Selection of Printing Methods for Publications [Buke Printing]

Selection of Printing Methods for Publications [Buke Printing]

The printing processing that can be applied to publications mainly includes traditional printing techniques such as embossing, flat printing, and gravure printing. At present, due to the high usage of gravure printing plates and the use of ink containing volatile solvents in printing, it is easy to cause environmental pollution. Therefore, unless the printing quantity is large, gravure printing is generally not used.

Books and publications can be roughly divided into two categories: monochrome publications (such as general newspapers, books, etc.) and color publications. Most monochrome publications use offset printing, which has completely eliminated letterpress lead printing. In foreign countries, there are some cases of flexographic printing to produce printed materials, but there are basically no such cases in China. Color printing is basically dominated by offset printing. Therefore, the choice of printing method for publications is actually a choice between web offset printing and single sheet offset printing, and only in extremely special circumstances will gravure printing be chosen (the proportion of gravure printing publications in foreign countries is still relatively high).

Printing is the replication of the original manuscript. Strictly speaking, since it is a mature printing process, whether it is relief printing, planographic printing, or gravure printing, it should be able to replicate the original manuscript. Relief printing can print text, planographic printing, gravure printing can also print text and color images. The reasons for choosing the printing method for publications are as follows.

① Requirements for the quality of publications. In terms of printing quality, there are three different printing methods. Gravure printing has the best quality, followed by flat printing and embossed printing. Some people also believe that the current flat printing quality is the best. For roll paper printing and flat paper printing, the quality of flat paper printing is generally better. The quality of roll paper printing is also differentiated into commercial printing, semi commercial printing, and newspaper printing.

② Requirements for publication costs. The publisher's wish is to reduce the cost of publishing. Measuring printing technology by cost, gravure printing has the highest cost, followed by relief printing, and of course, flat printing has the lowest cost, which cannot be generalized. Whether it is text printing or color printing, the cost of gravure printing is relatively high. In China, the publishing industry is a low profit business, and cost factors will be an important factor to consider when choosing printing methods. Although the quality of gravure printing is high, the economic burden of high cost has made gravure printing lose its competitiveness compared to flat printing and embossed printing.

③ Publishers' requirements for convenience. Publishers are always willing to choose manufacturers with short printing cycles and convenient business contacts when choosing printing methods. There are fewer and fewer manufacturers in China that can carry out gravure printing of books and periodicals. With fewer manufacturers, there is less room for choice. Whether it is text or color publications, most publishers still choose lithography printing.

In addition to traditional printing, there is also an emerging printing technology that can be chosen for publication printing, which is digital printing. When digital printing is used for small batch printing, its cost is lower than traditional printing methods because it does not require the production of printing plates. However, for large batch printing, the plate making cost of traditional printing methods can be shared among each printed sheet, so the cost of digital printing will appear higher. From the perspective of on-demand publishing and printing, it is undoubtedly wise to choose digital printing.

Selection of Printing Methods for Publications [Buke Printing]