Letterpress Ink Starter Pack Category
What are the most essential basic letterpress ink colors for me to have in my shop?
Try our letterpress ink basic starter kit, which includes Printing Black; Warm Red; Reflex Blue; Yellow; Transparent White (mixing white); and Pantone Black (mixing black). With these 6 colors you can mix over 250 pantone colors. If you’re ready for more, you may want to try the remaining Pantone base colors.
How do I firm up my thin letterpress ink?
Add magnesium carbonate to your ink. Magnesium carbonate is available in our Supplies section from Boxcar Press. Inks are measured by their tackiness or stickiness and their body or how stiff it is. An ink’s body can be drippy like chocolate syrup topping or thicker like frosting or paste. The ink can also be described as being long or short. Long inks are tackier and when pulled up straight from the can will have a long tail. The white powder of magnesium carbonate will stiffen your ink and reduce tackiness.
How do I print with light toned letterpress inks on dark paper?
With letterpress, we most often print dark ink on light paper, because that is letterpress printing’s strength! Light ink on dark paper is really best suited for engraving. That said, if you really want light ink on dark paper, just be prepared for paper to show through. Think “chalkboard” for the end results. Letterpress uses transparent inks. Even with opaque white, printing light ink on dark paper will be like using a thin coat of white paint on a brown wall: you’ll see the brown color through the paint. If using a pure white ink, you can run a piece through the press twice to create a more dense color. Metallic inks will be more opaque and are the most popular choice for paper cover-up with dark papers.
Why shouldn’t I let oil-based letterpress ink dry on my rollers
Oil based inks will dry within a few hours if left unattended on press; dried oil-based inks can take a long time to clean and can even cause rollers to be permanently damaged.
Once I’m done printing, how do I clean the letterpress ink off my rollers/plates?
To clean ink off your press, we recommend California Wash used with rags or disposable shop towels. This press wash cleans up acrylic, oil based and rubber based inks well, is a low VOC solvent, and has a mild somewhat citrus odor. For an occasional cleaning and deglazing of rollers, use Easy Street Additive after press wash.
Tell me more about the ink colors that you carry.
We offer all 14 base Pantone mixing inks. These inks, paired with the Pantone formula guide, will allow you to mix any of the guide’s hundreds of Pantone colors. The base inks are: Red (032); Pantone Black (mixing black); Blue (072); Green; Transparent White (mixing white); Orange (021); Process Blue; Purple; Reflex Blue; Rhodamine Red; Rubine Red; Violet; Warm Red; and Yellow. We also carry opaque white for printing white or printing on dark paper stock; universal printing black, the perfect black letterpress ink (available in oil-based or rubber-based only); and custom mixes that match any Pantone number. View a PDF of the Van Son color chart.