Graphic Design
Graphic Design
Graphic Design
INVENTION
HISTORY
PARTS OF THE MACHINE
PROCESS INVOLVED
USES
COMPARISON WITH OTHER PROCESSES
SUBMITTED BY:
PRACHI
FC-V
NIFT MUMBAI
The Invention of Movable Type Printing
Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz is acknowledged as the first to invent a metal movable-type
printing system in Europe. Gutenberg was a goldsmith familiar with techniques of cutting punches for
making coins from moulds. Between 1436 and 1450 he developed hardware and techniques for casting
letters from matrices using a device called the hand mould. Gutenberg's key invention and contribution to
movable-type printing in Europe, the hand mould was the first practical means of making cheap copies of
letterpunches in the vast quantities needed to print complete books, making the movable-type printing
process a viable enterprise.
Before Gutenberg, books were copied out by hand on scrolls and paper, or printed from hand-carved
wooden blocks. It was extremely time-consuming, even a small book could take months to complete, and
the carved letters or blocks were very flimsy and the susceptibility of wood to ink gave such blocks a
limited lifespan.
Gutenberg and his associates developed oil-based inks ideally suited to printing with a press on paper,
and the first Latin typefacesGutenberg's movable-type printing system spread rapidly across Europe, from
the single Mainz press in 1457 to 110 presses by 1480, of which 50 were in Italy. Venice quickly became
the center of typographic and printing activity. Significant were the contributions of Nicolas
Jenson, Francesco Griffo, Aldus Manutius, and other printers of late 15th-century Europe.
Gutenberg devised an alloy of lead, tin and antinomy that would melt at low
temperature, cast well in the die, and be durable in the press. It was then possible to
use and reuse the separate pieces of type, as long as the metal in which they were cast
did not wear down, simply by arranging them in the desired order. The mirror image
of each letter (rather than entire words or phrases), was carved in relief on a small
block. Individual letters, easily movable, were put together to form words; words
separated by blank spaces formed lines of type; and lines of type were brought
together to make up a page. Since letters could be arranged into any format, an infinite
variety of texts could be printed by reusing and resetting the type.
1. The Chinese were performing woodblock printing as far back as the eighth
century. In fact, it is believed that a Chinese man named Bi Sheng (c. 990-
1051) invented movable clay type in the 11th century---a painstaking
process that involved placing thinly cut pieces of baked clay upon an iron
plate covered with heated resin and wax, and then pressing a board upon it
to form the print.
Johann Gutenberg
2.
By 1440, when Johann Gutenberg (c. 1400-1468) was putting together his
printing press, Europeans were already dozens of years into employing
xylography, which is a relief-printing artistic technique. What Gutenberg did
was invent a device that put individually cast, reusable metal letters in a
frame, then inked and applied the letters with pressure to sheets of paper
placed below. This revolutionized printing in that it allowed, for the first
time, the mass production of print material. In 1444, Gutenberg opened a
printing shop, and began to mass-produce documents and books. The most
famous one of them all is known today as the "Gutenberg Bible," of which
he printed the first 200 copies in 1455.
Widespread use
3.
4.
With the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, presses
were invented to be even more efficient than that of Gutenberg. Friedrich
Koenig (1774-1833) and Andres Bauer (1783-1860) invented the world's
first high-speed printing press. Richard Hoe (1812-1886) invented a steam-
powered rotary press that he patented in 1847, and then added the
double-sided, continuously rolling paper feature in 1871.
Before Gutenberg, books were either copied out by hand on scrolls and paper,
and even a small book could take months to complete, or printed from hand-
carved wooden blocks, each block printing a whole page, a part of a page or
even individual letters. But the wood work was extremely time-consuming and
the carved letters or blocks were very fragile and the susceptibility of wood to
ink gave such blocks a limited lifespan. Moreover, the hand-carved letters
were different.
Gutenberg also introduced the use of printing press to press the type against
paper. For this he used a hand press used in his times by wine industry. Ink
was rolled over the raised surfaces of the hand-set letters held within a
wooden frame, and the frame was then pressed against the paper. The press
enabled sharp impressions on both sides of a sheet of paper and many
repetitions. After a page was printed, the type could be reused for printing
other pages.
No one knows exactly how many copies of the Bible were printed, but the best
guess is that around 180-145 on paper and a few more on the more luxurious
and expensive vellum. A contemporary account by a visitor to Mainz indicates
that the book was nearly ready in October 1454 and available for sale by
March 1455.
10. Gutenberg's Bible edition is the Vulgate - the Latin version of the Bible
prepared mainly by Saint Jerome at the end of the 4th century A.D. and used as
the official version of the Roman catholic Church.
History
With the advent of industrial mechanisation, the inking was carried out by rollers
which would pass over the face of the type and move out of the way onto a
separate ink plate where they would pick up a fresh film of ink for the following
sheet. Meanwhile, a sheet of paper was slid against a hinged platen (see image)
which was then rapidly pressed onto the type and swung back again to have the
sheet removed and the next sheet inserted (during which operation the now
freshly-inked rollers would run over the type again). Fully-automated, 20th-
century presses, such as the Kluge and "Original" Heidelberg Platen (the
"Windmill"), incorporated pneumatic feed and delivery of the sheet.
Rotary presses were used for high-speed work. In the oscillating press, the form
slid under a drum around which each sheet of paper got wrapped for the
impression, sliding back under the inking rollers while the paper was removed and
a new sheet inserted. In a newspaper press, a papier-mâché mixture called a flong
was used to make a mould of the entire form of type, then dried and bent, and a
curved metal plate cast against it. The plates were clipped to a rotating drum and
could print against a continuous reel of paper at the enormously high speeds
required for overnight newspaper production.
Rotary letterpress
The invention of ultra-violet curing inks has helped keep the rotary letterpress
alive in areas like self-adhesive labels. There is also still a large amount of
flexographic printing, a similar process, which uses rubber plates to print on
curved or awkward surfaces, and a lesser amount of relief printing from huge
wooden letters for lower-quality poster work.
Rotary letterpress machines are still used on a wide scale for printing of self-
adhesive and non self-adhesive labels, tube laminate, cup stock, etc. The printing
quality achieved by a modern letterpress machine with UV curing is on par with
flexo presses. It is more convenient and user friendly than a flexo press. Water-
wash photopolymer plates are used which are as good as any solvent-washed
flexo plate. Today even CtP (computer-to-plate) plates are available making it a
full-fledged, modern printing process. Because there is no anilox roller in the
process, the make ready time also goes down when compared to a flexo press.
Inking is controlled by keys very much similar to an offset press. UV inks for
Letterpress are in paste form, unlike flexo. There are various manufacturers of UV
rotary letterpress machines, viz. Dashen, Nickel, Taiyo Kikai, KoPack, Gallus, etc.
which also offer hot/cold foil stamping, rotary die cutting, flatbed die cutting,
sheeting, rotary screen printing, adhesive side printing, and inkjet numbering. The
central impression presses are more popular than inline presses due to their ease
of registration and simple design. Printing of up to nine colours plus varnish is
possible with various online converting processes.
TYPE FOUNDING
.
The counterpunch is then struck against the end of a similar rectangular steel
bar—the letterpunch—to impress the counter shapes as recessed spaces
(intaglio). The outer profile of the glyph is completed by scraping away with a
graver the material outside the counter spaces, leaving only the stroke or lines
of the glyph. Progress toward the finished design is checked by successive smoke proofs; temporal prints
made from a thin coating of carbon deposited on the punch surface by a candle flame. The finished
letterpunch is finally hardened to withstand the rigors of reproduction by striking.
Matrix: The letterpunch is used to strike a blank die of soft metal to make a negative letter mould, called a
matrix.
Casting: The matrix is inserted into the bottom of a device called a hand mould. The mould is clamped
shut and molten type metal alloy consisting mostly of lead and tin, with a small amount of antimony for
hardening, is poured into a cavity from the top. Antimony has the rare property of expanding as it cools,
giving the casting sharp edges . When the type metal has sufficiently cooled, the mould is unlocked and a
rectangular block approximately 4 centimeters long, called a sort, is extracted. Excess casting on the end
of the sort, called the tang, is later removed to make the sort the precise height required for printing,
known as "type height", approximately 0.918 inches.
Typesetting
Regardless of who actually invented the case, in order to make his typesetting more efficient, the inventor
arranged the compartments according to the letters' frequency of use. The more frequent letters (t, n, e, i,
o, r) are arranged in a rough circle directly in front of the typesetter, while the less-frequently used letters
and characters are farther away. The arrangement of the letters in the California Job Case became so
popular and commonly adopted that a skilled typesetter could "read" the text set by another typesetter,
just by watching the positions of the compartments where the typesetter reached for his letters.
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The California Job Case has three sections, with the rightmost sections containing capital letters in
alphabetic order except for the "J" and "U", moved to the lowest line to help avoid confusing them with "I"
and "V" respectively. The lower case letters and punctuation marks are in the left and center sections,
with the numbers 1 to 8 at the top of the center section, while the ligatures (combined letters, such as "ff",
"fi", "æ" etc.) are in various locations about the exterior.
In addition to placing the most commonly used letters in setting text in a given language in the easiest
positions for the typesetter to get to, the characters' boxes varied in size depending upon the frequency of
usage of the character. Thus for English the "e" box is the largest while the "j", "k", "q", "x", and "z" boxes
are the smallest.
Prior to the adoption of the California Job Case, the capital letters were stored in a separate drawer or
case that was located above the case that held the other letters; this is why capital letters are called
"upper case" characters while the non-capitals are "lower case".
Other large compartments in the California Job Case held spacers, which are blocks of blank type used to
separate words and fill out a line of type, such as em and en quads (quadrats, or spaces. A quadrat is a
block of type whose face is lower than the printing letters so that it does not itself print.). An em space
was the width of a capital letter "M" – as wide as it was high – while an en space referred to a space half
the width of its height (usually the dimensions for a capital "N").
Individual letters are assembled into words and lines of text with the aid of a composing stick, and the
whole assembly is tightly bound together to make up a page image called a forme, where all letter faces
are exactly the same height to form a flat surface of type. The forme is mounted on a printing press, a thin
coating of viscous ink is applied and impressions made on paper under great pressure in the press.
"Sorts" is the term given to special characters not freely available in the typical type case, such as the "@"
mark, etc.
During the letterpress era, moveable type was composed by hand for each page. Cast metal sorts were
composited into words and lines of text and tightly bound together to make up a page image called
a forme, with all letter faces exactly the same height to form an even surface of type. The forme was
mounted in a press, inked, and an impression made on paper.
The immediate effect of the printing press was to multiply the output and cut the costs
of books. It thus made information available to a much larger segment of the
population who were, of course, eager for information of any variety. Libraries could
now store greater quantities of information at much lower cost. Printing also
facilitated the dissemination and preservation of knowledge in standardized form --
this was most important in the advance of science, technology and scholarship. The
printing press certainly initiated an "information revolution" on par with the Internet
today. Printing could and did spread new ideas quickly and with greater impact.
Printing stimulated the literacy of lay people and eventually came to have a deep and
lasting impact on their private lives. Although most of the earliest books dealt with
religious subjects, students, businessmen, and upper and middle class people bought
books on all subjects. Printers responded with moralizing, medical, practical and
travel manuals. Printing provided a superior basis for scholarship and prevented the
further corruption of texts through hand copying. By giving all scholars the same text
to work from, it made progress in critical scholarship and science faster and more
reliable.
Web-fed rotary letterpress presses are used primarily for printing newspapers.
These presses are designed to print both sides of the web simultaneously.
Typically, they can print up to four pages across the web; however, some of the
new presses can print up to six pages across a 90-inch web. Rotary letterpress is
also used for long-run commercial, packaging, book, and magazine printing.
Rotary letterpress printing is commonly employed for the production of
newspapers and magazines. Rotary letterpress machines require a curved printing
plate that can be affixed to cylinder. Ink is fed and applied to roller from an ink
tray. This roller may feed ink onto secondary metering rollers or may apply ink
directly onto the printing plate. It is common for the roller that applies ink to the
plate to be scraped to avoid excess inking, which can ruin the print. The paper is
pressed against the print plate by another cylinder, referred to as the impression
cylinder, and the ink is transferred to the printable surface in use. Rotary presses
can be either sheet-fed or have paper fed off a large roll called a web, referred to
as web printing.
The platen and bed carry both the paper and the type form. The press then opens
and closes like a clam shell. Platen printing is typically used for short runs such as
invitations, name cards, and stationary. Larger platen presses are used for die-
cutting and embossing. Some platen presses are arranged with the bed and platen
in the vertical plane.
The plate is inked with an inking roller that transfers ink from an inking plate to
the image carrier. Ink is placed on the inking plate by an ink fountain roller. The
platen style press has been widely used in printing small-town newspapers since
the late 1800s. The printing area is usually limited to a maximum of 18 inches by
24 inches. These presses are also used to print letterhead, billheads, forms,
posters, announcements, and many other types of printed products, as well as for
imprinting, embossing, and hot-leaf stamping.
Flat-bed cylinder presses operate very slowly, having a production rate of not
more than 5,000 impressions per hour. As a result, much of the printing formerly
done on this type of press is now done using rotary letterpress or lithography. The
horizontal bed press, the slower of the two types of flat-bed cylinder press, is no
longer manufactured in the United States.
Flatbed letterpress printing is a slow process and, as such, is rarely done in the
United States. On flatbed printing presses, the plate is affixed in the same manner
as on a platen press. The printing plate is inked by a roller. The impression
cylinder pulls a sheet paper around it by way of small grippers that are attached
to the cylinder. As the paper is pulled around the impression cylinder, the entire
bed with the plate moves under the impression cylinder, transferring the ink to
the substrate as it goes.
Traditionally, letterpress has been done with mostly steel, lead or carved wooden
type, along with hand etched pictures, pressed into paper. Letterpress has been
used for centuries to widely distribute printed material, and over the last decade
has created a demand in fine stationery and wedding invitations. Letterpress
struggled with the invention of offset printing (flat printing). Offset decreased the
demand on this antique art, because it is much less labor intensive - reducing the
overall cost. However, the tactile charisma that letterpress offers, in such a widely
digital world, has spurred on a new wave of letterpress lovers.
Nowadays, most letterpress companies combine the ancient art with a relatively
new technique that includes printing with photopolymer plates. These plates
begin as a digital design, broken up into each color, and flat printed onto a
transparency. This transparency will allow photopolymer film to be exposed
through it, creating a raised surface. Once cleaned, it is attached to a plate
(usually either steel or acrylic). This is the "photopolymer plate" that will be used
to press into the soft paper later in the process.
Next comes the most difficult part of the process, preparing the press to print.
Every design has a different impression, and therefore will print differently. The
depth of the impression will vary, as will the ink coverage. So, the operator must
perform his "make-ready." Every operator has a different process of make-ready,
so here is one that might be used:
Make-ready begins with inking the machine up with a thin layer of ink, removing
all previous make-ready, and taping a transparency where the paper will
eventually go. Then the operator will print on to the transparency, to determine
exactly where to place the paper, for the proper "registration" (alignment).
Once the registration is set properly, the operator will likely move to adjust the
printing depth. This requires the operator to raise or lower certain areas of the
printed region, to allow for a deeper or shallower impression in a specific area, so
that it will be consistent throughout the piece. Usually this will also allow the
inking to be even, but when it isn't, he might have to add or remove tape from
the rails that the ink rollers pass along, raising or lowering the ink rollers.
Once finished with the make-ready process, it is time to start printing. Some
machines need the operator to hand feed each sheet of paper that is to be
printed, while others are calibrated to automatically feed each sheet. All of the
paper being used must be cut to exact dimensions to keep everything aligned
properly.
After printing is finished, the operator will clean the press down, removing all ink,
and oil the entire press. If there is an additional color, the full process starts over,
allowing extra care to be taken to properly align multiple colors.
Letterpress printing is the oldest form of press printing in the world. Letterpress
has become an atypical method of printing, having been replaced in large part by
faster and cheaper printing methods such as offset and flexographic printing. It is
still available in many specialty printing shops and is used for a variety of purposes
including business cards, letterheads and embossing. The letterpress process uses
relief printing plates. On relief plates, the image is a raised surface. Historically,
these plates were cast out of metal, but have been largely replaced with
photopolymer material plates due to lower expense and reduction of chemical
byproducts. There are three methods of letterpress printing: rotary, platen and
flatbed.
Applications
Ink Color: Files are created using spot colors, not CMYK or RGB. A spot color
is specified for each color to be used. Typically one or two colors are used.
Paper Color: Dark ink on a light paper gives the best image. Inks are
translucent and the paper color will show through. For light colors on dark
paper, foil stamping or engraving should be used instead of Letterpress. To
build up the color density of a specific color, Letterpress pieces can be run
through the press two times using the same color.
Screens: Grayscale images can be used if made with a coarse screen (85 line
or less). A second color should be used instead of screening a color in most
cases.
Thickness: Art must be above ¼ point and with no hairlines.
Fonts: Type must be five points or larger for best results. For reversed type
the point size should be 12 point or larger, smaller type can fill in. An
outline stroke is often applied to allow for ink gain.
Solids: Letterpress solids will print differently from conventionally printed
lithographic solids. While Letterpress does lay down a thick film of ink, the
process tends to show the texture of the sheet. Also, solid areas do not give
the appearance of depth that fine type and thin lines do. Solid areas can
also cause the paper to ripple, especially on thinner sheets.
Registration: Letterpress does register well, however, it does not have the
capabilities of modern offset printing. Trapping and key lines do not work
well in letterpress printing. A blank area should be incorporated between
colors. Black and very dark colors may be overprinted over lighter colors.
Depth: The type depth is dependent on the paper. Typically Letterpress
papers are thick and soft to allow the type to create a deep impression.
When fold-over items are created, the printer will typically back off on the
pressure to avoid embossing the backside of the piece.
Image and File Prep: Letterpress excels at line copy and type, so vector
images work well. Crop marks should be shown as a register color. Images
need to bleed (extend past the trim line).
Die cut, Emboss and Scores: These effects work well with most Letterpress
paper. Images to be embossed or die cut should be called out in a different
color layer (typically magenta). Scores should be indicated with a cyan line.
Any intricate shapes or patterns should be reviewed with the printer. For
thick cover stocks many printers use a kiss cut rather than a score.
Envelopes: It is best to print on the flap of a ready-made envelope. Other
areas of the ready-made envelopes can be printed but bruising may occur
on the other side of the envelope.
Lithography 47 % 68.5 %
Gravure 19 % 5.4 %
Screen 3% 9.0 %
Flexography 17 % 6.4 %
Letterpress 11 % 4.5 %