REPROGRAPHICS
Graphic products
Objective :
To understand a range of commercial printing
methods
• Keywords :
Printing plate
Resolution
Substrate
• Modern printing methods allows 1000’s of copies of image in high
resolution in short span of time using process colours CMYK
• (CMYK- CYAN, MAGENTA, YELLOW, KEY-BLACK )
• DIFFETRENT methods of printing depends on the effect and the
substrate(material ) to be printed on.
• 4 printing methods
• -OFFSET LITHOGRAPHY
• -GRAVURE
• FLEXOGRAPHY
• SCREEN PRINTING
OFFSET LITHOGRAPHY
• The substrate is fed through 4 different rollers, each printing one of the process colours
• 5 th roller is sometimes used for printing special effects such as varnish
• Eg : printing leaflets and brouchers
• What are the Advantages of Offset Printing:
• Large quantities can be printed cost effectively
• The more you print, the cheaper the price per piece
• A large variety of paper types with custom finishes can be used
• Special custom inks such as metallic and Pantone colors are available
• Highest possible printing quality, with greater detail and color fidelity
Gravure
Gravure printing still provides the highest level of printing quality
and standard. Eg : printing company brouchers
An etched printing plate fills up with
ink and deposits the color as small dots
A separate roller presses the material to
Be printed on the printing plate
gravure
• Reasons to Use Gravure Printing
[Link] printing is incredibly consistent and can provide uniform color and
copies throughout a press run, even if the run consists of several million copies.
[Link] printing does not have a lot of variables to control. As such, a simpler
process ensures a consistent print quality throughout the run and less error in
printing.
[Link] printing is a direct printing process. Since the image that is etched on
the cylinder is printed directly to the printing medium, superior ink laydown and
image rendering is a given.
[Link] plate seam is shown with gravure printing, as the printing data is
continuously wrapped around the cylinder.
[Link] printing production speed is high: 3000-3300 feet per minute.
[Link] are extremely durable and reusable and can print runs of 2-3 million
from one set of cylinders.
FLEXOGRAPHY
What is flexography printing process?
Flexography is a roll-feed web printing process. Flexographic printing is commonly
used to print high volumes of labels and packaging.
Presses can print on a variety of films, foils, papers, corrugated board, and
paperboard and achieve speeds of 500 to 2000 feet per minute.
It allows to print on variety of substrates- plastic and metallic films.
Eg : plastic bags
Disposible cups
Chocolate wrappers
Screen printing
• What materials do you need for screen printing?
• The essentials required for screen printing include screens, squeegees,
screen printing inks, screen printing stencils, and screen or
masking tape. Screens are generally made up of two parts; the frame
and the mesh that is stretched over it.
•
What is screen printing and how is it done?
• Screen printing is the process of transferring a stencilled design onto
a flat surface using a mesh screen, ink and a squeegee. Fabric and
paper are the most commonly screen-printed surfaces, but with
specialised inks it's also possible to print onto wood, metal, plastic, and
even glass. Eg : t shirt printing
pastpaper
PAST PAPER Q
• A3 The package for the printer paper is to be produced in quantities of 20,000.
• Offset Lithography will be used to print information onto the package.
• State two advantages of using Offset Lithography.
• Advantage
1: ......................................................................................................................................
....................
• Advantage
2: ......................................................................................................................................
....................
• Question Answer Marks
• A3 Advantages: Can print large numbers quickly/cheap cost per sheet (1)
• Good quality/sharp images (1)
• 2
Thermochromic ink
• Thermochromic ink (also called thermochromatic ink) is a
type of dye that changes color when temperatures increase or
decrease.[1][2][3] Often used in the manufacture of many toys or
product packaging, as well as thermometers. Thermochromic
ink can also turn transparent when heat is applied; an example
of this type of thermochromic ink is found on corners of an
examination mark sheet. This proves that the sheet has not
been edited or photocopied, and also on certain pizza boxes to
show the temperature of the product.
• Use on packaging can be to detect temperature history during
shipping and to indicate proper heating in an oven.
eg
ppq
• A2 (a) The design on the side of the carrier bag is to be produced using a computer.
• State one way the lettering can be modified other than by changing the size.
• ................................................................................................................ [1]
• (b) The design is to be printed using thermochromic ink.
• Describe how thermochromic ink works.
• ......................................................................................................................
• ......................................................................................................................
• ................................................................................................................ [2]
• A2(a) Font style / embolden / colour / underline / letter spacing / italics Any
of the above Do not allow: stretch, enlarge etc.
• A2(b) The colour of the ink changes (1) when temperature changes (1) 2
Ppq 2020
c) An image is to be printed onto the mug using thermochromic ink.
Describe how using thermochromic ink will affect the
image. .......................................................................................................
.............................. ....................................................................................
............................................ [2]
(c) The colour will change [1] due to the heat of the coffee [1].
[Guidance: wording will vary but award 1 mark for colour of the design
changing and 1 mark for identifying that it is the heat that causes the
change in colour.]