Color printing is an industrial engineering process that uses direct or indirect methods to make images or text manuscripts into printing plates, applies colored ink on the plates, and transfers the colored ink to paper or other substrates under pressure for rapid and large-scale reproduction.

Nowadays, color printing generally uses flat printing.

Lithography, sometimes also known as chemical printing, means that the printed image and the printing plate are located on the same plane. It is based on the principle of "oil and water do not mix" to achieve printing. This printing type is achieved by mechanically or manually presenting an image on a stone or metal surface, and then chemically treating the surface to make certain parts of the image ink friendly, while other blank areas are not. During printing, only the ink sensitive portion of the image is transferred to the paper, forming an imprint. Photolithography, lithography, and offset printing all belong to the category of planographic printing.

Lithography, sometimes also known as chemical printing, means that the printed image and the printing plate are located on the same plane. It is based on the principle of "oil and water do not mix" to achieve printing. This printing type is achieved by mechanically or manually presenting an image on a stone or metal surface, and then chemically treating the surface to make certain parts of the image ink friendly, while other blank areas are not. During printing, only the ink sensitive portion of the image is transferred to the paper, forming an imprint. Photolithography, lithography, and offset printing all belong to the category of planographic printing.