What can I do when logged in?

You can submit new articles, so we can make unique versions of them and distribute them for you.
If you want to simply publish the same article on 800 websites, you can tell us to do that.
You can see the archive and current status of all your article distributions.
You can order any number of high-quality articles - just let us know your keywords.
You can browse the archive of all the articles we have written for you.
You can order our Complete Service (10 high-quality articles plus 10 article distributions).
You can purchase more credits for our services and check your affiliate earnings.
Much more ...

SpinDistribute.com Article Directory

The following article was published in our article directory on May 23, 2010.
Learn more about SpinDistribute Article Distribution System.

Digital or Litho printing?

Article Category: Marketing

Author Name: Rob Tyrrell

Digital printing is becoming the more common way of out-putting colour print, particularly in small quantities, being a much cheaper process than the more traditional lithography method. Even so, lithography is still cost effective for large quantities, this is mainly due to the fact that much of the work involved is done at the start of the process. Once the printing presses have been 'set-up' for a particular job the cost of additional copies is, in the main, down to the cost of the paper.

The lithographic process uses four colours (cyan, yellow, magenta and black) that are printed onto the paper as minute dots. These dots, when seen together, will create an optical illusion that produces all the colours required for an image. This is called a four-colour process. As well as this, a print job can have 'special' colours, these are used for solid areas of a named colour (the Pantone Matching System (PMS) is the standard way of selecting these colours) and gives the designer an opportunity to incorporate 'metallic' colours like gold or silver.

To get these colours on to the printed page the 'artwork', that has been created by the graphic designer, is converted to photographic plates, with a plate to represent each colour used. The plates are covered in a light sensitive medium and is generally made from aluminium. A photographic negative is produced and used to transfer the image of the artwork onto the plate with a high intensity light. After being exposed the plate is then treated with an emulsion that dissolves the unexposed coating.

Once all the plates are made, they're fitted onto the plate cylinder of the press. In the press, the plate comes in contact with two sets of rollers, one to dampen and one to ink the plate. Lithographic inks are greasy, so that they are repelled by the water on the non-image areas of the plate. the inked image is then transferred or 'offset' on to a rubber blanket cylinder, this then transfers the image to the paper.

Small tweeks have to be made to the amount of ink on the rollers, as this can effect the colour on the page, it take a little time to 'se-up' the press up properly so that it has consistent and correct levels of ink.

There are two types of litho press. Web fed, where the paper is fed into the press from large rolls, and sheet fed where the paper is fed into the press one sheet a sheet at a time.

It has often been said that the litho printing process results in a much better quality result than digital. With modern digital printing techniques this is not necessarily the case any more. Nevertheless, litho printing still benefits from being able to print 'special' colours and remains cost-effective for large print runs.

Keywords: print, litho, digital print,litho print, lithography

Learn more about SpinDistribute Article Distribution System. We also offer a Pro Article Writing Service to everyone who needs premium quality well-researched articles.

SpinDistribute.com Network

Each article you submit at SpinDistribute.com is sent through our innovative Article Distribution System to our network of more than 1840 publishers - about 55% of them are high-quality article directories, 30% of them are niche blogs and 15% of them are other content-rich websites.

To achieve the best possible success we only publish your article to most related websites. This means your article will show up on approximately 640 - 880 most related websites which will give you great SEO results.

We also offer a separate Professional Article Writing Service to everyone who's looking for high quality web content and well researched unique articles.