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What are the Common Printing Processes Followed in the Contemporary Photo Printing?

Different types of technologies are used in the contemporary photo printing processes and the common industrial processes include offset lithography, flexography, inkjet and xerography digital printing, gravure and screen printing. Besides these common and popular printing processes, there are other specific applications which are also used in the specific photo printing processes such as flock printing, intaglio, letterpress, thermography and pad printing. You need to choose the right and appropriate printing process as well as the printing service provider who knows about the printing process like Bigacrylic.com in order to get the best quality photo prints as per your expectations.

The offset lithography is done through an aluminium printing plate where the image is further inserted to get the photo print. As the ink is applied into the aluminium plate, only the image holds the ink and subsequently offset or transferred to a rubber blanket from the aluminium plate and then to the surface of the printing. The image can be printed on paper, plastic, or cardboard, or other materials provided they have a flat surface.

The four printing units of the offset lithography system each print one colour and black colour get first printed and then cyan followed with magneta and yellow. The operator can see the stack of printed sheets on the front of the machine, under the console of the press and monitor which is eventually used by the operator. For works which need higher volume performance, the offset printers use rolls of paper and do the printing faster. The offset lithography printing is generally used to print newspapers, books, stationaries, posters, corrugated etc.

The flexography is printed on a printing rubber plate which contains the image and after the inking, it subsequently transfers the inked image to the printing surface. The flexography can be printed on papers, metals, plastic, as well as on cell phones and other materials. The flexography printing is mostly used for packaging and labelling as well as in some of the cases for printing newspapers. However, in some of the packaging industries, the printing of packaging is moving from flexography to digital printing.

The digital printing is done in various ways, but the most popular and common digital printing involves inkjet and xerography. The inkjet printing is done through creating the image involving small droplets of inks which eventually are propelled from one or more print heads’ nozzles. The inkjet can be printed on various materials such as paper, plastic, canvas, floor tiles, doors etc.