Importance of Makeready

January 24, 2008

Update: For more information on Makeready, check out Cromwell’s manual, “Makeready … the details and the techniques“.

After adjusting the platen and planarizing the press I thought my problems with uneven impressions were over. Unfortunately, I was very wrong! A couple of months back I had acquired a large amount of type and finally got around to using it when I had to make personlized stationery for a client. It became very apparent that I had some dishing on my platen when I went to use my 48 pt font. I noticed that the letters “D” and “l” were barely impressing the paper (oldschool printers, please don’t take offense). So now what do you do? The answer is make ready, the process of building up certain areas for even impression. Since my “D” was making less of an impression than my “l”, I cut a piece of 20lb copy paper for my “D” and a piece of tissue paper for my “l”. I take an impression on my tympan and then with a glue stick or make ready paste, adhere the pieces of paper to the letters than need to be built up on the tympan. Make sure the pieces of paper are exact.

The picture below is of my make ready.

Finished Product