Printing Support
Before you start out on your printing journey—whether your project is a book, catalog, booklet, magazine—it’s essential to understand at least the basics of print design and processing. That’s why we created this set of easy-to-understand, step-by-step printing guides to support our clients. Each printing guide serves as a handy reference point before you get started on your specific print project. But don’t forget that our enthusiastic and knowledgeable team of in-house printing experts is always here to help you. Just ask!
What Is Offset Printing?
As the metal cylinder rolls, it comes into contact with a rubber sheet wrapped around another cylinder. The inked image transfers to the rubber roll and then onto the impression cylinder, which carries the paper. So, the printing is ‘offset’ onto the paper.
Each sheet requires its own plate. So, the setup and run time associated with offset printing is fairly long. But if you’re printing thousands of copies — a ‘long run’ — then it will work out cheaper than digital printing regardless of the number of sheets.
Offset printing is a three-step process. First, we make an etched metal plate for each color or sheet and fix it around a rotating cylinder called the plate cylinder. The plate has an image etched flush with the surface and the printable and non-printable areas are distinguished by being oily or aqueous.
Our Printing Guides
- To help you prepare your artwork and layout for printing, we have created a series of downloadable templates. We have templates for the covers and interiors of softcover, hardcover, saddle-stitched, spiral-bound, and wire-o bound books, along with flyers and posters. We'll add other templates, including paper box templates, soon. To choose and download a template, go here.