RE: Colour-Key
Russell Cothren (rcothren@comp.uark.edu)
Wed, 28 Aug 1996 14:00:48 -0500 (CDT)
I made more colour-keys than I care to remember. It is a 3M
product. The chemicals were harsh on the skin, lungs and enviroment. You
might check with a large printing house about the new stuff. I got out of
the biz. when the new proofing materials were just coming in. I hear they
are safer and enviromentaly friendler. There are many different
manufactures and methods.
With colour-key you exposed the film as if you were making the
actual printing plate. You had yellow, cyan, magenta and black sheets. You
exposed each appropiate sheet and then dev. each one. Then you pin them
down on a piece of chrome coat. It is kind of like when we were talking
about printing plat., plad. on vellum the last two weeks. The colour-key is
transparent.
You pin each one down in sucession as if it were ink on the paper. Y first,
then Magenta, Cyan and Black. The sheets are coded;Y,M,C,K. It is expensive
to say the least. I enjoyed it because I would strip up a job for a week or
two and this gave me a chance to see if every thing was going to regestar
and the traps were going to fit.
They are now producing waterless printing plates and I am sure they
are producing waterless proofing systems too. I recently got to see a
catalog that was printed on a digital press. It was very nice and cheep
compared to traditional short run 4 colour printing. I personaly love
printing press. When the industry goes completly digital I shall purchase
myuself a small press.
Good Luck
Russell Cothren
Photo Editor
University Relations
University of Arkansas
501-575-3970