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offset printing
printing technique
Also known as: litho-offset, offset lithography
offset printing press
Category:
Science & Tech
- Also called:
- offset lithography, or litho-offset
- Related Topics:
- printing
- lithography
- dry offset
offset printing, in commercial printing, widely used printing technique in which the inked image on a printing plate is printed on a rubber cylinder and then transferred (i.e., offset) to paper or other material. The rubber cylinder gives great flexibility, permitting printing on wood, cloth, metal, leather, and rough paper. An American printer, Ira W. Rubel, of Nutley, N.J., accidentally discovered the process in 1904 and soon built a press to exploit it. In offset printing the matter to be printed is neither raised above the surface of the printing plate (as in letterpress) nor sunk below it (as in ...(100 of 337 words)