Waterless printing

Adapted from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterless_printing

Waterless printing is a method of offset printing which is less environmentally damaging than conventional lithographic printing. Traditionally, printing is a huge consumer of resources, including chemicals, water and energy. Many large presses can consume hundreds of thousands of water per year as part of the normal printing process. Waterless printing takes advantage of modern technology to reduce these environmental impacts. Notably, it uses Computer to plate (CtP) technology and silicon plates to eliminate chemicals and water all together. Many waterless printers also use Direct Ink (DI) technology and vegetable-based inks exclusively to further reduce resource use, pollution and VOCs emissions. Waterless presses are currently in the minority, although they are becoming more popular. Waterless presses are also praised for their high quality colour reproduction, and the reduced paper set-up waste for each job.