A Perfecting Press is a type of offset printing press that can apply ink to both sides of a sheet of paper in a single pass through the press.
Web presses, which are roll-fed presses, are all considered perfecting presses because the paper only flows through the press once. However, not all sheet-fed offset presses can perform perfecting, or double-sided printing. The process of applying printed content to both sides of a sheet is often referred to as double-sided printing, two-sided printing, or duplex printing.
A perfecting press, also known as a Perfector, can save production time by allowing double-sided projects to be printed in a single pass, rather than requiring two separate passes. For example, if a press does not have perfecting capabilities, the press operator must wait until one side of the sheet is printed, then manually turn over the sheets and pass them back through the press a second time to print the reverse side. This manual intervention and extra press run both consume valuable time and add to the cost of a print job.
Offset printing presses use separate printing units, or towers, for each color of ink applied to the paper. Therefore, a perfecting press requires more towers than a traditional offset press. For instance, a perfecting press that prints 4-color process (CMYK) on each side of the paper must have at least 8 ink towers. Similarly, a perfecting press that prints 2-color content on each side must have at least 4 ink towers.
Perfecting is very similar to Duplex Printing which is often associated with Digital Printing Press.
Duplex printing and perfecting are two different processes in the printing industry, although they both involve printing on both sides of a sheet of paper.
- Duplex printing, also known as double-sided printing, is a common feature in modern digital printers and copiers. It allows you to print on both sides of a single sheet of paper, which can save paper and reduce printing costs.
- Perfecting, on the other hand, is a printing technique used with offset printing presses. It involves printing on both sides of the paper at the same time, using two printing plates. This can result in faster printing speeds and higher-quality prints compared to duplex printing.
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Jeff @ New York Printing Center
