A printing apparatus applies ink to a surface of a printing plate in the shape of a predetermined pattern and then transfers the ink to a substrate. The printing apparatus includes: an image recording section that applies the ink to the surface of the printing plate; a plate surface observation unit that acquires information about the surface of the printing plate; a storage section that stores information about a reference shape serving as a reference of the surface of the printing plate; and a determination section that compares the information about the reference shape stored in the storage section with the information about the surface of the printing plate, which is obtained by the plate surface observation unit, and determines whether or not the surface of the printing plate to which the ink has been applied is present in a predetermined range of the reference shape.

A foil stamping system includes a foil stamping apparatus capable of arranging and mounting a plurality of foil rolls about a direction orthogonal to a sheet feeding direction for forming a foil image by applying an adhesive on the sheet and stamping foil thereon, and a hardware processor, wherein the hardware processor includes: a foil roil information acquisitor that acquires foil roll information from the foil stamping apparatus; a job information acquisitor that receives and analyzes a job, and acquires job information; and an instructor that specifies a foil roll on the basis of the foil roll information and the job information transmits data for designating the region to be applied to the foil stamping apparatus, and instructs the foil stamping apparatus to perform foil stamping by the specified foil roll.

The invention describes a system (1) for overprinting on formats, comprising at least one printing unit (2), having first actuation means (14), and also comprising format supplying means (6, 7), format collecting means (9), at least one conveyor belt (5), second actuation means (10), and control means (11, 12, 13). The at least one printing unit (2) comprises at least one rotatable printing cylinder (3), having printing zones at the surface, and also first actuation means (14), configured to drive, in a controllable manner, the rotation of the printing cylinder (3). The format supplying means (6, 7) are configured to supply the system with one or more formats (4), each being intended to be overprinted in preset zones to be overprinted. The format collecting means (9) are configured to collect the one or more formats (8) once printed. The at least one conveyor belt (5) is configured to arrange, for the aforementioned one or more formats (4), an advancement path comprised between the format supplying means (6, 7) and the format collecting means (9). The advancement path passes through the printing unit (2). The second actuation means (10) are configured to drive, in a controllable manner, the advancement of the conveyor belt (4) along the advancement path, upstream of the printing unit (2) in the advancement direction. The control means (11, 12, 13) are configured to control, in a coordinated manner, both the first actuation means (14) and the second actuation means (10), so as to determine at each moment a correspondence of the preset zones to be overprinted of the format (4) with respective printing zones of the printing cylinder (3).