Printing Services - A History

By Dean Smith

When it comes to disseminating information to a great 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 needs of clients, which goes much beyond printing.

Bulk printing services through relief printing technology started during the--00's when the world's very first printing press was invented by Gutenberg. In relief printing the printed impression appears elevated from the base, just as you see in a rubber stamp. These days relief printing is not as popular and has very limited uses.

Printing methods have transformed greatly down the years, and these transformations have been brought about by introduction of latest technologies. There are many kinds of printing techniques available today and each has its own use. The mind-boggling variety of available choices in printing methods in fact greatly confuses the clients.

One of the most popular printing techniques in the market today is offset printing. In this technique, the image is transmitted onto paper from a metal plate on which the matter is first printed by the use of small amount of ink. This inexpensive and fast technique of printing is highly favoured and used when bulk printing is needed.

Other well known forms of printing that have developed over time are electrostatic printing, which is similar to photocopying, and thermal printing, which creates the print impression by heating coated thermal paper in select areas.

However, the newest innovation in printing technology is digital printing. As the name tells you, in this technique, images are created on a computer, which are then checked for correctness and are finally printed. This method is faultless and fast, but it is best suited only for a restricted number of prints. The facility of customized printing with this technique has given rise to computer form printing, where a fixed format is used to print documents like receipts and invoices whose contents differ in tune with the different needs of each print.

Printing services took another leap when the world wide web started becoming popular. Most printing companies have their own websites that allow clients to easily place orders and check out designs and samples, without them having to walk or drive all the way to the firm's premises for this purpose.

Printing has always taken giant evolutionary leaps with the progress in technology. The best thing about this trend is that it will continue well into the future and keep improving the quality and cost effectiveness of printing services. - 29954

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