Litho Printing

“We are in business with MBM since Nov 2017. Every day since, we saw a transparent way of working and a hands-on attitude. MBM is flexible, open to process change requests and eager to do what the customer needs done.”

– Toyota Motor Europe

Lithographic Printing

MBM is proud to be a leading provider of lithographic print, producing quality printed paper and board products over an extensive portfolio of formats to many high-profile brands with excellence as standard. Guaranteed.

Operating both sheet-fed and web-fed offset litho presses, MBM provide a versatile and efficient service printing from 1 to 8 colours and offer the full complement of binding and finishing options to suit your projects.

Working to ISO colour standards, MBM achieve a visual match and consistency in both proof and print production and set their standards to the very highest targets.

About Litho Printing

Offset litho is a method of printing at an industrial scale in which inks are transferred onto aluminium plates to make an impression.

 

The process:

1. All printed colour images are made up of primary colours: cyan (blue) magenta (red) yellow and the key colour black (CMYK). The design (artwork) is set-up on a computer and all the colours on the artwork are separated into CMYK and sent to the plate making facility.

2. The artwork, now split into 4 individual colours, are exposed just like a photograph onto photosensitive aluminium sheets, known as ‘Plates’.

 

3. The Plates are collected by the printer and inserted into the press by clipping onto a roller. Each plate is coated with its corresponding colour by a smaller ink roller. The coloured image is rolled or ‘offset’ onto a cylinder (blanket), which makes an impression on paper being fed through the press. As the paper moves through each set of rollers, the colours mix to create a full-colour image on the page.

4. The pages are guillotined and collated. They are then taken to the finishing department for binding, punching, numbering etc.

Each Colour = 1 Plate

When Would Litho Printing Be Used?

This method of printing is suitable for anything from leaflets to larger quantities such as books, magazines and catalogues.