Are you thinking of printing on the cover or inside? On the cover should be no problem but you’ll need to adjust the impression on any press you use to compensate for the thickness of the book. Printing inside would be tricky.
Try to contact Keith Bassford – he is a specialist in printing outside and inside on moleskines.
He lives in Denmark but he is a real Englishman. www.graphicworkshop.dk
Gott grüß die Kunst
Jens
I don’t know what kind of press you have, but I’ve used a Vandercook to print a cover for a Moleskine notebook, which I then glued to the notebook. Here’s a photo.
Most presses are undercut .040” to .100” in my experience—not nearly thick enough to print a moleskine. Barb’s method might prove easier.
I’m not sure with what kind of press you are printing, but most Vandercooks I’ve seen are undercut .040”, .090” if you use a galley-high press. I have dialed back the impression on my Chandler and Price as far as I could to accomodate thicker stock and a die cutting jacket and it is still only allows clearance for about .085” worth of packing and stock.
I would be curious to know what clearance you get on a Windmill, perhaps an owner could chime in. I understand impression adjustment on those presses is as simple as the turning of a dial.
A platen press is probably the most ideal for this, and a vandercook probably the least ideal unless you plan to disassemble the book and reassemble it when you are done. Platens have been used to print cardboard boxes, chipboard, etc… because of their ability to adjust the platen way out for thick media.
Depending on whether you’re printing on hard cover moleskines or soft cover ones, you’d have to adjust the impression depth (packing) accordingly. When printing on a platen, only print the cover, don’t stick the whole note book in and print. Open the cover, and print just the cover while hold the rest of the notebook out of the way. I’m assuming this will not be a high volume project, so I’d turn the press over by hand… While holding the notebook out of the way, watch that you don’t mash your fingers. If needed, use painters tape to hold the notebook instead of your fingers…
Are you thinking of printing on the cover or inside? On the cover should be no problem but you’ll need to adjust the impression on any press you use to compensate for the thickness of the book. Printing inside would be tricky.
Bob
Try to contact Keith Bassford – he is a specialist in printing outside and inside on moleskines.
He lives in Denmark but he is a real Englishman. www.graphicworkshop.dk
Gott grüß die Kunst
Jens
Hello Whimsicalstar,
I don’t know what kind of press you have, but I’ve used a Vandercook to print a cover for a Moleskine notebook, which I then glued to the notebook. Here’s a photo.
Barbara
Most presses are undercut .040” to .100” in my experience—not nearly thick enough to print a moleskine. Barb’s method might prove easier.
I’m not sure with what kind of press you are printing, but most Vandercooks I’ve seen are undercut .040”, .090” if you use a galley-high press. I have dialed back the impression on my Chandler and Price as far as I could to accomodate thicker stock and a die cutting jacket and it is still only allows clearance for about .085” worth of packing and stock.
I would be curious to know what clearance you get on a Windmill, perhaps an owner could chime in. I understand impression adjustment on those presses is as simple as the turning of a dial.
you can get crafty and just make your own chipboard version
paper & staples
Here is a wonderful site of someone who makes great notebooks…
http://www.stanleyjamespress.com/
I have a Kwik-Print foil machine that would do nicely, but you can only do small things. Looks like this: http://www.dalesway.co.uk/picts/DW002_mod86.jpg
It would be on the front cover…
n/a
A platen press is probably the most ideal for this, and a vandercook probably the least ideal unless you plan to disassemble the book and reassemble it when you are done. Platens have been used to print cardboard boxes, chipboard, etc… because of their ability to adjust the platen way out for thick media.
Depending on whether you’re printing on hard cover moleskines or soft cover ones, you’d have to adjust the impression depth (packing) accordingly. When printing on a platen, only print the cover, don’t stick the whole note book in and print. Open the cover, and print just the cover while hold the rest of the notebook out of the way. I’m assuming this will not be a high volume project, so I’d turn the press over by hand… While holding the notebook out of the way, watch that you don’t mash your fingers. If needed, use painters tape to hold the notebook instead of your fingers…
Don’t have a press yet, but plant on getting a kelsey table-press eventually.