Packing advice please

Hello All,

I am getting ready to print a job on a 80lb felt finish. There is offset printing on the back of the sheet so I am trying to minimize show though.

Basically I am just planning to smooth out the paper’s texture in the printed areas, hitting as lightly as possible to achieve this.

I am looking for recommendations on the best type of packing for this job. Hard, soft, somewhere in between?

Thanks in advance.

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Hmm. You don’t mention a couple of key things. First: photopolymer plate (one hopes: soft packing is harmful to handset type)?

What kind of press? Platen? Cylinder?

Since I am predominantly platen: begin with hard packing, and very little of it. Build up under your drawsheet (tympan paper) as needed. Slowly: a sheet at a time of very thin paper. Phone book pages work nicely.

You say you want to “smooth out the paper’s texture,” but that is probably a heavy impression and may show through. The only impression that will not is a kiss impression. Inking will be the key factor. Too little, and the paper texture can be a problem. Too much, and all your careful work will look blobby.

Hoping this helps!

Sorry, it is a platen, C&P 10x15, and I am using polymer KF-152 from Boxcar.

I was thinking hard packing might be a good start for this one. Good idea about the phone book pages, we usually use tracing paper of 2 different thicknesses but I just recycled a phone book thinking it was useless!

Hard packing should accomplish what you wish to do. I use a hard tympan sheet with packing of polyester film (Mylar is DuPont’s Brand name). If you have access to old litho negatives, they work very well, or hit the art supply store and ask for Mylar. If you need thinner packing, use the plastic from bags from the supermarket.

You should be able to imprint and not have the relief show on the reverse on most felt “pattern” sheets like feltweave.

In our area of the country, the phone books are printed on calendared newsprint, so that would be a soft material which is too compressible for this type of hard packing application.