THE OLD SCHOOL PRESS

Moments in the making of The Colours of Rome.

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Adjusting the inking


I’m now ready to print the necessary number of copies of every forme in my schedule. I want 133 copies finally, so will be printing 145 to allow for poor sheets.

I check every tenth sheet against the standard dark and light sheets before touching up the ink: the tenth sheet should look like the light standard and I adjust the inking as necessary. I add a little bit to the top (vibrating) roller, varying the amount in different areas along its length according to the amount of type the roller is running over. How much one adds is of course purely down to experience. If I am worried, after adjusting the inking I also check the first sheet against the dark standard.
 The light and dark standards are very much extremes, having been printed with, in this case, two full pages, i.e. with the maximum amount of ink being taken off the rollers with each impression. The less the type in the forme, the less the fall-off in density across ten sheets. One also learns to be careful about the build-up of ink on the part of the rollers that runs over the gutter between the two type-blocks: although one does not add ink to the rollers in that area the movement of the vibrating roller carries ink into it and, because it is not being used up, it can build up, with the result that the type next to the gutter gets more ink than it needs and becomes visibly over-inked. As soon as it becomes apparent it is time to run the rollers to let the ink spread out evenly again and to hold off adding ink near the edges of the gutters. (The same is true of course of the side margins.)

Copyright © Martyn Ould 2013.