Book printing

Book printing is the oldest letterpress printing technology.

As a result of Gutenberg’s inspired discovery in

the middle of the fifteenth century of how to produce

individual, moveable type from lead alloy, it became

possible to reproduce type elements economically and

quickly, and thereby to reproduce books by printing.

The following printing principles are applied in book

printing:

• plane-plane = platen press;

• plane-cylinder = flatbed cylinder printing press;

• cylinder-cylinder = rotary printing.

The importance of letterpress printing has diminished

in recent decades, mainly because of the expense of

producing printing plates.

Quality printing in larger formats can only be achieved on flatbed cylinder presses and only low printing outputs are possible with these presses. The variety of printing plates and printing-plate components that can be used is characteristic of letterpress printing: hot-metal composition printing plates, original letterpress plates, copies of letterpress plates. These may, in turn, consist of various materials: lead alloys, zinc, copper, and photopolymer plastics, and, in art printing, wood and linoleum.

Printing plates for platen printing and flatbed cylinder

printing consist almost exclusively of several fixed,

rigid, flat individual component parts. Semicircular

cast lead plates (stereos) or flexible plastic plates, so calledwash-off printing plates, are suitable for rotary

printing.

Hot-metal composition and photocomposition are

suitable for the production of printing plates for text in

book printing. The hot-metal composition process,

which predominated up to the end of the seventies,

now plays only a minor role in small-format commercial printing, in older letterpress printshops, and in the printing of collector’s items.

Various letterpress printing plates (also called

blocks) are used to print images and graphics in the letterpress printing process:

• Manually produced printing plates (such as woodcuts)

still play an important role in original graphic artwork.

• Letterpress printing plates produced by photomechanical/etching techniques and by electronic engraving are outdated.

• Photomechanical/wash-off procedures predominate.

Photopolymer plates are now used instead of the formerly exclusively used metal (particularly zinc) plates.

Wash-off printing plates (photopolymer plates) can be

produced quickly and reliably. The range of wash-off

printing plates available includes an extensive variety of different printing plates with various wash-off systems, depths, and base materials. Nyloprint printing plates (made by BASF), for example, are made of a light-sensitive plastic that is firmly connected to the base material by a bonding layer. The base material consists of aluminum, steel, or plastic, depending on application. Prints produced using the letterpress technology can be recognized by an accumulation of ink at the edges.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16