Tiffany's Wedding Part 3: the Conclusion

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Phase 5(b): Laying down the second colour

Well, how 'bout that. We put on the second and final overlay cover. In this installment we pretty well put all the pieces together and see just what these colours do in live action! The Dusky Teal and Magenta were not colours that Tiffany pulled out of the air, they actually BELONG somewhere, as the top photo sorta gives away.

Today is day two for this job. As you remember from the last episode, our hero had to let the monogramme run dry overnight because of heavy ink coverage and hard finish on the paper. Not a real great combo for fast drying, but a nice combo for sharp imagery.

I began the day with my sweet and colour-wise wife suggesting that before I head out to the studio/ shop, slap ink on the disk and crank the second colour, I might give Tiffany a call and let her look at the first colour. Who knows, she may want it lighter? And while I'm at it, double the white in the mix and have the twice-light teal ink ready IF she prefers the lighter version. It made sense, so I did just that, and ran a proof. It was half as dark, looked nice, but not really nice-er. I ran a proof of the magenta text over the lighter teal, and it was a bit more contrasty. So it could go one way or the other.

Tiffany came by and loved the first run. We need not run another 150 of the lighter. So, that accomplished, we proceeded to lock up the second die, which has the Edwardian Script body text in the place where the monogramme block went in the lock-up. This gave me pretty close registration to the first colour and saved me a sheet of tympan paper. I had to move the gauge pins just a touch. I use a micrommetre to level and centre justify my copy on the tympan, which took about 8 or 9 impressions to do. I ran a manual cycle, took an impression, and we were all set to go.

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I took a few shots in case it was hard to imagine magenta on a press that had teal on it yesterday. Sheesh, talk about changing gears . . .

This run went a lot quicker because I didn't have to "double-clutch" the press, that is, I could pull an impression from each cycle, as opposed to yesterday's impression every two cycles. Today I was running text, and not an image with wide areas of ink coverage.

The Pearl Linen finish took the text very nicely, and no depression is seen on the reverse of the cards. But it's not exactly what is called a "kiss" impression, either. There is a little depression of the front fibres of the surface finish, but no separation of fibres. Thus you do see a very slight deboss on the front, which is quite classic. That's what I like to see. Just the old traditionalist coming out, I suppose.

I love press shots! I'm not a huge fan of my camera's flash, though. It makes my presses look so rusty! They are not, in fact, quite the opposite. But I don't have time to photoshop these pictures, so here goes. No, the smeary red on the die is not from the rollers. The roller height is set just right. It was from the proofing, after which I cleaned the die and got some magenta residue on the wood from the type brush.

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The run totaled 180 impressions, two colour. This was over the amount requested, but heck, what's a little overkill? I told Tiffany that after the wedding she can send Derek out on the street corner and sell the overage to passers-by.

Phase 6: Wrap Up.
And now, once again, I have a living room and dining room full of cards drying. One of these days I'll spring for a wire tray pie rack. Yeah, when I get that store-front with the bay window.

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Here's another shot of the completed announcement in the four-fold envelope. Here you can see why I ran the colours I did. The envelope and backing card keys with the monogramme and text. The flaps on the sides interleave as they close, not unlike the petals of a flower.

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Here is the envelope, closed.

Well, that's it! From beginning to end. The whole process took several weeks with consultation, materials procurement, re-consultation, testing, sign off and process. Add this to the fact that I am a practicing Optician managing a clinic. And I get up every morning at 4am to do a 6.6 kilo course 6 days a week. Busy guy? Yeah. But my hope is that as Letterpress catches on around here in Central Florida, I can actually open my operation up to full time activity. It practically is that already!

Good Providence in all your Letterpress Endeavours!

-gary

G. Johanson, Printer!
Fellow, Florida Pioneer Settlement for the Creative Arts

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Tiffany's Wedding Part 2

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Phase 4: Impression testing of custom colours.

The next phase is the colour mixing, for which I wanted Tiffany to be present, at least for most of the process. Tiffany took most of the following photos, in fact.

It became pretty clear that the electric Teal and Fuschia, as it appears on the computer screen, wasn't going to happen. In fact Tiffany noted that even pulling a print from her file on her own printer gave hugely different colours. We agreed that the contrast between the red letters and almost blue-green of the monogramme required a much more muted monogramme and a darker magenta in the text. Now, one of the things we have to remember is that while most cards are around 5 x 7 in., we are reduced to putting the same amount of information . . . actually even more than most . . . in an area less than five inches square, which called for reduced sized letters. This, in turn, makes the thick strokes of each character thinner, and the thin strokes thinner still. We need to maintain sufficient contrast so the card will be something like legible without the need to take a couple Excedrin because of the optical contrast.

We mixed colour by as natural of light as possible. Mixing colours can be pretty tricky, certainly not a very linear affair. Each colour is chemically different in some way, not unlike Artist's oil paint. I mix with a palette knife. I started with Van Sonn oil based opaque white. Next came process blue. All you need is a couple molecules of process blue , and boom! You have a pale baby blue that looks pretty good. Then I added process yellow, about a molecule. Really! I'm exaggerating the proportions, the point is, it doesn't take much to darken down a colour, but to lighten it requires gobs of white. So go slow. A touch of yell0w, and we had a decent confederate blue on the verge of green. Tiffany wanted more blue, so I added 80% white and 20% blue together and added it to the mix. The result was a fairly light dusky teal.

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Say what you want about the small Showcard Presses, I love my little proofer! It's no Vandercook, but it pulls a nice print. Good enough for Tiffany to give her OK to the monogramme colour. So, one more impression test to go.

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Now we're shooting for a compromise Fuschia / Magenta. These cards are being adhered to a four-fold bi-coloured envelope which is, in fact, Fuschia and bright Teal. We need to stay at least acceptably teriary to these colours. Again, it's a compromise between Optics (I am an Optician, after all. This process smacks a bit of Ishihara Colour Blindess test patterns!), legibility, colour keying, and what is possible with real live printing on this particular stock. Changes are made as you go. This is quite a labour intensive process. In our case with this job, Tiffany and I spent two hours, and even then, at the point she had to leave for an appointment, I still needed to do some slight alterations. Thus, the custom colour selection process can take as long as the printing process itself! Keep this in mind if you are considering custom colour work. Pantone swatches and ink scales notwithstanding, it still boils down to eyeball, testing and proofing.

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Here, I am using my small brayer to lay on a magenta mix. We ultimately wound up going darker than the colour I'm using here. By principle, I always proof on the same stock as the run itself. Since this is Neenah's Classic Crest Linen in Pearl finished cover stock, there is a slight gloss to the surface, which means these cards, run with oil base, will smear very easily and require at least 12 - 24 hours drying time. Twelve hours is sufficient to permit the second colour. But in proofing, we are sort of doing a wet on wet thing that gets sorta smeary with handling, so we are looking basically at the combination of the two colours.

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This is the first magenta mix. It was a bit light.

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Eventually we went darker, and finally put the colour to bed. After the colours are mixed, I scraped the ink directly into small cans. Usually what I mix on the metal palette is more than enough for a platen press run of several hundred to a thousand. So, now we go to phase four: the actual printing!

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Phase 5(a): Laying down the first colour.

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The monogramme is the first colour printed. The text will be opaque and lay atop the monogramme. Now the Monogramme itself is no simple matter. Makeready on larger wood mounted cuts can be a bit tricky because the cuts are almost never exactly even. In my case, invariably I do a slight build-out from the bed to make up for lighter impression on one side or other of the cut. A strip of masking tape across the back on the low impression side usually does the trick, as in the case with this cut. For dies, I prefer to do most of the leveling this way. Spot issues of impression I handle on the side of the platen/ tympan.

Now, this cut needs a bit of analysis. Like the body text, this monogramme is fashioned from Edwardian Caps, which means it has thick and thin strokes. The thick strokes carry a lot of ink, which must be spread evenly over the wider surface. Platen presses can be tricky here. The ones that do the best job have four to six rollers, two Forme rollers and two or more rollers dedicated to handling and spreading ink. However, I have read that a way to compensate for this if you are using less than four rollers is an old printer's technique of double cycling the press, which is simply letting the rollers ink the Forme (or Die) twice for each impression. In fact, one web site says that the added ink rollers were actually there to imitate the technique of double cycling in a single cycle to speed things up a bit. So I'll pass this little tid-bit on to you.

Another thing: we are not using a loose fibre paper such as Lettera. We have a polished stock which means you cannot just "ram" the die into the paper. You must find that pressure which ensures good ink coverage without squeezing it off the relief surface and making the ink gather at the edges. I call that "Sabateuring" the ink, from the photographic "Sabateur",or "Posturising" effect where you flash the print paper in developer, forcing the silver salts to rush to the edges of the latent image as it's developing, producing exaggerated edge-line contrast and evacuated centres of mass. It was great for advertising images in the 1960s, but is sucks on Letterpress. And I see a fair degree of this effect even on loose fibred stock as people just punch away at that Lettera. Need I bring this up again? There is a time and place to deboss, and a time to apply judicious amounts of pressure to execute a finely articulate line. Tacticity does not equate to a punch.

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Here's the set up. I wound up having to use a fairly hard makeready, and there is a slight depression noticeable from the rear of the printed piece, nothing like a punch, but enough pressure to imprint through the linen finish. The impression is on the verge of "light" but to increase pressure would be unwise. I can tell by the sound of the press when pressure starts to mount, and I like my iron and steel castings too much. A critical evaluation of the image through a loupe shows a fair edge, very slight deboss, no Sabateuring of wide area coverage portions, I call it a good impression. I then ran 120 more. These had to set out and dry, which took up a lot of room. I placed a 3 x 4 foot square drawing board on the upper deliver table to set out 20 cards at a time, then removed them into the house to park on the dining room table, coffee table, piano, piano bench, and wherever else they could spend the night.

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That was my day yesterday. On Tuesday, the "red" run happens. If the contrast between the Monogramme and Text still proves lacking, I will lighten up the already lightened dusky Teal and run the job over again. If that's what it takes, we do what we must.

The bottom line is that Tiffany will have a great card, one that she will always remember, one that she will have in a scrap book for the rest of her life. The very least I can do from my studio is my very best. And guys, one thing I learned from restoring antique wireless transmitters and receivers, and a few presses: it's a labour of love. You do charge for your sevices but you will never extract a price for all the labour you will be performing. It just cannot be done. You charge a fair price for your services based upon what the market will bear in your area, and based on what you need to make to keep the doors open and a roof over your head. But the bottom line remains: you gotta love it. You must enjoy it. Excellence always resides at the intersection of Talent and Passion. You must have a Passion for this stuff. And I will assume you have some talent in this art, otherwise why even consider it? Hmm?? :>)

Last installment to come after the last run. I know that to many of you, this is old hat, but I hope that for some it will prove to be a revealing and educational glimpse into a field that you may be considering as you grow your interest in Letterpress Typography.

-gary.

Tiffany's Wedding

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So, how does a design jump from the drawing board and onto printed media? I thought we might walk through this process, especially for those of you who may wonder why the heck letterpress printing is so costly. Another reason is that this is an educational blog. My first priority is always to encourage folks just getting their feet wet in this industry and art. Particularly those here in Central Florida.

"Gary!" you may ask, "Why are you encouraging competition?? You are one of literally a handful of Letterpress operators and craftsmen/women in the whole State! Why do you want to encourage competition when you have this huge field all to yourself?"

Answer: Competition makes me better. It makes YOU better, too. It makes you work. But more than that, a community of craftsmen and craftswomen inspires. It promotes creativity. It creates awareness of your art. It also creates a better environment for your equipment because suddenly, parts, supplies, presses become more available. We learn from each other! So, in MY book, the more the merrier, and we all benefit. Letterpress was once dead. It's now alive because people like you and me are paying attention to it and are taking advantages of the tools we have at hand. This is how we grow, no?

To tell the naked truth, Letterpress in the main took a backseat back in the 1970s when offset printing and photo type editing, and later computer editing finally eclypsed the old Platen Jobber and Cylinder presses. Running these types of presses, traditional as they were, was just plain too labour intensive. When you had Union Tradesmen working at the God-awful 1972 rate of 5 - 8 dollars an hour, and Masters clocking 10 - 12 dollars per hour, and this new organisation OSHA breathing down your neck, you cut costs ASAP. Platen presses became the domain of die cutting, museum pieces and what few High Schools would risk them for Print Shop Classes. Even then, the cylinder type proof presses such as the Vandercooks, pretty well replaced the Platen Jobber Press in the Halls of Higher Learning. In short, until just a short time ago, Letterpress was essentially dead. In particular the Platen Jobber. (yes, I know, there are a whopping 20 or 30 printeries around the country that boast that they never stopped using them. Wow. 30 out of 30,000. We'll call them the eccentric few.)

Along came Digital Graphics Imaging, Vector algorithms and transparency printing, replacing the old high contrast Lithofilm. Along came Polymer Plates. The attention of traditional graphics plating firms took note, and, thankfully, interest in the new digital technologies. The computer replaces the old 14 x 22" R&R Robinson Camera and Darkroom for copy imaging, and suddenly a whole new world of possibilities are brought to bear on the Dear Olde Platen Presses, and indeed Old School Typography in General. And by the New Millenia, Gutenberg had shaken hands with the Digital Age. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Ok, so what about hot metal type? Oh, to be sure, handset type is still a practiced art and craft! If anything, the Digital Plating phenomena has created more interest in the classical protocals and printing arts. There is a growing demand for handset products, in fact many consider "true Letterpress" to be Handset Only, which adds to what the Germans used to call the "Handwerk" of it all. ( Some of you living in Munich may recall the annual "Handwerks Fest".) There are still traditional type foundries in the U. S., such as M&H in San Fransisco, or Quaker City up in Honeybrook PA. But I digress . . .

Letterpress owes the rennaissance it is currently enjoying to the digital technologies. And dyed in the wool traditionalists like me just simply have to get their heads around this immutable fact. I am mentioning this because as of late, I have encountered a bit of pooh-poohing from the Museum Printing crowd of the new era typographers who have moved into the neighbourhood, implying they are something less than Letterpress Printers. I colour that notion absurd. Oh, yes, it's different. Oh, yes, one must learn new skills. I think that's the rub. New skills.

So, let's take a look at these new skills by taking a tour of the production of Tiffany's Wedding Announcement. We will look at the original concept, the "lofting" and editing of the digitised image and the final plate product in this installment.

First: the initial design

Tiffany and Derek, friends of ours from Church, were thrilled over the prospect of having handcrafted wedding announcements. Tiffany had no idea that lurking in my workroom were two Platen Jobber presses, or that I was a sort of ersatz Christof Sauer (german revolutionary war era printer in Philadelphia. That's another story.)

Tiffany is quite talented in her own right, and soon I had a design which she came up with on her own drawing board, or, ahem, "Integrated Developmental Environment", IDE, the fifty cent word for a computer image made on whatever imaging programme you name, from Microsoft Paint to Word to Illustrator to Quark. In Tiffany's case, it was MS Word.

Tiffany used Edwardian Script to make her text body, and then used the Edwardian caps "D" and "T" with an Edwardian ampersand in the middle to be used as a background Monogramme. My job was to render these images into files which could be edited and sent to the plater. My IDE of choice is Macromedia's FreeHand MX. Two colours would be involved, the monogramme in a blue-green sort of teal, and the text in a fuchsia sort of magenta. The paper is an awesome Neenah Linen finished Pearl, which has an Opaline reflective effect, but not overly severe. The finished printed piece would measure 4.75" by 4.75", and would be adhered to the inslide of a four-folded cover which will enclose the announcement like petals of a flower. A very creative idea, Tiffany!

Second: the digital work.

Importing an MS Document is not easy because Word is usually not very friendly to vector IDEs, so the best way to go for me was to redraw the whole thing. I resized the image on a 4.75" square canvas, and superimposed the two designs in as close to the finished colour as possible. The image below is a screenshot of the FreeHand IDE and the superimposed image.


It took a little tweaking here and there to make it fit and not so reduce the text so as to make it hard to read. Also the contrast of colours must lend towards legibility. Fortunately tertiary shades of green/ blue and red/yellow are complimentary and contrast each other. Upon finding a comfortable point, each element of this design must be separated and converted into black and white images for the Plater. In this case, the Plater is Owosso Graphics.



This is the first plate which will be printed. Tiffany did the final arrangement of the elements of this monogramme herself on my computer until she had the three elements arranged according to her liking and approval. At this point I saved the image. It was ready to send.



This is the second plate, converted to Black and White. But we ran into a snag: Tiffany's Wedding Website changed ownership, and the address had to be changed. And later still, when the new ownership proved a bit limiting to Tiffany (she really likes to design her own stuff, not having her choices limited!) we had to edit the text for a new web address. This was done by my saving and sending .pdf images to Tiffany for approval. But the deadline, July 26th, is coming on fast! So the approved second plate, along with the first plate was sent off to Owosso, taking advantage of their overnight return option. I might add that the metal we ordered is 16g. magnesium mounted on wood, type high. This was a cost cutting move on our part. We initially wanted copper to polish and give to the Bride and Groom as a souvenir, but in this economy such luxuries often need to wait. We can have copper cast later. As a designer AND printer, I can save my clients a bit of money here and there by offering alternative choices, which is the cool part of what I do.

Even though by this time I have several hours of design time into this project and Tiffany has an even greater investment in "sweat equity" owing to the twists and turns of plans, it's been great to work hand and glove with Tiffany through this project, and for her, having a personal part of the design is invaluable.

Third: the Plating.




The plates arrived from Owosso the next day. Platers send proofs along with their plates so you can proofread without having to ink up and roll your plates through the proofing press. In this case I have cut down the proofs so I can physically check their sizes against the actual stock which will be used. You can see that piece of stock at the top of the photo.

The next shots are close-ups of the plates and proofs.









And now we are ready to take a colour impression test for the colour mix. Hopefully Tiffany can make it down to the shop for this phase of the operation. While she has given me an awful lot of room to make choices for her, I want the client to be as much in charge as is practicable. The process is not inexpensive, and involves a lot of handwork, design work, time and involvement to make happen. Digital technology notwithstanding, there is an awful lot of handwork that goes into Letterpress printing even BEFORE you make the First impression!

That's it for now. Stay tuned for the next installments where we visit the colour testing and proofing, makeready and lock-up, and the actual run of the two colours.

I remain your most humble and obedient servant

G. Johanson, Printer.

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Moving the 12 x 18 New Series C&P from the Settlement.

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So, this was our challenge Saturday Morning. To move a 12x18 NS C&P out of it's barn, across the barn and up a ramp and into a truck with three ambitious types: Myself, of G. Johanson, Printer, Nick of Mama's Sauce Printery, and of course sweet Polly, the intern who took most of the photos you will see here from an I-phone.

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We used a large rental with a hydrauling lift gate. We thought the hydraulic lift would be larger than it turned out to be, but it worked anyway. But we had to take it from the opposite side of the barn from where we expected to load it. Fortunately, the Barn is a braced frame structure with floor summers. After a bit of a tenuous start, we managed to lift her with a pallet jack and begin to wheel her out.

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We rolled it to a point where it had to pivot. The leading edge of the tail gate was nearly a forty-five degree edge. This posed a slight dilemna since the pallet jack wheels are about the diametre of a Silver Dollar at best. She would not simply roll right on to the lift gate.

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Here I am laying pipes down in an effort to turn the press slightly, and into position.

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After the pipe idea was aborted, we decided to simply bring the press AND the pallet jack up on the tailgate together. We used four "come-alongs" to winch the press over that steep incline you see the front wheel of the jack about to navigate. It was a slow process.

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Finally we got the Press and Pallet Jack on board. Polly flipped the switch, and it's up, up and away.

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Here's Nick and me just standing there amazed that we managed to hustle 2800 lbs of iron and steel from way out there to way up here! Of course you noticed that the ink disk has been removed, as was the flywheel.

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And, of course, we must include trusty intern Polly. Hey . . . uh . . . who's taking the picture?

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The press was secured by 4 one-thousand pound strapping from the come-alongs. It was hauled in this manner down to Mama's Sauce in Winter Park some forty miles away - where it will be restored and resurrected.

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Ok, Polly, where do we go from here? Lunch in DeLand?

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Thanks, Nick and Polly for the fun afternoon! And the Dos Equus, Quesadillas, kaffee con leche, and some neat memories. I should be down in Winter Park this coming Thursday with an orbital sander. Hopefully we can get this press rolling inside of a month. The only real sticking point is the impression throw-out lever, which is binding at the bearing. This shouldn't prove to be too difficult to un-stick. Overall, the press has a lot of surface rust, but the years of ink and apparently liberal oiling has, in fact, resisted the elements well. A few bucket loads of Diesel Fuel and Transmission Fluid and she'll be good as new!

So, what did y'all do last Saturday?

-gary

G. Johanson, Printer.

Proofing and Production of Handset Business Cards (part 2)

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Ok, I have my type all set, or composed on the composition stick. It took a little while to get all the quads, spaces, 3-ems, brasses and coppers into place to centre justify my lines. One of the advantages I find in hand composition is justification, especially centre justifying. I cut a 4 point lead, say in this instance 21 pica, set the stick to 21 pic's and lay the lead in. Then I compose the line of type, setting it in the centre with an Em quad on either side. Then I fill the spaces on each side of the line equally one side to the other, 3M's, Quads, 2-to En's, spaces, brass, coppers, whatever I do on one side I do to the other. Then I lay in a lead for the next line. The Dingbat required a few rows of quads as you may have noticed, plus a set of 6pt flats. One side mirrors the other. It takes time, but if you are an artist, a sculptsit, a scriptsit, or whatever medium you ply which maintains a discipline that many would consider tedium, you might understand it when I say it's actually a catharsis. Composing for me is like chiseling or cutting a quill nib or grinding ink or any other involved preparation for any process which is labour and skill intensive.

Now that I've done all this work, do I just lock it up, slap the chase on the press and run it? Only to find out that I've mixed my sorts, 'p's are 'q's, a 'b' was pegged with a 'd', and I spelled "Traditional" Tradiditional? And then do my editing and correcting? No way. Enter: the Proofing Press.

Most proofing presses in my area of travel were of the cylinder variety, and most were very, very simple. Truth be told, you can even skip the actual proof press altogether and do your editing and proofing the way the colonials did: Beat (or roll with your brayer - you do have a brayer, right? Or leather balls?) the ink onto your tied up form, lay a sheet on top of the face, lay some padding, and tap it with your plane and mallet. This method was suggested in the Kelsey manuals, too. You even proof your new sorts in this manner.

Ahh, but a proofing press is so much easier and less messy. Plus, you can use some of the nicer cylinder proofers for large poster work where woodblocks, linoleum cuts, large wooden type, etc. is required. Some proofers are more expensive than Heidelberg Windmills! Southern Engravers in St. Pete used an electric Vandercook as their mag cut proofer for years.

I use a small Showcard Press for proofing. It will accommodate anything that I can lock up in an 8x12 C&Ps chase or my Pearl's 7x11 chase. It's old, it needs restoration, but the basic machine works smoothly. All it is is a heavy iron bed with an impression roller that rolls over that bed. You have to manually ink the type. The type itself is locked into a chase that snugs into the Showcard's bed. The chase is 6x10, and comes from a Kelsey. You have to lay it in upside down. All you need to do for proofing at this point is a "loose" lock up. That is, you set the type on the bed, lay the chase around it, fill in the gaps with furniture, and lock it tight enough so the type doesn wobble or stand on their "heels" (type leaning at a slight angle, exposing only part of their faces to the impression surface.)




Here is a view of the forme locked up for proofing. It actually looks no different than the lock up for the 8x12 except I use more furniture.


While I'm on the subject of locking up a forme, here's what I do to test the form to make sure I don't have any surprizes on the production bed: I slide the key under the chase to lift it a bit, then press on the form with my thumbs. If anything is loose, I'm gonna know in a hurry. If I can push any element of that form with my thumbs, I'll either tighten or shim with copper or brass spaces as propriety demands. Yes, I know, the chase is upside down. That's the only way it will fit into the Showcard. Heck, it works!


Here's the proofing set up. To the left is the Showcard. To the right, a plate with process black ink rolled out, and my ancient brayer. I think I got that brayer in Munich back in '67 when I was learning how to do my first Linocut in 7th grade. Man. It's an old Speedball, back before everything went plastic.


The type is inked, and paper laid atop the face. Here you see a piece of hardboard covering the paper, but only the paper is held by the grippers. What are thos 'C' clamps there for? Well, long story. But to make it short, in order for that chase to fit, I had to dismount and slide up the gripper assembly. Those small clamps hold it in place. I do not want to re-tap cast iron for the set screws. The clamps do the job. And I'm obviously not in a beauty contest as far as shops and studios go. If it works, use it!

Now, all we do is drag that roller over, maybe back again, remove the hardboard, loose the paper and see what disaster awaits us.


Well, looky there. It's not all that awful after all. At least I spelled my name correctly. Hey, look! That Engravers Medium actually looks pretty good after all! The cut is centred. No major faux pas, ( pardon my lousy French.)

The card stock is Neenah Classic Laid, which I got from the fantastic folks at the downtown Orlando Xpedx ( Thanks, Mark. Your cards are in process, btw.) I like to proof, if practicable, on the stock that will be used for the production run.

The cards you saw on the last installment were also proofs, but were proofed on Neenah's Pearl Linen Crest, an opaline finished paper which I will also use for production. Here's that photo again:



I would like to take time out here to comment about papers. Principle rule: the harder the paper surface, the more the polish, the better the imprint detail. If you are running tight lines on par with engraving crosshatching, you need to use a hard finish. The softer the paper, the more the deboss, but the less detail you will hold. You can't have both. There's a time for fine line detail, and there's a time to deboss, or throw a heavy depression with your type, which is the current "pink of the mode", or fad in Letterpress. I will not say one is good and one is bad or one is better than the other. Good typography is tied to it's overall presentation, design, and economy. Deboss, Detail, etc., are all part of that dynamic. Balance it wisely. Make your clients happy, too.
Above all, to thine own self be true. In the 19th century, especially the latter half which I consider the Golden Age of Letterpress Typography, very hard, even gloss polished surface papers were hugely popular. Especially for reproducting chromozylographs ( the fifty-cent word for colour wood engraving.) The Victorian mood for intricacy was best produced on harder wove and granite papers. Tight line filligree work could be executed with almost intaglio precision. Postage stamps of most countries from 1850 - 1900 were produced in this manner. These designs vied with their engraved counterparts. It was these postal issues that brought me to Typography and the Letterpress to begin with!

Well, the proof was successful. All that's left is to relock the forme into the production chase for the 8x12 and hand feeding these cards, one by one, for about one thousand impressions. Cost for a card like this? Probably about one hundred dollars for five hundred hand set, hand printed cards. That's about twenty cents per card. Cost of the experience of going through the process? Priceless!


Here's a shot from the delivery board. Nice new tympan paper courtesy Mama's Sauce. Blue tape courtesy Lowes. No, that's not rust on the gripper bars. The camera's flash does that sometimes. My presses are rust free, well oiled, and except for the electric motor which has nose bearing issues, extremely silent.


Here's a shot of the 8x12, and next to her the 7x11 Pearl. The C&P runs right now at about one impression cycle every three seconds, just slightly faster than treadle spead on it's Old Series counterpart. The Pearl, of course, is treadled.


And, of course, the finished product. These cards are stack drying on what is currently serving as my imposing stone: the type bed of a 9x13 Kelsey Excelsior model M. Perfect for the 8x12 chase!

Well, that about does it. Another video is in planning, which will go through another process. All this in the shameless course of showing my clients just what the heck they are paying for! And maybe inspire some newbies to the Art and Mystery of Letterpress Typography!

Good Providence in all your printing endeavours!

-gary

G. Johanson, Printer
Florida Pioneer Settlement for the Creative Arts

The Designing of a Typeset Business Card. (It's more than pegging type!)

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This installment is little more than a simple endorsement for a time honoured tradition which . . . I happen to observe at G. Johanson, Printer. Rather than just talk about it, I thought it might be fun to shoot a series of photos while I went through the process of doing something I have had to put off for over a year now because of other printing commitments:

Print my own danged cards!!

So, let's get to it.

Actually, I lied. There is a good deal of discussion in this installment, because half of the sweat was in the decision process. Hard to photograph that.

To begin:

The first thing I do is determine what sort of card I want. Who am I? Am I traditional printer? Do I have a conservative bent? Artsy? (I want to say "creative", but really, all inclinations can be creative!) Am I an avante garde type? Do I like whips and chains? A lot of what your card transmits, indeed, your whole studio or shop along with the products thereof is a reflextion of you, personally.

My own profile as a printer trends conservative, but I love new things. I also love busting the mould, bashing the code, whatever. I'm an ex-hippie radical that loves and finds direction in history. I also believe and trust the Living God of the Bible, and hold every word as Truth and Life, which colours all I do. So, how do I make my business cards speak this? How do I tell a potential client or student that if they want creativity from a tradesman with one foot in the deep traditions of the 15th - 18th Centuries, yet loves to listen to Beirut, Tilly and the Wall, old Beatles, Dylan, Tommy Dorsey and Bach, and who's design and work will probably manifest all of the above, I'm your guy?

Tall order, I'd say.

I opted not to call my self "This or That" press or "Whatever" press. The "press" thing in the name seems to be what everybody is doing. In the Colonial days, a printers were identified their names. "Printed by W. Young, Chestnut Street" or "Printed by David Charlisle, Wapole Vermont."

G. Johanson, Printer seems to fit my personality and sense of history. And it is well understated.

The "dingbat" foundry cut of an iron handpress dingbat drives home that idea.

But wait a minute! I also do digital design and work with one of the finest platers on this hemisphere! I do Art Deco, Eastlake Victorian, Irish Celtic, German Blackletter, contour art, Manga, alternative music. I am not defined by history, I'd rather MAKE it. As an artist and musician, creativity is a passion. Where does Tradition, Creativity and Art Discipline meet on my business card?

Traditionally and Creatively --- in the very letters themselves!

So, I look over my metal (well, lead antimony) fonts and find what best suits, which is in my posession. I find three fonts: 14pt. Caslon "Open Face" title, 10pt. Caslon 337 OS and 8pt Engravers Medium. The Open Face (I don't think it's really Caslon, the characters don't even resemble any Caslon stylings I know of!) just plain looks cool. Goudy Hand Tooled is very close.

The next line could have been printed in 1730, it's the exact font from the exact foundry would would find in Colonial Williamsburg. Only, I kept out the tall "s" for modern eyes' sake. Caslon is my "house font". I have a passion for pre-19th century books and publications, so this face is a natch. Caslon was also Ben Franklin's favourite "Fount".

The engraver's bold is a little more modern. It's almost out of place, yet not entirely. It's a fun font: it can look very Establishment or very Circus, depending how you use it. It's actally kinda quirky. It dates to the mid 1850s.

At first I opted to use Neenah Classic Laid Ivory 80lb stock, and indeed I purchased and cut up the ream, but then my attention fell to Neenah's Linen Finished Pearl card stock. Wow, is it spectacular! Irridescent. It's a somewhat hard, brilliant stock, which goes against the current grain of Letterpress thought(soft, spongy papers and deep, deep deboss.)

So, there's the design: "G. Johanson, Printer" on top, "Creative & Traditional Handset Tyypography" on the next line. I fought with myself over whether to use "Letterpress", which has a broader base of understanding, or the more proper "Typography". Maybe I'm wrong, but since I print more than just type, in fact, a majority of what I have done comes from my digital developmental tools, the broader term Typography is more appropriate. And if anybody asks, I'll just say "Letterpress".

Ok, next, centred, the Dingbat. I love this dingbat. It was my mascot from back in my Heirloom Press days. My colophons all had this image from this very dingbat. This is one awesome dingbat! Everybody should have an awesome Dingbat.

Last two lines: Blogspot, which currently serves as my website, and phone number, in case anyone actually wants to call. My e-mail can be gotten from my Blogspot site.

So here it is. The type is shown in a composition stick exactly the way you would hold it when composing. Upside down, left to right, from the top down. Nicks up (the tiny divit on the bottom of the type body) which will tell you if your type is upside down or not. Sometimes even which font you are using. Or which foundry cast the type. I use two: M&H, and Quaker City. Quaker and I go back a number of years. Both carry much of the old ATF castings.

Here is a sneak peak at the "proof". We'll stop here for this installment, and continue on with the proofing of this assemblage of lead called a "Forme" or "Form".

Good Providence in all your typographic endeavours.

-gary

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Nick's 12x18 Kluge at "Mama's Sauce", Winter Park, Florida

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Nick just posted the video that was shot over two days.
I was there on the first day. Honestly, I knew the camera
crew was there, but I thought they were taking a few stills
and just adjusting the lighting. I was talking to them just
as though I was talking to any visitor. Imagine my surprise
when Nick tags me with the link to his blog with this video:

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KLUGE from Northern Lights on Vimeo.

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A special thanks to both Nick Sambrato (Mama's Sauce,
Winter Park FL) and Chase (Northern Lights, who made
the production) for allowing me the priviledge of being
part of bringing the Kluge to life and running her first
job, a two colour business card run four-up on 110lb Crane
Lettera.

Oh, and great choice for soundtrack: Radiohead.

Click here to get to Nick's Blog and check out his own article on the filming. You can also see some added footage and stills here.

Ok, so right after this, I go home and my daughter Anna
and her guy Zack has the movie "Seven Pounds" on the video.
Now I get a dose of Heidelberg Windmill. Oh, man. Now I gotta
get me an autofeeder!

Kudos to Nick and Northern Lights!

G. Johanson, Settlement Printer.

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