Digital BW, The Print

----- Original Message -----
From: <stevek@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 4:46 PM
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Mayer Rod Substitute...the saga and workflow


> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Peter Marquis-
> Kyle" <petermk@o...> wrote:
> > Steve K wrote suggesting silk screen printing for coating inkjet
> > prints.
> >
> > I have never coated a print with a squeegee or a mayer rod, but it
> > seems to me that screen printing would allow you to put down a
> > precisely defined area of coating -- perhaps just larger than the
> > printed image -- rather than a messy edge that threatens to glue
> the
> > print to the workbench.
> >
> >
> Peter;
>
> Yes, that is an advantage I didn't mention- with a little care and
> refinement in positioning tecnique, you could get as accurate as
> your printer paper positioning allows. I'd like to think you could
> coat only the image area and not the white paper, but the printer
> mechanics would make that inconsistent. But the taping would be on
> the inside of the screen not on the print, which means there's no
> risk of tearing the paper peeling up masking tape.


To get propper registration one could inkjet print some extra marks on the
paper. With overlay transparent film on the silkscreen table you can get the
print at the right spot by aligning the marks to marks put on the
transparent sheet. Usually with small printruns when there's no registration
possible because the deckle is too rough or the artist wants the image at
more places than one I silkscreen print first on a transparent that has been
tape-hinged at one side then put the to be printed sheet underneath it so it
aligns and then flip the transparent aside and print the sheet. Cutting the
sheet carefully on inkjet printed cut marks and then using the normal
registration tabs on the table will work as well.

Any changes in the matt paper colour or texture with waterbased acryl
varnishes are hard to see I have to admit, so printing to the edge of the
image may be a bit over the top for those papers. Of course when you can
create a texture change or gloss to matt difference between margin and image
then it has sense.
The sealing of the paper itself has an advantage when the paper will stain
from air polution if exposed without glass. Hahnemuhle coatings have that
problem.

Ernst