Tuesday, 12 January 2010

A Brief History Of Printing Services

By Sam Smith

Print medium is a popular and powerful means of distributing info to numerous different kinds of individuals, and can be seen even these days. With the passing of time the printing services industry has grown immensely and has developed to its current form of a varied industry. Today it addresses a wide range of demands of customers, which goes much more than printing.

Bulk printing services through relief printing technology originated during the--00's when the world's very first printing press was invented by Gutenberg. In relief printing the printed matter appears elevated from the background, just as it exists in a rubber stamp. Relief printing is rarely in use nowadays, though there are still some cases where it is used.

Technology has always been a motivating factor behind changes in printing techniques that have been adopted down the years. Modern printing methods have advanced to a great extent, and each technique has its own role and function. The astounding variety of available choices in printing methods in fact greatly confuses the customers.

One of the most well known printing techniques in the market today is offset printing. In this method, the image is transmitted onto paper from a metal plate on which the matter is first printed by the use of small amount of ink. This type of printing is very cost effective and fast, and it is often preferred when large quantities of prints are required.

Development in printing technology has also introduced other printing techniques like thermal printing, that involves heating of layered thermal paper, and electrostatic printing, that is akin to photocopying.

However, digital printing is the newest printing method that is getting a lot of popularity. As the name suggests it uses a computer to create an image, which is then previewed and if found to be faultless, printed onto paper. But this fast and trustworthy technique works best in cases where only a small number of prints is needed. As the printer can modify each print in this technique, it can be employed for computer form printing, where documents such as receipts or invoices can be printed for different clients, with each having the same format but different contents.

Printing services took another dimension when the world wide web started becoming popular. Most printing firms have their own websites that permit customers to easily place orders and check out designs and samples, without them having to walk or drive all the way to the firm's premises for this purpose.

Printing has always taken giant evolutionary jumps with the progress in technology. The best part about this trend is that it will stay on track well into the future and keep enhancing the performance and cost effectiveness of printing services.

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