There are many types of printing, and different printing types have different operations. Below I will classify them according to the type of printing plate, printing principle, number of printing colors, and printing purpose.
1. Classify according to the type of printing plate
According to the differences in printing plates, common printing methods can be classified into four categories: letterpress printing, intaglio printing, offset printing, and stencil printing:
1) Letterpress printing
Letterpress Printing uses a letterpress plate (a printing plate with raised graphic parts), referred to as letterpress printing. The printing principle is similar to the seal, and the early block printing, movable type printing, and later type plate printing all belong to letterpress printing.
2) Intaglio printing
The ink contained in the intaglio pits is directly imprinted on the substrate, which is often used for the printing of valuable securities such as banknotes and stamps.
3) Lithographic printing
It is an indirect printing method. The graphic part and the blank part of the printing plate are almost on the same plane, and the printing method is carried out using the principle of oil and water incompatibility.
4) Stencil printing
Stencil printing is also known as silk screen printing, it’s a printing method that uses a silk screen as plate material. This method can be used to make print works, and can also be used for packaging and printing daily necessities and industrial supplies.
2. Classify according to the printing principle
According to the principle of producing printed matter, it can be classified into two categories: physical printing and chemical printing:
1) Physical printing
The printing ink is completely a kind of accumulation load in the printing part, and the non-printing part is concave or convex, which is different from the height of the printing part and cannot be stained with the printing ink. Leave it blank, so the printing Part of the printing ink is transferred to the material to be printed, which is a physical and mechanical action. General letterpress printing, intaglio printing, stencil printing, and dry lithography printing are all physical printing.
2) Chemical printing
During the printing process, the non-printed part must be continuously supplemented with a water-absorbing and ink-repellent film, which is chemical printing. Offset printing belongs to this category. In offset printing, glue substances should be added to the water tank solution to continuously supply the carboxyl group mucus layer to keep the non-printing surface of the printing plate from being infected by grease.
3. Classify by the number of printing colors
According to the number of printing colors, the following classifications can be made:
1) Monochromatic printing
Not limited to black, any display in one color belongs to monochromatic printing.
2) Multi-color printing
Multi-color printing is classified into three categories: color-enhancing method, color registration method, and broken color method.
3) Color printing
That is multi-color printing. All color prints, except a few for the color-enhancing method and color registration method, are all printed by color printing.
4) CMYK printing
4. Classify according to printing purposes
Generally refers to the printing process of using magenta, cyan, and yellow three primary colors, and black colorants to copy color originals. It is absorbed by the subtractive color method and mixed by the additive color method. The color block has high brightness and low saturation.
According to the use of printed matter, such as book printing, news printing, advertising printing, packaging printing and special printing, etc.:
1) Book printing
In the past, letterpress printing was used, and later lithographic printing was gradually used.
2) News printing
In the past, the letterpress rotary machine was used for printing, because it was fast and the printing volume was large. Now in order to meet the needs of color, lithographic or intaglio rotary printing is used instead.
3) Advertising printing
Including color pictures, pictorials, posters, etc., most of them use lithography but also use letterpress, intaglio, or stencil printing.
4) Packaging printing
Such as candy snacks, packaging boxes and decorative wallpapers, etc., are mostly offset printing and intaglio printing.
5) Special printing
Such as printing on bottles and cans, foil stamping, embossing, hoses, labels, etc., special technology or special materials are used.
The above is the content of types of printing. And there still have many other classifications for printing, which are not listed here. Welcome to contact us to ask more questions.
