Waterless Printing Technology

100% Waterless Printing Techology

Clean air, Clean, adequate water supply, Forest Conservation, Safer Working Conditions.  These are the breakthroughs Waterless Printing offers to the environment, printing industries and the end user of all products produced using the Waterless Printing process.

What are the benefits?
Waterless printing delivers superior reproduction to conventional printing. More tonal contrast. More shades of color. More saturation in every area. Finer detail throughout. Greater color fidelity. Better shadows and highlights. Less dot gain. Sharper color.

Fishprint are one of only very few printers in Australia that offer waterless printing.  All of our process colour (CMYK) printing is at 300 line screen.  This in turn provides each and every one of our clients superior results, with minimum environmental impact.

By eliminating fountain solution and using special plates, ink is easier to control. It's a simple fact, ink and water do not mix. Emulsification reduces vibrancy and so does alcohol.  All inks have vehicle and pigment. Water destroys ink in the process of getting it to paper. Waterless printing delivers the ink direct to the paper without dilution, so colors are brighter, more dynamic and much cleaner than with traditional methods.What are the advantages of 300 line screen waterless printing?

• Greater customer satisfaction

• Brighter, cleaner, saturated and more vibrant colors

• Smoother blends and gradations

• Tints so fine you would swear they were spot color

• A dot pattern that is virtually invisible to the naked eye

• Greater detail in photographs and illustrations

• Greater control of color balance

• Faster make readies and less down time

• Quicker drying times and lower heat buildup

• Higher efficacy and reduced paper waste

• Cleaner printing with no water spots
  

• Less dot gain and better definition

• The most environmentally friendly printing process available
  

Dot Gain: A difference you can see!

Conventional Printing Dot Pattern
In this side by side enlargement, one can clearly see the difference in dot gain between conventional printing and waterless printing. With conventional offset lithography, ink sits on top of a raised plateau on the printing plate. To transfer ink from this raised image area to the press sheet, conventional printing uses fountain solution (a complex mixture of chemicals). This produces dots that are larger and less round. This is known as dot gain.

Waterless Printing Dot Pattern
With waterless printing, ink sits in a recessed image area on the printing plate. To transfer ink from this "valley" to your press sheet requires no fountain solution. This is why it's called "waterless." Waterless produces dots that are a more accurate reproduction of the film which generated them. With Waterless there is less dot gain. What's more, the waterless plate can transfer even more ink. That's why images look so sharp, saturated and colorful.