Printing and reproduction of recorded media (PKD division 18)

• printing of products (for example books, newspapers, magazines and other periodicals, business forms and greeting cards), imprinting on T-shirts and other materials,
• reproduction of recorded media (for example CD, video recordings, software on disks or tapes, discs),
• ancillary service activities (for example bookbinding, photochemical and typesetting services).

Ancillary service activities form an integral part of printing activities, whereas the product (printing plate, bound book, file or computer disk), resulting from these activities, is always obtained as a result of the above-mentioned operations.

The ownership of the input material is not relevant for the classification of activities in the field of printing and reproduction of recorded information media. Division 18 expressly includes processing activities.

Various methods used in printing (lithography, photochemical

• seriography, flexography) are used to transfer an image from a plate, screen or computer file onto a substrate (for example paper, plastic, metal, fabric or wood). Often a computer file is used to directly drive the printing mechanism to create the image or electrostatic and other types of equipment (digital or non-impact printing).

Although printing and publishing activities may be carried out by the same economic entity (for example a newspaper), these activities are increasingly rarely performed at the same location.

• publishing activities, classified in the relevant subclasses of section J,
• manufacture of products using a 3D printer, which are classified according to the type of product manufactured and the material used for it,
• printing on textile products that is part of their production process, classified in the relevant subclasses of other divisions of section C.