Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Printing Services - A History

By Dean Smith

When it comes to spreading info to a large number of people, print is one of the most popular media. Over the years the printing services industry has developed vastly and has reached its current form of a diversified industry. Today it addresses a wide range of demands of customers, which goes much beyond printing.

With the invention of the first printing press by Gutenberg in the--00's, bulk printing services in the form of relief printing evolved into a standard industrial service. In relief printing the printed matter appears elevated from the background, just as you see in a rubber stamp. Nowadays relief printing is not as widely practised and has very restricted uses.

The industry has seen radical transformation in the printing techniques used, and these changes were usually propelled by advancements in technology. Modern printing techniques have advanced to a great extent, and each technique has its own role and function. Most clients are in fact bewildered by the abundance of printing options available to them.

Offset printing is a well known printing technique favoured by most printers these days. This technique uses a restricted amount of ink to print the image on metal plates first and then it transmits it onto paper. This method is most suitable for bulk printing, as it is both quicker and lesser expensive than other methods in the market.

Evolution in printing technology has also given birth to other printing techniques like thermal printing, that involves heating of coated thermal paper, and electrostatic printing, that is similar to photocopying.

However, digital printing is the latest technological advancement in this area. As is clear from its name, it involves image development and editing on a computer, and then this computer generated image is finally printed after review. But this quick and trustworthy technique works best in cases where only a few prints are needed. The facility of customized printing with this method has led to computer form printing, where a fixed format is used to print documents like bills and invoices whose contents differ according to the different requirements of each print.

The use of the internet in printing has been another huge leap for the industry. There are many firms in the market now, who permit you to place orders and modify prints directly through their websites, which is providing excellent convenience to the clients.

Printing has always taken giant evolutionary jumps with the progress in technology. The good news is that this trend of change is going to continue unabated in the future too, ushering in positive advancements to enhance performance and reduce costs.

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