Modern printing: what is and its types

Polygraphy:what is hiding 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

Offset printing technologypresupposes pre-press preparation, consisting in the derivation of the matrix, on the basis of which the entire print run is subsequently made. To obtain high-quality prints, it is necessary 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 do the mosta large 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 the technological requirements.

Full cycle printing technology includesa 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 givenprinting press and on the screen of the monitor, you almost never need color proofs, because the color on the screen fully corresponds to the color of the resulting 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 calledoperative printing - you can get a copy of the image within one minute. The advantage of this type of printing is its visibility, control over 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 typescarriers: cloth, 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, includingyourself process of formatting the final product. It consists of several stages 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 acquire its size.

The main types of post-printing processing:

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

Formats of polygraphy

For better production efficiency, inindustry introduced standards. Printing was not an exception. What is standardization in the printing industry? First of all, order the approach to the paper formats on which the material is printed. 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.

Paper size classification table

A series	the size, mm	B series	the size, mm	series C	the size, mm
A0	1189 x 841	B0	1000 x 1414	C0	1297 x 917
A1	841 x 594	IN 1	707 x 1000	C1	917 x 648
A2	594 x 420	AT 2	500 x 707	C2	648 x 458
A3	420 x297	AT 3	353 х500	C3	458 x 324
A4	297 x 210	AT 4	250 x 353	C4	324 x 2259
A5	210 x 148	AT 5	176 x 250	C5	229 x 162
A6	148 x 105	AT 6	125 x 176	C6	162 x 114
A7	105 x 74	AT 7	88 x 125	C7	114 x 81
A8	74 x 52	AT 8	88 x 62	C8	81 x 57

Each sheet size has its 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.