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Printing

The Papercraft Company Ltd. – Printing Services

At the Papercraft Company Ltd. we offer high quality, extremely customer-oriented printing service with unmatched experience and affordability. When you partner with us, you get nothing less than the best professional service backed by the highest quality printed materials. As your printer, we’ll bring personal service to every job we do for you. Our goal is to create marketing printed materials that give your organization a top-notch first impression.

We offer all types of print collateral to promote and support your business. Look to us for all your printing requirments like business card printing, postcard printing, flyer printing, restaurant menu printing and spot or full color printing of envelopes, brochures, folders, catalogs, manuals, labels, posters, banners and more on a wide variety of paper stocks. We can print your files or create the designs for you. Visit our Design Services page to learn about our graphic design capabilities. We provide printing services to businesses country wide.  Give us a call for an estimate on your next custom printing project or use our online request a quotation form.

Different Types of Printing Services we provide:

To make your job a little easier, we’ve listed some of the major printing methods we would use in commercial printing.  Here, then, are the most common options open to you.

Digital printing

Digital printing is the reproduction of digital images on physical surface, such as common or photographic paper, film, cloth, plastic, etc. It can be differentiated from litho printing in many ways, some of which are; Every impression made onto the paper can be different, as opposed to making several hundred or thousand impressions of the same thing from one set of plates, as in traditional methods.  The Ink or Toner does not absorb into the paper, as does conventional Ink, but forms a layer on the surface.  It generally requires less waste in terms of chemicals used and paper wasted in set up.  It is excellent for rapid prototyping, or small print runs which means that it is more accessible to a wider range of designers.  Okay, so this one may not be that common. Many professional printers will admit not knowing very much about digital printing because it’s pretty new – digital printing does not use film but digital imaging technology instead. That means that your text and graphics can be sent directly from your computer desktop to the press, eliminating the need for typesetting and making plates.  While still working its way into the mainstream, digital printing is particularly good for four-color jobs that are short-run (less than 5000 copies) and that need to be turned around in less than two days. However, it tends to be limited in its choices of color and paper.

Emboss Printing

Embossing is a technique which creates a raised, or 3-dimensional, image on a piece of paper. There are two ways to emboss: dry embossing and heat embossing.
Dry embossing, also called relief embossing, is done using a stylus, stencil, and a few other supplies. Heat embossing, also called Stamp and Heat Embossing, is done using special powder, ink, and a heat source.
This is a special printing process that makes an impression into thick paper over printed type or a design. The impression may be concave (rounded inward like a bowl) or convex (curved outward, like the exterior of a sphere or circle).
Embossing is the process of creating a three-dimensional image or design in paper and other ductile materials. It is typically accomplished with a combination of heat and pressure on the paper. This is achieved by using a metal die (female) usually made of brass and a counter die (male) that fit together and actually squeeze the fibers of the substrate. This pressure and a combination of heat actually “irons” while raising the level of the image higher than the substrate to make it smooth. In printing this is accomplished on a letterpress. The most common machines are the Kluge Letterpress and the Heidelberg Letterpress. The term “impressing” enables one to distinguish an image lowered into the surface of a material, in distinction to an image raised out of the surface of a material.
The embossing process can be applied to textiles as non-wovens to get better finished products as sanitary napkins, diapers, tissue paper and others. In printing it is used as an accent process and can be used in conjunction with ink called colour register embossing or with no ink called blind embossing. It also can be used with foil stamping which when embossed with foil is known as combination stamping or combo stamping. All of these processes use a die and counter die. Most types of paper and boards can be embossed and there are no restrictions on size.

Flexography

This is the process used to print packaging materials such as plastic bags, grocery bags, gift wrap or can and bottle labels. Flexographic presses use rubber plates with printed areas raised in relief.
Flexography is a printing process which utilizes a flexible relief plate that can be adhered to a printing cylinder. It is basically an updated version of letterpress. It much more versatile than letterpress in that it can be used for printing on almost any type of substrate including plastic, metallic films, cellophane, and paper. It is widely used for printing on the non-porous substrates required for various types of food packaging. It is also well suited for printing large areas of solid color.
Flexography continues to be one of the fastest growing print processes and is no longer reserved just for printing specialty items. The ability of flexography to print on a variety of substrates allows the process to be used for a wide range of printed products. Food packaging is an important market because of the ability of flexography to print on non-porous substrates. This ability makes it useful for printing on plastic bags as well. Other common applications printed with flexography include gift wrap, wallcovering, magazines, newspaper inserts, paperback books, telephone directories, and business forms.

Gravure Printing

A popular printing method offered by almost every printer. Used to print any variety of different textured materials, this process uses ink economically and requires little time to set up the press.
Offset printing is a technique that’s based on the old adage, “oil and water don’t mix.” It is used for almost all printing on paper, including newspapers, magazines, brochures, etc. The paper products that are inserted into CD jewel cases are printed using the offset technique, as are almost all alternative cardboard packaging materials.
Step 1. Platemaking
A flexible flat plate is covered with a photosensitive chemical. Light is projected through the negative film onto the plate, producing a positive “image area” once the plate is developed. The image area of the plate is chemically treated so that it attracts ink, but repels water. The non-image area is treated so that the reverse happens: ink is repelled, but water is attracted.
Step 2. Wetting
The flexible plate is wrapped around a cylinder. “Water rollers” come into contact with the plate cylinder, thoroughly drenching it. The image area on the plate cylinder repels the water, however.
Step 3. Inking
A thin, even coating of oil-based ink is transferred onto the plate cylinder via the “ink rollers.” The image area, which had repelled the water earlier, accepts the ink. No ink is retained outside the image area.
Step 4. Offsetting
The actual plate cylinder does not come into direct contact with the paper; there is one last intermediate step in which a “rubber blanket” receives the ink from the plate cylinder. This is the stage that gives “offset” printing its name.
Step 5. Printing
Paper is fed between the rubber blanket and an “impression cylinder.” The ink that was stuck to the rubber blanket is transferred onto the paper.
Repeat steps 1-5 for each additional color
A full complement of rollers, rubber blankets, etc. is necessary for each ink color. Typical offset presses are 1-color, 2-color, 4-color, or 6-color. 1-color presses are most commonly used to print black only, although they are not limited to black. 2-color presses often handle black and one additional spot color – perfect for printing simple brochures and newsletters. 4-color presses are usually set up for CMYK. 6-color presses are usually set up to handle CMYK inks and two additional spot inks. If you need 5 inks, and you only have a 4 color press, it’s necessary to break down and set up again so that you can re-feed the paper into the press for the last color.

Screen Printing

Also known as silk screening, this process forces ink through a screen, like a stencil pattern. Often used for non-flat goods, this method is best equipped to print on items like mugs, clothing, ring binders, bumper stickers or billboards.
Screen printing has been used for centuries and although there have been many improvements with the technology, the process still consists of forcing ink through a stencil covered fabric or wire mesh which has been mounted in a sturdy frame. The ink goes through only the open areas of the stencil and is deposited onto a printing surface positioned below the frame. Screen printing is very versatile and it is often the only printing process capable of handling certain applications.
The equipment costs for screen printing are lower than other printing processes, but the rate of production is usually slower. Manual screen printing can be accomplished with only a few simple items: a sturdy frame, screen fabric, stencils, squeegees, and ink. Automatic press equipment is available which greatly speeds up the process, but it is no match for the output delivered by press equipment used for other print processes.
Screen printing can be performed on almost any type of material including paper, glass, fabric, plastic, wood, and metal. Products as varied as signs, posters, circuit boards, mugs, clothing, and soft drink bottles can be printed using the process. Screen printing is very useful when an image needs to be wrapped around an object or when images need to be printed onto oddly shaped manufactured objects.

Thermography Printing

This is a print finishing process that produces a raised image. This process dusts a previously printed image with a powder before the image’s ink has been allowed to dry. Applying heat makes the powder and the ink fuse and form a raised image. This process is mainly used for stationery.
Thermography is the process of spreading thermal powders on the wet ink of a print application and heating it in order to melt the powder into a single solid mass which is raised above the printed surface. It is also known as “imitation engraving”, however an engraving die is not needed with thermography. The process is faster than engraving and it is less expensive.
Thermography can add value to many ordinary print applications. Among the many applications that can benefit from thermography are letterheads, greeting cards, invitations, business cards, marketing applications, announcements, and envelopes. Thermography can make the appearance of many print applications more distinctive, providing a customized appearance that cannot be achieved with any other method.
Thermography is successful when the powdered resins are applied to a printed surface on which the printing ink is still wet. This enables the powder to stick to the printed areas. Any powder on non-image areas and any excess powder on the image areas is suctioned off the substrate before the heating takes place.
The heat is produced with electric heating elements that are placed inside an oven or tunnel. The powdered substrate passes into the heat tunnel where the powder melts onto the heated substrate and is fused with the wet ink. The substrate must be raised to the temperature of the melting point of the powder in order for the process to work correctly. When the heating process is complete, the sheet is cooled and the melted powder hardens into the raised thermographic image.