Graphic Design: Printing Processes
- Created by: Lilly_B
- Created on: 27-04-15 18:09
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- Printing Processes
- Letterpressing, Block Printing, & Flexogoraphy
- Relief printing is a method in which inked wood, lino, or metal has paper pressed onto it to produce a print
- Letterpress - prints from a raised surface:
- The surface receives ink & is then pressed onto the paper
- This process is expansive as metal letters have to be individually made
- Letterpress is now only used for high-quality books & stationary, generally in short runs
- Block printing - the image is drawn onto lino, then the lino is cut away around the image so the image sits proud of the surface
- Ink is applied & then the paper is pressed onto the lino using a roller, so the image is transferred onto paper
- Flexography is similar to the letterpress process, but instead of using flat printer plate, it uses flexible rubber or plastic plates for cylnders
- The cylinders rotate to print onto paper, card, plastic, or metal
- Flexography is used for packaging, cartons, o point of sale material
- Gravure Printing & screen Printing
- Used when using high-quality prints in large volumes as it is very expensive to set up - used for production of photos, paintings, full-colour magazines, & books
- 1) Images are etched onto a plate through a screen - the image is broken down into dots
- 2) Ink fills the dot cells & excess ink is removed sing a 'doctor' blade
- 3) Rubber-covered cylinders press the paper into the cell holes to create a printed image - the deeper the holes, the darker the image
- Screen printing can print designs onto T-shirts, bags, banners, signs, shopping bags, posters, packaging, & flyers
- Simple stencils can be made & used to produce relatively cheap prints fast & efficiently
- More sophisticated commercial presses can produce thousands of copies per hour & produce a good thickness of ink on almost all surfaces
- Planographic Printing/ Offset Lithography
- Most common form is offset lithography which is mainly used for commercial printing
- The speed & cheapness of the process makes it the most widely used method
- Water & grease must not mix - the image attracts grease & rejects water & the areas that aren't being printed on rejects grease & attracts water
- They rely on a 4 colour process using cyan (a shade of blue), magenta (a shade of red), yellow, & black - known as CMYK (black is applied last as it creates a tone)
- Small machines often use disposable paper printing plates to print letterheads, business cards & leaflets, in one or two print copies of up to 5000 copies
- Most common form is offset lithography which is mainly used for commercial printing
- Dry Printing
- Used by photocopiers & laser printers in xerography
- Photocopiers are used to take copies, reduce, & enlarge images
- Letterpressing, Block Printing, & Flexogoraphy
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