Please find access to a variety of useful resources in the sub-navigation on the left of this page and enjoy reading about the development of this crazy industry below!
The Evolution of Printing
200AD – Wood Block Printing
The move from laboriously copying every word, letter and image by hand began in East Asia with the development of wood block printing in about 200AD. The woodblock had the image and/or text carved into a block of wood in reverse, this was then dipped in ink and ‘stamped’ onto the paper or fabric.
With the creation of each woodblock being a painstaking and labour intensive craft, Woodblock Printing is now an art-form in itself no longer used for commercial print applications (although that might be fun!). We take the simplicity and innovation represented by the approach we take on all the print services that we offer.
15th Century – The First Printing Press
In 15th Century Germany, the first printing press was invented. This mechanical device applied pressure to an inked surface resting upon a medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring an image or text onto it. Text was painstakingly assembled from individual metal typeset (stamps of letters and words) to create each page.
The phrase ‘typesetting’ is still used in printing today to describe the layout of text on a page although this is done on a computer screen in a fraction of the time. The ability to quickly mass produce prints is still a core component of all printing equipment today.
1870s – Offset Lithographic Printing
Lithography is a printing process that uses bespoke ‘plates’ run through a printing press to create the printed materials. These plates originally worked through chemical processes as simple as ink and water and later with the invention of ‘offset’ printing using photographic emulsions and UV light. More recently, plates are created through the interaction of laser imaging and computers.
Lithography allows for much longer runs than the older physical methods and is still the most appropriate method of printing mass-produce high-quality items with identical text and graphics on them in multiple colours e.g. stationery. This ability to mass produce high-quality printed items is still a key feature of the new Indigo services we offer which also have the added flexibility of being able to personalise each print.
1960s – The Photocopier
Photocopying was introduced by Xerox in the 1960s, and slowly replaced carbon paper, mimeograph machines, and other duplicating machines in the work place. Prints were created from an ‘original’ which had been printed, typed or hand-drawn then placed on a glass plate and exact copies made in black ink. More recently colour photocopying has also become possible.
The speed of photocopying still makes it a popular and well-used printing service amongst Cascade Group clientele, one that is especially important and useful where electronic originals are not available or lost.
1990s – The Digital Press
The introduction of the Digital Press in the 90s allowed printing to be made using a digital based image directly to a variety of media. Today it is the most popular method of printing allowing small run jobs to be run directly using desktop publishing and other digital sources.
Digital printing has a higher cost per page than more traditional offset lithographic printing methods but for the small volumes of ‘on-demand printing’ and quick turnaround times required by our customers, this price is offset by the cost saving of not making printing plates.
21st Century – The Indigo
We are delighted to now be offering the cutting-edge of printing technological innovation - the Indigo Press. The Indigo is the highest quality digital printing press available which offers true offset quality and printing dimensions of up to SRA3. Its ElectroInk Printing process deliver extremely high colour consistency, Pantone matching, the ability to personalise each print with variable date and can print up to 120 four-colour A4’s per minute.
With the addition of Indigo printing solutions, Cascade Group now offers the most comprehensive range of printing services that can be tailored to meet the technical, volume and budgetary requirements of each client and each job.