Printing

Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing.

History
The intricate frontispiece of the Diamond Sutra from Tang Dynasty China, AD 868 (British Museum)
Woodblock printing

Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns that was used widely throughout East Asia. It originated in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later on paper. As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220, and from Egypt to the 4th century.
In East Asia
“Selected Teachings of Buddhist Sages and Son Masters”, the earliest known book printed with movable metal type, 1377. Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris.
Main article: History of typography in East Asia

By AD 593, the first printing press was invented in China, and the first printed newspaper, Kaiyuan Za Bao, was available in Beijing in AD 713. It was a woodblock printing. And the Tianemmen scrolls, the earliest known complete woodblock printed book with illustrations, was printed in China in AD 868; it did not supersede the use of block printing.
In Middle East

Woodblock printing on cloth appeared in Egypt by the 4th century, though it is not clear if the Egyptian printing of cloth was learned from China or developed separately. Block printing, called tarsh in Arabic was developed in Arabic Egypt during the 9th-10th centuries, mostly for prayers and amulets. There is some evidence to suggest that the print blocks were made from a variety of different materials besides wood, including metals such as tin, lead and cast iron, as well as stone, glass and clay. However, the techniques employed are uncertain and they appear to have had very little influence outside of the Muslim world. Though Europe adopted woodblock printing from the Muslim world, initially for fabric, the technique of metal block printing remained unknown in Europe. Block printing later went out of use in Islamic Central Asia after movable type printing was introduced from China.[1][2]
In Europe

Block printing first came to Christian Europe as a method for printing on cloth, where it was common by 1300. Images printed on cloth for religious purposes could be quite large and elaborate, and when paper became relatively easily available, around 1400, the medium transferred very quickly to small woodcut religious images and playing cards printed on paper. These prints were produced in very large numbers from about 1425 onwards.

Around the mid-century, block-books, woodcut books with both text and images, usually carved in the same block, emerged as a cheaper alternative to manuscripts and books printed with movable type. These were all short heavily illustrated works, the bestsellers of the day, repeated in many different block-book versions: the Ars moriendi and the Biblia pauperum were the most common. There is still some controversy among scholars as to whether their introduction preceded or, the majority view, followed the introduction of movable type, with the range of estimated dates being between about 1440 and 1460.

One of the remarkable tools is known as custom size 4″ x 6″ postcards printing. In this professional era of marketing and promotion, they can be cost effective tools to provide your business a competitive edge. Today, we are going to discuss some popular uses of them. These are as follow:

First of all, they can be used as souvenir. Often when you take a trip, you make use of them as mementos. Not only do you stick with them for yourself, but you also post them to your acquaintances. Company is offering cheap 4″ x 6″ postcards printing to its valued customers worldwide.

The most efficient use of them is to promote your business. Indeed, they have become a cost effective tool in your marketing arsenal. A beautifully designed card can help you market your products towards the target audience. As a result, an aesthetically created design can help you vend your products.

They can also be used as educational medium. For the most part, people accumulate them to gain knowledge of historic items. The way of life is often depicted in them all through the year. With adolescents and infants, they are part of the learning process. These days, they are exercised as flashcards to help broods. Company is presenting eye catching postcards printing designs to its valued customers worldwide. In addition, it is pressing on cheap bumper stickers printing.

More to the point, they can be utilized as travel cards. For the most part, they depict the places. The pictures normally contain the information related to history. Besides, there are many uses of them.

I have been writing articles for last few months and found it an interesting activity. I love to think about different hot topics and write about them.

Virtually all types of promotional pens carry an advertising message or promotional logo but the printing inks used on them can vary enormously, depending upon the material the pen is made from and the printing process being utilised. Here, you will find an overview of the printing inks in most popular use.

Solvent Evaporation Inks: These are without doubt the most common inks used on plastic promotional pens. The term does not apply to any particular ink but is a large family of ink systems formulated for their intended purpose. Solvent evaporation ink systems are optimised for printing on paper & board, touch control panels, overhead projection slides, as well as for promotional pens and many other promotional items. Although their chemistry is diverse, the mechanism for drying is the same; through the evaporation of solvents within the ink. These ink systems can be made up of sixty percent solvent which has to evaporate after the ink is printed. Therefore, it follows that the volume of a solvent evaporation inks decreases by that amount when dried and that is why these inks are regarded as low-build or low-feel inks. These inks when printed on promotional pens achieve a high level of adhesion because the active solvents melt the plastic. This results in a strong bond being created between the ink and the pen substrate and normally this cannot be scratched off. Typically, plastic promotional pens are made from ABS, styrene or acrylic and solvent evaporation inks are perfectly suited to printing these polymers.

Catalyst Inks: These inks are used on promotional pens when the material the pen is made from is impervious to solvent attack. In this case, the bonding mechanism relies on the ink sticking to the pen like glue and there is not chemical bonding between the ink and the substrate, unlike solvent evaporation inks. Again, the term ‘catalytic’ refers to a large family of inks optimised for different materials and applications. Within that family will be inks to print polypropylene, metal, stove enamel, nylon, glass, wood etc. They all have one thing in common, however, and that is their curing mechanism relies on the polymer chains cross linking with each other which is initiated by the catalyst or hardener that is added to these inks. Although these inks carry solvents, they are not usually aggressive because their presence is to make the ink into a printing consistency and not to achieve adhesion. Generally, catalytic inks have a high-build when printed because they have a high solids content.

U.V. Inks: These ultraviolet curing inks, are being increasingly used in the screen-printing industry for printing promotional pens and promotional items in general. They are similar to catalytic inks in that they require an additive to be added to act as a catalyst to initiate cross-linking. This catalyst is referred to as photo initiator. Their main advantage is that they are quite easy to print because they do not dry in the screen. This is referred to as good screen stability and it normally means downtime is reduced. Other benefits of UV curing inks are, finer detail can be printed, higher gloss levels and better print definition. The disadvantages are that they can be quite translucent compared to other ink systems, they have a high build, they are quite brittle, ink-adhesion is more temperamental, high degree of brittleness, they produce ozone when cured and a protective gloves must be worn to handle them. Normally these inks are used to print promotional pens made of ABS or styrene, but it is also now occasionally used for metal pens and pens made from polypropylene.

Long Oil or Oxidation Inks: These inks are hardly ever used these days but are sometimes used for printing on materials when other systems will not provide adequate adhesion. They resemble paint in their drying characteristics in that they require the presence of oxygen to dry properly and they take days to become completely hard. They are characterised by high levels of gloss and have a high build. Occasionally they will be used on wooden promotional pens and metal promotional pens.

In general, all promotional pens must be thoroughly cleaned before they are printed to ensure that adhesion is not compromised. To an ink manufacturer, the surface of a pen is regarded as a hostile environment for a printing ink because of the level of handling and contamination it is subjected to. Therefore, virtually all inks are highly technical in formulation and often only launched after years of development. Because of this, they tend to be very expensive, although the amount required to print each promotional pen is minimal and therefore is a minor cost.

The Pen Warehouse is one of Europe’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of promotional pens and is based in the South East of England. The company prints all promotional pens and pencils in-house and orders can be turned around, printed with your corporate details in twenty four hours.

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