The process of printing involves the creation of an image on a printing surface. This surface can be stone, metal plate, or even a combination of both. After the image has been created, the artist draws or paints it onto the surface using greasy ink. This ink is then washed away with gum arabic, which is a naturally occurring gum extracted from the sap of acacia trees. The ink adheres to the greasy areas of the plate, while water adheres to the blank areas.
In the early centuries of printing, the process was performed by chiseling the text onto a wood block. Ink was then applied to the block and pages were printed by pressing against the block. In 971 AD, printers in Zhejiang, China, printed the Tripitaka using woodblocks, a book that required more than one hundred thousand. Later, efforts led to the development of early movable type and the development of paper and inkjet printers.
Nowadays, almost all offices and personal computers have printers. Many of them are connected to printing networks. Inkjet printers are usually low-cost and are used for small-volume jobs. The quality of these printers varies from ordinary to superb. Some of the state-of-the-art presses combine several printing techniques, such as an offset machine that uses flexography and a digital printing unit. In the future, you may have to invest in several different types of printing machines if you want your business to remain competitive.