Printing – Different Methods and Their Benefits

Printing is an industrial process for mass reproduction of images and text with a printing press or a master copy. Print shops in Plano Texas can print both long and short prints on a variety of materials including fabrics, ceramics, plastics, metals and papers. The oldest non-press printed products featuring printing technology include objects like the Cyrus Cylinder and cylinders of Nabonidus from ancient Egypt. Print shops in Plano Texas can also print large format advertising on matte or gloss photographic paper. A print shop in Plano, Texas can serve a wide range of printing needs, including corporate and product brochures, business cards, posters, banners, temporary tattoos and even handmade soap with printing.

All types of printing require the use of printing presses or printers and there are four basic types of printing related to printing plates. Thermal printing is the most traditional form of printing and used in mass printings where a sheet of solid printed material is laid on a plate of dyed inks. The printing on the printed material consists of multiple hues of colored ink that are dispersed uniformly through the solid ink medium. Thermal printing is popularly used for large printing tasks on thicker materials where a uniform quality and detailed printing finish are required. Other printing techniques include flexography, gravure and Screen printing.

Lithography is used in high volume printing where highly detailed, flat art images or photographic images are transferred directly to thin plates of clear material and are then printed out on demand. Lithographic printing offers a fast printing process. This type of printing is best suited for thick, large format artwork and other high print volumes. Other common uses of Lithography include greeting cards, menu displays, menus, labels and billboards.

Some printers are fully digital and allow complete printing processing on-demand from a remote location. The printing output from a fully digital printer is a crisp, sharp image which can be printed out with high resolution from a laptop or other appropriate computer. Digital printers have many advantages over older printing technologies. They offer a greater degree of customization and speedy printouts, greatly improving product quality and saving on printing costs. The printer can control the quality of the image with various techniques including adjusting shades, day, exposure, and toner levels.

Screen printing is one of the oldest printing technologies and has been around for centuries. Early screen printing methods included pigmentation, where different colors were applied to a particular surface by applying dots of ink to the surface. Modern screen printing machines combine the functions of pigmented and subtractive printing, where different colors are applied in single passes over the surface being printed. The final product will be hand-painted and will likely contain subtle differences in color.

There are several different printing options available to business printing companies. The method of printing a company’s logo will depend on the final product, the budget of the printing company, and what kind of message the logo is trying to convey. Sometimes it may be more effective to use one of the printing methods than to mix and match. Whatever the decision, whether it is a black and white printing or a full color one, good communication between the client and graphic designer is key to getting the final result just right.