Offset litho is by far the most popular form of printing accounting for something like 40% of all printed output worldwide. In fact so popular is it, that you can even view 259 separate videos of litho presses in action on YouTube!
The process itself has basically remained the same since the 1700′s when it was inverted, but no end of technology has been applied around the basic principle of oily inks repelling water. What has changed is the speed and quality which are now a given, and all manufacturers of offset presses pride themselves in quick make readies and high running speeds, something the original inventors of the process would be now deeply impressed with. What has also dramatically changed is getting the image on to the press from finished artwork, which is probably the most remarkable change to happen to the process in its 300 year history.
Litho – the beginning
It is said that ‘the mother of invention is necessity’, and the inventor of lithography, one Alois Senefelder, an Austrian poet and playwright, was badly in debt in the late 1700s and desperately needed a way out. He decided that there was a good living to be made out of not only having his works performed on stage, but also in printing the scripts and then selling them to theatre goers, much like a band might sell CDs after a concert now. Letterpress printing was all the rage at the time, a process that was also invented b another financially desperate man, Johannes Gutenberg, a couple of hundred years earlier. The problem was that letterpress printing was prohibitively expensive in the 1700s.
Mr Senefelder began experimenting with etching images and words onto smooth limestone using a greasy, acid resistant ink. He discovered very quickly that oil and water do not mix and that an image could be formed from the result and applied to paper – and the art of ‘stone printing’ or lithography was born. Litho in fact comes from the Greek word ‘lithos’ which means rock or stone. Bur early lithography was quite a painstaking process, different from the process we know and love now. In fact in those early days, to print 50 copies would take up to 10 hours from start to finish. Nevertheless, a new threat to the dominant process letterpress was born, one that has evolved into a triumphant role in worldwide printing industry today. Needless to say, Mr Senefelder did very well for himself, and his process was widely adopted Europe where he astutely secured patenting rights and his guide to go along with exponents of the process. A Complete Course of Lithography was still in print up until relatively recently.
To be continued…
Peter Harrison is Joint Managing Director of The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK.
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