Our printing techniques
Printing techniques of Onno & Partners
Which printing technique is important to you? Onno & Partners works with many printing companies in Europe, which all use different in-house printing techniques. This means we can almost always offer you the right techniques and solutions.
We distinguish the different types of printing techniques:
1. Sheet offset
2. Rotation offset
3. Gravure printing
4. Digital
Various printing techniques
We work with various printing techniques. Through partnerships with a top selection of printing companies in Europe, Onno & Partners can offer the right solution in almost all cases, in every printing technique. For each type of printed matter, we have selected parties in Europe that meet a number of basic qualities; competitive prices, good and consistent quality and a high service level.
Onno & Partners takes care of the purchase of the paper, the printing production and the logistical process from A to Z.
Vertical production
Press size number of pages:
16/24/32/48/72/80/96
Specials
Each A4 size up to 96 pages
A3 format: up to 48 pages attached in-line
In-house finishing: binding and perfect glued and also sheets for printing the cover
Horizontal production
Press size number of pages:
8/32/40/48/56/80/96
Specials
Small A4 (e.g. 25 cm x 21 cm) in 4 to 96 pages attached in-line
A3 format up to 48 pages glued in-line and folded and cut to A4 format
A5 format up to 64 pages glued in-line
Horizontal production with a short cut
Press size number of pages:
16/32/48/64/72/80
Specials
Formats such as 28 cm x 18 cm vertical and 26 cm x 17 cm vertical can be produced efficiently; without waste paper!
Unique on the European market!
Gravure
In-line folded / glued / bonded products with a wide range of possibilities in terms of size and finish.
Specials
Brochures up to and including 115 grams of wood-free glossy are possible in gravure!
We distinguish the different types of printing techniques:
1. Sheet offset
Offset printing is the printing of material with aluminium offset plates. With sheet offset, the material to be printed (substrate) has the form of sheets. Sometimes loose sheets are used and sometimes rolls supplied and cut to size just before the printing process. There are sheet presses in all kinds of configurations; from single colours to 10 colours and from A3 format to Jumbo format (the largest press measures no less than 149 x 205 cm). Much larger sheet presses are equipped with inline varnish or inline UV varnish.
2. Rotation offset
Offset is the printing of material with offset plates. Rotation offset is printing on paper from a roll of paper. The paper path is printed on both sides in 4 colours. Almost all rotary offset presses have 4 printing towers, also called printing units. There is a unit per colour (colours black, cyan (blue), magenta (red) and yellow. Some presses are equipped with extra printing towers for an extra PMS colour or for varnish. In addition, there are presses that are equipped with a so-called Flying Inprint. This allows a plate to be changed at speed, which is often used for the impression of dealer names in black of retail brochures.
The printed paper path is folded inline and possibly bonded or glued and cut clean.
Many modern machines are equipped with a palletiser robot that stacks the bundles of printed matter according to a specified pattern. There are two types of rotation offset:
Heat set rotation offset
The ink is forcefully dried in a hot air oven. This is the most commonly used technique for creating door-to-door leaflets. The presses vary in size between 8 pages A4 and 160 pages A4. Due to the large variety of press formats with different widths and heights (cuts), the product portfolios per printer vary widely. Onno & Partners has mapped out the characteristics of all European printers and their presses in detail.
Cold set rotation offset
These presses are mainly used for the production of newspapers and simple leaflets. The drying of the ink takes place by absorption in the paper; so without forced drying. This means that you can only print on uncoated paper (usually newspaper or wood-free offset). The presses are often a lot easier configured in terms of finishing options compared to the commercial heat set rotation presses.
3. Gravure printing
Gravure is characterised by the use of a printing form (ink transfer device) in which small recessed recesses hold the ink. Gravure printing is a very old technique, originating from the art of goldsmithing. Various objects, weapons and armour were embellished with a burin, by engraving a pattern in copper, silver or gold. The resulting grooves were filled with a black dye so that they stood out better. In order not to lose the created pieces of art, they were sometimes printed. With a printing form for gravure printing (or rotogravure), dots (grid naps) are engraved onto a copper cylinder. The entire form is then applied with very thin ink. The surplus ink is scraped away with a doctor blade. As a result, the paper can only take the ink from the naps. The operation of the cylinders is relatively expensive. The high speeds of this rotation technique make it particularly suitable for large sizes in combination with runs.
Gravure can be recognised (with a magnifying glass) by the jagged letters because the entire image, including the text, is built up by round (or square) grid naps.
Furthermore, a gravure press (similar to rotation offset) often has 4 printing units and a folding device that makes it possible to fold, glue or attach in-line.
4. Digital
Digital printing is a technique that became popular at the end of the 90s. A digital printing press can transfer the printed image to the press. Because the image is transmitted digitally, it is also possible to print variable data. Digital printing has been on the rise in the last ten years.
The technique has been greatly improved in recent years and in some cases is comparable to sheet offset.
