Photogravure/Photo Polymer Gravure

[rdbkorn]

Andrew,

I live in Victoria, and have ordered solarplates from Dan Smith in Seattle. They are Toyobo Printight KM73 plates, which are carried by Williamson Printing (http://www.williamson.ca/). There is a Williamson office in Richmond, might be worth contacting them to see if they will sell small quantities, etc.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Great, guys. Thanks for your help. I'll check the Richmond branch.

[jovo]

The Center for Photography at Woodstock has finally released their 2009 catalog with course descriptions and workshop presenter's bios. Here's the photogravure one given by Lothar Osterberg as promised:

http://www.cpw.org/WPW/2009/pages/July.html

[freedda]

Whitey, I took a photopolymer gravure class in March, 2010 in NH taught by Mark Nelson and Paul Taylor. Paul does fine-art copper-plate photogravure at his studio (http://www.renaissancepress.com/). Mark developed the precision digital negative (PDN) system and also teaches platinum/paladium printing ( ender100@aol.com ).

Though I can't say they were exactly up to photogravure quality, they were pretty darn close and I don't think either Mark or Paul would be teaching the method if they didn't believe in the quality of the images.

We were using Toyobo KM-73 plates. Mark's digital negative (in our case, positives) method really gives you control over your tonal range, which is where I see many photo-polymer images lacking.

I understand that they both plan to offer more workshops. I suggest you contact them if you're interested.

I haven't done any traditional gravure, but I'll say that I've seen lots of poly-gravure prints and they have never come to the level of perfection evident in the copper-plate gravure prints tipped into wonderfully expensive old hard-bound books. It may be possible.

[freedda]

Rdkorn, Andrew, et al. Just to clarify, Toyobo Printight KM-73 plates and Solar Plates are both made with photopolymer materials, but are two different products. Dan Smith does carry solar plates, but not the KM-73 plates. There are other US sources for both.

Andrew,

I live in Victoria, and have ordered solarplates from Dan Smith in Seattle. They are Toyobo Printight KM73 plates, which are carried by Williamson Printing (http://www.williamson.ca/). There is a Williamson office in Richmond, might be worth contacting them to see if they will sell small quantities, etc.

[Whiteymorange]

I get my plates (km73) at Boxcar press. Nice folks.

Fredda: Thanks for the workshop tip. I'll look them up.

[Cape Fear]

It is nice to see people discussing the differences in photogravure and photopolymer. I added a page to my site recently explaining the differences in the photo intaglio processes. Please check it out if you are interested.
http://www.capefearpress.com/photointagliodef.html
Jennifer