53 NEED TO KNOW / LITHO TECHNOLOGY Issue 342 - May / June 2023 email: news@printmonthly.co.uk Said to date back to 1798 when discovered by Alois Senefelder, lithography didn’t become commercially popular until 1820. Fast forward 200 years and the historic printing method is still a tried and trusted favourite for many print houses despite the development of digital printing technologies. According to the University of Oxford, lithography was used to produce prints of local views, notable people, and other prints such as illustrated bills. For those unfamiliar, lithography is a mechanical process traditionally using stone which later evolved to plates made from zinc around 1830 and aluminium around 1890. Designs were historically drawn or painted with greasy ink onto a stone plate moistened with water, with the application of oily ink meaning that it only adheres to areas of the plate with the drawing. The print is then produced in a scraper press with the paper run against the inked drawing surface. In commercial printing today, offset litho is commonly used to produce products such as newspapers, magazines, books, brochures, posters, leaflets, and so on. This process was patented by John Strather in 1853 and differs from the original litho method as a printing machine is now used instead of the designs being hand drawn onto the surface of the metal plate. The name offset was given due to the image being inked and transferred from a metal printing plate to a rubber blanket which then offsets the image onto paper. Whilst the evolution of digital printing technologies caused some to query the future of litho printing, the method is still used by many print houses and although it has some limitations such as a time-consuming setup process due to the handling of plates, it is a favourite amongst many due to being ideal for high volume printing. As offset and digital printing use different methods there is naturally going to be differences in the quality of output, albeit subtle to the untrained eye. Whilst colours may not appear as bright and vivid as that of a digital print, litho print tends to be more consistent, so this is something to consider when deciding the best method for the job. Due to these differing specifications such as length of runs and the desired output, there are arguments for both digital and litho technologies and the more industry members we speak to, the more it becomes apparent that there is a space for both technologies to complement one another. HOLDING ITS OWN As digital print technologies continue to evolve, we ask whether there is still a place for litho in the print industry and find out how industry members are using the historic technology within their production processes ▲ Route 1 Print’s litho stream produces long-run orders of flat and folded items
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