Printing on notepads: methods and features, which is better

Notepads have such colorful covers! Even if they are monochrome or black, the shades look saturated. The texture of the covers come in matte, glossy, and patterned. They are made not only of cardboard and paper. Leather, wood or cloth are used for finishing. And on such surfaces also apply colored patterns. Let's look at the three most popular methods of printing on notepads.

Offset printing on notepads

With offset printing the dye is applied to the paper not directly from the printing plate but through special rollers or cylinders. The image is obtained with high quality color rendering, not mirror like on the sketch. This is the most common printing method. It is popular for the following reasons:

• Offset printing is carried out on any paper, cardboard, matt, glossy or rough surface.
• The cover after printing can be processed in different ways: laminated, perforated, cut out.
• Large print runs in high quality can be printed quickly.

The minus of offset printing is that it takes time to prepare the equipment. Therefore, if you need to put an image on notepads urgently, it is better to choose another method. Especially if the circulation is small.

Silkscreen printing on notepads

Printing ink on paper is performed through the intertwined thread, stretched to the frame. In the past they used silk thread, so this printing method is called silk-screening. Nowadays, threads made of metal or polymer are used. How thick the layer of paint will be depends on the diameter of the threads and the distance between them.

The drawing can be applied to the wooden, plastic or fabric surface of the notebook cover. If the substrate is polymer or other material that does not absorb paint, it is fixed with UV treatment.

Silk-screening allows you to make three-dimensional images, velvet effect. However, the resolution of the figure is not high, even if the paint layer is thin. Silkscreen printing is expensive, as the stencil is made under the sketch individually. If you need to print on a small batch of notepads, it is often not profitable.

Digital printing on notepads

This method differs from other methods of printing on notepads that the entire process is computerized. The ink is applied according to a preset template from a file without the use of printing plates. You can quickly change the original images without the expense of time and materials. Digital printing is cheaper when processing small batches of notepads.

Advantages of digital printing:

• Minimal risk of image defects, because you can edit the shades on the computer, accurately combine colors. Only digital printing has such possibilities.
• You can do a preprint on one copy of a notebook to see what the image will look like.
• Digital printing is carried out on various surfaces. You can print the image on both the glossy and the hard textured cover of the notebook.

Which method of printing on notepads is better? It depends on several factors. First of all choose the type of printing in accordance with the circulation. If the volume is small, digital printing will be less expensive. For a large number of notepads you can choose offset printing. For non-standard texture and drawing on wood or a polymer cover - silkscreen printing.