Offset Printing

CEC-UGE-NME-ICT PROJECT 2017

Offset Printing
(Academic Script)

UNDERSTANDING OF TECHNIQUES AND EQUIPMENTS,

PROCESSING AND MAKING MONOCHROME PRINTS [PART-2]

Introduction

Anchor: Hi all! My greetings to everyone and here I am to talk to you

regarding sessions of learning in art history. So, the subject of today’s
session is offset printing, understanding of techniques and equipment’s,
processing and making monochrome prints and the proficient is Ms.
Shrishti Jha, freelancer content writer.

OFFSET PRINTING
So, let us begin our session with a description of what actually an offset
painting is all about. So, an offset painting is commonly used a printing
technique in which the inked image is transferred from a plate to a rubber
blanket, then to the printing surface. Now, we need to understand how
offset technique is used in the combination with the lithographic process,
which is based on the repulsion of oil and water, so this printing technique
basically employs a flat (planography) image carrier on which the image is
to be printed, thus obtains ink from ink rollers, while the non-printing area
attracts a water-based film (called "fountain solution"), keeping the non-
printing areas ink-free. Now, the development of offset press came in two
versions: in 1875 by Robert Barclay of England for printing on tin, and in
1904 by Ira Washington Rubel of the United States for printing on paper.
Thus, it is a commonly used printing technique in which the inked image is
 Offset Printing
CEC-UGE-NME-ICT PROJECT 2017

transferred (or “offset”) from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the

printing surface.

HISTORY

So, the offset lithographic printing press marked its creation in

England being patented in 1875 by Robert Barclay, because initially
lithography process was proved to be an inexpensive method of
reproducing artwork. This printing process was limited to use on flat,
porous surfaces because the printing plates were produced from limestone
and with this drawback lithographic printing made its invention. This
development combined mid-19th century transfer printing technologies
and Richard March Hoe's 1843 rotary printing press—a press that used a
metal cylinder instead of a flat stone. The offset cylinder was covered with
specially treated cardboard that transferred the printed image from the
stone to the surface of the metal. Later, the cardboard covering of the offset
cylinder was changed to rubber, which is still the most commonly used
material.

MODERN OFFSET PRINTING

Modern offset printing is the most common ways of creating printed

materials. A few of its common applications include: newspapers,
magazines, brochures, stationery, and books. One of the most
important functions in the printing process is prepress production.
This stage makes sure that all files are correctly processed in
preparation for printing. This includes converting to the proper CMYK
color model, finalizing the files, and creating plates for each color of
the job to be run on the press. Compared to other printing methods,
offset printing is best suited for economically producing large volumes
of high quality prints in a manner that requires little
maintenance.[7] Many modern offset presses use computer-to-
plate systems as opposed to the older computer-to-film work flows,
which further increases their quality.

Now, we can look at some of its advantages which include:

 Offset Printing
CEC-UGE-NME-ICT PROJECT 2017

1. Offset printing is the cheapest method for producing high quality

prints in commercial printing quantities. Thus, gives a high
image quality.
2. This printing is quick and gives easy production of printing
plates.
3. It does not compromises in giving high image quality. Offset
printing also produces sharp and clean images and it types more
easily, for example, letterpress printing; this is because the
rubber blanket conforms to the texture of the printing surface.
4. Moreover, life of the printing plate is longer on direct litho
presses because there is no direct contact between the plate and
the printing surface. Properly developed plates used with
optimized inks and fountain solution may achieve run lengths of
more than a million impressions.
5. The unit cost goes down as the quantity goes up.
6. Offset printing is often the best option when large volumes of
images need to be printed, and the color reproduction must be
crisp, accurate, clean, and an all-around professional-grade
photo. This method is typically used with books, brochures,
magazines, newspapers, and stationery.
TECNIQUES OF OFFSET PRINTING:
Basically while talking about the techniques of offset printing, we need
to have a glance upon the connection which it has with a special ink
because offset printing, as a development of lithography, is based on the
principle that water and grease do not mix, so that a greasy ink can be
deposited on grease-treated printing areas of the plate, while
nonprinting areas, which hold water, reject the ink. The offset plate is
usually made of zinc or aluminium or a combination of metals, with the
surface treated to render it porous and then coated with a
photosensitive material. Generally, exposure to an image hardens the
coating onprinting areas so, the coating on nonprinting areas is
washed away, leaving wetted metal that rejects the ink. In offset
printing the matter to be printed is neither raised above the surface
of the printing plate (as in letterpress) nor sunk below it (as
in intaglio, or gravure, printing). Instead, it is flush with the surface
 Offset Printing
CEC-UGE-NME-ICT PROJECT 2017

of the plate; thus offset is classified as a planographic method of

printing.

 In addition to this, we can also understand the concept of

techniques involved in another way, as generally full name of the
offset printing process is offset lithography. So, lithography is a
printing process in which the image area and the non-image area
co-exist on the same plane. That means the surface from which
you print is completely flat. This is feasible because of a very
useful chemical principle: offset printing ink is an oily substance,
which means it repels water. If you can create a surface on which
some parts contain a thin layer of water, those areas will repel
ink. The image areas need be lipophilic (or oleophilic) – they
accept ink – while the non-printing areas need to be hydrophilic
– they are repellent to oil and receptive to water.
 Moreover, offset refers to the fact that the image is not
transferred from a lithographic printing plate to a sheet of paper.
Instead the inked image is transferred (or offset) from the
printing surface to a rubber blanket and then to the printing
surface. The process can be used to print on paper, cardboard,
plastic or other materials, but these have to have a flat surface.

Now, for further deep understanding we can have a look at what is

its anatomy or the equipment’s used.

EQUIPMENT’S OR THE ANATOMY OF AN OFFSET PRINTING

PRESS:
So, an offset press consist of the following components:
1. The plate, blanket and impression cylinders:
The plate cylinder is a large roll to which the printing plate is
attached. The plate is usually made from aluminum. Its non-
imaging parts are basically covered by a thin layer of water that
is applied by the dampening system. This means the ink which is
fed by the inking system will only adhere on all the other areas.
During printing this image created by ink is transferred to a
 Offset Printing
CEC-UGE-NME-ICT PROJECT 2017

rubber blanket that is attached to the blanket cylinder. From

there is the image is transferred to the press sheet.
An impression cylinder carries the paper through the printing
unit and provides a hard backing against which the blanket can
impress the image on the paper. Not all presses use impression
cylinders: there are for example perfecting presses that print
blanket-to-blanket: the impression cylinder isreplaced by a second
blanket cylinder, printing both sides of the press sheet simultaneously
in a single printing unit.

2. The dampening system

The dampening system makes sure the non-image areas of the
printing plate are moistened so that they will repel ink. This is
mainly done using water, but additives are needed for long print
runs to improve the ink repellences, lower the surface tension,
desensitize the non-image plate regions and make sure
corrosion, mildew, bacteria, and fungi don’t cause issues. The
dampening system is, however, less complicated and requires
fewer rollers.

3. The inking system

The ink fountain is a reservoir that holds ink. Offset ink is not a
fluid ink, it looks more like a kind of thick paste. From the ink
fountain this ink needs to be transferred to the printing plate or
cylinder. From there that ink will be transferred to the paper or
another substrate. The inking system is responsible for this
transfer. This is done using a set of rollers. The amount of ink is
usually controlled by so-called fountain keys that control the
gap between the ink fountain and the first roller. The wider
open this gap is, the more ink can be picked up by the roller. The
inking system assures that a thin layer of ink that is typically 0.2
to 0.4 mils thick is transferred to the printing plate.

PROCESING OF OFFSET PRINTING:

 Offset Printing
CEC-UGE-NME-ICT PROJECT 2017

A printing process describes the method adopted by a system to

transfer the image on to a substrate (material). This also means
that a printing system will have a medium that carries the image
in the first place before it enables the process of reproduction.
Getting this printing surface prepared is dependent on the
printing process. Over the years, many different ways of putting
ink on paper developed and these evolved to be the printing
processes. The mechanics adopted under different systems are
so different that they cater to specific applications in the market.
For a long time the printing industry recognized five major
processes.

Which were:
• Relief printing (letterpress, flexography)
• Planographic printing (offset lithography)
• Plate, blanket and impression cylinders
• Stencil printing (screen)
• Digital printing (toner and inkjet)

RELIEF PRINTING
Relief printing was the earliest form of printing and remained
dominant for a very long time. The movable type of the hot metal
era were all used with letterpress. This printing process takes its
name from the manner in which the process was employed,
primarily for type, and later engravings. Now, as the name of the
process says, the image areas are in relief and the non-image
areas are in recess. On application of ink, the relief areas are
coated with a film of ink and the non-image areas are not. With
pressure over the substrate to bring it in contact with the image
area, the image is then transferred to the substrate. If you can
picture how a rubber stamp transfers ink to paper, then you
understand the principle of letterpress and flexography.
 Offset Printing
CEC-UGE-NME-ICT PROJECT 2017

Relief printing in other ways is a process where protruding

surface faces of the printing plate or block are inked; recessed
areas are ink free. Printing the image is therefore a relatively
simple matter of inking the face of the matrix and bringing it in
firm contact with the paper. A printing-press may not be needed
as the back of the paper can be rubbed or pressed by hand with a
simple tool such as a brayer or roller.
The matrix in relief printing is classically created by starting
with a flat original surface, and then removing (e.g., by carving)
away areas intended to print white. The remaining areas of the
original surface receive the ink.
The relief family of techniques includes woodcut, metal
cut, wood engraving, relief etching, linocut, rubber stamp, foam
printing, potato printing, and some types of collagraph.
Now, a letterpress printed product can be identified by the
indentation that it creates in the paper. This is due to the
mechanical pressure applied to the paper. In spite of this,
letterpress produces images that are sharp and clean. It is a
direct printing process, which means that ink is transferred
directly from the printing surface to the substrate. Letterpress is
still used to some extent for embossing, imprinting, and special-
purpose reproduction.

PLANOGRAPHIC PRINTING:
Lithography is the most dominant of the printing processes. It
accounts for over 60% of the printing market. When people refer
to printing, especially color printing, they usually think of
lithography. As mentioned in our first chapter, lithography was
invented by AloisSenefelder. Lithography is a chemical process
and almost opposite to that of letterpress which is more of a
mechanical process. Lithography works on the principle that oil
and water do not mix. A lithographic plate is treated in such a
way that the image areas on the plate are sensitized and as such
 Offset Printing
CEC-UGE-NME-ICT PROJECT 2017

are oleophilic (oil-loving); and the non-image areas are treated

to be ink repelling or oleophobic. During the press run, the plate
is charged twice; first by a set of dampening rollers that apply a
coat of dampening solution and second by a coat of the inking
rollers. During this process the image areas have been charged
to accept ink and repel water during the dampening. The same
happens to the non-image areas that start repelling ink as they
are coated with water.

The lithographic process operates with three basic cylinders.

They are the plate cylinder, the blanket cylinder, and the
impression cylinder. All these are plain heavy metal cylinders.
The plate cylinder has the printing plate wound around it. This
plate is the carrier of the image that needs to be printed. In other
words, it is the equivalent of the types and blocks of letterpress.
The blanket cylinder has a rubber blanket wound around it. This
facilitates the transfer of the image from the plate to the blanket,
and thereupon to the paper (or other substrates), when the
substrate is passed between the blanket and the impression
cylinder. The blanketprovides the required resiliency to
compensate for the unevenness of the substrate used. This is an
advantage for the process, as even poorer quality stock can be
used in offset printing. The impression cylinder is just a bare
cylinder that acts to provide the necessary pressure to impress
the image from blanket to the substrate. Pressure settings are
varied between the impression cylinder and blanket cylinder
when stocks of varying thickness are used.

STENCIL PRINTING:
This is a process that is used by many artisans for short-run jobs.
It is such a less expensive process that many screen printing
units are operated out of garages. But that does not mean that
 Offset Printing
CEC-UGE-NME-ICT PROJECT 2017

screen printing cannot offer good quality printing. It is a pretty

simple process to understand and operate. Basically if you have
seen how printing is done from a stencil, then you have probably
seen the process of screen printing. The process is pretty much
photographic in the image creation stage and it is mostly manual
at the printing stage. The image that needs to be printed is first
captured on a photographic material, a positive usually. A silk
screen is stretched tightly by hinging around a wooden frame.
The process derives its name from this silk screen, which was
used as the image carrier. The positive image is then transferred
to the screen and developed.
The screen is laid over the substrate that is to be printed and ink
is poured on the frame over the screen. The ink is then wiped
across the surface of the screen using a device called a squeeze.
A squeeze is a wooden device that has a rubber blade. It
facilitates the smooth flow of ink over the screen. Since the
screen is porous in nature, the ink flows through it. Because the
image areas are porous, they allow ink to flow through them.

DIGITAL PRINTING:
Digital printing refers to a method of printing from a digital-
based image directly to a variety of media. It usually refers to
professional printing where small-run jobs from desktop
publishing and other digital sources are printed using large-
format and/or high-volume laser or inkjet printers. Digital
printing has a higher cost per page than more traditional offset
printing methods, but this price is usually offset by avoiding the
cost of all the technical steps required to make printing plates. It
also allows for on-demand printing, short turnaround time, and
even a modification of the image (variable data) used for each
impression. The savings in labor and the ever-increasing
capability of digital presses means that digital printing is
 Offset Printing
CEC-UGE-NME-ICT PROJECT 2017

reaching the point where it can match or supersede offset

printing technology's ability to produce larger print runs of
several thousand sheets at a low price.
Now, we shall look at its advantages which are:

1. Digital label printing doesn’t require plates which means you

don’t have to pay for a printing plate for each color on the
label. No plates also means a shorter setup time so your labels
are printed faster – and you receive your labels sooner.
2. No plates and less press setup time means the costs for
digital label printing are relatively low for short run labels as
compared to flexographic labels.
3. When it comes to product labels, vibrant high-quality
graphics grab the most attention. Our HP Indigo digital
presses print at a resolution of almost double that of
traditional flexographic label so your labels end up with crisp,
clear images and life-like colours.
4. In order to be competitive, you should regularly examine
whether your design works or not for attracting your target
audience. The cost of printing new label designs on a
flexographic press can be hurt your bottom line due to plate
charges and setup fees. If you have multiple product label
designs, costs can add up even quicker. With digital printing,
there are no plate or setup fees, so we can start printing your
labels right away.
5. This cost benefit is maximized for relatively small quantities
of custom labels or short run labels which is another
advantage of digital printing: you can order only the amount
of labels you need right now, rather than ordering labels in
bulk simply to get the best price.

MONOCHROME PRINTING:
The definition of monochrome is something that is all one colour
or done in black and white. When you don't want to use your
 Offset Printing
CEC-UGE-NME-ICT PROJECT 2017

colour ink so you print on your computer using grayscale and

the picture comes out in shades of black, white and grey, this is
an example of printing in a monochrome style.
Monochrome describes paintings, drawings, design, or
photographs in one colour or values of one colour. A
monochromatic object or image reflects colours in shades of
limited colours or hues. Images using only shades of grey (with
or without black or white) are called grayscale or black-and-
white. However, scientifically speaking, monochromatic
light refers to visible light of a narrow band of wavelengths.

Now, we shall look at some of its advantages which makes it

unique from colour printing.
1. By going with a monochrome print, you can solve your
printing needs without breaking the bank. This way, you can
focus on your work, rather than trying to pay off unnecessary
equipment. So, the cost occurred is less as compared to colour
printing.
2. Monochrome prints completes printing projects quickly and
efficiently. Thus, high-volume jobs are a piece of cake with
monochrome laser printers, because they are as reliable as
they are speedy.
3. Monochrome printing helps the environment by using fewer
consumables, such as toner cartridges, so that your conscious
is more at ease every time you hit the print button.
Application of a monochrome printing for an image can be taken
to mean the same as black and white or, more likely, grayscale,
but may also be used to refer to other combinations containing
only tones of a single colour, such as green-and-white or green-
and-black. It may also refer to sepia displaying tones from light
tan to dark brown or cyanotype (“blueprint”) images, and early
photographic methods such as daguerreotypes, ambrotypes,
and tintypes, each of which may be used to produce a
 Offset Printing
CEC-UGE-NME-ICT PROJECT 2017

monochromatic image. Also, while talking about computing,

monochrome has a different meaning which states that it may
mean having only one colour which is either on or off (also
known as a binary image),allowing shades of that colour.

 A monochrome computer display is able to display only a single

colour, often green, amber, red or white, and often also shades of
that colour.
 While talking about a film photography, monochrome is typically
the use of black-and-white film. Originally, all photography was
done in monochrome. Although colour photography was
possible even in the late 1800s, easily-used colour films, such
as Kodachrome, were not available until the mid-1930s.
 In digital photography, monochrome is the capture of only
shades of black by the sensor, or by post-processing a colour
image to present only the perceived brightness by combining the
values of multiple channels (usually red, blue, and green). The
weighting of an individual channel may be selected to achieve a
desired artistic effect; if only the red channel is selected by the
weighting then the effect will be similar to that of using a red
filter on panchromatic film. If the red channel is eliminated and
the green and blue combined then the effect will be similar to
that of orthochromatic film or the use of a cyan filter on
panchromatic film. The selection of weighting thus allows a wide
range of artistic expression in the final monochromatic image.
For production of an anaglyph image the original
colour stereogram source may first be reduced to monochrome
in order to simplify the rendering of the image. This is
sometimes required in cases where a colour image would render
in a confusing manner given the colours and patterns present in
the source image and the selection filters used (typically red and
its complement, cyan).

HOW TO MAKE A GREAT BLACK AND WHITE PRINT

It may seem like magic, but the steps to making a great black and
white print are simple and methodical. This paragraph will provide a
 Offset Printing
CEC-UGE-NME-ICT PROJECT 2017

step-by-step guide to paper processing, for both Fibber and RC prints,

as well as some helpful hints for a guidance.
Rules of Thumb
All processing times listed are for chemicals kept at about 68 ° F. This
is especially important for developer and fixer. If you are using a
graded paper, print contrast can be somewhat manipulated by varying
your developer dilution. For the majority of developers, increasing the
dilution results in lower contrast, while decreasing the dilution results
in higher contrast. Do not change your developing time when
changing dilutions. You should always experiment with test strips for
the best results.
PROCESSING PRINTS
Developing
First, start your timer. Then, slide your print face up into the
developer in one smooth motion, ensuring that the entire surface of
the print is submersed. The print needs a constant supply of fresh
developer, so agitate by gently rocking the developing tray. Some
printers like to grab the print with tongs, flipping it over and over. The
important thing is to keep things moving, and to keep the print
covered with developer. If the print is properly exposed, an image will
appear on the face of the print after about 15 seconds. At first it will be
very light, but it will grow steadily darker. Do not get excited and pull
the print out when it "looks ready." Develop the print for one and 1/2
minutes, no matter what it looks like.
Fixing the Print
Lift the print out with the stop bath tongs, let it drain for ten seconds,
and then place it into the tray of fixer. Agitate the tray gently, in the
same way you agitated while in the developer. Fixer removes the light
sensitive silver from the print, making it safe to take out into the light.
It usually takes about 5 minutes in standard fixer to fully remove the
residual silver. Always check your specific brand of fixer for
instructions. If you are making a final print, fix for the recommended
number of minutes to ensure long-term durability.
 Offset Printing
CEC-UGE-NME-ICT PROJECT 2017

Drying the Print:

Drying a fibre print is a little bit different than drying an RC print
because fibber paper takes longer to dry, and tends to curl during the
drying process.

So, this brings the end to the detailed concepts of offset printing, its
technique and its processing’s.