Printing is the art of producing successive copies of an object by using ink on a surface which can be made by applying a printing press. The oldest non-o paper products involved in printing technology include cylinder sealing and other objects like the Cyrus Cylinder, which is inscribed with characters from the Persian language. Printing and lithography, two other printing technologies, were used to produce highly decorative relief sculptures and Statuettes from ancient times. Today, printing on a wide range of surfaces and in a variety of print sizes can be used for almost any purpose.
Printing on canvas is a relatively new technique, having first been introduced in the 18th century. Canvas printing involves transferring an image or design directly to a stretched textile material. This is done with the help of a special printing machine, which usually consists of an inkjet head and a roller. Two types of printing processes are used in this case:
o The digital printing process, sometimes called laser printing, makes use of inkjet and screen printers. Digital printing presses are usually set up to produce high quality images without the aid of any physical devices. Modern digital printing machines come with very simple and intuitive user interfaces, making them easy to operate. They are available in various price ranges, depending on their features.
o Single colour printing involves printing only one copy of a document, whereas multi-Colour printing uses several different colours in order to produce a photographic-like effect. Each colour must be separately printed on a separate paper using a separate printer head. Multi Colour printing saves printing costs, as each colour can be produced on its own piece of stock. However, it has a shorter lifespan than the single Colour method. Also, printing through this method is limited by the speed of the printer head, printing time and the quality of the final print. These are the two main disadvantages of the multi-Colour printing method.
o Movable type printing also known as DIP printing, is a very popular method used for large volumes of printed matter. The printing head is moved from one area of the document to another, without affecting the quality of the final copy. The printed page is made out of several layers of highly polished photographic paper, coated with resin or glass to give it an optical shine and protect it from dust and other particles. A typical movable type printhead consists of a computer controlled motor that rotates a drum, printing individual colours on the page continuously.
o Some printing technology presses utilize a combination of the above two printing technologies. These types of printing technology presses include both an inbuilt ink-jet head and a computer controlled nozzle, which allow the user to create photo-realistic images from any photograph. The printed images are then mounted on wooden stumps which form a carrier base for them to be shipped to a customer. The main advantage of this type of printing process is that the printer does not require any moving parts, as the printing process itself is self-controlled by the printing press and ink jet head.
o The single printing process can be further classified into two types: desktop and network printing. Desktop printing is done using one printing press which sends the document to several users for reproduction. A desktop printer can be connected to more than one computer or printing server to increase the number of prints made. Network printing, on the other hand, is done by connecting several printheads via a network cable, which allows the user to make as many copies of a document as required.
Nowadays, a wide variety of technologically advanced printing devices is available in the market. You can choose from the available options depending on the requirements you have. Some of these devices include desktop, photo, direct printing, multi-Colour, LED, projection, TV aerial, LCD, Plasma, Waterfall and digital printing. As far as the technology used in the offset printing process is concerned, it mainly includes the following elements: the inks, the inlet material, the printing media, the print head, the frame and the consumables like toner and paper.