Lithography

A term describing the most common form of lithography (a printing process in which the image area and the non-image area co-exist on the same plane, rather than from raised or etched type, as in letterpress and gravure printing, respectively; see Lithography) in which a printed image is transferred first to a rubber blanket, and the blanket then transfers (or "offsets") the image to the paper or other surface. Other forms of lithography include ["direct lithography (or di-litho) and waterless lithography. The two basic varieties of offset lithography are sheetfed and web offset lithography. The remainder of this article will deal primarily with sheetfed offset printing.  

EVOLUTION OF OFFSET LITHOGRAPHY
 The offset press as we know it today was invented around 1905 by Ira Rubel, a papermill owner in Nutley, New Jersey, who also used the contemporary lithographic

HISTORY OF PRINTING

The history of printing begins in a parallel course with that of moveable type. Although Johann Gutenberg, a goldsmith from Mainz, Germany (c. 1400:c. 1468), is regarded as having invented both moveable type and the printing press, the former dates back to eleventh-century China, and the latter to eighth-century Japan and ninth-century China. Between 1058 and 1061, Pi Sheng used clay, and later tin, to create type. The nature of the Chinese language (the lack of a true alphabet and the presence of more than 40,000 characters) made the invention and practical use of moveable type a near impossibility. Pi Sheng's type was not widely used, and didn't catch on in the East until a couple hundred years later. Metal type was invented in 1403 in Korea, primarily due to the dearth of hardwood necessary to create workable blocks of type, and was quickly endorsed and adopted by the Korean emperor T'ai Tsung as an aid to government and the preservation of civilization. 

WHAT IS PRINTING?

DEFINITION 1: Printing is a process for reproducing text and images using a master form or template.
                         2 :Printing is Process of Transferring an inked image from its carrier unto a substrate under impression.

TYPES OF PRINTING TECHNOLOGIES
1.Letterpress
2. Offset Lithography

3.Gravure
4.flexography
5.screen printing
6.Digital Printing