Tabula rasa - Part II - LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen

Tabula rasa – Part II

August 28, 2020

In the previous part we told you something about the process of creating the catalogue. We now move on to the printing process.

In the first part, Thilo Kaiser held his card in his hands, which is used to check whether standard light is available. For
It shimmers alternately light and dark. “No problem, we’ll check
anyway in our printing shop.” And
This is exactly where we are now: in the so-called prepress stage.

Thilo Kaiser stands under the standard light lamp, 2020 © LUDWIGGALERIE

Here
There is a large desk, above which hangs the very essential standard light lamp
(Such lamps correspond, by the way, to an overcast sky at midday at 12 o'clock).
In addition, there are the linearized and calibrated monitors so that the
Colors are displayed without deviations. All around are
Work tables and tools to create and further process the proofs
This way, printing sheets can be prepared from the individual pages.
an employee folds a large sample sheet and then folds it
There are red dashed lines on the edges that indicate the
DruIf an image overlaps there, it will be
cut off.

We go to the
adjoining room and stand in front of a machine in which large
Aluminum plates were inserted. “Every page that later appears in the catalog
appears, is transferred to the printing plates here. Since we have four-colour
print, there is a template for each color." Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black,
This gives rise to the technical term CMYK printing (Black is abbreviated to K, the
stands for “Key”. Deep black can only theoretically be created from the three primary colors
In CYMK printing, black is therefore used as a separate color
This prevents too much paint from being applied to one spot.
must be done).

Printing plates made of aluminum, 2020 © LUDWIGGALERIE

And
In fact, our robber Hotzenplotz looks a little different on every record,
the one with black resembles a little bit of a black and white setting. The
Color is later applied using a flat printing process. For this, the
Plates with a paint-absorbing layer and a moisture-absorbing layer
This sounds quite abstract to us at this point, with
these huge aluminum plates on which the pictures are currently still
look like negatives.

One of the many printing plates, here with Robber Hotzenplotz, 2020 © LUDWIGGALERIE

As
we, as at the beginning of this two-part text, in front of the large, loudly beeping printing press
We understand more clearly how everything works. We discover the great
Ink rollers, one in yellow, one in red, one in blue and one in black. Two
Rollers stand still, these are needed when special colors, for example in
Neon or metallic. Each roller has already been fitted with the
corresponding pressure plate is inserted.

A gigantic machine prints the catalogue pages, 2020 © LUDWIGGALERIE

"So,
Now the color can shrink a little. For this I use
Paper that has already been printed on,” explains the employee. “We try
Finally, to conserve resources wherever we can. And you will see
whether the colors are well distributed."

Back
The employee takes a sheet of paper from the machine, places it on his
work desk, compares the colors with the proofs and moves small controls
on the PC. In between, a small box moves over the paper. This measures
based on the printed color squares on the edge, whether the coloring is in principle
is right. "So, now we have it! What do you think?" Karo and I nod, like so
We saw so many small steps that day,
where everything was checked again and again and quality controls were carried out
It’s a lot of work until the digital document is printed in front of a
And there are a lot of places where things can go wrong! But since we
This is not the first time we have worked with Basis-Druck, we also know that
they are a regional, climate-certified and competent printing company and that
We find this particularly good. Short distances, intensive support and useful
Advice – full of many impressions we leave the building and
hold as a souvenir a green-blue bow on which the robber Hotzenplotz
can be seen in the hand. For 20 hours the printing continues and
when the pages are then dried and pulled through the cutting machine
were sent to the bookbinder. Until the catalogue is delivered to the museum
It will take some time, but we are already excited and
We look forward to seeing the finished product soon, with the experienced
Background knowledge, hold in your hand.