Printing

Almost every printed thing you touched today - the cereal packet, the bus ticket, the magazine, the plastic shopping bag, the label on a drinks can - was made by one of a small family of printing processes, each suited to a particular material, quantity and quality. A graphic-products designer who cannot tell offset lithography from screen printing, or flexography from digital, cannot make sensible decisions about cost and quality, because the process chosen sets the price, the surface it can print on and how many copies are economic.

This note covers the main commercial printing techniques used to manufacture graphic products: offset lithography, screen printing, flexography, gravure and digital printing, plus the school-level processes (relief and screen printing) you may use practically. For each you will learn how it works in simple terms, what it prints best, and the all-important question of which print run - short, medium or very long - makes it the economic choice.