Bluewater Shore – Final Press Checks

Final Press check, Craig Evans, Dual Graphics, copyright 2017 Douglas Stockdale

At one point a couple of years ago I was not so sure that this event was going to happen; working on the press-checks at the printer for the pending publication of Bluewater Shore. And here we are.

There were a couple of scheduling hiccups this past week, so while we had hoped to be doing the pres-checks at the beginning of the week, here we were doing it today. Before this, I had a chance to evaluate the soft proofs, but today I was looking at the printer and examining printed sheets as they came off the digital litho printing press, aka, hard-proofs or in this case, actually a press-check.

Fortunately I had already provided some match prints that I printed earlier on my Epson 4800 on Epson paper, so when we looked at each printed sheet (below in the light box) I could compare this to my match prints. Out of 16 printed sheets, I found that a slight increase in contrast (more density) was required for only three of the plates, otherwise spot on. Since we were using the Fultone printing process (two inks: Grey + Black) developed by Dual Graphics, the black and white images looked amazing. Granted that due to my intent, I had “aged” the images and backed off on the contrast to simulate a faded photograph, but these looked truly like old photographs. We also used a slightly off-white luster paper that works really well with this book.

We also evaluated the color and heavier stock for the book’s cover and this looked great as well. Only thing left was a confirmation to ensure that the holes would be drilled in the right location for the prong binding.

I provided my approvals and all systems were GO! The printing should be completed tonight, then the secondary operations to trim, score and drill the holes. Right now we are looking at a completion date of Wednesday, which is going to be a bit tight for having the finished books bound and inscribed for Photo Independent Friday afternoon, I will not need to finish them all, but have enough for the exhibition. Might bring a few parts with me and if a lull in the action during the exhibition, assemble a few more books.

This artist book will be literately hot off the press!

Cheers and hopefully see some of you at Photo Independent next weekend in Los Angeles. Give me a shout out if you plan to stop by ;- )