[alt-photo] Re: Getting started with gum dichromate printing

[colin at colinflanarygraham.com]

On 4/8/2010 2:10 PM, Katharine Thayer wrote:
> Your question, however, raises another question in my mind:  if your ultimate
goal is to print color carbon, why start with gum?  This idea doesn't make sense
to me.  Gum and carbon are quite distinct processes;  each has its own
requirements and difficulties, so learning gum isn't a step toward mastering
carbon, and taking on gum will involve some time and difficulty that will delay
your getting started with carbon, if that's what you want to do.   You shouldn't
take the time to learn gum unless you really want to do gum; if carbon is what
you want to do, then it seems to me the most efficient way to get there is to
start printing carbon.  There are specialized forums for carbon printers online,
and maybe someone here could point you to them.   Not that I want to discourage
anyone from doing gum, but I would never suggest gum as a first step toward
something else.  Good luck,
> Katharine 

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Not sure if this is what Tom is thinking but I started with gum as a springboard
to color carbon, using gum mainly to get a my head around color workflows and
profiles. My reasoning was that the results are more immediate with gum, the prep
much less labor intensive, so it might help to arrive at an understanding of how
a 3 or 4 color process 'adds up' with regard to pigment loads, curves, etc.
before working with all the difficulties of color carbon.  Problem is I've grown
to like gum so not sure if I'll ever make the step to color carbon.