Lithography - chances are you have heard the term, but what is lithographic printing? Lithography was invented in 1796 by Alois Senefelder, a German actor and playwright. After experiencing problems with the printing of his play, Mathilde von Altenstein, Senefelder found himself falling into debt and unable to publish a new play he had written.
Having experimented with novel etching techniques involving the use of greasy, acid resistant inks on smooth fine-grained stone, he found that this could be extended to allow for printing from the flat surface of the stone alone.
The technique works by using simple chemical processes to create the image. The positive part of an image is a water-repelling substance, whilst the negative retains water. This means that when a compatible printing ink and water mixture is introduced, the ink adheres to the positive part of the image, whilst the water cleans the negative. This discovery enabled much longer and detailed print runs than had been achievable with older methods of printing.
Nearly 220 years later and our experienced team at Colour Print ensure that each litho printing job we undertake is produced to your exact requirements. Using industry approved densitometers and high quality inks we are confident of being able to produce a superb end result every time.
If you would like advice on your next lithographic printing project, do not hesitate to contact our team on 01603 488001 or
websales@col-print.co.uk.
