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Letterpress Info

Letterpress Basics

Inking
To get ink out of the can: remove any liners. Using a palette/inking/putty knife, skim a layer of ink (don't gouge) and put on the slab. Knead the ink with the knife, a cross between spreading butter and kneading bread. This is called working up the ink. Warm up those molecules. Do your mixing here, if you wish a color other than what exactly comes out of the can.

Inking the press: using only a little bit of ink, spread ink on the long thin roller. Turn on the press by pushing the red button. Put the top handle with the big black knob facing to the right (this engages the rollers). Let it all go around a couple minutes.

Note if there are any bald spots. Add a small ink dab accordingly. You should not hear a hissing of the ink when you print type, this would be one indication that you have too much ink. Linoleum blocks need this much, however. If you start out with too much ink, you have to clean the press and start over! Over inked type looks just plain awful. The key to good printing is the right BALANCE of Pressure to Ink.

PRINTING
Once you have determined that the block or plate is in the right place (you can also unscrew the silver top holder on the feeder board and move up or down. Don't unscrew all the way. Just loosen to move), and the pressure is how you want it, ink the plate by setting the little black knob at the front of the press to the left (trip). Turn the cylinder and go over the type, then come back. Move the knob to the right (print). Release the gripper by stepping on the pedal with your foot, slide the paper in, let go of the pedal with your foot, turn the cylinder all the way to the end, catching the paper as it releases.

Blocks and Plates
You will need to cut a shim when printing a straight linoleum block, possibly not for a collagraph, so it will be high enough to print. Cut paper to the size of the block, unlock the block, and put the paper underneath. Lock up. For plates, you must flatten any cut edges with a hammer, then you may need to tape the edges down to the magnetic base. The goal is to keep sharp edges away from the rollers.

Proofing
Now is your chance to proof or spec (pronounce speck) the type or block before you commit yourself to the entire run. Look at your first printed sheet. Anything worn? Anything printing that could/should be cut away? Need another shim? Replace type that isn't printing.

Feed Edge
When you print more than once on the same sheet of paper, be sure you use the same feed edge or the registration will be off. Say you are going to have a line that is a different color that will be in the middle of your image; make sure you feed the paper facing exactly how you had it when you printed the rest of the text the first time. Don't use a deckle edge as a feed edge. Make sure your paper is cut at right angles for every corner.

CLEAN UP

Cleaning the Press
When you are done, turn the knob to trip. Put on gloves. Get out the Crisco, mineral spirits and a medium dirty rag to start. Use mineral spirits and a rag to clean your type, blocks, and plates. Leave type or block locked up and wipe it down until it is clean. Crisco and mineral spirits only.

Turn on press. Start with a blob of Crisco and let it run through the press. Wipe it down as it goes. Add more until most of the ink is gone. Then dribble on some mineral spirits. You don't need a lot of solvent. VENTILATION: open both doors, please!

Continue dribbling and wiping for a few minutes. Eventually, you will turn off the press and wipe down the rollers with cleaner rags. FIVE rollers: two rubber rollers, the silver inking roller, the larger silver (distributor) roller, and the silver bottom roller that you can only see if you turn the cylinder toward the right and look down inside. All five rollers must be completely cleaned. Put all oily rags in the red can. Five rollers should be clean now.

Cleaning the Slab and the Ink Knife
Using the ink knife, scoop up all extra ink, wipe on scrap paper and throw in garbage. Pour a drop of mineral spirits on the slab, rub around with the knife. Then wipe the slab and all five sides/edgges of the knife until all is completely cleaned. Put used rags in red can.

SAFETY

1. Always tie up long or longish hair in an elastic or clip when printing. A student once got her hair caught in the rollers when she was bending over the press.

2. Bandage all cuts or open sores.

3. Turn off the press when adjusting anything or just not printing.

4. Don't eat in the shop if setting type.

5. Know where the on/off button is.

6. Keep oily rags in the red can or other can.

7. Wash hands after handling metal type.

8. Open both doors for ventilation when cleaning the press. Odorless mineral spirits are still not good to breathe.

9. Don't leave anything on the paper cutter. Make sure the handle is down, particularly on the large board cutter upstairs.

10. If you work in the room late at night, call Public Safety for an escort. Keep the door closed. Make sure lights off/door closed after you leave.

Photoshop/Illustrator Preparation for Photopolymer Negatives

1. Scan image into Photoshop at 600ppi, 8 bit color (or other color)

2. Save as a tif file, no compression.

3. Optional: Duplicate the file if you have more than one color. Use a new file for each color.

4. Convert each file from RGB to b&w: Image>Mode > Greyscale

5. Image>Adjustments/Levels: Pull black up in Input levels (small slider on left) to get the weight of line you want. OR: Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast and play with the levels there.

6. Erase strays. Use magic wand, etc. Clean up.

7. Convert to Bitmap: Image>Mode>Bitmap / 50% threshold: this is exactly what "rip" will do, making it either solid black or white.

8. Optional: For a PHOTOGRAPH-try a halftone screen. Under 200 halftone screen is good. It gunks up on the press if too high. I've had better results with high contrast line shots, no screen.

9. Save as a Tif / no compression.

10. Open Illustrator: New Document. High Raster 300ppi. Go to File>place-choose file. Then click the button for "Live trace" or "Object Trace"; it will give a slow warning, but continue anyway. (Note: do not skip this step and drag the files instead, the quality will not be good.)

11. Object>Expand (Vector- check boxes for Fill and Stroke)

12. Select all. Object>Path>Simplify. Set sliders to 98-99%. Look at angle also, 152 is good

13. You can move individual parts of the image now. If you want to do this: use with lasso and regular ppi ?) You can ungroup everything, but group it at the end.

14. Select>Same >Fill & Stroke.

15. Edit>Edit Colors>INVERT colors (this gets you the negative)

16. If all is well then: Select all, Object>Lock.

17. SAVE as PDF if using DFAS or Green Graphics.

18. END HERE FOR single B&W plate.

19. OPTIONAL: You can also use fill prep for film. Same>fill & stroke. Black.

21. To produce background colors for a new plate use vector mode and pen tool to trace. First, copy the file. Then do the trace.

22. To add crop marks: go to New from template and "crops". Just set it up once and use it for all the plates. Or go to Object>crop area

Platemaker

1. Preparing the Platemaker.

Red Button-ON
Use Up/Down cursors to choose Program.

Use the Left/Right cursors to underline, select, and set each of the following:

EA (exposure): 180 (add one minute if hairline)

D (drying): 10

T (temperature): 26 (it will warm up)

EB: 0 (or 180)

W (washout): 360

Put cursor back to EA to begin.

2. Exposure. When the water has come up to temperature (26) you may get the plate ready and expose it.

Open Exposure Drawer (top).
Roll back Sheet.

Cursor to EA, press start. Vacuum will begin to sound. (It only starts when the drawer is opened before start is pressed.)

Plate face up.

Remove Plastic.

Neg emulsion side DOWN.

Roll sheet over with no bubbles. Clip.

Close drawer. Exposure will begin.

When it is ready, press stop. Remove plate.

3. Washout.

Open lid and stick plate to magnet.
Move the wooden block down so the lid will close.

Move cursor to W and press start.

Check the plate when it stops. It should not be slimy. Do a partial washout again if it is. Check.

Inspect the plate for little extra bits of material that you don't want to print. You can scrape these off now.

Move the wooden block up so the lid is propped back up.

4. Drying.

Cursor to D. Press start.

5. Hardening.

Cursor back to EA (or EB)
Place plate back in exposure drawer on top of the plastic this time or with plastic rolled back and not over the plate.

Remove when finished.

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