printing

There are different methods used to achieve "professional" colour reproduction. Whether you are using a local print bureau or a large format printer, you may be given a choice in the matter and it will help to know something about each process. These methods typically offer different levels of results, and can be suited to different job types or output quantities, and can have widely different price ranges. The main methods are offset lithography or digital printing

offset lithography

Offset lithography, often either called just "offset" or "litho" printing refers to traditional print presses. Paper is streamed through rollers and against a printing "plate", normally four times - once for each of four coloured inks used to achieve full-colour glossy results. The plate attracts oil-based ink to form your design, and the plate itself is now normally created directly from a computer image of your design.

Plates aren't particularly cheap to create, so printers often mix your work with that of others, or tile your work efficiently to get the most printed output from standard plate sizes. The cost of producing a plate means that offset printing is only cost-effective if you are producing a large quantity, perhaps over 250 copies, but you can choose this method of printing regardless of cost-effectiveness if you would like the highest quality output.

digital printing

Digital printing is very similar to popular color photocopying - a digital image of your design is digitally transferred to a rotating drum. The drum uses an electrostatic charge to attract toner (coloured powder rather than ink) which is then transferred to paper and "fused" by heating to make it stick.

Digital printing is a simpler process than using a printing press, and there are no "set up" costs as no costly printing plate required. Because of this, digital printing is more economical for short-run printing jobs up to a few hundred copies.