According to Mr Hanumantha Rao, it was the small offset entry level machine (15 x 10 or 15 x 20 category) which was a fast growth area of the industry.

I was very happy when I read that interview because I love the small offset press; especially because it is very easy to operate. They are compact and cute. Plus they have fewer number of switches (as compared to the multi-colour press) which means no complicated operations in order to produce good print.

According to a rough "guesstimate", the small offset has had a significant growth rate of 15-20%. The other reason is: small offset is the main reason, first-time entrepreneurs, screen printers, DTP houses are able to dream "print".

During my walks through Mumbai's greeting cards district (Khadilkar Road) one comes across many units. In Mumbai's space-starved environment, the main advantage is the size of small offset press. It can be installed in any nook and corner and requires only one person to operate.

I recall, there is one such firm in Khadilkar Road which produces mono-colour jobs. You can walk-in, place your order and collect the job in a couple of hours.

In my last year of print engineering at PVG's MIPT in Pune; we had a project of printing the college annual issue. That project required work from the pre-press to post-press production. The best part was printing the annual issue. It was thrilling since we had to print the annual issue without any help and support from the college instructors. I had the responsibility to make the plates and supervise the printing.

Although supervising the printing process was more of learning, I enjoyed it. It was fun to handle an Autoprint 1015 single-colour small offset press. The cover page was in four-colour, which was challenging as it demanded perfect registration. The inside pages were easy to handle as they were printed in single-colour.

There are many manufacturers who manufacture small offset presses. This include names like Autoprint, HMT, Gallantic, Macro print, Rajyog, Fieldstar, Prakash, Patel, Fuser, Patil Offset, Speedograph, Fair Deal Engineers and Seven Star Graphics.

I recall there were solid machines from AB Dick and Swift which the print firms preferred.

Besides its presence in the small cities and towns, small offset presses can be seen in action in Mumbai too. The Fort area in Mumbai has a little lane which is known for the paper traders, stationery suppliers and printers. The stationery shops have allied business of printing and they deploy a small offset press to print jobs in single- and multi-colour.

Today’s small print business depend on the reliability of mini offset printing. This method is impressive when combined with new advances in lithographic techniques. The only real threat to its dominance in the printing industry is the development of digital technology.


Neeraj Verma, Dinapore Press in North India

Anil Pandey of Print Point, Gorakhpur


Mohan Gupta and Pawan Singh of Sunshine Printers



Click here to read "Why I love letterpress" by Sachin Shardul