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A Guide to the Offset Printing Process

Credits
Body Copy:
Introduction to the Offset Printing Process by PsPrint http://www.psprint.com/resources/printing-tips-and-techniques/ general/introduction-to-the-offset-printing-process.asp

Illustrations
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Katherine Simons Six-Color Printer: Tiger Press, http://www.tigerpress.com/printing. asp Open four-color sheet-fed printer: Paul Holzherr http:// paulholzherr.com/?page_id=286 Rollers: The Open Press, http://openpress.blog.com/ and POS Supply Solutions, http://blog.possupply.com/ Trimmer: Paper Machinery, http://www.paper-machinery.com/ company/Pramod_Engineering_Works/3-Knife_Trimmer_Machine/
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Photographic References

Die Cut M achine

About Us
Since 1990, PsPrint has provided better printing and service to nearly 500,000 small business marketers and graphic designers. PsPrint combines state-of-theart Internet capabilities and the industrys best printing equipment with experienced print professionals and color specialists to deliver convenient online ordering, consistent color matching and 99.7 percent on-time delivery. By offering a 100 percent customer satisfaction guarantee, PsPrint also stands behind every order, every time. More than 70 topquality and eco-friendly printed products and related mailing services are available online at www.PsPrint.com.
Four Color Press

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This is Chance.
So from the time the submit button is pushed to the time the print job is received it is processed, printed and cut, and passes through many different people along the way. Wow, there is much more to the printing process than I realized! Now that I know I can set up my files better for the next time.

He has just received the first set of business cards he designed and submitted online for printing. They look great and he is happy.
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As you can see, graphic design is just one part of a very complex printing process. Each step of the process has a specifically-designed benefit. Even though most offset printing presses work very much alike, the actual quality of your job depends on a number of factors, including your printers attention to detail and press maintenance,

the type of press its printed on, the quality of the ink and paper and even the quality of your design. If youre unsure about how to find a great printer, try an industryrecognized company such as PsPrint and make sure you ask plenty of questions to make sure your designs look great on paper every time.

But what happened after he hit the submit button?

Knowing the printing process from the point when the file is sent to when the printed product is received will help increase proficiency and efficiency as a designer.

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Prepress
Time is a wastin

Before your jobs get to the press, there are several things that must be done to make sure it will look its best. Busy printers have to balance a tight schedule, so they want to make sure that each project is properly prepared to avoid problems at the press.
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There are many types of binding including saddle stitch, perfect binding and case binding. Each have a different process to complete the project Once the project is printed, cut and bound and has had whatever special treatments it needs, it is packaged up and sent to the client.
Saddle Stitched Books are made by stapling the binding

Perfect Bound book is made by gluing and pressing the binding

Case Bound books are hard cover books made by glue and sewing the compnoents together

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Multipage publications will need trimming and binding. Most print shops have specialized machines which handle these jobs.
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If youre having your job printed on an offset printing press, your printer will first take your digital files and make film negatives of them. These negatives will then be used to create metal plates through a process thats similar to camera film development. If you have a four color (CMYK) design, there will be four plates one each for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Once the plates are made, your project is ready to be printed.
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So after I submitted my file, it went through a couple of processes which ensured they would be properly printed. The Printers check things like image resolution, traps, bleeds and other document settings. They ensure fonts will print and are the preferable format. Wow, that is a lot of work just getting my file ready to print.
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Depending on what you are printing, you might require finishing services such as binding and cutting. Business cards are often die cut to give them unique shapes; there is also laser cutting and trimming, although trimming is usually done last.

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Finishing
Once the job comes off the printing line it is not finished. There are still a few more steps to be taken. The print jobs will be checked and then sent on to the next phase where the final steps to completion are taken.

Printing
An offset press does a lot of things in a very short amount of time to properly execute high-quality printing. Sheet fed offset presses and offset web presses use similar processes, though web presses use huge rolls of paper for high-volume printing, while sheet-fed presses are just thatprinted sheet by sheetand are more suitable for short- or midrange runs (250 to 50,000).
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Below is a web-fed, six-color, offset press. There are sections for each CMYK, and for custom colors.

from coming into contact with the more abrasive paper surface, which would cause wear and tear on the plate during the print run.

How are the plates mad e?

They are made in a couple of ways; a computer can directly output to a plate or to photographic film. These processes are called computer to plate or computer to film. Alternatively a person can create the negatives from the file that they have received.. The plate is then exposed much like the process used to develop film.
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What are the metal plates made out of?

Generally, the plates used in offset printing are thin, and are mostly made of aluminum, though sometimes can be made of multimetal, paper or plastic.

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Why use the offset technique rather than just printing right onto the paper?
There are many reasons to use offset, first the rubber blanket responds to irregularities of surface so that it is possible to print on a wide variety of surfaces. This creates an even clearer print. Another reason for using a blanket is to prevent the delicate lithographic plate

This is a four-color, sheet-fed, offset presses. It has the tops cut away to show the many rollers used during the offset printing process.

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Ink Rollers Water Rollers Ink

Water

Paper

Regardless of the paper feed type, once it is loaded on the press it passes under a series of rollers, two of which work together to put the printed impression on the paper. Before that happens, ink and water are applied to the printing plate, which itself is mounted on a roller. The ink binds to the part of the plate that contains design elements; the water is applied to the white space portion of the paper. Oil is mixed with the ink to ensure that the ink and water repel each other and there is no smearing or blotchiness on the finished product.

The plate cylinder transfers, or offsets, the design onto a rubber blanket roller, which in turn transfers the design onto the paper. In fourcolor printing, this process

is repeated four times (once for each color) before the printing is complete and the job is ready for finishing. Often, the wet paper is run through an oven to dry.

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