Round Corners and Edge coloring

Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum. I am a letterpress printer from the Netherlands and could use any advice on an upcoming job.

The client wants me to do round corners and edge coloring. I do not own a corner rounder (jet) but I can die cut on my Heidelberg windmill.

Question is: what technique gives me the best edges on my cards so the edge color doesn’t finds it way between cards..? I color edges with spray paint and if edges are ‘curved down’ the paint will touch the upper part of the cards…

I was thinking of the following options:
A. Die cutting the whole card?
B. Cutting with the guillotine and then use a corner rounder?
C. Die cutting only the corners and then cut them clean on the guillotine?

Hoping to get any advice and help, maybe someone did a similar job once?

Thanks in advance!

Best regards,
Andre

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Your options for rounding the corners are good. Whichever one is convenient and least expensive.
For coloring the edges, place a small number of the cards between two wooden boards. Place a piece of scrap stock at top and bottom. Clamp the stack firmly with C clamps and apply the color. When dry, inspect to see if this works well. Ink applied with your finger should work well

Inky, have you ever tried to edge color cards with rounded corners?

No. I have not. That is why I suggested ink applied with a finger.
Another option might be to cut the wood pieces to the same length and corner radius to allow the color to be applied around the corner.
Analyze the objective to be achieved. See what stands in the way. Improvise. Test. Overcome.

Jens Jørgen Hansen in Denmark shows it in a series of photos on Flickr.

Thank you for your posts. I am going to test different methods but I figured that there has to be someone who did it before.

Thomas, do you have a link to this photo’s?

Thank you

With “Google translate” you could try Martin Schröders (Berlin) version:
http://www.blog.druckerey.de/?s=tag&t=farbschnitt
Or Jens in Denmark:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bogtrykkeren/tags/edge/

No personal experience, but I’d think you want the edges finished straight, not bevelled. So if diecutting, you’d have to specify a side bevel die rather than a center bevel, with the vertical side toward the work. Cutting on a paper cutter and corner rounding would give you the right edges.

Inky,

I was merely asking if you had, not suggesting it couldn’t be done.

Though I think it would be rather annoying/a big headache to produce, and I have personally told clients they could only have one, not the other in the past.
I was curious to see if there was an apt solution that I wasn’t aware of. I also had heard of other people’s troubles with edge painting objects that had been die cut in any way due to the bevel, so was curious if you had some trick other than the standard M.O. of edge painting.

Thanks for putting your thoughts out here everybody.

So I guess the best way to try this is cutting with a guillotine and round corner cutter. Clamp it between wood with the same round corners and paint the edges.

I will post the results when I have tried this.

How’d it go?

Hi Haven Press, job is in Januari. I will let you know.