Printed products

Printing has a very wide meaning and different directions. We all face printing products every day of our lives. Someone uses it for their personal purposes, others for advertising, and someone for commercial purposes. But all that is printed on various media has a name - printing

Printing products are made in different ways of printing, we will describe only those that we use in our work:

• Offset printing
• Digital printing
• Risography
• Large format printing
• UV printing
• Inkjet printing

    In more detail about each printing method we will describe in our blog. These are fairly long topics for conversation and much more information is needed to master.

What is offset printing? Why offset printing is better than digital printing? What are the pros and cons of offset printing?

    Offset printing is such a printing technology when the image is transferred from the printing form onto paper not directly, but through an intermediate offset cylinder. To obtain a print it is necessary to make a printing form (each CMYK color has its own form), after which the image from these forms is transferred to an intermediate cylinder (of a certain CMYK color) and then transferred to a paper sheet. The white sheet passes in turn all sections of the print where ink of all colors C (blue) M (pink) Y (yellow) K (black) is superimposed and as a result a full-color print is obtained.

    With this type of printing, large expenses are incurred for preparatory operations (manufacturing of printing plates, color proofing, adjustment of the machine, color balancing). Given all the nuances of this type of printing, you can briefly describe the advantages and disadvantages of offset printing:

    Offset printing advantages:

• the best and stable print quality
• Cheap product price, but minimally profitable circulation starts from 1000 sheets of A2 or B2 format
• fast production of large runs

    Disadvantages of offset printing:

• The minimum circulation is from 1000 pieces. identical products
• Production time at least two business days

With offset printing sorted out, then let's look at the next paragraph on the method of printing.

What is digital printing? what are the pros and cons of digital printing? How much does digital printing cost?

    Digital printing is a printing technology in which the image is transferred directly to paper. To obtain a print it is enough that the file is in electronic form, while this type of printing does not require any permanent prepress preparations. You may ask that there are no costs at all? So it should be very cheap, etc. Of course, certain costs are needed to obtain a quality print. This is the printer itself, a professional printer is fundamentally different from an amateur laser printer, you need to build the correct color profile for the correct color rendering (this profile is built for each type of paper or cardboard on which you want to print). It is necessary to use original consumables, which will allow you not to harm the printer and get prints with constantly high print quality, as well as the need for adjustment, but not as long as with offset printing. Now, let’s get a summary of digital printing.

    Advantages of Digital Printing:

• excellent and stable print quality
• the ability to print small runs and runs with different contents
• it is possible to urgently print leaflets, brochures or other printing products
• cheap price for runs of up to 300 pieces

    Disadvantages of digital printing:

• relatively expensive price for print runs of 300 A3 sheets

    Now let's talk about printing on a risograph or duplicating. Printing on a risograph refers to digital printing, but in order to get a print you still need to make a stencil (the so-called master-film). Since the process of creating this stencil is very quick and relatively inexpensive, it makes no sense to equate risography with offset printing. Before printing, the risograph independently burns the necessary information on the stencil, then pulls this stencil onto the shaft, which is constantly in the ink. As paper passes through the drum, ink is transferred to the paper through the holes in the stencil. The print quality depends on how many small holes in the inch the risograph burns through. Our risographs for example print with an extension of 600x300 dpi. Let's summarize the risography

Advantages of printing on a risograph:

• prompt replication of the necessary information, print speed of about 100 A3 sheets per minute
• Good quality printing of promotional products such as flyers, ads, price lists, brochures
• cheap printing price for runs from 100 to 5000 sheets
• it is possible to print on colored papers in pastel and intense colors

Disadvantages of printing on risograph:

• print quality 600x300 dpi, because of=ideal halftone color rendering is not possible
• water-based paints, this suggests that paints can be smeared upon contact with water

Now let's focus on large format and ultraviolet printing. We will look at these two types of printing together, as they are similar printing methods and are used for similar tasks. Large-format printing is a technology of direct application of paints on a material of large width. We print with a maximum width of 3.2 meters, but if there is a need for a wider product, it is possible to solder several printed parts. We use ecosolvent inks for large format printing and UV inks for UV printing. Large format printing is mainly used for advertising products such as banners, posters, print on oracle, print on canvas, glass, tile, etc. That one that the other printing method has a very resistant coating that is not afraid of the effects of the atmosphere. Let's describe the pros and cons of solvent and UV printing

Advantages of eco-solvent and UV printing:

• prompt printing of banners, self-adhesive, mesh, canvas, pvc
• good quality print advertising products, print expansion up to 1440 dpi
• resistant to atmospheric influences, not afraid of snow, water or sun
• it is possible to print on various roll and sheet materials

Disadvantages of eco-solvent and ultraviolet printing:

• it is not possible to obtain photographic quality, but for advertising products this quality is enough
• products have an unpleasant odor that disappears over several weeks

And lastly, we will focus on inkjet printing. Most of you know this particular type of printing, since you probably had inkjet printers at your home. We just add that we have a six-color Epson printer, which allows us to get very high-quality, photographic prints.

Advantages of inkjet printing:

• very high-quality printing of photographs, photo books, canvases, magnets
• quick production of photographs in small print runs
• cheap price for photo printing

Disadvantages of inkjet printing:

• printing on special materials
• not very fast printing
• ink is afraid of ultraviolet rays of the sun and water

Now you know all the pros and cons of different types of printing printing products. We hope that the information received is sufficient for you to determine which type of print is most suitable for your tasks, budget, deadlines and quality requirements

We are sure that you will make the right choice and get the result that you expected.