View source for Rotary printing press

{{Short description|Printing method}}
[[File:Hoe's six-cylinder press.png|thumb|300px|Hoe's six-cylinder rotary press from the 1860s. The printing plates are located on the large cylinder in the middle.]]
[[File:Goss_quadruple_straightline_printing_press,_1905_drawing.png|thumb|right|300px|Goss quadruple straightline printing press, 1905]]
{{History of printing}}
A '''rotary printing press''' is a [[printing press]] in which the images to be printed are curved around a [[cylinder (geometry)|cylinder]]. Printing can be done on various substrates, including paper, cardboard, and plastic. Substrates can be sheet feed or unwound on a continuous roll through the press to be printed and further modified if required (e.g. die cut, overprint varnished, embossed). Printing presses that use continuous rolls are sometimes referred to as "[[web press]]es".

== Developmental history ==
[[File:Western Daily Press printing press 1858.jpg|left|thumb|Early rotary newspaper printing press in Bristol, 1858]]
[[William Nicholson (chemist)|William Nicholson]] filed a 1790 patent for a rotary press. The rotary press itself is an evolution of the cylinder press, also patented by William Nicholson, invented by Beaucher of [[France]] in the 1780s and by [[Friedrich Koenig]] in the early 19th century.<ref>[https://www.printablepress.com/best-heat-press-machine-reviews/ Multifunction Heat Press Machine]</ref><ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WeR3w30IAiMC&q=Printing+Press+Hauy&pg=PA96 | title=The Blind in French Society from the Middle Ages to the Century of Louis Braille| isbn=9780804772389| last1=Weygand| first1=Zina| date=2009-08-07}}</ref> Rotary drum printing was invented by [[Josiah Warren]] in 1832,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bailie |first=William |url=http://archive.org/details/josiahwarrenfirs00bailiala |title=Josiah Warren, the first American anarchist; |date=1906 |publisher=Boston : Small, Maynard & company |others=University of California Libraries}}</ref> whose design was imitated by [[Richard March Hoe]] in 1843.<ref>{{Cite web |title=JOSIAH WARREN |url=https://faculty.evansville.edu/ck6/bstud/warren.html |access-date=2022-08-26 |website=faculty.evansville.edu}}</ref> An [https://patents.google.com/patent/US3687 1844 patent] replaced the reciprocating platforms used in earlier designs with a fixed platform served by rotating drums, and through a series of advances a complete rotary printing press was perfected in 1846,<ref name="meggs147">{{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 = 147 | isbn = 978-0-471-29198-5}}</ref> and [https://patents.google.com/patent/US5199 patented] in 1847. It appeared in Edinburgh in 1851 and then traveled to London where it was used by [[London Times|The Times]] newspaper in 1853. It then traveled to France in 1866 and Germany in 1873. By the time it reached Spain in 1885, it was in common use.<ref>Lyons, M. (2013). Books: a living history. London: Thames & Hudson.</ref> Some sources describe the Parisian [[Hippolyte Auguste Marinoni]] as the inventor of the rotary printing press, but this was the subject of a patent dispute that was decided in Hoe's favor. [[A.S. Abell]] of the ''[[Baltimore Sun]]'' was the first American user of the rotary press.<ref name=EB>{{cite encyclopedia |editor-first=Dale H. |editor-last=Hoiberg |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |title=Abell, A(runah) S(hepardson) |edition=15th |year=2010 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. |volume=I: A-ak Bayes |location=Chicago, Illinois |isbn=978-1-59339-837-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/newencyclopaedia2009ency/page/26 26] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/newencyclopaedia2009ency/page/26 }}</ref>

== Types of rotary printing presses ==
[[File:Western Daily Press printing press 1908.jpg|left|thumb|'Annand' newspaper press, 1908]]
Today, there are four main types of rotary presses; [[Letterpress printing|letterpress]], [[Offset printing|offset]] (including web offset), [[rotogravure]], and flexo (short for [[flexography]]). Although all the types use [[cylinder (geometry)|cylinders]] to print, they vary in their method.

*Rotary letterpress printing uses type metal plates molded in the form of a cylinder. The plates, called [[Stereotype (printing)|stereotypes]], are coated with ink, then pressed against a continuous roll of paper. Rotary letterpress printing was used in the mid-twentieth century to print most major newspapers.
*In [[offset lithography]], the image is chemically applied to a plate, generally through exposure of photosensitive layers on the plate material. [[Lithography]] is based on the fact that [[water]] and [[oil]] do not mix, which enables the [[planographic]] process to work. In the context of a printing plate, a wettable surface (the non-image area) may also be termed [[hydrophilic]] and a non-wettable surface (the image area) [[hydrophobic]].
*Gravure is a process where small cells or holes are etched into a copper cylinder, which are able to be filled with ink. All the colours are etched in different angles, thus while printing every colour is placed in proper position to give the appropriate image.
*Flexography is a relief system in which a raised image is created on a typical polymer-based plate.

In [[stamp collecting]], rotary-press-printed stamps are sometimes a different size than stamps printed with a [[flat plate]]. This happens because the stamp images are further apart on a rotary press, which makes the individual stamps larger (typically {{convert|0.5|to|1|mm|abbr=on}}).

==See also==
* [[Wetting]]

==References==
{{Commons category|Rotary printing presses}}
{{Reflist}}

{{Letterpress}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Printing technology]]