Traditional printing presses

Traditional printing presses are complex devices that are made up of subsystems and smaller parts. Like anything if you break them down to components, they are easier to understand.

The models and features we will talk about today are those of offset presses.

What does this mean to me? Well, the better you understand how the process works, the better you can match the right work to the right process. For example, choosing traditionally printed pages, books brochures over digitally printed versions of the same things.

Now, back to presses: The key parts are:

• Ink tray(s)
• Paper feeders
• Plate surfaces and types

Four-color presses use more than one tray. Some are automatically controlled, some older presses still rely on the pressman to meter the ink(s).

Paper feeders range from copier-like trays to large stages holding large sheets of paper or rolls.

The plate surface and the blanket are where the image is transferred to the printed page. Powder sprayers are employed to make sure pages don't offset ink to the adjacent page or stick together.

The resulting images are of a different quality and presentation than a digital image. Each has its own application and presentation option.

The Executive