Inking & Printing your ImagOn Plate

Prepare Paper 

• Decide on the size paper you will be using. Generally, allow for generous margins around the edge of the plate, usually equall on the top and sides, and approximately 1/2" greater on the bottom margin. (A" bleed print", however, is printed on a piece of paper smaller than the plate)
• Measure paper for your edition and tear the edges, using a straight-edge, rather than cutting them. Initial the back of your paper so you know which is yours in the water bath! 
• Create a template by tracing around your plate on a piece of heavy paper, showing which way is "up", and tracing around where your printing paper will be laid down in relation to the plate. If you want accuracy this will involve measuring with a ruler. Cover this with a sheet of clear contact paper so that ink can be wiped off it. Be careful not to get bubbles or creases in the contact paper. Trim the template so that it will extend beyond the printing paper on all sides if the printing paper is laid on top of the template in the correct position.  A quick version -- Newsprint 
• Soak your printing paper - most sized papers require at least 20 minutes. 

Set-up Press

Ink Plate 

• Ink the plate up using traditional etching inks. If you use Daniel Smith's Intense Black, add 10-15% Setswell Compound or Easy Wipe Compound and mix well with a putty knife on one of the ink slabs. Vine black can be used straight. For Graphic Chemical Etching Black #514, add light plate oil to soften ink when it is stiff.


• Use a Scrap piece of matboard or felt dabber to spread inkcarefully and gently over the plate in all directions, being careful to fill all etched areas.
• Take a 36" square tarlatan and "break it in" if it is new by tugging at it diagonally to the weave in both directions. Create a large pad and gently wipe the plate as follows: 
  • for hardground and softground, in a circular fashion
• for Imagon, straight across and straight up and down
• Wipe the plate with used tarlatan and little pressure to remove most of the ink until the image is somehow clear yet hazy looking.
• Continue until the surface of the plate is fairly clean, using cleaner parts of the tarlatan as it picks up the ink*. 
• Follow with clean tarlatan.
• Take care to not overwipe the plate.
• You may want to wipe the edges of the plate with a rag or paper towel.
  
• Some people like to do a final brief and gentle wipe with telephone-book paper ( sometimes ver a block) for a brighter background.  This will polish the top surface without removing ink from the deeper areas.  Gloves provide friction for effective wiping. 
• The glass like surface of the ImagOn plate facilitates easy wiping during the intaglio printing procedure which is the same for conventional intaglio techniques. Because of the smooth finish of the ImagOn plate there will be virtually no plate tone present in the finished print. If a printmaker wishes to have a plate tone the plate should be briefly dry sanded with an electric palm finishing sander with a 320 grit wet-and-dry sandpaper. The coarser the sandpaper the greater will be the extent of the plate tone.
• Use scrap pieces of matboard or a felt dabber to spread the ink evenly and gently over the plate
• Wipe the plate with used tarlatan and little pressure in a circular motion to remove most of the excess ink until the image is somehow clear yet hazy looking.
• Follow with clean tarlatan
• Follow-up with a use telephone yellow page over block to wipe (polishh) top surface without removing deeper areas. Gloves provide friction for effective wiping
• Clean the plate edges with paper towel or old rag.

Paper

• Take your paper from the water.  Let excess water drip off and put it between two towels and roll out the water. It should appear matte and not shiny with moisture. 
• soak printing paper (25 minutes or more)
• Hang up paper to drip off excess water
• Press between blotters
• Paper should be damp and soft but not wet to the touch

Proof

• Used paper for proofing
• newsprint on press bed 
• It may be worth noting that the plate can be proofed at any point without the need to remove the Future.
• Place the freshly inked and wiped plate on the neswprint press bed.
• Position the printing paper , backing paper and the blanket.
• Send the press through. The best prints are obtained from a freshly inked plate.
• Lift the blanket, remove the print and place it on the drying rack or staple the wet proof to a wall made of homasote.
• Remove the plate and clean the press bed with a few drops of alcohol. 

• Pull back the blankets and remove your print, picking it up slowly from one corner, and place on racks to dry.   
• You need to re-ink between each print pulled

Print Yield

• The print yield for one plate can be as much as 40 prints but the factors for print yield vary according to the how the plate is wiped, how much press pressure is used and the nature of the image printed. Images with a great deal of black areas have a tendency to break down first because these areas of the plate holds the smallest percentage of ImagOn emulsion. Making plates with small uninked boarders also extends the life of a plate because of the bridging effect the etching press roller has on the plate. For this same reason late 19 century mezzotint artists made borders on their plates. 
• The print yield for each plate is really determined by when the black areas of the print start to fade. Once this happens these black areas can be reworked with liquid ImagOn emulsion.

Clean-up

• If you will not be printing another print immediately, clean the ink off your plate with vegetable oil and a rag. Clean up ink etc. the same way. Put all paper, templates, plates etc. away in your drawers and shelves, and keep the shop clean and tidy to maintain a good work environment.
• With Vegetable oil (canola) , degrease with magnesium carbonate
• Old method: clean the plate with paint thinner, follow up with alcohol, apply a thin coat of ground, and wrap with paper for storage. 
• If ink is being shared, make sure that a fair division of labor is agreed upon.
• Ink soiled newsprint, solvent soaked rags, etc should be placed in the red cans for disposal. Other cans are provided for paper towels from hand washing, etc.