Playing 10850 catch up
Today was Black 10850 catch up day. Three runs to do on the book today, all small pieces of text, all in black 10850, most of them things I have simply been putting off in favor of flashier and more exciting stuff. First order of business was finishing up the title page. (For earlier title page action, have a look here.)
This was a fast setup because I could used the finished Appendix page — essentially the same design — as a map. Check the baseline of the text (the vertical position on that page) with the pica ruler.
Check the horizontal position with a light table (or a glass door.) Make a pencil map and slap the plate into the bed of the press.
Print on a waste sheet and then fold to check the centered position.
Print! Print! Print!
Run #2: the first run on the mysterious folios that I haven’t quite worked out yet. More on this in a future post, but I have still (still!) not settled on what exactly will happen in the two to three folios that will fall between the bulk of the book and the appendix.
The one thing I do know is that there needs to be some continuity between the last folio of text and the first of these not-so-much-about-text folios. I have decided to accomplish this by bringing the last words from the previous page into the next spread in the same position.
I cut the paper for these mysterious folios a bit larger than the other sheets I have printed to accommodate a possible bleed (when the color extends to the very edge of the page) on all four sides. A little quick math and some pencil lines, and I know where the word needs to fall on this larger sheet. Time for some plate surgery.
Print! Print! Print!
Run #3 technically could be described as Runs #3 through #12. Because this book will include a “deluxe edition” of ten copies within the larger edition of 75, the colophon (the page at the end that gives information about the book) needs to be slightly different for each of these ten copies. I have ordered plates with separate text for each of them.
Now the trick is to set each of these plates up in the same position and, unsatisfyingly, print each of them only once.
I start by setting up one of the plates in the correct position. I print this line of text over and over again on a number of proofs. Because each of these lines will land in the same place, I can use this first line as a map when I am registering subsequent plates.
Look, here is some satisfying registration:
Do that ten times, and then that’s it for the day.
Next up: Confessions of still-undesigned folios.
Big Jump Press 