Lithography comes from the Greek word lithos, meaning “to draw on stone”. Lithography involves an artist drawing directly onto a printing surface, traditionally a stone block, but more commonly, a metal plate. The artist then washes the greasy ink away from the image with a substance called gum arabic, a natural gum obtained from the sap of acacia trees. The result is a mirror image of the original image on the plate.
Modern printing technologies have made this process much more versatile, affordable, and visually appealing. They can also help businesses decrease their impact on the environment. These benefits make both traditional and sustainable printing an excellent choice for many types of businesses. To maximize the impact of your sustainable print solutions, use a checklist to ensure you’re making the right choices for your business.
While printing can be done on a large scale, it still requires a skilled hand. As with any industrial process, it takes a lot of time and effort to make a quality print. Throughout history, printing has helped spread ideas and helped shape economic and social changes. Today, information of all kinds has reached every level of society in most countries.
In the 15th century, Europeans began to understand the printing process and started producing printed materials. The Orient, however, had been using the principle long before Europe did. While European writing made use of a limited number of abstract symbols, Chinese writing is composed of 80,000+ symbols.