National Print Museum of Spain. El Puig (Valencia)
Museo Nacional de la Imprenta y de las Artes Gráficas de España. El Puig (Valencia)

Founded by Ricardo J. Vicent, with the collaboration of Vicent García Editores

OFFSET

LITHOGRAPHY

PHOTOGRAPHY SCANNING

Offset printing is a branch of lithography, where the limestone is replaced by a metal plate covered with emulsion to receive the image to be printed using a photographic process. This metal plate is placed on the machine’s rollers, which are covered in oily ink that repulses the water also used in the process. The wet, inked plate comes into contact with another rubber cylinder that receives the image to be printed, which then comes into contact with the paper to receive the image.

One major advantage of offset is the quality because the last cylinder in contact with the paper is rubber, which allows better contact with imperfect paper surfaces than in the case of lithography where stone is used against the paper.