What is this called?
I am from Manila Philippines, and letterpress in not popular here. Letterpress machines here are mostly used for numbering (duplicate, triplicate) copies of reciepts or for blind embossing. When i asked what plate to use to make an impression, they only gave me this. They don’t seem to know what a photo polymer plate is… So my choiced here are these kinds of plates, or the silicone one.
I hope you can share with me your opinion/s with these kinds of plates…most likely, I will be practicing with this kind of plate because it is readily available
laslty which makes the best impression, this kind of plate. a photo polymer plate or a silicon plate?
plate.JPG
That looks like either a zinc or a magnesium photoengraving. Either will print as well as or better than photopolymer. Magnesium will oxidise and corrode with high humidity, but if you oil it between uses it should be fine. Zinc is very durable. I am not sure what you mean by silicon or silicone plates — rubber? That would not be a good as photopolymer.
yes, i think those are rubber plates.
Costwise, what’s the cheapest that you use so far?
Zinc is almost unavailable in the US; most photoengravers only do magnesium, though a few make copper engravings too. I don’t know about in the Philippines. Photopolymer should be the cheapest, especially if you can make them yourself — you need a way to make dense line negatives and to burn them onto the photopolymer material. You develop the plate with warm water, so there aren’t dangerous chemicals involved. A platemaker for offset platemaking can burn them, and a local printer might be able to make the negs for you too.
Hi Am1x1s. I’m also from the Philippines and I just got my CP 8x12. I’ve been using the zinc plate and it gives a good impression. Photopolymer plates are readily available here in Cebu but I have yet to look for someone who can process this with my negative. You might want to try asking your local printing supplier if they are selling the flexo photopolymer plates.