Pre-Press Operations: Photography techniques play a significant role in almost all large-scale printing technologies.
Wastes-Pre-press Operations technique produces standard photographic wastes, including empty containers and developer, fixer, and wash waters.

A metal plate that has been coated to either draw or repel ink is used in lithographic printing. The ink is applied using an intermediary rubber roller during the offset procedure. In the lithographic procedure, paper can be sheet-fed or web-fed, with web-fed paper coming in a continuous roll.

The image is engraved onto an image carrier in the intaglio printing process known as rotogravure printing. In rotogravure printing, a metal cylinder is used for each hue, and the image is acid-etched onto the metal in the form of a grid of cells. The cells are recessed into the cylinder, as opposed to offset printing, which places the image level with the plate, or relief or letterpress printing, which raises the image. The cylinder has been etched with cells of various sizes. These cells store the pigment that is applied to the substrate. The cell diameters must be precise because deeper cells produce more intense pigment than shallow cells.
The cells are filled with ink, and a doctor blade is used to clear or scrape the non-printing regions of the plate or cylinder. In contrast to offset printing, which uses an interim cylinder, when paper or another substrate is pressed against an inked cylinder on a rotary press, the picture is immediately transferred to the medium. The engraved cylinder is partly submerged in the ink fountain during each press turn, where it picks up ink to fill its recessed cells.