Definitions for "Letterpress Printing"
Keywords:  platen, relief, ink, oldest, rotary
Printing process in which ink is applied to paper, paperboard or film from raised portions of printing plates or type.
Printing process in which the elevated sections of a printing form are inked up and deposit some of the ink on the material to be printed. There are three forms of letterpress printing – in platen printing one surface presses against another; a cylinder press involves a cylinder pressing against a surface; and in rotary printing two cylinders roll against one another. Letterpress printing, the oldest industrial printing process, is used in sheetfed printing for small print runs and special assignments (punching, stamping, perforating, numbering, etc.) and for newspaper printing, though this is now becoming less common. Letterpress printing, in the form of flexographic printing, has been able to hold its own against offset and gravure printing in the area of package printing.
Oldest form of printing in which the printing plate has raised surfaces and the ink is spread onto the plate and then transferred directly to the paper.