Application of Stochastic Screening in Different Printing Processes.

The basics of stochastic screening are nowadays widely known to the interested people in the printing industry. But stochastic screens are still not as widely used as could be expected. Most potential users believe that this screening technology is only applicable to high quality offset printing. The purpose of this paper is to show that stochastic screens may also lead to excellent results in other printing processes such as newspaper printing, flexography, gravure and silkscreen printing. The purpose of this paper is to show that stochastic screens may also lead to excellent results in other printing processes such as newspaper printing, flexography, gravure and silkscreen printing. UGRA has gained experiences in all these printing processes. The most critical parameters for the successful application of stochastic screens are the spot size and the correction of the image gradation necessary to compensate the dot gains. Each printing process has its own benefits when using stochastic screens: - Flexography and silkscreen printing have less problems with the occurrence of interference structures resulting from anilox rollers and silkscreen fabrics. - Gravure printing benefits from a better definition of image and text. - Newpaper printing is able to render halftones such that they look like continuous-tones.