胶印是广泛使用的印刷技术，是先把上墨的图像转移到橡皮布上，然后再转移到印刷材料表面的一种印刷方法。胶印是平版印刷的一种，也是基于水墨相斥的原理的，胶印技术可以避免印刷表面的水与油墨一起传递到印刷材料的表面上。

胶印的优点如下：

• 图像质量高——比凸版印刷更加清晰、明锐，因为橡皮布能够与印刷材料表面的纹理很好地接触。
• 除了平滑的纸张外，还可以使用范围广泛的印刷材料，例如木头、织物、金属、皮革、较粗糙的纸张等。
• 印版的制作快速、简便。
• 印版耐印率比直接平版印刷更高——因为印版和印刷表面之间没有直接接触。

The first lithographic offset printing press was created in England around 1875 and was designed for printing on metal. The offset cylinder was covered with specially treated cardboard that transferred the printed image from the litho stone to the surface of the metal. About five years later, the cardboard covering of the offset cylinder was changed to rubber, which is still the most commonly used material.

The first person to use an offset press to print on paper was probably American Ira Washington Rubel in 1903. He got the idea accidentally by noticing that whenever a sheet of paper was not fed into his lithographic press during operation, the stone printed its image to the rubber-covered impression cylinder, and the next impression had an image on both sides: direct litho on the front and an image from the rubber blanket on the back. Rubel then noticed that the image on the back of the sheet was much sharper and clearer than the direct litho image because the soft rubber was able to press the image onto the paper better than the hard stone. He soon decided to build a press which printed every image from the plate to the blanket and then to the paper. Brothers Charles and Albert Harris independently observed this process at about the same time and developed an offset press for the Harris Automatic Press Company soon after.

Harris designed his offset press around a rotary letterpress machine. It used a metal plate bent around a cylinder at the top of the machine that pressed against ink and water rollers. A blanket cylinder was positioned directly below, and in contact with, the plate cylinder. The impression cylinder below pressed the paper to the blanket in order to transfer the image to the sheet (see diagram). While this basic process is still used today, refinements include two-sided printing and web feeding (using rolls of paper rather than sheets).

During the 1950s, offset printing became the most popular form of commercial printing as improvements were made in plates, inks and paper, maximizing the technique's superior production speed and plate durability. Today, the majority of printing, including newspapers, is done by the offset process.

参考文献

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• "Offset Printing". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 22, 2004, from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service.^*
• "Graphic Communications Technology". The History of Lithography. University of Houston.
• History of Lithography. International Paper.
• HistoryWired: Rubel Offset Lithographic Press. Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

外部链接

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• How Offset Printing Works

印刷

Offsetdruck | Offset printing | Impresión Offset | Offsetpaino | Offset (imprimerie) | Stampa offset | オフセット印刷 | Offsetdruk | Offsettrykk | Offset (poligrafia) | Impressão offset | Офсетная печать | Офсет штампа | Офсетний друк | In offset