How Printing Plates Are Created Pre Press?

Commercial printing is a lengthy process. Pre press process alone takes several days to prepare a base for actual printing. Creating printing plate is a vital part of printing, no matter if the company follows off-set printing or digital. The success of final print product solely depends on how plates are created.

When the entire details are obtained from the client, details are converted into film negatives after which the plates are developed. Creation of film negative involves several steps. Here, in this article we will discuss about the creation of pre press plates.

Once the film negatives are created from digital files, the images are transferred to printing plates. This process is very similar to the process of developing photographs. A specific amount of light is passed across the film negatives to obtain the printing plate. When the plates are being exposed to light, a chemical reaction takes place which activates an ink-receptive coating. Consequently, the image from the film negative is transferred to the plate.

For plates there are different materials used. This also includes paper (often preferred by low scale printing companies), though it produces a lower-quality product. An excellent material for plate is the aluminium. This is preferred for pre press activity by all industry standard printing companies. This is an expensive material for pre press. Probably, this is also a reason why low scale companies cannot provide the required quality.

Color separation of the final print is done in this phase only. There are four basic colors which are followed for this technique, i.e. black, cyan (similar to blue), magenta (similar to red) and yellow. For each primary color there is a separate plate. Although, finished print product might show you many different colors, but actually only these four colors are used. Some advance printing companies also provide five color separation modes, in which there are five different slides in five different colors. Two-color printing is also there which has its significance and is used according to the requirement.

Creation of plates is vital to obtain high quality final print product. Though, this process is very basic and just another phase of pre press yet it is highly significant to attain the class. Without accurate color plates, it is hard to imagine the excellence of printing in finished product. No doubt printing has come to many levels up where the competition to touch industry standard has become tougher.