Blind deboss: First run or second?
I have a 2-run job with a medium grey and a blind deboss. The grey is the majority of the design, with the blind impression for texture/pattern in a few areas of the design (nothing too close to the grey text or art, registration-wise). I would think it’d be easier to do the blind first and then the grey run second, since the press will be clean to start.
I’ve never done a blind impression before so I wanted to get another take on the workflow when using that technique. (For instance if I run the inked (and important) text and art second, any impression problems to be worried about?)
Thanks in advance for any insights you have!
If they overlap you should probably run the blind impression first so that none of the ink comes off onto the plate and transfers to parts of the image you don’t want it to.
Alternatively you could run the inked impression first and wait for the sheets to dry totally before running the blind impression.
Unless you’re running a press with hairline register, IE if you’re handfeeding, your sheets may be slightly off in register (unless you’re just THAT good), causing you trouble when one inkform already on the page gets a little ink offsetting onto the blind impression form, and then that transfers hazily to the next page in some undesirable way.
That would be the only reason I can think of to run one before the other, otherwise I’d say they’re pretty interchangeable?
Thanks. There’s no overlap at all, and the blind impression and inked are all far enough away from each other that there shouldn’t be a registration issue if it’s off—I didn’t want to go into hairline territory because I’m emphatically NOT that good. :)
I just feel like sometimes if something seems too easy to be true, it is. But in this case I don’t see why I wouldn’t do the deboss first and save myself cleaning the press twice! Just wanted to confirm that. So thanks for your reply!
run your ink first. i am taking into account that your blind image is different than your inked image. thus, your blind image will already be clean. once you add the “third dimension” of the deboss to the sheet you will want that as your last operation.
i’m with Eric, you want your debossing last, even hand feeding stock that is embossed makes it harder to handle, i always do the embossing or debossing last. Good Luck Dick G.
For a blind, you should always take your rollers off so there’s no ink contamination. And run it second, in my opinion.
Running the ink first is best, because you have better control of the sheets feeding into the press.
The emboss work will raise the sheet and the feeding of the sheets will miss feed at times.
Are we talking about along press run?
Aha. Thanks everyone, this is super-super helpful. It’s a fairly short run (85 sheets) and I’m feeding by hand, but it definitely sounds like the blind impression pass should be last. (And d’oh about taking off the rollers—why didn’t I think of that!?!)
Thanks again!