Posted on November 07 2026
Almost every promotional poster we sell was printed by offset lithography or by screen printing. Knowing a little about each helps you understand what you are buying, and why an original looks and feels different from a modern copy.
Offset lithography
Lithography was the workhorse of poster printing in the 1990s and 2000s. The image is split into four colours (cyan, magenta, yellow and black), each carried on its own printing plate. Ink passes from the plate to a rubber blanket, then onto the paper, one colour at a time. It is fast, consistent and economical for runs of hundreds or thousands, which is exactly what a national campaign needed.
Under a magnifier, a litho print shows a fine, regular pattern of dots, called a halftone. Colours are built up from those dots rather than printed as solid areas. This dot pattern is one of the easiest ways to tell a period poster from a modern inkjet print, which has no such structure.
Screen printing
Screen printing pushes ink through a fine mesh stencil, one colour per screen. The ink sits thickly on the surface, giving strong flat colours with crisp edges. It suits bold graphic designs and smaller runs, and it was often used for gig posters and special editions. You can often feel the edges of each ink layer with a fingertip.
Outdoor posters
The large 60 x 40 inch posters made for bus shelters, stations and concourse sites were printed to survive outside. That meant wet-strength paper and weatherproof, UV-stable inks. Many have a blue back, so that when a new poster was pasted over an old one on a hoarding, nothing showed through. It is one reason these big posters are so durable on a wall today.
Paper and finish
Record shop posters, at about 30 x 20 inches, were usually printed on matt or silk poster paper. Paper of the period feels different from the bright, heavy stock used for modern reprints, and it takes on a gentle, even tone with age when it has been stored well.
Our own reprints
When we make a first-generation reprint from an original in our stock, it is a modern print on 250gsm silk art paper, and we label it as a reprint in the title. We tell you this so you always know exactly which you are buying.
How to look after an original
- Keep it out of direct sunlight, or frame it behind UV-protective acrylic.
- Store posters flat or loosely rolled, printed side out, in a cool dry place.
- Handle with clean, dry hands and support the whole sheet when you move it.