How Does The Offset Lithographic Printing Process Work?

Offset lithographic printing involves studying the entire process, structure, properties, and interactions between water, ink, and paper. The design is laser etched onto aluminium sheets called Press Plates, mounted on cylinders in printing units. Colour printing uses cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks in the CMYK model. The process includes sheet separation, dampening non-image areas, ink passing through rollers and cylinders, paper running through transfer drums, and final prints being produced.

Colour printing in offset lithography typically uses cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks. This process involves using 4 printing units to apply the different ink colors to the paper.

A sheet-separation unit ensures that only one sheet of paper is sent through the press at a time by using jets of air or a vacuum to separate the sheets.

A mixture of water and chemicals is used to dampen the non-image area of the Press Plate in the offset lithographic printing process.

Ink from the fountain passes through a roller train before being transferred to the Blanket Cylinder and then to the Impression Cylinder in offset lithographic printing.

The paper runs through transfer drums after passing through each printing unit in the offset lithographic printing process.

The offset lithographic printing process involves multiple steps such as design etching, colour application, sheet separation, dampening, ink transfer through rollers and cylinders, paper transfer drums, and final print production.