Glossary: Offset lithography

A modern development of lithography in which the image is lifted from the stone or plate by a rubber roller which then reprints it onto paper. An advantage of this double printing procedure is that it re-reverses the image, which is then printed in its original direction.

 

A printing method that uses the repellent properties of oil and water to reproduce an image on a flat surface. The process originated with the practice of drawing on stones (lithography comes from the Greek word for "stone writing") with an oil-based crayon and then wetting the stone. Oil-based ink would then be applied, repelled by the water, and transferred to a sheet of paper pressed upon it. Technically, a commercial form of planographic printing. Offset lithography is a palaeographic printing method in which the image area and the no image area of the printing plate are essentially on the same plane. They are separated by chemical means, based on the principle that grease (ink) and water (fountain solution) do no readily mix. The ink is transferred from the plate onto a rubber blanket and the to the paper.

 

See Printing technology - other