Introduction

Printing is one of the largest manufacturing sectors in the United States. It employed over 1.3 million people in over 55,000 establishments in 2011. The industry is dominated by small and medium sided businesses, most employing fewer than 20 employees.

Applications

Lithographic printing is well suited for printing both text and illustrations in short to medium length runs of up to 1,000,000 impressions. Typical products printed with offset printing processes include:

• general commercial printing
• newspapers
• business forms
• quick printing
• books
• financial and legal documents

Did You Know?

• Lithographic printing makes up 68.5% of the printing industry.
• 47% of lithographic printers are in the major metropolitan areas.
• In the US, 79% of lithographic operations have 19 or fewer employees.
• The annual shipments generated by printers were estimated by the Printing Industries of America as $155,711.0 M in 1999.

Number of printing establishments in the United States (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2011 County Business Patterns)

The NAIICS Codes often associated with lithographic printing operations are: