Question about printing plates

[jwlawrence06]

Why are some printing plates backward, and some aren't? I would think all printing plates should be backward based on the way they are used...perhaps not?

[jplcom]

It depends on what kind of printer was used in the manufacturing process for the cards. A backward or reverse looking printing plate probably uses an intaglio printing style whereas the normal looking ones use an offset printing style.


Offset printing is where ink is applied to a plate, which transfers to a rubber blanket, then is applied to the paper. The paper is either "sheet-fed" with predetermined sizes of paper, or "web-fed" which uses long rolls of paper on massive reels. Here's an example of an offset print setup:

image066.jpg

Here's a video from Panini showing cards coming off the production line.



It starts with sheets coming off the printing line then getting chopped up, collated, and packaged. Your question would have been answered if they started taking video 5-10 minutes before the start of the video. You can see a stack of sheets that come down one at a time before they further get chopped up. I would think this is sheet-fed instead of web-fed, but it's possible they have an earlier cutting process. Neither feeding style indicates whether it's an offset press though.

The actual cylinder that contains the printing plates doesn't wear down as fast as it only ever touches the rubber blanket (or cylinder). The rubber blanket is what touches the paper which makes better contact with the paper making a higher quality image. If you want in depth analysis of offset printing, you can check it out here. You can read more about offset plates here. To sum up the original plate is normal, the rubber blanket image becomes reversed, then the image is normal again as it's applied to the paper.

Now for printing plates that come reversed they may use an intaglio process like rotogravure (aka gravure) where the impression roll is directly touching the paper, necessitating the need for the image to be reversed on the roll to come out normal in print. It's a gross simplification of the rotogravure process, you can learn more about it here. Here's an example of the gravure printing process:

Gravure.jpg


The major advantage with offset printing is that the cost per impression goes down the more you print. To use an analogy, if you buy one $1 card from a seller and they charge $3.50, that card cost you $4.50. If you buy two $1 cards and shipping is $3.50, then the cost is $5.50, or $2.75 per card. The more you buy (or offset print) the cheaper it is.

The major advantage with gravure printing is an even better quality image that is more consistent on lightweight paper. It also is cheaper to produce the more that is printed. However the start up costs are much higher with gravure and the need for operational safety is a lot higher. It needs to print in a static free environment, meaning even telephones in the area need to be intrinsically safe (aka explosion proof). At my company we don't have many gravure plants still around. Offset printing is much more common though gravure still serves a purpose.

Having said all that, that's not to say that Panini is using gravure printing. It could be some other intaglio style printing process that results in the plate needing to be reversed as it makes contact with paper. They might even do something simple like digital printing, what we would most commonly associate with the printer on our desk but on a massive scale. Then they would simply manufacture the printing plate.

[baystate123]

It depends on what kind of printer was used in the manufacturing process for the cards. A backward or reverse looking printing plate probably uses an intaglio printing style whereas the normal looking ones use an offset printing style.


Offset printing is where ink is applied to a plate, which transfers to a rubber blanket, then is applied to the paper. The paper is either "sheet-fed" with predetermined sizes of paper, or "web-fed" which uses long rolls of paper on massive reels. Here's an example of an offset print setup:

image066.jpg

Here's a video from Panini showing cards coming off the production line.



It starts with sheets coming off the printing line then getting chopped up, collated, and packaged. Your question would have been answered if they started taking video 5-10 minutes before the start of the video. You can see a stack of sheets that come down one at a time before they further get chopped up. I would think this is sheet-fed instead of web-fed, but it's possible they have an earlier cutting process. Neither feeding style indicates whether it's an offset press though.

The actual cylinder that contains the printing plates doesn't wear down as fast as it only ever touches the rubber blanket (or cylinder). The rubber blanket is what touches the paper which makes better contact with the paper making a higher quality image. If you want in depth analysis of offset printing, you can check it out here. You can read more about offset plates here. To sum up the original plate is normal, the rubber blanket image becomes reversed, then the image is normal again as it's applied to the paper.

Now for printing plates that come reversed they may use an intaglio process like rotogravure (aka gravure) where the impression roll is directly touching the paper, necessitating the need for the image to be reversed on the roll to come out normal in print. It's a gross simplification of the rotogravure process, you can learn more about it here. Here's an example of the gravure printing process:

Gravure.jpg


The major advantage with offset printing is that the cost per impression goes down the more you print. To use an analogy, if you buy one $1 card from a seller and they charge $3.50, that card cost you $4.50. If you buy two $1 cards and shipping is $3.50, then the cost is $5.50, or $2.75 per card. The more you buy (or offset print) the cheaper it is.

The major advantage with gravure printing is an even better quality image that is more consistent on lightweight paper. It also is cheaper to produce the more that is printed. However the start up costs are much higher with gravure and the need for operational safety is a lot higher. It needs to print in a static free environment, meaning even telephones in the area need to be intrinsically safe (aka explosion proof). At my company we don't have many gravure plants still around. Offset printing is much more common though gravure still serves a purpose.

Having said all that, that's not to say that Panini is using gravure printing. It could be some other intaglio style printing process that results in the plate needing to be reversed as it makes contact with paper. They might even do something simple like digital printing, what we would most commonly associate with the printer on our desk but on a massive scale. Then they would simply manufacture the printing plate.

Yeah, what he said.

[jwlawrence06]

@jplcom thanks for the explanation!

[pwaldo]

It depends on what kind of printer was used in the manufacturing process for the cards. A backward or reverse looking printing plate probably uses an intaglio printing style whereas the normal looking ones use an offset printing style.


Offset printing is where ink is applied to a plate, which transfers to a rubber blanket, then is applied to the paper. The paper is either "sheet-fed" with predetermined sizes of paper, or "web-fed" which uses long rolls of paper on massive reels. Here's an example of an offset print setup:

image066.jpg

Here's a video from Panini showing cards coming off the production line.



It starts with sheets coming off the printing line then getting chopped up, collated, and packaged. Your question would have been answered if they started taking video 5-10 minutes before the start of the video. You can see a stack of sheets that come down one at a time before they further get chopped up. I would think this is sheet-fed instead of web-fed, but it's possible they have an earlier cutting process. Neither feeding style indicates whether it's an offset press though.

The actual cylinder that contains the printing plates doesn't wear down as fast as it only ever touches the rubber blanket (or cylinder). The rubber blanket is what touches the paper which makes better contact with the paper making a higher quality image. If you want in depth analysis of offset printing, you can check it out here. You can read more about offset plates here. To sum up the original plate is normal, the rubber blanket image becomes reversed, then the image is normal again as it's applied to the paper.

Now for printing plates that come reversed they may use an intaglio process like rotogravure (aka gravure) where the impression roll is directly touching the paper, necessitating the need for the image to be reversed on the roll to come out normal in print. It's a gross simplification of the rotogravure process, you can learn more about it here. Here's an example of the gravure printing process:

Gravure.jpg


The major advantage with offset printing is that the cost per impression goes down the more you print. To use an analogy, if you buy one $1 card from a seller and they charge $3.50, that card cost you $4.50. If you buy two $1 cards and shipping is $3.50, then the cost is $5.50, or $2.75 per card. The more you buy (or offset print) the cheaper it is.

The major advantage with gravure printing is an even better quality image that is more consistent on lightweight paper. It also is cheaper to produce the more that is printed. However the start up costs are much higher with gravure and the need for operational safety is a lot higher. It needs to print in a static free environment, meaning even telephones in the area need to be intrinsically safe (aka explosion proof). At my company we don't have many gravure plants still around. Offset printing is much more common though gravure still serves a purpose.

Having said all that, that's not to say that Panini is using gravure printing. It could be some other intaglio style printing process that results in the plate needing to be reversed as it makes contact with paper. They might even do something simple like digital printing, what we would most commonly associate with the printer on our desk but on a massive scale. Then they would simply manufacture the printing plate.

Wow excellent post. Great information to be had here! Thanks