Spectrum Printing

Traditional Vs Waterless

Waterless printing is an offset lithographic printing process that eliminates the water or dampening system used in conventional printing. It uses a special silicone rubber coated printing plate, special ink, and typically a means of temperature control on press.

In waterless printing the process of printing is changed. Traditional printing uses chemicals such as Isopropyl Alcohol or their substitutes. Waterless is a simplified mechanical process. Instead of the press operator balancing the delicate relationship between ink and water and alcohol, all that waterless printing requires is a temperature range for transferring ink to the substrate.

Study Shows Preference for Waterless Printing

Study show preference for Waterless.
According to this study seven out of ten people prefer waterless printing over conventional offset.

Waterless printing continues to gain an appreciative audience throughout the print buying community and beyond.

A recent landmark study, devised and conducted by Ed Boyle of Richmond, VA, showed a significant preference for images produced with waterless printing technology as opposed to conventional offset printing. More than 70% of the men and women from both inside and outside the graphics arts industry who participated in the study declared their preference for waterless images.

A set of three separate test suites were used for the survey. Each was presented to the 64 participants mounted on ten different sheets, under a variety of ambient lighting conditions, printed both waterless and conventional on each sheet. Respondents were questioned about their knowledge or use of such cutting edge printing technologies as On Demand, Waterless, Direct to Plate, Colour Copier and Hi-Fi Colour, to mask the actual intent of the study.

Boyle validated the results of his study using SPSS (Statistical Process Control for the Social Sciences) software.