How Does Offset Printing Work

By Anita Tan

Most companies require 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 frequently used printing process called offset printing.

The customers and the printers like offset printing because of its cost effectiveness for printing of large number of prints. The customers giving big printing orders are recommended by the printers to choose offset printing because of this reason.

Offset printing uses oil based ink, which does not mix with water. Its name comes from the fact that in this process, images are not transported directly from the plates to the paper but this is done through rubber blankets as a medium.

The process begins by preparing the designs. Previously the images were prepared by creating film negatives and were then transferred to aluminum printing plates. However, a modern printing company would now prepare the plates directly by making use of an image setting system. This plate is then placed on a cylinder with the correct side up. Next, the water is spread on the image plates, which is followed by the ink. The ink is poured over the image and to prevent it from overflowing, a thin layer of water is put over the remaining part of the plate.

After painting it with ink, the image is put on a rubber blanket which is on a different cylinder, resulting in the image to be reversed. The image is now printed with its right side facing up by cutting sheets of papers into appropriate size and placing them on a third cylinder.

The final steps of the printing job involve things such as stapling, pasting or arranging the printed sheets according to the instructions of the client, and any printing company should easily manage these.

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