The Printing Industry

The printing industry includes establishments primarily engaged in printing text and images on to paper, metal, glass, and some apparel and other materials.

Printing can be divided into three distinct stages: prepress, the preparation of materials for printing; press or output, the actual printing process; and post-press or finishing, the folding, binding, and trimming of printed sheets into their final form. Companies that provide all three services first prepare the material for printing in the prepress department, then produce the pages on the pressroom floor, and finally trim, bind, or otherwise ready the material for distribution in the post-press department.

Workers who enter the printing industry are typically trained informally on the job. The length of on-the-job training needed to learn skills varies by occupation and shop.