Imitation (printing technique)

The title of this article is ambiguous. A description of the “spiritual template” can be found under cliché .

As a poor imitation in is printing a reproduction method for the quick creation of designated pre trains and proofs.

When setting off, the print is not made with a printing press , but the material to be printed is placed on the cliché dyed with printing ink and tapped with a brush, whereby the color is "clapped" on the printed sheet.

In printer language, the term is also generally used for unwanted impressions of ink that has not yet dried. This is how, for example, mirror-inverted copies occur in gravure printing machines due to a lack of paper . Here, the print image is transferred to the pressure roller, so that the next sheet of paper is printed by both the impression cylinder and the pressure roller.

The same effect also occurs in other printing processes, such as with the copy press or when printing on the elevator or counter pressure due to a lack of paper.