Offset Print

Offset printing is a commonly used printing technique in which the inked image is transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on the repulsion of oil and water, the offset technique employs a flat image carrier. Ink rollers transfer ink to the image areas of the image carrier, while a water roller applies a water-based film to the non-image areas.

Offset printing is suitable for high volume printing jobs. It is generally cheaper than digital printing method, and is especially suitable for printing identical and repeating content. When there are many non-repeating contents to be printed in less than 300 copies, the digital printing methods would be more suitable because different plates are needed for each page of non-repeating content. Adobe Illustrator, PDF, and Photoshop source files are acceptable for offset print. The mock-up copy is not recommended to be done using offset method because the cost is much higher. The mock-up is usually done via digital printing before the order is confirmed.

There are many advantages for offset printing:

Consistent high image quality. Offset printing produces sharp and clean images
Quick and easy production of printing plates;
Properly developed plates used with optimized inks and fountain solution may achieve run lengths of more than a million impressions;
Offset printing is the cheapest method for producing high quality prints in commercial printing quantities
Borderless printout as compared to digital printing method
Produce highly accurate margin especially for double sided page printing

However, there are limitations for offset print method too:

- Cost associated with producing plates and printing press setup. As a result, very small quantity printing jobs may now use digital printers.
- Unable to achieve instant print due to the plates and printing press setup

In year 2020, most of the offset printers are using CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) colour format to ensure different ranges of colors are able to be accurately produced during the printing process. However, there are still many RGB (Red, Green Blue) colour format source files since it is the main display colors for computers and scanners. Conversion from RGB to CMYK has to be done before the printing process. The outcome doesn’t suffer much from the conversion from RGB to CMYK.

If you are unsure of the specifications of bleed area for your work, please feel free to talk to us and we are happy to assist you.

Bleed Area / Size and Safe Area

Bleed is printing that goes beyond the edge of where the sheet will be trimmed off. After trimming, there will be no unprinted edges in the final trimmed document. The 'safe' area is the area of your artwork where all important text and images are situated. Any printing outside the 'safe' area are at risk of being cut into when the printed items are being trimmed due to possible variations in the trim position.

To ensure your work is printed exactly to the edge of a sheet of paper/card, it is necessary to print a slightly larger area than is needed and then trim the paper/card down to the required finished size. For example, If you would like to print a name card 90mm (L) x 54mm (H), the below artwork template as the reference for bleed area and safe area.