Types of Printers

Because of the diversity of the customer base, there are many different types of printing establishments. These are

There are also several related industries which provide services and materials to the printing industry. Commercial printers can vary greatly in size and can take on a wide variety of printing jobs. Their jobs can range from business cards to glossy color brochures. Trade Shops provide services to the printing trade.

They perform printing and finishing functions for printers which do not have all of the equipment for the job. Special Purpose printing involves a limited type of job such as labels or forms.

Quick printing includes copy centers such as Kinkos or Campus copier. These shops now employ direct digital printing devices as well as photocopying equipment. Many of these still also have small offset or duplicator presses for larger numbers of copies.

In-plant printing consists of any company (or university) which has its own print shop on site, which performs printing functions for the organization. Publishing involves printing of books, magazines and newspapers. These usually employ very high speed web (roll) fed printing presses. Package printing involves printing on boxes, cans and plastic films and foils.

Related industries consist of ink companies, paper companies along with film and plate material suppliers. Also included are the press and peripheral manufacturers.