Printing Processes Including commercial digital printing KS4 Graphics

Photocopying  Used for general things such as documents, handouts & posters Advantages:  Widely available  Good colour reproduction (especially digital)  Automatic collation and stapling of documents  Can easily print double-sided  Relatively low cost per copy (batch) and no set up costs  High printing speeds

Photocopying  Disadvantages:  Not cost effective for long print runs  Poor reproduction quality when toner is running low  Image fades over time

Offset lithography Advantages:  Good reproduction quality especially for photos  Inexpensive printing process (medium to high volume)  Can print on a wide range of papers  High printing speeds  Widely available  Used for business stationery, brochures, posters, magazines, newspapers

Off-set lithography  Disadvantages:  Colour variation due to water/ink mix  Paper can stretch because it gets wet  Set-up costs expensive so no good for short runs  Can only use flat materials  Needs a good quality surface

Flexography  Used for packaging, less expensive magazines, paperbacks, newspapers  Advantages:  High-speed printing process  Fast drying inks  Relatively inexpensive to set up for high volume production

Flexography  Disadvantages:  Difficult to reproduce fine detail  Colour may not be consistent  Set-up costs high so would rarely be used on print runs below 500,000

Gravure  Used for high-quality art and photographic books, postage stamps, packaging, expensive magazines  Advantages:  Consistent colour production  High-speed printing process  Widest printing presses  Ink dries on evaporation  Variety of in-line finishing operations available  Good results on lower-quality paper

Gravure  Disadvantages:  High cost of engraved printing plates and cylinders  Only efficient for long print runs  Image printed as ‘dot’s which are visible to the naked eye  Very expensive set-up cost – so only large print runs

Screen-printing  Used for t-shirts, posters, plastic and metal signage, point of sale displays, promotional items such as pens, glasses, mugs etc.  Advantages:  Stencils easy to produce using photo- emulsion technique  Versatile – can print on virtually any surface  Economical for short, hand-produced runs  Fully automatic methods capable of producing large volumes

Screen printing  Disadvantages:  Generally difficult to achieve fine detail (but photographic screens able to reproduce fine detail)  Print requires long drying times

Commercial digital printing  Uses electronic files to print rather than traditional printing plates  Less initial set up so useful for rapid prototyping and cost effective for small print runs  Can customise mass-produced documents easily, i.e. print 10,000 unique documents with customised messages for each customer.

Commercial digital printing  Print on demand (POD)  Small amounts of printing – good for companies who constantly update their brochures.  Large-format digital printing can produce large banners and posters for promotions  POD can also be used for short print runs of books

Commercial digital printing  Variable data printing (VDP)  Customised and personalised type of digital printing  Uses databases containing specific consumer information – i.e. name and addresses  Makes mail less general which consumers appreciate

Commercial digital printing  Web-to-print  Allows for direct mail pieces to be customised and personalised on-line.  Customers choose images and photographs and add personalised text such as greeting card  A proof is shown online and with one click the piece is sent to the printer  Extremely fast turn around

Commercial digital printing  It differs from lithography, flexography and gravure  Every print can be different because printing plates are not required  Less wasted paper and printing ink because no need to bring the printed image ‘up to colour’ and check for registration and position  Ink or toner doesn’t soak into the paper as with normal printing inks but forms a thin layer on the surface, therefore drying quickly  For a higher-quality printed product, traditional processes still used