The development course of electronic publishing in China
Transferring an image from one material to another is called printing. This process plays an essential role in visual communication. Many great leap forwards have been experienced by China printing and publishing industry for the past 20years. The development of the internet has offered a superior condition for the highly integrated newspaper turnkey solution. The manuscript is stored in standard XML format. Users can access the workflow through the internet at any place. When the general editor of Guangzhou Daily were once in the united states, he used internet to access the workflow of his newspaper office, which surprised his foreign colleagues.
Today, printed material is produced by eight basic processes.
Relief or letterpress printing
Gravure or intaglio printing
Planographic or lithographic printing
Heat transfer printing
Xerographic printing
Ink jet printing
Screen-process printing
Photographic printing
They all can produce printed material in single colors and in full color. The first three methods account for most printed mater produced each year. However, for textile or fabric printing, heat transfer, ink jet and screen-process printing are most applied by China Flag Makers in producing custom flags and display banners.
Heat transfer or sublimation printing is not a new process. However, not until recently has the technique grown rapidly. Today, heat transfer printing is used to print fabrics.
Have you ever used a pressing iron to print a novelty design on a flag or on your T-shirt? If so, you have used heat transfer printing.
Modern heat transfer printing starts with a special ink and, in some cases, special paper. The design or pattern is printed on the paper usually by a gravure process. The paper can be a special thermo-printing type, film coated paper, or a ground wood, clay coated type. Use either sheet or roll stock.
When producing our table cloth, the dried, printed image is placed over the cloth and heat is applied. At about 190 degree Centigrade the ink goes from a solid to vapor (sublimation). This causes the dyes to go into the fibers of the table cloth
The modern heat transfer printing machine is capable of printing 1000 meters of table cloth per hour. Of course, a skill operator is needed to supervise and adjust the machine.
