Society of American Graphic Artists, Resources, Wm. Stolpin

Society of American Graphic Artists

Registration Technique Suitable for Silkscreen and Relief Prints

Resources

William Stolpin

The following article first appeared in SAGAzine volume 1, no. 1, Summer 2003

Registration Technique Suitable for Silkscreen and Relief Prints

by William Stolpin

Step 1 -- Manually locate a sheet of edition paper in the proper location relative to the image on the screen.

Illustration note: Edition paper is on bed in correct location relative to image on the screen.

Screen frame with edition paper in place.

Step 2 -- Without moving the edition paper (tape it down lightly), raise the lower left corner of the paper and place two pieces of tape (I use masking tape) on the press bed, one on left edge and one on bottom edge. Do the same with a third piece of tape on the right edge near the corner.

Placement of tape under the edition paper

Step 3 -- Draw a pencil line across the edge of the paper and onto the tape at all three tape locations.

Step 4 -- Remove the paper and extend the lines on the tape (to ensure they will accommodate papers that are of different dimensions).

Step 5 -- Transfer similar pencil marks (now known as "registration marks") to each of the edition sheets. This can be done in several ways:

A. Locate each sheet of edition paper on the bed in the correct location and extend the lines you draw on the tape across the paper edge to leave a small mark at the correct location on each edition sheet.

B. Place registration marks on a second edition sheet (see step 5A). Place this sheet on the bottom of the edition papers and place original sheet (from step 3) on top of the stack of edition papers

C. Fan the stack for each of the three marks and draw a pencil line across the fanned edges of the edition papers connecting the registration marks on the top sheet (step 3) and the bottom sheet (step 5A)

The three marks will assure that each piece of paper will be in exactly the same location each time it is positioned on the press bed. (Three points define a plane.) It works for round or irregular-shaped papers as well as for rectangular shapes (illustrated).

It works best when the three points are on three different edges and are spaced far apart.

Trial and erroor will find the optimum location for each person. Height of the screen when registering each sheet will tell how visible each mark is. You will also find you want enough room to hold the papers without covering up registration marks.

Small crisp marks give better registration than large undefined marks. Simply line up each of the three marks on the paper with the corresponding three marks on the press bed. I have used the process for years and find it works as well for two or three colors as it does for 30 or 40 colors.

Date of Publication: June 1, 2003

This article has not been published previously.

All rights of copyright are retained by William Stolpin. Reproduction or publication is forbidden without the written consent of the author.

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