What is Litho Print?
Litho printing is the process that is used to print large quanitities of literature on to paper. The image is transferred photographically from a digital computer file on to a flexible flat printing plate with a light-sensitive coating. The image on the plate is the ‘right’ way round, and the chemical coating attracts printing ink, but not water. The coating on the part of the plate without the image attracts water but not ink. The plate is assembled on to a roller in the printing machine, and is first coated with water via another roller before coming into contact with the ink roller. The oil based ink stays only on the image part of the plate because of the coating, and the ink is smoothly distributed by means of other, vibrating, rollers. The image (reversed) is then transferred (or ‘offset’) to a rubber ‘blanket’ which is on another roller, and this makes contact with the paper coming through the machine. The reversed image on the blanket is then printed the right way round on to t
