3. Beginner’s Guide to Printing: At Press

3. Beginner’s Guide to Printing: At Press

Digital Printing: Digital printing is useful for making short-runs of a product. For small quantities an image can be transferred. Just link your ink-jet or laser printer at home, these print quickly and without the need to change plates like other kinds of printing. The quality of the image may not be as precise as when using offset printing. The benefit of digital printing is the ability to print full color products in smaller quantities and with a short turn around time.

Offset Printing: This printing technique is one of the most inexpensive ways to make high quality commercial printed products. Offset printing is when ink is transferred from a plate to rubber rollers and then it is continuously rolled onto the paper product. This style of printing is used for larger quantities of printed products and is more consistently great in quality than other printing forms. This type of printing is typically used for brochures, magazines, post cards and many other full color products.

Crash Printing: This is a similar technique to a printing press. It is a way to make impressions onto a product with multiple copies so the ink prints on the first page and is transferred to the NCR paper behind it. This is commonly used to add a logo and company information to business forms, checks, and envelopes.