What does Offset Printing mean?

Many times we may speak to customers that aren’t familiar with printing at all ask us, “what does offset men?”  In a nutshell it is simple to explain.   

Offset printing, is a method of mass-producing printing in which the images on metal plates are transferred to rubber blankets or rollers and then to the print media.  This is where the term offset is derived from.  The printing plates never come in to direct contact with the paper like your inkjet printer at home.

There are two types of offset printing; sheet fed, which is individual sheets that are fed through the press via a feeder.  Then there is web offset, that requires large rolls of paper that is put on the press, web presses are most notable for newspaper type runs.