How to understand the type of printing？

Printing technology is what graphic designers need to master essential content. The types of printing are offset printing,  Relief Printing, Intaglio Printing, stencil printing and digital printing.

1. The most widely used printing technology: offset printing

Planographic printing is offset printing.Offset printing uses the principle of immiscibility of water and oil to apply grease to the printed part while allowing the non-printed part to absorb proper water.When the ink is applied to the layout, the non-printed part will have an ink-resistant effect, and then pressed and printed on the paper.Because of the advantages of simple plate making, accurate color registration, low price, and easy production of large quantities of printed matter, offset printing is widely used in modern four-color printing.

2. Earliest Printing Process: Relief Printing

Relief Printing is to engrave the content to be printed, such as text or images, on wood, stone, copper, glue and other boards, remove the parts that do not need to be printed to make the printed content part stand out, and then print with ink and attached paper.

Relief Printing is the earliest printing technique.Although the ink is thick and colorful, it can be applied to any printing materials and can be used for curved surface printing.

However, due to the slow printing speed and low production efficiency, it has been gradually replaced by other printing methods.

3. Money is printed in Intaglio Printing

The Intaglio Printing is printed on the surface of the printing plate, the engraving is sunken, the ink fills the sunken part, and then the stamp is transferred to paper and other materials.Since the printing plate is concave, the ink of the printed product will have a raised feeling. Intaglio Printing has strong color expression, strong layout durability and good three-dimensional effect, and is usually used for securities and currency printing.

4. Stencil Printing

Stencil printing is through the extrusion of the scraper, so that the ink is transferred to the printed matter through the mesh of the graphic part to form the same graphic as the original.The advantage of stencil printing is that the ink is thick and colorful, it can be applied to any printing materials, and it can be printed on curved surfaces.The disadvantage is that the printing speed is slow and the production efficiency is low.

5. The solution for rapid proofing:digital direct printing

Digital printing refers to the method in which computer files are directly printed into final printed matter.It is usually printed on a laser or inkjet printer.The advantage of digital printing is that it does not require plate making, is flexible and fast, and the printing time is short.The disadvantage is that the ink adhesion is poor and the cost of mass printing is high.

As a designer, you should understand all types of printing.

Only in this way can the design be presented at its best.