Comparison of five popular printing methods

Because the five kinds of printing methods are all different, they must meet the needs of printed materials and appropriate printing methods, and the printed products can receive the expected results.

First, trap printing

There are many characters, few photos and drawings, there are many opportunities for changing the text, and the number of printed products is not large—prints of hundreds or thousands of thousands should be printed in letterpress. The number of type printing should not exceed 30,000, and the fine picture electric version should not exceed 70,000. Printed paper must use powdered paper to get the perfect dot. So you can't use cheap paper to print your pictures and you want to get beautiful results. With the letterpress version of the letterpress form, the intersection of the lines is easily separated and disconnected, which is a common disadvantage. In addition, when the printing pressure is too high at the time of printing or the surface of the pressure cylinder is too soft, the back of the finished product sheet will have relief-like projections, which will greatly reduce the quality of the printed matter.

Second, Offset printing

The biggest difference between offset printing and letterpress printing is that the letterpress printing screen must use smooth-surfaced paper. Offset printing does not have this need, as long as the paper is not too rough. The screen printing effect is softer than the letterpress, and it is easy to print round dots. The resin or nylon version is another type of plate that is more wear-resistant than the above-mentioned ones. It can print up to one million times, which is the longest life in the printing plate. However, the method of using this kind of printing plate has been slightly different from the ordinary offset printing method, that is, without a wetting system, it is named "dry offset printing". Generally speaking, the more pictures in prints, the larger the area of ​​the picture, the more appropriate to use offset printing instead of using letterpress printing. As described above, the effect of printing pictures using offset printing is better than that of typography. In general color printing, four-color printing uses offset printing instead of letterpress printing.

Third, concave plate printing

Gravure printing is suitable for printing high-quality and valuable publications. Whether it is four-color or black and white pictures, gravure printing can be highly similar to photographic prints. As the plate-making fee is expensive and the quantity of printing must be large, Hong Kong is the least used of the five types of printing.

Fourth, screen printing

Because the screen printing ink is particularly thick, it is most appropriate to use special-effect prints. It is particularly suitable if the amount is small and the ink needs to be thick. It can also be used in the three-dimensional printing such as square boxes, boxes, round bottles, cans and so on. In addition to paper, printing can also be printed, fast, plywood, plastic sheet, metal sheet, glass, etc., is commonly used to print silk flags, T-shirts, tile boxes, soda bottles, circuit boards and so on. The above-mentioned various printing characteristics are all other printing methods cannot.

Fifth, offset printing

Adhesive printing is only suitable for printing plastic bags, hand pumping, and plastic packaging. The input printer for the printed sheets is not a single sheet but a roll, which is cut one by one after printing. The fineness of printed dots and lines is far lower than that of letterpress and offset printing. It can be seen that offset printing cannot be used to print book publications.

Reprinted from: Printed in China