One of the most common issues we face here in the Platemaking Department at Boxcar Press is determining a sufficient line thickness. Making that ruling means explaining to customers two things – how do you go about checking to see if lines or text are thick enough to hold on your particular plate? What’s the thinnest line that can hold on the plate?
Surprisingly, there’s just one tool you need to utilize in either Adobe Illustrator or InDesign: The Line Tool. If you are using Adobe Photoshop, the Line Tool unfortunately reverts to a minimum line thickness of 1pt. If you are only using Adobe Photoshop to create your file, we highly recommend placing your final file in InDesign and using the Line Tool to check your work.
What do we mean when we talk about our line thickness guarantee? Simply put, if your lines meet or exceed the line thickness as outlined below, we will guarantee they will hold on your plate. If they are under that thickness, it’s hit or miss. Some days you are lucky and other days, you might lose details.
The first thing you need to determine is your line thickness based on your plate type:
- If your plate type is the KF 95, Jet 94FL, or 94SB, you have a line thickness guarantee of 0.25pt or thicker.
- If your plate type is the KF152, 152SB, or 145SHSB, you have a line thickness guarantee of 0.35pt or thicker.
- For all plate types, your dots (like the ones above the letter “i”, periods, or dotted lines) must be 1pt to 1.25 pt or thicker.
THINK FAST! Quick quiz here – what is usually the most common culprit of too thin lines? Crop Marks! More on that later.
Here’s how to use the handy Line Tool to check to see if your lines are thick enough (and plate friendly, too):
You need to first open your file in either Adobe Illustrator or InDesign. We’ll be using a small type sample in Adobe Illustrator to check to see if our lines are plate-friendly for a KF152 plate type. The KF152 plate type has a line thickness minimum of 0.35pt for lines and 1pt to 1.25 pt for dots. We can see that it looks like there are some thin lines in the serif of the Didot typeface… but will they hold?
First, click the Line Tool icon in the tool palette on the lefthand side of the screen in Adobe Illustrator to activate it. If you cannot find it, hover your mouse over the icon that looks like a line to see “Line Segment Tool (\)” pop up in a yellow box .
Next, in the control panel up at the top, we’ll select the words “1 pt.” in the dropdown area next to the word “STROKE” with our mouse. You’ll be substituting the “1 pt” and replace it with “0.35pt”.
We’ll select the Zoom tool (Z) and move in because we’ll be doing some close up viewing in the area you are inspecting. Select the line segment with your mouse and move it so it is right next to the bottom part of the “L” in “Letter”. Draw a short line so it is parallel with the thin line you are checking on your art board. It doesn’t have to be very long but this little line segment will be our “ruler” to compare thicknesses.
At this close magnification, we see that our line segment set at 0.35pt is much thicker in comparison to the thinnest line in of the serif on the letter “L”. We will need to add a hairline stroke to boost our text’s thickness to correct this.
To add a stroke, using the selection black arrow tool (V), select all the characters in the word “LETTER.” In our Control panel at the top our screen we should see that the letters only have a fill and that we’d like to add a hairline stroke (about 0.15pt). Click the white area next to “STROKE” to activate the area so we can type in “0.15pt”. Immediately single-click the white area anywhere on the board. This will deactivate your selected text and add the hairline (0.15pt) stroke.
Zoom in again using the Zoom Tool around the line segment we created with the Line Tool and the letter “L”. We can now visually see that the serif on the “L” is as thick as the 0.35pt line. Success!
Delete your line segment and zoom back out. Continue around your artboard to visually check to see if other areas look “safe” as well.
For dots, such as the ones around the heart shape, we’ll need to set our Line Tool weight to “1pt” just to be on the safe side. We’ll repeat the same steps mentioned above to create the line, to zoom in, and visually compare the dots’ diameter against the 1pt line segment we just drew on our art board. Like the thinner lines on the “L”, we’ll need to correct this by adding a much thicker stroke of 0.3 pt to boost our dots’ diameter up to 1pt.
Using the Line Tool to check your work should be a “Must Do” test before submitting your files to your platemaking ticket. If anything appears too thin, you will need to correct it.
A few final instructions to help you be aware of potential trouble spots:
-When creating crop marks in your files – the program default setting is often 0.2 pt or 0.25 pt. Keep this in mind so you can make the necessary changes to your crop mark thickness when you place them.
-Thin lines that curve, particularly in wispy script or calligraphic fonts, are always suspect for being too thin. Give them the support they need to hold on the plate with hairline stroke (if needed).
Stay tuned, letterpress lovers — next we’ll solve the mystery of how to create multiple color files!
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Are your polymer plates starting to curl at the edges?
Like our skin, plates can be affected by the weather and age. When humidity levels are low, the plates can look and feel brittle. And with the passage of time, the thinner polymer on the edges of the plates are pulled towards the denser polymer text and images on the front which causes curling. There is a natural aging of the plates as they do have a limited life expectancy but we can offer a few simple steps that can hydrate and give extra life to your plates.
Printight, maker of Toyobo plates KF95 and KF152, offers these suggestions if you have a platemaking system. Boxcar also gives similar steps for the majority of you who are without such equipment.
1. Place your plate back in the washout system for one minute or immerse in water. We suggest room temperature for a quick dunking, a minute may only be necessary if your plates are severely curled.
2. Sponge off the water and place back in the drying oven of the platemaker for 5-10 minutes. We also suggest, alternatively, a hair dryer to warm the plate and make it more pliable (placing your plate in a box and blowing the hair dryer into the box will keep the warm air more contained).
3. After the plate warms and starts to uncurl, place the plate in its bag and set a heavy object on it to keep the shape.
This should help your plates relax so you can adhere them to your base for additional print runs. Some warnings for you – take care to avoid putting your hair dryer too close to the plates and be patient as warming the plates takes time. And watch that you don’t handle them too roughly after the wash and during drying so your relief images don’t chip.
Store your plates flat. One last tip, you may have to check your adhesive backing to determine if it needs to be re-applied to the back of your plate for a secure hold on your base.
If you have some storage and uncurling tips, tell us about them so we can share. It’s great when we can all learn from each other!
Kent Aldrich is everywhere: from falling in love with World War II posters, cutting his teeth on metal type, and standing quite still as the elusive (and brilliant, we might add) man behind Nomadic Press. He refuses to be defined by printing parameters, rather, he deftly commands them in his letterpress work. Read on to find out more on the musings of this passionate printer.
THE NOMADIC PRINTER I was born in 1964 and I am still living today. I was fascinated with type forms as a young child and designed a couple of fonts (leaning heavily toward an art deco style) when I was in second grade. I have lived most of my life in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. I have been married for 22 years to the same woman, Emily, with whom I have 2 children. I ride a scooter with 46 rearview mirrors on it, I shoot a decent game of pool, and I like a beer with a strong hop flavor.
TEXT, FUN & ROCK ‘N ROLL When I was fourteen years old, I had fallen in love with poster art: Rock posters, French night club advertisements, WW2 recruiting posters. Anything intended to be tacked upon a telephone pole or hung up on a wall. So, I stole a composition stick (and the first line of a dead form) from a local jobbing shop and rode a hound down the Mississippi river to Winona. Once there, caught in the yellowing teeth of a full moon midnight, I sought out a lonely gravel crossroads where I met with the Devil and sold my soul for to print.
From there it was a series of graphic arts classes in high school,wooden renaissance festival presses, and a 3 year run-in with Coffee House Press and (the then just established) Minnesota Center for Book Arts. All of which conspired to push me into starting my own print shop, The Nomadic Press.
MAJESTIC MINNESOTA The building housing The Nomadic Press was built in 1914. The brick, from which it was built, was fired in a kiln a mile and a half away on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. It was originally a Mom & Pop grocery store and sat at the end of a street car line. The owners lived above the store, as did my wife and I for the first 7 years of our owning the place. With maple floors and woodwork and big, west facing windows, the interior of The Nomadic Press has been laid out following suggestions published in Mechanick Exercises on the Whole Art of Printing (1684) and has been outfitted in the style of a jobbing shop from the 1930s.
Nomadic’s press stable includes: two hand fed Chandler and Price old style platen presses (10 by 15 and 8 by 12), an automatic feed Kluge (12 by 18), a Vandercook Universal I (with a power carriage, adjustable bed and take-up tapes), the Pearl (more on that press later), and a spattering of table-top hobby presses.
PRINTING LEGACIES Al Schwerdt showed me how to print clean work using inking balls and a solid oak lever press and taught me the satisfying importance of the ethical and respectful treatment of both clients and vendors.
Allan Kornblum, who founded Coffee House Press, and spent years patiently teaching me the craft of letter-spacing and the fine art of keeping my hands out of the hungry jaws of a roaring platen press.
Will Powers, who made it plain that a printin’ man is a man well satisfied.
And Joseph Moxon, who said it best when he said; “As he set this stick of letter, so he sets on till his page is out”.
THE DAILY GRIND When I was first learning to print I slept on the floor of the print shop with my head on the feet of the press. Every morning I drink a hot cup of Van Son rubber base ink. Black. I have a ream of 80 pound text for lunch and bowl of 24 point em quads for dinner. My children were conceived in a room directly above my C&P 10 x 15. Too much information? Probably. But, heck yes, I print full time! For the last 26 years I’ve printed full time, and I plan on dying with my stick in my hand (that’s composition stick).
DESIGNED FOR PRINT Letterpress printing is, by its nature, a process who’s accessibility and immediacy demands a skillful confluence of art and craft. It is not enough to know how the press is best run, nor is it at all well enough to fix a pretty picture in one’s mind. Rather, a holistic knowledge of afore and after is called for.
ALL THAT’S FIT TO PRINT When I am designing my own work, and am using movable metal type, I like to set an element and print it. Then I set the next element and print that. And so on ’till the work is finished. It is a process that often finds me printed into a corner. And it is always a thrill to find the word, or type face, or ornament or color which, when laid down with the rest, finally pulls it all together and lets me walk out clean. When designing for clients, it all must be planned out beforehand though. Then I set great store in knowing what kinds of printed pieces they do /not/ like. Here be monsters.
PRINTER’S PARADISE The Nomadic Press is run out of a brick building which was built in 1914. Last year, Emily and I paid off the mortgage, and we now own the building outright. I have done printing for Nelson Mandela and Vaclav Havel, and I have produced work for the King of Norway and the Palace at Versailles.
BOXCAR’S ROLE Having begun my letterpress printing career more than a quarter of a century ago, and having cut my teeth on metal type, I have worked with all manner of plates and blocks: Linoleum and end grain maple, electro-plate and zinc, copper, lead and magnesium. All have graced chase and bed here at The Nomadic Press. And they have all served adequately well.
But the photopolymer printing plates that Boxcar has developed, and now sells, are a printer’s dream come true. They are quick and clean and precise and they provide a seamless interface between my state-of-the-art presses (circa 1890s) and the cutting edge graphic design technology of today. And they impart, into soft papers and onto hard, a crisp impression that does a printer proud. It is hard to imagine the occurrence of the 21st century letterpress revival without Boxcar steaming into the station and hauling most of the freight.
PRESS HISTORY You always remember your first press. As is so often the case, I simply mentioned that I was looking for a press to someone who had talked to a person who knew of a clamshell platen that somebody had somewhere. So, for fifty bucks, I bought a 7 x 11 inch Pearl press, a Paragon guillotine cutter and a cabinet of type. And I had to get them out of a basement by the end of the week. I still print with her (and oh, the sweetness of her kiss!).
SHOP TIPS Know in which direction the grain of your paper runs, and be very kind to your register pins.
WHAT’S NEXT Big picture; I am working to build another 21% growth in gross over the previous year. Small picture; I hope to be able to print something using Pantone Mixing System number 332 (uncoated).
Huge thanks to Kent for letting us get a sneak peek at the fabulous Nomadic Press!
Photographs provided by Kelsey Johnson and Andrew Hine
