Print Techniques
Pick a printing method and see what it's actually good at — minimum run, texture, and where it's used. Runs in your browser — no server call, no tracking.
Offset Lithography
Discovered almost by accident in 1904-06 by American printer Ira Rubel, who noticed an un-inked rubber cylinder picking up and re-offsetting an image. Ink transfers from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to paper — the dominant method for high-volume books, magazines, and packaging ever since.
Letterpress — The Original Method
Directly descended from Johannes Gutenberg's movable metal type (c. 1450), which pressed inked raised type straight into paper. Commercially replaced by offset through the 20th century, but revived today specifically for the tactile debossed impression it leaves — the opposite effect of modern flat-print methods.
Screen Printing
Evolved from ancient stencil techniques, formalized as a commercial process in early-20th-century England and the US. Ink is forced through a mesh screen — thick ink deposits give strong, opaque color even on dark or unusual substrates like fabric, glass, and plastic, which most other methods struggle with.
Digital, Flexo & Gravure
Digital/inkjet: no plates, so it's the only method cheap at a run of one — used for proofs and short runs. Flexography: flexible relief plates wrapped on rollers, standard for packaging and labels. Gravure: ink sits in engraved cells on a cylinder, unmatched quality at huge volume — magazines, wallpaper, banknotes.