Summary

Anilox inking technology has caused high interest and expectations during recent years and, nowadays, we can find many applications in all newspaper printing methods all over the world. This is true for letterpress, offset and flexo newspaper printing, a modified version of conventional flexo printing where the anilox technology stems from. But with this wider spread application, the misuse of terms sometimes results in the confusion becoming greater. In several publications, even in highly reputable trade magazins, many terms which relate to this new development are not properly used. Terms like "flexo letterpress" or "flexo offset" can be found: the differences between water-based inks and emulsion inks are mixed-up, new letterpress units are counted as flexo presses, etc., just to name a few of the confusions which come up. With this special report, IFRA will try to clearly distinguish between the various develop- ments and their applications with regard to newspaper printing, and also give short descriptions of the main features. This work was carried out with the help of the IFRA Rotary Press Committee. Its members contributed additions, corrections and remarks for which we are very grateful. In the first part of this report, you will find an alphabetic terminology with several explanatory figures, the second part consists of a trilingual glossary of terms which are ’ mainly used in connection with anilox systems and flexo newspaper printing. This compi lation is the excerpt of several IFRA publications and also presentations given at various events on this subject.