11.Registration for multicolor prints

Tomorrow, I will be teaching a new class at the Centennial Art Center of Hamburg. I have 8 students in this class. The Art Center is an old one room schoolhouse - we have the place to ourselves on Sunday afternoons. There is plenty of space for everyone. Two of my students are new to screen printing and the others have all taken my classes before. I want to use this blog as a teaching tool. For this first class, I will emphasise proper registration.

Registration is of primary importance in multicolor printing.

It is not hard to achieve almost perfect registration by starting off by having the image to be printed on a sheet of print paper that has been cut for this edition of prints. The image could be drawn right on the print paper or mounted onto a sheet of the print paper with a glue stick. The image should appear about in the center of the screen. Tape the print paper onto the screen bed with a couple of pieces of masking tape. You will need three rectangles of cardboard for registration guides.

The cardboard should be a just little thicker than the print paper. Cereal boxes and other packaging could be used. Use glue stick to cover one side of the cardboard guides. Place the guides onto the screen bed so that they butt up to the print paper at the ends of the longer side of the print paper. Put masking tape over the guides – not too close to the paper. You don’t want the tape to extend where the guide and the paper meet. Be sure that there is glue under the guide at the edge where it butts up to the paper so that the paper will not slide under when setting it in place for printing. Repeat with the third guide at the corner away from the hinges on the screen bed. Now you can remove the masking tape that was first put down.

Every time that you put a sheet of print paper into the guides it will be in the right place for good registration. This works for reduction printing with one screen and for prints made with multiple screens. If you use multiple screens, have them all hinged to the same screen bed and use this method of registration.