Sheetfed printing refers to feeding individual sheets of paper into a printing press for printing, unlike web printing, in which there are large rolls of paper. This type of printing is most frequently employed commercially for books, magazines, newspapers, and packaging applications.
“Sheetfed” provides much greater accuracy and control than web printing, as each sheet can be individually fed through the press for registration (aligning of printed images onto pages) and is far more precise – an invaluable advantage in applications where print quality is of the utmost importance, such as when printing photos or graphics.
This printing method also provides another advantage in allowing more selection of paper sizes and types. With web printing, the paper must be of equal width to feed through the press, limiting what size users can use. On the other hand, sheetfed printing accommodates various paper sizes more easily.
Sheetfed printing also generally involves more significant delays and costs compared to web printing due to individual sheet feed through the press taking more time, as well as additional press stops needed when changing paper sizes or types. Additionally, changing these adds up financially as well.
Still, sheetfed printing remains the preferred method for many commercial printing applications due to its advantages of accuracy, control, and paper versatility, which outweigh its disadvantages, such as speed and cost.
Sheetfed printing is the go-to option for producing high-quality prints. It has become the industry standard in commercial printing. These presses are faster and more versatile than web presses as they can print on various paper types and sizes. When searching for high-quality prints, a sheetfed press is unrivaled in terms of reliability.