Offset lithographic printing can remain a desired choice in the printing industry for long

One of the heavy machines to see in print houses printing thousands of press runs is probably the offset printers. Some have the capacity to print one color at a time whereas others can print four to six colors in a single run. These printers come in varying sizes with varying printing capacities and forms. 

Offset lithographic printing works on the principle that water and oil do not mix. Lithography was invented by Alois Senefelder in 1796.  Basically, an image is printed on the blanket cylinder which then transfers the image unto the press sheet. Invented many years ago, it is still very relevant as it satisfies the printing of books, book covers, packages, brochure among others. Even with the advent of digital printing among other types, offset lithography is able to print on different paper grammages with high quality print output. 

Offset printing is an indirect form of printing which means that the substrate does not have a direct contact with the image carrier in printing.

In printing, the cylinder with the image is dampened with water from the water rollers and this water gets attached to the non-image areas which are hydrophilic. The same cylinder is dampened with ink which gets attached to the image areas which are hydrophobic. This is now offset to the blanket cylinder which picks up the inked image and as it touches the papers and by pressure from the impression cylinder, the image gets printed unto the substrate.

Why is offset lithographic printing still very relevant?

I visited one press house where hundreds of reams of paper are printed into different jobs like books, packages etc. The only method used is the offset printing. The fact that cost per print is lesser than other methods is one reason it is very relevant and also it is capable of printing different jobs unlike other methods for instance Epson printer which can print only limited size works which will even take longer to complete. Trying to analyze how helpful these machines are tell of the fact that they are really relevant till date. For print houses where there are offset printers with four color print capacity in a single run, work moves even faster.