Jobs, Careers and Occupations

Printing Jobs, Occupations and Careers

Printing

Printing companies print books, periodicals, newspapers, newsletters, pamphlets, financial documents, catalogs, direct mail, advertising inserts, labels, packaging, posters, calendars and custom publications.

Printing occupations include all positions in the printing, copying and scanning industries, including plant managers, press operators or printing machinists, pre-press operators, printing sales representatives and bindery operators

Printing is an industrial process for reproducing copies of texts and images, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is an essential part of publishing.

Books are usually printed today using the technique of offset printing and occasionally relief print.

A document can also be printed by a laser printer, inkjet, or other computer printer. In recent years, computer printing and industrial printing processes have converged, leading to the development of digital printing and on-demand printing.

The artistic process of printmaking is also known as printing, as is photographic printing.

Offset lithography, which transfers an inked impression from a rubber-covered cylinder to paper or other material, is the dominant printing process.

With gravure, the recesses on an etched plate or cylinder are inked and pressed to paper, producing an engraved design effect (intaglio).

Flexography is a form of rotary printing in which ink is applied to a surface by a flexible rubber printing plate with a raised image area.

Letterpress printing is the oldest form of printing, in which an inked, raised surface is pressed against paper, remains in existence only as specialty printing.

In addition to the major printing processes, plateless or nonimpact processes are coming into general use. Plateless processes - including digital, electrostatic and ink-jet printing - are used for copying, duplicating, and document and specialty printing, usually by quick and in-house printing shops, and increasingly by commercial printers for short-run jobs and variable data printing.

Printing Related Industries

• Graphic Arts
• Publishing
• Pulp and Paper