Modern printing: what is and its types

Polygraphy: what is hidden behind this beautiful word? They can be designated as a process, and a separate book, notebook or calendar. At its sources stood the first printer Ivan Fedorov. Probably, it can be called the founder of an entire branch of modern industry. With print media, we come across daily: newspapers, books, advertising booklets, cafe and restaurant menus and even personal passports refer to printing products.

Printed products

Everything printed and replicated by means of technical means is polygraphy. What are methods of printing? This is printing on offset or digital machines.

The cycle of printing polygraphy consists of technological stages:

• Creating a layout;
• prepress;
• printing;
• Post-print processing.

Both types of printing have pre-print preparation of the original layout, which is fundamentally different in its criteria. Post-print processing for both industries is the same.

Typographical offset cycle

The technology of polygraphy by offset means prescale preparation, consisting in the derivation of the matrix, on the basis of which the entire circulation is subsequently made. To get high-quality prints, you need to make color correction, color proofs, output films, which affects the total cost of the order, lengthen the production time and make it impossible to adjust the source when the printing process is already started. These are disadvantages of offset printing, but there are many more advantages.

Offset printing allows you to make the largest number of printed sheets, using one original layout. As the circulation increases, the cost per unit of the final product decreases. The quality of the offset depends on the class of machines on which the print is made, the paper to which the image is transferred, and the colors used in the production. The most high-quality and bright products are obtained on photo-offset machines. For the offset method, roll paper or format sheets are used, according to technological requirements.

Full cycle printing technology includes a multi-stage process - from creating a layout to packaging the finished product. Books, magazines, newspapers, booklets, leaflets with a circulation of more than 3000 pieces are mostly printed in offset, because this option is much more profitable than ordering digital printing.

Types of printing products:

• books;
• different types of packaging;
• newspapers;
• Catalogs;
• magazines;
• Notebooks;
• folders;
• Posters;
• posters;
• leaflets;
• Brochures;
• Forms;
• postcards;
• Calendars;
• smaller products.

Digital Printing

What does this phrase mean? The most affordable way to quickly get a small number of business cards or leaflets - print in the figure! The fastest way to get the right image. For digital printing, minimal preparatory work and additional materials are needed. The output of the image to the machine (plotter, printer, copier, risograph) occurs directly from the monitor screen.

With qualitative calibration of colors set by the printing press and on the screen of the monitor, color proofs are almost never needed, because the color on the screen fully corresponds to the color of the received image. It is always possible to make corrections to the text, change the color, shape of the layout, enlarge or reduce the image, set the number of copies from one to a thousand.

Digital Express

The digital method of replication is also called operational printing - you can get a copy of the image within one minute. Advantage of this type of printing is its visibility, control of each copy of the circulation, the opportunity to obtain exclusive products, correction in the printing process, the minimum number of copies for a low fee.

Digital printing is made on different types of media: fabric, paper and cardboard, self-adhesive film, glass, plastic, ceramic tiles. A universal machine for all types of printing does not exist, but the way of transferring to these materials is digital.

Types of polygraphy of digital production:

• business cards;
• leaflets;
• Brochures;
• postcards;
• folders;
• Calendars;
• Posters;
• posters;
• labels.

Post-print processing

The final technological cycle, which includes the process of formatting the final product. It consists of several steps necessary to give the final product a given shape and size. That is, the book must be collected, twisted and put in the cover, and the business card should get its size.

The main types of post-printing processing:

• cutting;
• Creasing;
• Folding;
• Stitching;
• cutting;
• Perforating;
• lacquering;
• selective UV varnishing;
• lamination.

Formats of polygraphy

For better production efficiency, standards have been introduced in the industry. Printing was not an exception. What is standardization in the printing industry? First of all, the approach to the paper formats on which the material is printed was streamlined. When ordering printed products, determine the size of the original layout in millimeters and adapt it to the available standard paper sizes on which the print run will be printed.

Each sheet size has its own name and corresponding size. For example, a sheet of standard printer paper has a size of 297 x 210 millimeters and a series of A4.