Your Common Questions About Heatset Printing

By Author: Colleen Davis
Total Articles: 100
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Want to know what heatset printing is all about? Well, heat set web printing is actually part of the bigger concept of offset printing. However, it is good for you to actually understand heatset printing so that you can make wise and informed decisions when you want to print your materials commercially in mass production.

In this guide, I will answer all your common questions about heatset printing. Learn from these items and try to apply what you need for your own mass production of your prints.

1. Definition of heatset printing – Heatset printing is actually a part of the bigger process of printing materials. The heat set process basically refers to the stage in offset printing wherein the inks are being dried. In this case, the ink is dried via the heatset oven after they have been set via an offset printing process or something similar. This helps the inks “settle in” so to speak as the oils or water in the ink evaporates, leaving only the pigments behind.

2. How it ties up with offset printing – Basically, heat set web printing allows the inks in offset web printing to be dried better and faster, ...
... especially when they are applied to glossy type paper materials. This is the only way to secure those oil based inks properly without risking blotting or spillage when not dried properly.

This is actually a vital part already of many offset printing practices and most professional commercial printers have this integrated into their production lines. So in many cases, you will probably encounter this process.

3. Should I go for heatset printing? – Yes, you should avail of this process whenever possible in printing. This applies ESPECIALLY on prints where you will need full color inks applied to glossy type smooth paper materials.

In this way, you can ensure high quality, highly accurate printing that has no spots or spills whatsoever. This is recommended for glossy magazines, catalogs, booklets and even glossy high quality flyers. They will have better colors and more accurate prints when you do avail of this process.

4. Is it expensive? – No. Since most offset printing processes do integrate heat set web printing, it is not as rare as you think they are. This means that the cost of availing of this process is actually not that high. In fact, with the current cheap printing quotations that you already have, you might already have heatset printing factored into those costs. So there is really no additional fees really to have this done. You do not have to worry too much about this.

5. Is it worth it? – Indeed it is worth it. The fact is, the typical amateurish printing that some digital printers do fails in comparison to offset printing with heatset printing processes integrated in. The prints are clearer, the colors more vivid, and all the images, text and design elements are more accurately rendered in this process. If you want truly professional prints, this is the real way to go. You will get your money’s worth out of this believe me.

Great! Hopefully this helped you a lot when it comes to printing. Now that you know all about heatset printing and its advantages, you never have to be afraid about actually availing of the service. This is a lot better than other less accurate and less quality type printings really. So try to go for it when you can.

For more information, you can visit this page on heatset printing