I was approached by an acquaintance to print a set of wedding invitations for a happy couple three weeks ago. The client already had a design, made plates and bought paper. My part was to do the actual printing. The design was lovely: silhouetted wildflowers in sage green against a cream background with black text.

Now the paper was beautiful, but my little C&P just couldn’t give a good print on the linen finish.

bad printing

bad printing

I tried printing on the smoother side of the paper, upping the packing, and adding more ink, then thinning the ink, then putting a sheet of make ready UNDER the plate, etc. etc. and still, that linen finish that is so pretty just wouldn’t take a punch. The horizontals and verticals on the paper surface, that make it look like its woven, showed through no matter how much pressure I applied.

So, after calling a few people to ask if there was any trick to printing with this paper, I decided to rig up the cylinder Poco proof press to print the second color. rigged poco

Worked pretty well, even though it took a lot longer with hand inking the plate for each print. The prints were much more consistent, and the texture didn’t show through the more solid areas of the image. Pretty good, pretty good.
better print