As hard as it may be to imagine, waterless
printing is an easier process to operate than conventional printing.
So easy, in fact, we are able to offer 300 lines per inch as our
standard ruling. Conventional printing companies offer 150 or sometimes
175 line screen. While these screen values are acceptable as a traditional
industry standard, consider the possibilities of a dot pattern twice
as fine as 150 line screen. The dot pattern is virtually invisible
to the naked eye, unlike 150 or even 175 line screen printing.
Waterless
printing offers other results you can see with the naked eye.
But even more fascinating is what you can see up close...under magnification.
Dot Gain: A difference you can see!
Conventional Printing Dot Pattern
In this side by side enlargement at
the bottom of the page, one can clearly see the difference in dot
gain between conventional printing and waterless
printing. With conventional offset lithography, ink sits on
top of a raised plateau on the printing plate. To transfer ink from
this raised image area to the press sheet, conventional printing
uses fountain solution (a complex mixture of chemicals). This produces
dots that are larger and less round. The result is known as dot
gain.
With waterless
printing, ink sits on raised image area on the printing plate.
To transfer ink from this raised image to your press sheet requires
no fountain solution, because the non-printing area has a silicone
coating on the plate itself. This is why it's called "waterless."
Waterless produces dots that are a more accurate reproduction of
the file which generated them. With Waterless there is less dot
gain. What's more, the waterless plate can transfer even more ink.
That's why images look so sharp, saturated and colorful.
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