Shown here is an inlay for which 2 colors were used (black and purple). Therefore, two plates were used, one black and one purple and a sheet of inlays was printed upon twice. Once for black and then once for purple. If the plates are not aligned correctly, then the purple will not hit the right spot and this is called mis-registration or bad registration.

If the alignment is off left to right, or up and down, then all the inlays on a sheet will have the same off-set between the black and purple. But, if the alignment is off by one of the plates being rotated, then all the inlays on each sheet will have a different degree of misalignment.

This is a scan of the same chip, where both inlays display registration issues, one being worse than the other.

Here is a composite, side-by-side close-up of the two inlays.

Jim