex) offset print job.
Case closed.
- great info, thank you! for the record, i did extensive searches here and could'nt find thisleftwave
- NP. Check your mail.Scotch_Roman