- [Instructor] There's more than one kind of printing.
For example, there's sheet fed offset printing
and that's capable of very high quality
up to 200-300 line screen.
That's great for products such as fine art prints
or product manuals or brochures, even pocket folders
because it can handle heavy stock.
Then web offset printing is appropriate
for jobs that require high volume printing,
such as publications, very long runs or textbooks.
Some web offset presses are capable of inline finishing,
such as folding and gluing and fragrance application.
Letterpress is an ancient format.
It's time-honored, it's very elegant.
It has great depth and character.
It's great when used on heavy, textured, exotic stocks,
and it's used frequently for invitations
and announcements and business cards.
Digital printing, gaining more and more strength
in the printing industry.
It's great for shorter runs.
That's usually less than 5,000 impressions.
It's also great for variable data,
personalized one-on-one mailings.
It is very good quality. It's not a copier.
In fact, if you compare the output
from a digital printing press and an offset press,
you'd have to look very close to see any difference,
and anymore, you really don't,
but only some of these presses support true spot color.
So that might be a consideration for your job.
There's some inline finishing,
not as much as is available for offset presses though.
And then there are other processes such as flexography.
That's great for irregular surfaces.
It can be used on a wide variety of stocks,
but it's used very often in corrugated packaging
and flexible packaging.
Think of snack bags and pet food bags,
but it does support photographic art
and text and vector art.
And finally, there's silk screen.
Now you may know it as being used for textiles.
For example, you probably have some T-shirts
that were so screened.
You may have canvas bags and other products,
but it's also useful for irregular surfaces
such as bottles and jars and cans.
It fully supports photographic art and text and vector art.
Now, who determines the correct printing process?
Well, that's part of your initial conversation
with a potential printer.
Let that printer's expertise guide you
in the right direction.