.: What is Print?

First proper day back at College bright and early :D and the seminar starts.......

What is Print? - Its not what you think it is theres alot more to it, alot more technical bits and bobs!

Rotary Printing which is automated where the image printing plates are around a cylinder this can be either sheet fed or on a roll.

The three main types of Rotary Printing are: Offset Lithography, Rotogravue, and Flexography.

Ofset Litho - Have etched aluminium plates around the cylinder ink is then transfered to an 'offset' rubber blanket roller then to a print surface. There needs to be a correct balance of ink and water to make it work.

Rotogravue - Has copper plates with mirror image the ink gets transferred directly to the print surface this method is usually on rolls, the advantage of this method is that the plates are more durable and are good for long print runs.

Flexography - Has a mirror image rubber polymer plate, transfers 'sticky' ink to a print surface for example carrier bags, crisp packets, sweet wrappers etc.

There are other printing methods such as Digital Printing where it is translated through a digital code to a physical surface also Screen Printing a technique which is using a woven mesh to support an ink blocking stencil. Pad Printing which is a process that can only transfer a 2-D image onto a 3D object