Reviews
Part of Why do printmaking mistakes keep happening, and how do you find the cause?
Printmaking mistakes worth avoiding early
Fault-finding tools compared for first-time buyers: loupes, raking lamps, step wedges, moisture meters and pH pens compared for diagnosing print faults.
What to take away
- Printmaking mistakes worth avoiding early come down to a short list: over-inking, too much press pressure, badly dampened paper and mold.
- A loupe and a raking lamp diagnose more faults than every other tool combined.
- A hygrometer costs almost nothing and explains a whole family of faults.
- Buy a step wedge before you buy a densitometer. You need comparison, not absolute numbers.
- Learn to recognize mold. It is the one fault that spreads while you decide what to do.
Mistakes worth avoiding in the first year
Most ruined proofs trace back to a handful of repeatable mistakes. Each one leaves a visible symptom, so the table pairs what you see on the sheet with the change that fixes it.
| Mistake | What it looks like | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Over-inking the plate | Lines close up and fill with ink; open areas print solid black | Roll a thinner film in several directions and lighten brayer pressure |
| Starving the plate | Pale, broken lines and a gray, uneven transfer | Re-ink, warm the plate, roll again before adding press pressure |
| Too much press pressure | A deep plate mark, embossed paper, cockled sheets | Reduce pressure until the plate mark sits even and flat |
| Too little pressure on thick paper | Weak transfer on 250 gsm cotton papers such as Rives BFK | Add pressure, or damp the paper so the fibers accept ink |
| Over-dampened paper | Cockling, ink bleed, mold risk in the stack | Blot in newsprint, then damp pack overnight rather than soak |
| Bone-dry intaglio paper | Grainy, patchy impressions, worst on cold days | Damp the paper an hour before printing and keep it wrapped |
| No registration system | Color layers drift a millimeter or more between passes | Pin a mylar template to the bed and mark every sheet the same way |
| Careless wiping | Plate tone, a hazy background, scum left in the lines | Wipe with tarlatan, finish with the heel of the hand, wipe lightly |
| Unbeveled plate edges | Cut paper, scored felts, a heavy ink line at the plate edge | File a 45 degree bevel and polish it before printing |
| A greasy copper plate | Hard ground lifts and aquatint flakes in the ferric bath | Degrease with whiting or vinegar and salt before coating |
| Ink drying in the lines | Clogged lines, a faint next proof, scratchy clean-up | Clean with vegetable oil first, then solvent, the same session |
| Prints stacked wet | Ink offsets onto the back of the sheet above | Dry flat between blotters under weight for at least a day |
| Mold mistaken for foxing | Fuzzy patches that spread; foxing is flat brown spots inside the sheet | Isolate the print, drop the humidity, treat it as mold, not stain |
Two of these cost more than the rest. Ink left to dry in an intaglio line can need a re-etch. Mold in a plan chest spreads to every sheet it touches, and foxing does not.
The order to buy in
| Tool | Diagnoses | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Loupe, ten times | Fill-in, line closure, dot structure | First |
| Raking lamp | Embossing, cockling, uneven pressure | First |
| Hygrometer | Environmental faults across sessions | First |
| Step wedge | Exposure and density comparison | Second |
| Straight edge and feeler gauge | Bed flatness, roller clearance | Second |
| pH pen or strips | Paper and wash water chemistry | Third |
| Moisture meter | Dampening consistency | Third |
The first three cost very little together, typically under $60 in most markets, and will explain most of what confuses a beginner. The rest can wait until a specific question keeps recurring.
Tool buying order
First
- Loupe, ten times
- Fill-in, line closure
- Raking lamp
- Embossing, cockling
- Hygrometer
- Environmental faults
- Step wedge
- Straight edge, feeler gauge
- pH pen or strips
- Moisture meter
Second
- Loupe, ten times
- Raking lamp
- Hygrometer
- Step wedge
- Exposure, density
- Straight edge, feeler gauge
- Bed flatness, clearance
- pH pen or strips
- Moisture meter
Third
- Loupe, ten times
- Raking lamp
- Hygrometer
- Step wedge
- Straight edge, feeler gauge
- pH pen or strips
- Paper, wash chemistry
- Moisture meter
- Dampening consistency
Why comparison beats absolute measurement
A densitometer gives you a number. A step wedge gives you a relationship, which is what you actually work with. If step four prints solid and step six does not, you know your usable range without knowing any absolute density at all.
Densitometer vs step wedge
Densitometer
- Output
- A number
- What you work with
- Absolute density
- Example
Step wedge
- Output
- A relationship
- What you work with
- Usable range
- Example
- Step four solid, step six not
Measurement discipline matters more than precision. Public agencies make the same argument: the patent office publishes dashboards and data reports so people can understand a process and make better-informed decisions from data, not impressions.
A studio version is a hygrometer log and a step wedge, consulted rather than remembered. They only help if you photograph and file each fault so the record stays honest.
Learning to recognize mold
Mold is the fault that gets misread most often, usually as foxing or as a stain from the paper. It matters because it is alive and because handling it badly spreads spores through a plan chest.
The National Archives republishes the conservation guidance on prevention of microorganism growth in collections, which sets out what mold is, the conditions it needs and how prevention differs from treatment. Read it once.
The practical summary is that mold needs moisture, so controlling humidity is the whole prevention strategy, and that isolating affected material comes before any cleaning.
Tools that are not worth buying
- A microscope. Beyond a ten times loupe, magnification stops answering print questions.
- A colorimeter, unless you are matching to a client specification.
- Anything that measures a variable you are not already logging by hand.
- A second hygrometer for the same room. One logged reading beats three unread ones.
Using the tools in a sequence
Take the loupe and the raking lamp to the print first, before touching anything. Then check the log for the humidity reading. Only then start changing variables, following the diagnostic order in our account of what causes print faults.
For chemistry and mixing work, the measuring tools are a different set, and our comparison of studio measuring equipment covers scales, thermometers and timers.
Keep the diagnostic tools together in one small box by the bench. Fault-finding equipment scattered across a studio gets skipped, and a skipped check is how a one-sheet problem becomes an edition.
