Prepress Mod 2-PP

Module 2: Printing Processes 1
Module 2:
Printing Processes
Instructor: Doughlas Remy

Module Overview
• The U.S. printing industry

• Definition of printing
• Major printing processes (overview)
• Where’s the ink? Where’s the paper?
• Early relief printing
• Text and artwork before and after the invention of photography
• Flexography (relief)
• Planographic printing (offset litho)
• Gravure (Intaglio) (major printing processes)
• Screen printing (silkscreen, stencil)
• Digital (electronic) printing
• Spot colors and process colors
• Continuous tone vs. halftone
What you should know about the U.S.
printing industry
• It has a very low profile.
• It is composed mainly of small businesses.
• It has revenues of about $1 billion annually.
• It is the nation’s largest employer. (It employs
nearly 1 million people, or 220,000 more than the auto
industry.)
• There are nearly 100,000 printing establishments
in the U.S.
• Pre-press is considered to be a part of the printing
industry.
Source: http://www.wmrc.uiuc.edu/info/library_docs/manuals/printing/domestic.htm
Definition
Printing is basically the transfer of images from a

source (usually printing plates) to a target surface
(usually paper) through the application of a
medium (usually ink).
Sources Targets Media
most common
Plates (e.g., aluminum, Paper Inks
polymer, rubber) Fabric Toner
Type forms (used in Metal s
letterpress)
Plastic Dyes
Templates (used in screen
printing) Paints
Blocks (made of wood,
metal, lino, plastic, stone)
Jets (used in inkjet printing)
Major Printing
Processes
Major Printing Processes
• Relief (primarily flexography, which evolved from

letterpress)
• Planographic (offset lithography)
• Gravure (aka Intaglio, Photogravure, Rotogravure)
• Screen (aka silkscreen, stencil, serigraphy)
• Digital (aka electronic)

letterpress)
• Digital
In a category by itself because
1.it is for low-volume printing; and
2.its technology is so different from the
others.

letterpress)
• Digital
Now a major printing process and

growing exponentially. Its technology is
very different from that of the first three
on this list.

letterpress)
• Digital We will focus on the
first three for now.

letterpress)
Major Printing
Processes:
Where’s the ink?
Where’s the paper?
Where’s the ink?
The first three—relief, planographic, and gravure—are

easier to understand if we compare the location of the ink
in these cross-sections of the printing plates used for each:
Relief Ink is on a raised surface.
Planographic Ink is on a flat surface.
Gravure Ink is in wells or reservoirs.
• Relief (primarily flexography, which evolved from letterpress)

Where’s the paper? (1)
1. The paper may be attached

to a flat surface, against which lever attached
a type form or a printing plate to screw
is pressed.
Note This way of placing
the paper was a feature
of the earliest printing type form
methods and is rarely
used today. (It’s very
slow.)
Wooden hand press (aka screw press), a

reproduction of Gutenberg’s press.

A layer of oil-based ink is applied
here, and then a roller arm (not
Lever Press shown here) pivots up to collect
the ink and then rolls it onto the
This was a later “chase,” which contains the
development, using relief image.
the same principle of

attaching the paper to The “chase”
(relief
a flat surface. image)
Paper
Note that there is no attached
here.
screw.
2. The paper may be attached Cylinder

to a cylinder, which then Letterpress
rotates as an inked type form
Paper
passes beneath it.
Note This way of placing
the paper, like the
Type
previous one, was time-
form
consuming and was Ink
abandoned in favor of the Rollers Impression
last two methods (next Cylinder
slides).
Press bed
3. Sheets of paper
pass between two
flexible printing
plates (attached to
cylinders) that are
carrying the
image.
Note This technology did

not become possible until
a means could be found
for making the printing
plate thin and flexible
enough to attach to a
cylinder. Note The process of printing on both sides of the paper (recto and
verso) is called “duplexing.”
4. A continuous “web” of paper passes between two

flexible printing plates (attached to cylinders) that are
carrying the image.
Why “Web”?
The American Heritage Dictionary has 11
definitions of “web.”
# 1: “A textile fabric, especially one being
woven on a loom or in the process of being
removed from it.”
# 11: “A continuous roll of paper, as
newsprint, in the process of manufacture in
a paper machine or as it comes from the
mill.

letterpress)
• Digital
Major Printing
Processes:
Early Relief Printing
Relief: Letterpress – Historical overview
Signet rings were first used in ancient Babylonia.
Modern signet rings a wax seal
No further progress was made in the Western world until the

Gutenberg era (15th century).
Relief: Letterpress – Early Chinese printing
Meanwhile, the Chinese were

printing from wood blocks as
early as the 2nd century A.D.
This was made possible by
their invention of paper in A.D.
105.
Papyrus had been too fragile.
Vellum* was too expensive.
*Vellum is a thin tissue taken from inside the hides of newly skinned
animals.
Relief: Letterpress – Early Chinese printing
The Chinese developed movable
type around the tenth century A.D.,
and were even doing two-color
printing with it. By the 13th and 14th
centuries, they had three-color and
four-color printing.
At first, they used clay type, but
later developed metal (copper)
type.
Movable type was not as practical
for the Chinese language as it was
for European languages, because it
required between 2000 and 40,000
separate characters.
Relief: Letterpress – Early Western printing
Earliest Western print technology grew up in the Rhine River

Valley in the mid-fifteenth century and was probably not
influenced by earlier developments in the Far East.
Western printing technology Eastern printing technology

Oil-based inks Water-soluble inks
Mechanical presses derived Paper pressed against wood
from wine presses. Used block. Later: movable clay and
movable metal type. metal type
Used pressure from edge of Used clay or rods to hold type
tray to hold type in place in place
The first printing

presses in the West
were screw-type
presses designed
primarily to bring
pressure on the
printing form, which
was placed face up
in a flat bed.
Click here for photos of screw-type presses from the Museum of Printing Presses.
Consider this:
Letterpress printing from raised metal type was the primary means of
mass communication for over 400 years.
Relief: Letterpress—Later Developments
Later developments in the West:
• In the 17th century, springs were
added to the press to aid in lifting the
platen rapidly.
• Around 1800, iron began to be used
in the construction of presses, and
levers were substituted for the
screws that brought the platen down
onto the form.
• The process was still slow (300
impressions per hour), but much
larger forms could be used, so
multiple pages could be printed
“Old Reliable,” platen letterpress, 19th simultaneously.
century.

Cylinders were not used in
letterpress until the 19th
Cylinder century.
Letterpress Paper
The ink rollers apply ink
only to the raised areas.
Then the ink is
Type transferred to the paper,
form which is on the
Ink impression cylinder.
Rollers Impression
Cylinder
Letterpress images can be
sharp and crisp.
Press bed
However, the pressure of the
plate or cylinder surface on
the paper may also spread
the ink slightly.

Relief: Letterpress
A cylinder letterpress
Major Printing
Processes:
Relief Printing: Text
and Artwork Before
and After the
Invention of
Relief: Letterpress—Text and Artwork
Before the invention of photography and the development

of modern printing techniques, the raised image in relief
printing could only be produced in two ways:
•For text: Metal type
•For artwork: Engraving or etching. These techniques leave
a flat, raised surface to which the ink is applied.
Engraving is simply cutting away the areas that will not receive the ink.
Etching involves making incisions on a plate that has been coated with
an acid-resistant material, and then applying acid to the entire surface.
Note that artwork had to be in the form of either

engravings or etchings if it was to be printed.
Etching by Jacques Callot, 1633: The Miseries of

War.
Wood engraving, 1830: View of Rochester
with a Section of the Aqueduct
In both techniques, the area that will not receive
the ink is removed—either by direct cutting or
by application of acid.
Electrotyping (first used in 1838) was a
technique for making duplicate plates from
original relief plates.
To create an electrotype duplicate:
1.Make a mold of the original plate, using any one of
various materials (copper, lead,
zinc, etc.)
2.Place the mold in an electrolytic solution (e.g.,
copper sulfate and sulphuric acid).
mold metal
3.Place a sheet of the same or a different metal in sheet
the solution, parallel to the mold.
4.Pass an electrical current through the solution.
The mold acts as the cathode and the other metal tank containing
sheet as an anode. Metal passes from the anode to electrolytic solution
adhere to the cathode (the mold).
5.Separate the newly-deposited layer of metal from
the mold.
Relief Printing—Text and Artwork After the
Invention of Photography
After the invention of

photography, it became
possible to dispense with lead
fonts and type forms
altogether. Photographic
transparencies could be used
to make plates, and this led to
the demise of letterpress.
To understand platemaking
from photographic
Halftone screens:
•Physical screens (either glass plates or contact
sheets), consisting of grids through which light
may pass.
•Placed between a photographic transparency and a
photosensitive plate. Glass plates
•Light passes differentially through the transparency and
then through the halftone screen to the photosensitive
plate.
•The light reacts with the chemicals on the plate to
produce areas that are receptive to ink.
•These ink-receptive areas, if examined under a
magnifying glass, will appear as grids of dots. Contact Sheets
Two kinds of halftone screens:
Older screens consist of two thin glass plates with

scribed parallel lines running across them; these
are cemented together so the lines form right
angles. The thickness of the scribing varies Glass plates
depending on the screen frequency, but the lines
and the open spaces are always of equal width.
These are now uncommon. Instead, most printers
use contact sheets made of film. Unlike glass
screens, the dots on these screens are not
completely open. Each dot is clear in the middle
with increasing opacity toward the edges.
Contact Sheets
Relief Printing—Platemaking
Light source
After the invention of
photography, relief
images could be
produced using film
positives (or negatives), Film positive
halftone screens, and
photopolymer plates. Halftone screen
These plates are made
of pre-coated Printed halftone
photosensitive plastics, image on
from which unexposed, coated light-
non-image areas are sensitive plate.
chemically dissolved. More intense
light burns
larger dots.
Relief Printing—Platemaking
the transparency
Darker areas are recessed.
Ink will be applied to the lighter areas,
the halftone screen
which are raised.
the plate
Keep in mind that the

image on this plate is
composed of hundreds
of thousands of dots.
Also note that the plate

would not actually look
like this. This image only
illustrates the difference
between the variable
sizes of the dots (0-
100%), which translate
into amount of ink
applied.
Relief Printing—The Demise of Letterpress
Letterpress has been almost entirely replaced by other printing
technologies, especially flexography and lithography (more about
these shortly), but it still has a limited “niche” appeal for printing
wedding invitations, menus, business cards, etc. It has a very
elegant “embossed” look and is very “tactile.”
Lead typesetting (hot type)

is mostly an anachronism.
This invitation was printed
using another kind of relief
printing—flexography—
which uses photopolymer
plates.
Major Printing
Processes:
Relief Printing:
Flexography
1. Relief (letterpress and flexography)
2. Planographic (offset-lithography)
3. Gravure (aka, intaglio, rotogravure, photogravure)
4. Screen (aka, stencil, silk screening, screen printing, serigraphy)
5. Digital (aka, electronic)
43
Flexography
Like letterpress, flexography is a form of relief printing.

Flexography uses:
• plates of photopolymer or flexible rubber.
• thin, fast-drying, water-based inks.
• high-speed web presses.
Flexography is widely used for printing gift wrap and packaging
materials because of its brilliant colors.
Wine bottle labels

printed by
Richmark Label,
Seattle, WA
44
Flexography Flexography is also

used for the
following:
• Corrugated
containers
• Folding cartons
• Paper sacks
• Plastic bags
• Milk cartons
• Disposable cups
Other commercial • Labels
printing by • Adhesive tapes
Richmark Label,
• Envelopes
Seattle, WA
• Newspapers
• Food and candy
wrappers
Flexography
For more information about flexography, visit the following sites:

http://desktoppub.about.com/od/flexography/
http://www.pneac.org/printprocesses/flexography/index.cfm
Major Printing
Processes:
Planographic (Offset
Litho)
Haven’t I seen
Planographic “litho-” in other
words?
(offset lithography)
• By far the most important and versatile
printing process today.
• Developed at the end of the 18th
century by Aloys Senefelder.
• The first chemical printing process.
• Most newspapers are printed on offset The prefix “litho-,” from the
Greek lithos, means “stone.”
presses.
The lithosphere is the solid
part of the earth, as
distinguished from the
Five major printing processes:
hydrosphere and the
1. Relief (letterpress and flexography) atmosphere.
3. Intaglio (gravure) The “Paleolithic” era is the
4. Screen (stencil, silkscreen) era of ancient rocks.
5. Digital
Planographic (offset lithography)
But…
Wet limestone An image drawn with a

repels oil- grease pencil repels water
based ink. and attracts ink.

3. Intaglio (gravure)
4. Screen (stencil, silkscreen)
5. Digital

To print the image on the paper, simply press the paper onto the stone.
Sheet of paper Printed image
Limestone with inked image + paper

5. Digital
Modern litho presses don’t use limestone.

They use thin aluminum plates that carry both the
image areas and the non-image areas.
The image areas are not raised. They are chemically
receptive to oil-based inks, whereas the non-image
areas are not receptive to the inks.
Printed image
The plates, attached to cylinders, are first exposed to
water, and then to ink. The image is then transferred
to a rubber blanket that is on a second cylinder.

5. Digital
Planographic (offset lithography) This transfer of

the image from
the printing
plate to the
“blanket”
explains the
term “offset.”

Most offset
presses are
web-fed. These
web-fed presses
print at speeds
up to four times
faster than
sheet-fed
presses—up to
3000 feet per
minute, or
100,000
impressions per
hour.
They are widely
used for printing
magazines,
newspapers,
A modern offset press, made by Heidelberg

Dry Offset—A Hybrid Process

Dry offset is a hybrid printing technology:
• Like other offset printing, it uses a
rubber blanket to carry the image from
the printing plate to the printing
surface.
• Like relief printing, however, it has
an image area raised above the
surface of the plate.
• Dry offset is a type of relief rather Dry offset is mostly used
than planographic printing. for printing on containers.
http://www.imageinks.ca/support/uvcupinktec1.htm
Major Printing
Processes:
Gravure
Gravure (aka, intaglio, rotogravure)

Recessed image areas are etched
into a metal plate to form
reservoirs or wells—up to 22,500
per square inch—to receive ink.
The size and the depth of the wells
control the amount of ink and the
density of tone to be transferred to
the paper.
3. Gravure (intaglio)
5. Digital
Link: http://www.era.eu.org

Two methods
1. Acid etching (traditional)
(aka, “chemical gravure”)
Positive
a) The gravure process starts with a photographic
positive photographic transparency
Halftone
transparency of the “copy” (the screen
Carbon tissue coated
page or image to be printed). with light-sensitive
gelatin
b)Carbon tissue coated with light- copper-coated
sensitive gelatin is placed plate or
between the transparency and the cylinder
printing surface, which may be a
copper-coated plate or cylinder.
c) The gelatin hardens onto the
printing surface according to the
amount of light that passes
through the transparency.
d)The unhardened areas are washed

Two methods
Method 1—acid etching—
2. Electronic etching (aka, “digital gravure”) was developed around
a) No film or chemicals are involved. 1880 and peaked a century
later, when it began to be
b) Digital signals drive engraving heads. replaced by method 2,
electronic etching.
Electronic etching has now
replaced most acid etching
in Europe and the USA.
most expensive
Gravure (aka, intaglio, rotogravure) of all the
processes
Disadvantages:
Advantages:
Cost of presses and
1. The gravure cylinder has a long
components.
service life and will yield a very
large number of impressions a) $1 million for a gravure press vs.
$100,000 for a lithographic press.
without degradation.
b) $5000 for a single gravure cylinder
2. Speed: An 8-unit press can print vs. $15 for a lithographic plate.
almost 10 million four-color A-4
pages per hour. Today’s
rotogravure presses can run at
15 meters per second, with
paper reel widths up to 4.32
meters wide.
A modern high-speed rotogravure printing machine made by Worldly Industrial Co., Ltd.

Gravure offers the best image quality of any
printing process. It can also maintain this
quality over a very long print run.
Therefore, gravure is considered ideal
for the following types of printing:
• Paper currency (banknotes)
• Postage stamps
• High-end magazines (Vogue)
• Mail-order catalogs*
• Art books (“coffee-table” books)
• Wallpaper and laminates*
*high-volume printing
Major Printing
Processes:
Screen Printing
Screen Printing
The stencil is composed of a screen of silk or
other fine mesh. (e.g., nylon, dacron, stainless
steel).
Process:
• Areas that are not to receive ink are
blocked on the screen by application of
some impermeable substance:
• e.g., adhesive film that has been cut
by hand or prepared
photographically.
• e.g., a brush-on coating
• A squeegee is used to press ink through
the screen onto the printing surface.
• The image is usually built up by using a
number of screens with different
stencils, each one used to print a
Screen Printing
Advantages: Disadvantages:
• Suitable for printing • Slow production speeds
on virtually any
• Reproduction quality not
surface or any shape
high (but doesn’t need to
or size.
be…)
• High opacity and
brilliance of color.
• Inexpensive
Uses:
apparatus
• Fine Art
• T-shirts
• Logos and
lettering on
“Marilyn Monroe,” by
vans Andy Warhol
Major Printing
Processes:
Digital (Electronic)
Digital Digital printing is both fast

and cost-efficient because
Digital printing, as the name suggests, the following processes,
produces images from digital data. No associated with older
film is involved in the process. printing technologies, are
eliminated:
The term “digital printing” covers almost
•Film processing
any type of electronic printing,
including the following: •Stripping*
• Laser (aka, electrostatic, Xerography) •Platemaking**
• Inkjet *Stripping: Manual assembly

and positioning of the image
• Dye-sublimation components.
• Thermal wax transfer **Some of the digital printing

processes use plates, but there
• Dot matrix is no “platemaking” component
of the process per se.
Digital Printing
• Used mainly in offices and for transactional printing
of bills, bank documents, etc., because it can handle
variable data very easily.
• Ideal for “print on demand” because it does not
involve film processing, stripping, or platemaking.
• The digital press or printer combines and allocates
CMYK (still as halftones) by following the digital
encoding in the graphic file.
• Uses CMYK inks or toners for color; most digital
printers and presses do not print spot colors. (Offers
no cost advantage for color monochrome or duotone
printing.)
*Where the color of a logo is critical (e.g., Coca-Cola), the
logo owner may insist on a spot color, in which case
digital printing would not be the best option.
Types of Digital Printing (Reference)
Laser (aka, Inkjet Dye sublimation Thermal wax Dot matrix
electrostatic, transfer
Xerography)
Process A laser beam exposes Ink is sprayed A roll of thin plastic A roll of thermal An “impact”
dark areas of the final from nozzles ribbon carries panels of transfer ribbon printer.
image directly onto a directly onto colored dye. The ribbon contains bands of Small wires in the
photo-sensitive drum. the printing is sandwiched between colored wax. Non- print head transfer
Those exposed areas material. Each the paper and a print impact imaging ink from a black or
have an electrostatic injet nozzle is head containing heads melt dots of multi-colored
charge. The drum is an imaging thousands of heating CMYK wax. These ribbon onto paper.
then dusted with toner unit. units. dots are then
particles, which have The heating elements transferred and
an opposite charge so turn the dyes from a used to plain or
that they adhere to the solid to a gas, causing specially coated
exposed areas. Toner it to sublimate and paper.
particles are fused to diffuse, producing
the paper with heat. single halftone dots.
Advantages Low cost, low Capable of Print is less vulnerable Can print multi-
maintenance photo-realistic to fading and distortion copy forms
Print on plain paper. high-resolution over time (because the because it uses
Resolutions: 300-1200 graphics. dye infuses the paper). impact.
dpi. Can spray ink Photo-lab quality. High speeds
Good quality. onto almost Looks like continuous Low cost
any surface. tone.
Useful for “on-
Digital Printing—Electrostatic (xerography)

• Electrostatic printers use positively-charged toner particles that are attracted to paper
which in turn is negatively charged.
• The electrostatic process uses a conductive metal (usually aluminum) plate coated
with a photoconductive layer of any one of several substances (selenium, silicon, or
germanium) that are poor conductors of electricity except when struck by light. When
light energy is absorbed (differentially) by their electrons, an electrical current can flow
when voltage is applied, and the layer becomes electrostatically charged.
• The variation in the amount of charge on the coated metal plate establishes an
electrostatic pattern of the image.
• The image is rendered visible by application of toner, a powder that carries an
opposite charge to that of the plate.
• The oppositely charged toner is then transferred to the paper surface and fused there
by exposure to solvent vapors or heat.
• This process takes about five seconds, and the photoconductive insulating layer can
be used many thousands of times before being replaced.
Spot Colors and

Process Colors
Spot Colors and Process Colors
There are thousands of spot colors. They are There are only four process
simply colored inks that are used to produce a colors*: cyan, magenta, yellow,
printed image without any gradations of hue. and black (CMYK). They are used
to print halftone images with
many gradations of hue.
Simulation of a “greyscale” Simulation of the same

image printed with black ink. “greyscale” image printed
with green ink (a spot color).
Simulation of 4-color
(process) print output
In the U.S., the major supplier of spot colors is

Pantone, which produces the PMS (Pantone
Matching System) colors.
Other color systems:
•Focoltone
•Toyo Inks
•TruMatch
•Munsell Color swatch books
Three spot colors are used in this graphic:
You can
create
the
illusion of
more
1. Black colors by
using
2. Green shades*
*ofAlso
spot
known
3. Purple as “screens,”
colors.
or “tints.”
A tint is created by using percentages of full

color. 10% is very light, whereas 80% appears
more fully saturated*.
*In reality, the ink has only one “strength,” but the halftone dots at
10% are smaller than at 90%, allowing more of the background
color to appear around them, creating the illusion of a lighter tint.
10% 80% Variable

If your job is to be printed by a non-digital process

(e.g., offset, flexography, you can select your spot
color(s) from a Pantone swatch book.
The colors are printed

on both coated and
uncoated paper,
because your job will
be printed on one or
the other of these. So
make sure you’ve
chosen the right one.
Here, the “U” after
the PMS number
indicates “uncoated.”
Although you can initially choose your color from the

monitor (using software that features it), this is not
advisable because of gamut* issues.
After you have chosen
your color from the
swatch book, then
select the same color
from your software
PMS color list. You will
use this color while you
are working on your
project.
*Gamut: The range of colors that a device or a medium can

display. The printer’s gamut will always be more restricted
When you print a “proof” to your own printer:
You will at some point want to print a “proof”* of your job to
your own printer. Once again, remember that the printer is
not using spot colors but CMYK, so don’t expect your
“proof” to look like the final printed version, which will have
been done with
spot colors.
Inkjet Final
proof print
* I.e., from your personal or office printer. This is not the same as
the proof (“matchprint” or “pressmatch”) that the press will send
you for approval.
If you want to show a customer a proof from your own printer,

a laser printer rather than an inkjet one is recommended.
Also, you may use a different kind of Pantone swatch book,
called a color specifier, which lets you tear out chips of the
PMS colors and place them on your color proof for the
customer to see.
Inkjet Final
proof print
Process colors
In the 4/c process, four colors are

mixed together in various
percentages to create thousands of
colors. When you send your service
bureau a Photoshop file using CMYK
mode, the service bureau can
separate out the color channels to
create the “positives”, which might
look like the four lower ones shown
here.
Note The film positives shown here are
colored for explanatory purposes only. As their
only purpose is to let light through
differentially, they would all look more or less
If a part of your
graphic is
monochrome, you may All printed in
want to use the CMYK, but the
color for the
Pantone swatches to lower section
identify the desired is selected
color even if that color from a color
is going to be library. (The
CMYK values
produced as a process are keyed in.)
color.
The other
The swatches will give (This section in a single color)
option for the
you the CMYK values, lower section
which you can then is to print it
using a spot
key in to the fields
color—a good
next to the color choice if there
sliders in Photoshop. is a company
If your graphic uses three or more spot colors, it’s

probably more cost-effective to have the printing
done in 4/c process.
Metallic Colors
• Metallics add expense to the job because they

cannot be reproduced using process colors.
They are run as an additional spot color.
• Four-color jobs are usually run on four-color
presses, where there’s a station for each color.
• If you want metallics, you’ll need to find a press
that has the extra stations, or the job will need
to be run through a second time. You can work
with your printer about this.
Varnishes
Varnishes can be applied to the finished piece,

but, again, they require an additional station on
the press. The main purpose of a varnish is to
intensify the colors and to protect the print.
Continuous Tone vs.

Halftone
Continuous Tone (aka “contone”)
and Halftone
Contone image Halftone image
You’ll see continuous tone You’ll see halftone

images in... images in...
•Photographic prints (no dots) Printed material (dots)
•Computer monitor images
(composed of pixels)
and Halftone
Contone image Halftone image Halftone

dots…
• are all one
color (here,
black).
• have
uniform
spacing.
• vary in size.
Contone dots… Halftone dots create an

• are varying saturations of the same optical illusion of
continuous tone.
color (here, black)
• have uniform spacing.
• have uniform size.
and Halftone
Contone image Halftone image
Mass printing technologies cannot produce genuine

continuous tone. You see continuous tone on your
computer monitor.
Photographic prints are also continuous tone, but
without the dots (and they are not a mass printing
and Halftone
Yes, a computer monitor produces continuous

tones. Remember, it is an analog device. While it is
true that the monitor projects thousands of tiny
spots of light onto a phosphor screen, the spots
are all the same size, and each one is capable of
displaying colors in their full ranges of hue,
saturation, and brightness.
Print technology cannot do this. It can only place
dots of ink in varying sizes on a surface (usually
paper). Color hue, saturation, and brightness are
achieved by layering four colors of ink (CMYK) in
various proportions and at various angles. This is
and Halftone
The difference between digital and non-digital

printing technologies is in the way the ink gets to
the paper.
Whereas digital processes can send an image
directly from the computer to an plate or drum, the
major non-digital printing processses uses film to
produce plates. They accomplishes this through
the use of halftone screens—one for each color of
ink that is used.
Halftone Screens, Halftone Images
Clarifications: Terminology:
1. When we refer to “halftone screens,” we may be It is preferable

referring to one of two things: to use
“halftone
• The actual screens through which light passes to image” for the
the light-sensitive surface of the printing plate. second one of
• The image that is produced by this process. these, but you
will sometimes
1. Although both digital and non-digital printing work by hear it
placing dots of ink on a surface, only non-digital referred to as
(mainly offset) printing uses halftone screens. a “halftone
screen.”
Printing Halftone Images
10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

In this example, the dots
representing gray shades
up to 50% will appear as
black spots on white.
Those representing shades
of gray over 50% will
appear as white dots on
60% 70% 80% 90% 100% black.
Printing Halftone Images (offset process)
10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Note:
What you’ve just seen can
apply to any of the four
CMYK inks. A full-color (4/c)
printed image requires one
plate for each of the inks.
60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Halftone resolution:
• Measured in lines per
inch (lpi)
• Varies according to the
number of lines in the
(physical) halftone Screen rulings (lpi)
screen range from 30 to 300
lpi.
low screen frequency high screen frequency
33 lpi 53 lpi 75 lpi
Line screen frequency, Some paper, such as newsprint

measured in lines per inch (used for newspapers), is too
(lpi), describes the granularity absorbent for the higher line
of the halftone screen. screen frequencies. Higher line
screens require better quality
papers.
Screen Angle
In addition to screen frequency, the

printer must take into account the angle
of the screen. The illusion of continuous
tone in a printed image is best when the
screen is angled at 45°.
All the images below are at 75 lpi, but the pattern of the screen is
highly visible when angled at 0° and 20°. A screen set at a 45-
degree angle produces an image closer to continuous tone. 45° is
the preferred screen angle for all grayscale halftones and is always
used for black in 4/c process printing.
0 degrees 20 degrees 45 degrees

Dot gain Dot gain may result from the

following:
•Overexposure during
platemaking
•Transferring too much ink from
the plate to the blanket
•Using lower-quality paper,
which is more porous
The greatest dot gain results

from using lower-quality paper.
An example of dot gain
To compensate for dot
Compensating for dot gain: a gain, do the following:
pre-press operation 1.Find out from your
printer what the
percentage of dot gain is
expected to be, given the
paper quality, the inks,
etc.
2.In your imaging software
(e.g., Photoshop), find the
setting for dot gain and
enter that percentage
there.
End of Module 1
Online resources:
•A Technical Dictionary of Printmaking, by André
Béguin:
http://www.polymetaal.nl/beguin/alfabet.htm

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Module 2: Printing Processes 1

Instructor: Doughlas Remy

• The U.S. printing industry

Printing is basically the transfer of images from a

Major Printing Processes

• Relief (primarily flexography, which evolved from

Major Printing Processes

• Relief (primarily flexography, which evolved from

Major Printing Processes

• Relief (primarily flexography, which evolved from

Now a major printing process and

Major Printing Processes

• Relief (primarily flexography, which evolved from

Major Printing Processes

• Relief (primarily flexography, which evolved from

Where’s the ink?

The first three—relief, planographic, and gravure—are

Relief Ink is on a raised surface.

Planographic Ink is on a flat surface.

Gravure Ink is in wells or reservoirs.

• Relief (primarily flexography, which evolved from letterpress)

Where’s the paper? (1)

1. The paper may be attached

Wooden hand press (aka screw press), a

Where’s the paper? (1)

the same principle of

Where’s the paper? (2)

2. The paper may be attached Cylinder

Where’s the paper? (3)

Note This technology did

Where’s the paper? (4)

4. A continuous “web” of paper passes between two

Major Printing Processes

• Relief (primarily flexography, which evolved from

Relief: Letterpress – Historical overview

Signet rings were first used in ancient Babylonia.

Modern signet rings a wax seal

No further progress was made in the Western world until the

Meanwhile, the Chinese were

Relief: Letterpress – Early Western printing

Earliest Western print technology grew up in the Rhine River

Western printing technology Eastern printing technology

The first printing

Relief: Letterpress—Later Developments

Relief: Letterpress—Later Developments

Before the invention of photography and the development

Note that artwork had to be in the form of either

Etching by Jacques Callot, 1633: The Miseries of

After the invention of

Two kinds of halftone screens:

Older screens consist of two thin glass plates with

Keep in mind that the

Also note that the plate

Lead typesetting (hot type)

Like letterpress, flexography is a form of relief printing.

Wine bottle labels

Flexography Flexography is also

For more information about flexography, visit the following sites:

Planographic (offset lithography)

Wet limestone An image drawn with a

Five major printing processes:

Planographic (offset lithography)

Sheet of paper Printed image