When the stone thus has been painted red, it must be permitted to dry
thoroughly. When it is dry, a strong impression of the design is made on
sized but well-dampened paper with a printing-color rather soft than
firm. Before the paper has a chance to dry and thus to shrink, the red
stone is placed in the press and the impression is laid on it face down.
Use moderate pressure. The drawing will transfer itself to the red
surface, but the paper will stick. Wet it with weak aquafortis till it
is completely softened and permits itself to be removed. Care must be
taken not to spoil the drawing by violent wiping and rubbing.
This method is easier if a special transfer paper is used. Coat
well-sized, very clean paper with a thin paste of starch such as
laundresses use for stiffening linen. This paper must not be dampened
very much, because then it will not take the impression well. It also is
removed from the tone plate by washing with weak aquafortis and it
yields very easily, because the paste lets go of the color readily.
When the design has been transferred to the tone plate, take good iron
instruments and remove the wax surface wherever the high lights are
desired. As the stone is ground rough, the scraping will produce only
small specks at first, because the instrument will touch only the relief
points. The more the scraping proceeds, the deeper it will go, till at
last one reaches the bottom of the coating and thus obtains a white
light. Experts can so manipulate the tint plates that the lights will be
graduated from the softest to the most glaring.
As soon as the lights are drawn in, the margins of the drawing are
scraped the same way. Then the plate is treated to several washings of
pretty strong aquafortis, about twenty parts of water to one part of
aquafortis. After coating with gum, it is ready for printing.
The most important requisite for this printing is a good arrangement
that will insure an exact register of the second impression with the
first, that the lights may appear exactly where they belong.
To achieve this, the practice used to be to draw two register marks on
the stone holding the original design, which were transferred to the
tint plate with the rest of the design. When the first impression was
made, the printed paper was cut away exactly at the marked points, and
laid accurately, on the tone plate, being guided by the two marks there.
This was effective, but it had the fault that the paper had to be
trimmed off carefully for each impression and that the slightest
inaccuracy spoiled the register. However, it is very useful for printing
proofs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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