What Does It All Mean?
Deciphering Printing Terminology (continued)

...is a primer of some of the most common printing methods, their uses, and what sets them apart from one another.

Thermography – A process that actually raises the printed image from the surface.  Slow-drying ink is first dusted with resinous powder and then subjected to heat.  This process melts the resin to form a glossy, slightly expanded, and raised impression.  Thermographic printing can often be seen on things like business cards and invitations. 

Flexography (Flexo) – A flexible rotary letterpress process using wrap-around rubber or photopolymer plastic plates with a raised printing surface and a special fast-drying ink.  It is often used to print uneven or corrugated surfaces and also large areas of solid color (such as borders and background) that do not require sharpness. 

Offset Lithography (Litho) – A printing process in which the inked image is transferred (i.e. “offset”) from the printing plate to an intermediate print blanket before it is printed on the substrate.  Wet offset printing is based on the theory that oil (ink) and water do not mix.  Both the image and non-image areas are on the same plane of the plate (the image areas are not raised), a dampening solution is used, and the ink is chemically attracted to the appropriate image areas of the plate and repelled away from the non-image areas, resulting in a clear, crisp printed image.

Screen Printing – A form of stencil printing that uses a silk, metal or nylon screen containing the image to be produced.  Ink is forced through the screen with a squeegee device to form the image on paper or other material.  Also called silk screen printing.

Gravure - A method of printing in which the ink is held in the etched image areas (called “wells”) below the surface of the plate, as opposed to printing from a raised surface as in letterpress processes like Flexography.  Also known as Intaglio.

** Printing terms and definitions derived from the following sources: "The Business Forms Handbook - An Illustrated Guide to Business Forms and Systems - 4th Edition" and the "Complete Dictionary of Graphic Arts and Desktop Publishing Terminology".