ABCs

The biggest print I can make on my platen press is about 8×10. I’ve been itching to do something larger, but fitting a bigger press in my shop just isn’t practical. So I decided to try out the Vandercooks at the San Francisco Center for the Book where I teach. These are cylinder presses and I’ve only used them a few times. I arranged to print the same day as my friend Melissa, who had agreed to give me a quick refresher — how to clean the press, differences to watch out for between a platen and cylinder model. I took with me a design I’d done but had trouble printing on my own press — it fits on an 8×10 sheet but the image area is too big to get good ink coverage from my platen. The Vandercooks printed it beautifully — with a nice deep impression, so the Q and V and dot of the I in the prints below stand out. I especially like this design because I got to use the “AND” from the Adobe Wood Type Ornaments! I printed some in 2 different colors and they are available here.