According to the relationship between the printing plate and the substrate, there are two main methods of book printing in China: pressure printing and pressureless printing.

1. Contact imprint printing

Contact imprint printing is a book printing technology that uses a printing plate or other methods to transfer the graphic information on the original to the substrate. Contact imprint printing is also a traditional printing method. It uses printing ink or colored pigments to reproduce images and text on the surface of paper or other materials with the help of printing machinery. According to the printing process, the printing process generally includes five elements: manuscript, printing plate, substrate, ink, and printing machinery.

According to the form of printing plate, contact imprint printing mainly includes four categories: letterpress, intaglio, lithography, and stencil printing.

According to the printing procedures, the above four printing methods are different between direct printing and indirect printing. Application areas also have different classification habits. China generally divides this into news printing, publication printing (including book printing and magazines printing), packaging and decoration printing, securities printing, stationery printing, and parts printing.

2. Non-contact printing

Non-contact printing, also known as pressureless printing, is a printing technology based on pressureless action. It is a new type of printing form with the development of electronic computer output technology. It does not use traditional printing plates, but uses thermal energy, static electricity, magnetism or inkjet technology under computer control to send toner or ink droplets to the surface of the substrate; or make special paper colored to form clear graphics and text . Non-contact printing has the characteristics of reliable operation, no noise, small equipment, fast speed, convenient operation, and wide application range. It is particularly suitable for copying and outputting hard copies for information network systems in an office environment, providing a small amount of various documents and materials.

Pressureless printing includes laser (electrostatic) printing, inkjet printing, thermal printing and magnetic printing. Among them, the first two are currently more widely used pressureless printing methods.