Direct to Plate Gravure Workshop at Cone Editions Press

Digital Direct to Plate Photopolymer (DTP) Gravure has the potential to allow a new user to make photogravures at the same standard as those practicing the traditional copper based methods but with 1/3 the cost and 1/10th the amount of labor. Our process matches your monitor. The process, as we teach it, is not difficult to master. If you have no experience in an etching studio you will gain a huge amount from this workshop. On the other hand, if you've been practicing copper plate photogravure a visit to our workshop can change your life! Limited to six attendees. This workshop concentrates on a new Piezography method of producing photopolymer gravure plates by printing the positive image directly onto the pre-sensitized plate. No film is required. An exposing screen is not required. A vacuum exposing machine is not even required for this process. Yet the benefits are a much higher acuity and fidelity than available when using film positives, exposing screens, and vacuum exposing units. You can read more about our involvement in this process here. The Piezography® Direct-to-Plate Photopolymer Gravure is a method in which an alternative Epson printer driver is manually tuned to manage Piezography Ultra HD Matte Black ink output and dithering with the purpose of printing a positive image directly onto the surface of a photopolymer plate. The complex calibration and linearization of the output is performed by a proprietary Piezography ICC profile. This process is ideally OS X compatible and that is how we prefer to teach it. But, there is room for Windows. OS X offers color management potentials and products that Windows does not, hence our preference. As with any Piezography process, the linearization is perfectly suited to the medium and there is a screen display to print match that allows the user to edit their images without compensation curves and other unnecessary processes. The Piezography method produces what appears to be a visual replicant of the aquatint photogravure process. You'll learn how to process the plates in plain water, dry them, and ready them for inking by hand. In the etching studio, for the sake of health and safety, we will only use safe etching inks that clean up easily with water and do not produce fumes of any kind. What you learn however, is easily adaptable to oil based etching inks. You'll learn how to set up the etching press for the type of pressure required for photogravure. You'll learn how to calendar paper and prepare it for printing. You'll learn how to ink and wipe your own plates and pull your own prints! Attendees must bring a laptop, but we provide professional grade large screen reference calibrator displays by Eizo and NEC. If you are not currently digitally equipped, please bring something for us to digitize for you. If you only have digital images and no laptop - bring them on a flash drive and you can use our computers. You should bring a series of images you wish to work with. All of the materials and fine art papers are included in the workshop costs. More information is here: https://shop.inkjetmall.com/Direct-To...