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Printing Technology For a small publisher like Paper Shipwright, printing costs on the small print runs that are typical for the models we publish can be very high. The sales expectations for a model may only be 200 to 500 copies and it can be very difficult to match an expected sales volume to an economic printing method - but we believe we have found a working solution. Traditional offset printing only become economic for print runs of over about 1000 copies and hybrid technologies like digital offset (eg HP's Indigo press) only lower the economic limit to 300 - 500 copies. Laser printers are not generally suitable for printing card models as, apart from the very top-end printers, the toner is wax-based and "sits" on top of the card. When scored and folded, the wax tends to break away and flake off. The print quality of Ink-jet printers is now very high, particularly those rated as "photo quality" - but these printers do not generally use water-fast inks and have a big drawback in not using lightfast inks. This can lead to models printed this way fading dramatically over time and the inks running if water-based glues (eg PVA adhesive) are used during assembly. Epson (www.epson.com) introduced a range of pigment-based inks called Dura-Brite for their photo-quality domestic and professional ink-jet printers in 2001. They rated the inks as both waterproof (in normal situations), smudgeproof and lightfast for up to 70 years - and backed these claims with independent tests. The pigment inks used are conceptually similar to those used by offset printing presses and the very high printing resolution ensures near-offset print-quality. The first few Paper Shipwright models were printed using a commercial digital offset press. All other models (and any new ones for the forseeable future) are printed in small batches on an Epson photo- quality inkjet printer that utilises Dura-Brite pigment inks. If a future model is likely to sell over 1000 copies then traditional offset printing will probably be used. This approach to printing ensures we can both continue to offer models at a competitive price and maintain the very high print quality that we feel it is imperative to offer - while providing models that will not colour-run during assembly or fade afterwards. Link to the Epson home page : Link to page explaining Dura-Brite ink technology : |