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This information is reprinted from the For Beginners
column of Hand Papermaking Newsletter #82 (April, 2008).
To learn how to order Hand Papermaking bi-annual magazine
and quarterly newsletter, click
here.
Printing Technologies and Handmade
Paper 101
In the last issue, I discussed a method for using
computer and laser printing technologies with handmade paper
in order to work large. In this issue, we will take a step
back and cover some basic tips and ideas for using printing
technologies on our handmade paper.
Handmade paper being an old technology, we take it for
granted that we can apply other old technologies to
it—letterpress, drawing, writing. What about new
technologies? You can print on your paper via inkjet
printer, photocopier, or laser printer.
What kind of handmade paper can I use with these more
recent printing technologies?
A crisp rather than soft sheet of paper will feed best
through your printer. You may have a little more leeway with
an inkjet printer, as the way it feeds makes it possible to
back a soft or tissue-thin paper with a sheet of
conventional printer paper for printing. How is a crisper
sheet achieved? Generally, a pulp that has been
Hollander-beaten rather than blender-processed will be
crisper. Longer beating times produce a paper with more
rattle. Fibers such as abaca and flax produce a crisper
paper than cotton does.
The surface smoothness of your paper affects the print
quality and the ease with which your machine handles the
paper. The surface quality is affected by the way you dry
your paper, as well as by the material onto which you couch
your wet sheets, and the surface of your mould. Some
papermakers add calcium carbonate to pulp to achieve a
smoother surface. Couching onto pellon as opposed to felts
creates a smoother paper. Restraint drying processes tend to
produce a less textured surface than does air drying. Drying
on glass produces a much slicker surface than drying on
varnished wood. Then again, you might like some texture in
your paper surface. The aesthetic quality of both the
printing and the paper is affected by all of these
variables.
I have run wrinkly sheets of very sturdy abaca/flax
through the inkjet printer, and was surprised to find how
well the printer handled it. It seems to iron those wrinkles
right out for the printing process. However, you are more
likely to get renegade ink smudges where the paper is
raised. The printing process may also be less forgiving when
printing detailed images and larger uninterrupted areas,
than when printing text or line-based images.
What about the deckle edge?
A deckle edge is no barrier to running your paper through
a photocopier or printer. The primary concern when retaining
the deckle edge is registration and alignment, which may not
be quite as tight as it could be with a straight edge. This
is of course true whether you are printing via letterpress,
etching press, or inkjet. If registration and alignment are
of concern, mind how you feed the paper into your printer
since the deckled paper corners are not precisely square. It
may take some experimentation to figure out which edge you
need to line up primarily to achieve the best results, but
once you settle on lining up your paper at the right edge of
the paper feed tray, keep lining up at that right edge. I
have also found that, when printing an edition, it is best
to feed fewer sheets at a time than I would with a cut edge
and a commercial paper.
I suggest allowing a greater margin for error by printing
more extras than you usually would, since your machine may
have trouble handling a few of the handmade paper sheets. I
also recommend using the manual feed tray on a laser printer
or photocopier rather than feeding from a drawer.
What print settings should I use?
The answer: well, that depends. Printers are all
different, and print differently when set to different paper
types. Obviously none of those pre-settings reads “Mary’s
Flax-Hemp 2008.” So it behooves you to run test prints at
different settings to see which results you might like
best—and the presetting that achieves this might be
counterintuitive. If I pull heavyweight sheets from my
Flax-Hemp recipe, this does not necessarily mean that the
cardstock setting will produce the best results.
What about paper coatings?
Some people recommend the product Ink Aid, which is
designed to coat papers for inkjet printing. Anything you
coat your paper with is going to affect the paper quality,
and your coating method will affect the surface as well. Did
you use a brush or a sponge? Did you dip it? Roll it out
with a rubber roller?
Anything else?
A few words on inclusions. You wouldn’t want to damage
your printing technology of choice by using paper with
dimensional inclusions such as hard plant materials. Of
course, the print quality over these areas is going to be
uneven anyway.
Also, to reiterate a point from my last column, anything
printed on an inkjet printer with a conventional cartridge
will bleed if it gets wet, so when choosing a printing
technology, take into consideration how you will be using
these prints. Do you plan to incorporate the print into a
wet collage? Will you be mounting it with a wet wheat starch
paste? Laser and photocopy prints are more stable in regard
to moisture, and using pigment and archival ink cartridges
in your inkjet printer will also produce a more stable
print.
Experiment. Test before committing yourself to fifty
copies of something. And don’t be afraid of sending the
deckle edge off through new technologies.
Copyright 2008 Hand Papermaking, Inc.
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