Back in old days, there were not too many types of paper printing techniques, so there wasn’t much scope of creativity in the field. But with technological advancement, print media has been revolutionized with amazing ways of printing. Thus, in a short period of time, books and other publications can be printed in huge bulks in styles most suitable for the purpose.
From simpler types to paper printing to more complex ones, today a person has a much wider array of printing techniques to choose from to suit her/his personal or business need.
Following are the most common types of paper printing methods.
Also known as offset printing, this method is the most popular of all types of paper printing for people who are looking for cost-effective quick printing. It gives high quality print at a very fast pace. It makes use of roller plates that are run through water and then through ink. Ink adheres to the images in the layout and water to the blank areas in it. One major drawback of this type of paper printing is that once a layout has been made into a plate, changes cannot be made easily.
In this type of paper printing, the text to be printed is raised on the plate. When the plate is inked, the ink adheres to the raised part which is then pressed onto a paper reproducing the layout on it. With better technology available today, this method of printing has become obsolete.
This method is most preferable in printing layouts that are full of images. It has several advantages: the print is high quality and does not get blurred, the printing process is quick and the layout can be printed directly from the computer without the use of plates. However, the drawbacks are that it is expensive because of the ink and the paper used. Also, it can be quite difficult to predict or adjust the color in print because different computer screens might show same color differently.
This method of printing gives an attractive finish to the printed material. In this technique, the printed image is raised or engraved making a very defined and clear image. This method is however expensive and therefore, its use is mostly restricted to company letterheads, formal invitations, book covers, or corporate logos.
This method of paper printing requires neither ink nor plates. Here, the paper to be printed is coated with zinc oxide which acts as an insulator when kept in dark and as a conductor when exposed to light. Thus, heat is used to merge the colors to the paper. It is faster than print through inkjet printers and is mostly used for short run printing, for example, in printing geographical maps.
This method of paper printing is similar to the method of electrostatic printing. Both these types of paper printing methods utilize heat to get the colors merged into the paper. This method is commonly used for printing special printing styles like embossed stationary printing.