Offset printing – a royal duty

A touch of monarchy – in Switzerland?

With our seven federal councillors and the associated parliament, we certainly embody a certain sovereignty and reliability. However, in certain situations we lack radiance, that certain something, glamor…

Allow me? Allow me.

My name is SET, OFF SET. This is also commonly understood as “deposing” or “transferring”, which does not correspond to our royal understanding at all.

However, “Set off” is intended to embody what began around 120 years ago and revolutionized the further development of letterpress printing invented by Johannes Gensfleisch (known as Gutenberg). While this is a direct printing process, where raised letters are inked and the image is applied directly to the paper, offset printing is an indirect printing technique that only allows the desired impression to be made on the paper using a printing plate and a blanket cylinder. This indirect planographic printing process enables a print run of over 100,000 copies to be printed with incredible speed and precision.

Thus, after Gutenberg, a new king was born in the printers’ guild. Even today, prestigious and large media houses still follow this ideal path. Its predecessor Gutenberg has long since ceased to compete, but has certainly achieved museum status and thus remains unforgotten. The Gutenberg Bible with its 42 lines per page is often mentioned in the same breath. – So much for the past.

When we talk explicitly about offset printing today, little has changed in the process itself. However, the electronics and processing of a sheetfed offset press no longer have much in common with the prototypes from 1904. As a contrast, we are pleased to present our flagship in the Königshaus on Binzstrasse.

Truly royal mass. And with a breathtaking speed of up to 16,000 sheets per hour, we achieve print products of majestic beauty in the shortest possible time and in outstanding quality. Our ecological footprint is also impressive, as we produce in the heart of Zurich, where distances are very short. Time, money and the environment are attributes that many a king has wanted to call his own. We live it!

We have been working with offset printing for 30 years. It has been with us since the company was founded in 1991 and will – if I may say so – retain its crown for the next thirty years.

Long live the king, long live printing!