Printing

Printing is an industrial process for reproducing copies of texts and images, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is an essential part of publishing.

The choice of a printing process depends upon the size of the run, the complexity and quality of the camera-ready art, the number of ink colours, the paper stock and the level of quality desired. Offset printing is the most common commercial printing technology in use today.

Offset printing applies layers of ink on the page. For each layer, a reverse image of the page is placed on a roller in the printing press. Ink is applied to the non-image areas on the roller so that as the roller presses against paper moving through the press, the proper image is left on the paper.