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Offset printing
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==History== Lithography was initially created to be an inexpensive method of reproducing artwork.<ref name="meggs146-150">{{Cite book | last = Meggs | first = Philip B. | author-link = Philip B. Meggs | title = A History of Graphic Design | publisher = John Wiley & Sons, Inc. | year = 1998 | edition = Third | pages = 146–150 | isbn = 978-0-471-29198-5}}</ref><ref name="carterpage11">Carter, Rob, Ben Day, Philip Meggs. Typographic Design: Form and Communication, Third Edition. (2002) John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p 11</ref> This printing process was limited to use on flat, porous surfaces because the printing plates were produced from [[limestone]].<ref name="meggs146-150" /> In fact the word "lithograph", which comes from Greek (λιθογραφία), means "an image from stone" or "written in stone". The first rotary offset lithographic [[printing press]] was created in [[England]] and patented in 1875 by Robert Barclay.<ref name="meggs146-150" /> This development combined mid-19th century transfer printing technologies and [[Richard March Hoe]]'s 1843 [[rotary printing press]]—a press that used a metal cylinder instead of a flat stone.<ref name="meggs146-150" /> The offset cylinder was covered with specially treated cardboard that transferred the printed image from the stone to the surface of the metal. Later, the cardboard covering of the offset cylinder was changed to rubber,<ref name="meggs146-150" /> which is still the most commonly used material. As the 19th century closed and [[photography]] became popular, many lithographic firms went out of business.<ref name="meggs146-150" /> [[Photoengraving]], a process that used [[halftone]] technology instead of illustration, became the primary aesthetic of the era. Many printers, including Ira Washington Rubel of [[New Jersey]], were using the low-cost lithograph process to produce copies of photographs and books.<ref name="howard140-148">{{Cite book | last = Howard | first = Nicole | title = The book: the life story of a technology | publisher = Greenwood Publishing Group | year = 2005 | pages = 140–148 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4WwdMJKXzhEC | isbn = 0-313-33028-X}}</ref> Rubel discovered in 1901—by forgetting to load a sheet—that printing from the rubber roller, instead of the metal, made the printed page clearer and sharper.<ref name="howard140-148" /> After further refinement, the Potter Press printing Company in [[New York City|New York]] produced a press in 1903.<ref name="howard140-148" /> By 1907 the Rubel offset press was in use in [[San Francisco]].<ref name="si_rubel">{{cite web|url = http://historywired.si.edu/object.cfm?ID=395|title=Rubel Offset Lithographic Press|work=HistoryWired: A few of our favorite things|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|access-date=30 Sep 2012}}</ref> The Harris Automatic Press Company also created a similar press around the same time. Charles and Albert Harris modeled their press "on a rotary letter press machine".<ref>"Short History of Offset Printing"</ref> Newspaper publisher [[Staley T. McBrayer]] invented the Vanguard web offset press for newspaper printing, which he unveiled in 1954 in [[Fort Worth, Texas]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-18-me-staley18-story.html|title=Staley McBrayer, 92; Inventor of Offset Press for Newspaper Printing|date=April 18, 2002|access-date=October 19, 2017|publisher=[[Associated Press]]|via=[[Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref>
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