Offset printing, also called offset lithography, or litho-offset, in commercial printing, widely used printing technique in which the inked imaged on a printing plate is printed on a rubber cylinder and then transferred to a paper or other material. The rubber cylinder gives great flexibility, permitting printing on wood, cloth, metal, leather, and rough paper. An American printer, Ira W. Rubel, of Nutley, N.J., accidentally discovered the process in 1904 and soon built a press to exploit it.