trükivorms

Trükivorms is the Estonian term for the printing form, the physical carrier on which text and images are prepared for printing. In traditional letterpress, a trükivorm consists of a page formed from individual movable type or printing blocks arranged in lines and locked into a chase to create a rigid forme. The forme is inked, and paper is pressed against the raised surfaces to transfer the ink.

Historically, trükivorms enabled the repeated production of identical pages and were central to the development of mass printing. A form could be reused many times, and, for longer runs, stereotyping or electrotyping were used to create durable printing plates from the composed page.

With the shift to modern printing, the scope of trükivorms broadened. In offset printing, the image is carried by flat printing plates that transfer ink to a rubber blanket before printing on paper. In digital workflows, the term can refer to the final page layout or to the plate image generated from the layout.

Materials have included metal type (a lead-based alloy) and wood type for early forms, and metal, plastic, or photopolymer plates for later methods. While the technologies have changed, the trükivorm remains the carrier of the printed image, linking the design stage to the final impressions.

See also: typography, typesetting, letterpress, printing plate, offset printing.