Having gathered my thirty sheets of beautiful seed paper, I geared myself up during my walk to College, to approach the digital printing technician about printing my two Metros using the printing suite.
I explained what I had in mind, including a very convincing seed paper show-and-tell.
After a LOT of 'umm-ing' 'aah-ing', and bending and scratching of my paper samples, the technician gave me the go-ahead to 'prepare the digital files'.
Note to self: Remember to pay attention during College Photoshop inductions in the future.
I I smell of linseed oil and my clothes are covered in paint. I do not have the faintest clue about 'preparing digital files'.
Stretching and preparing a canvas? Yes. Preparing digital files? No!
The technician reluctantly gave me a quick Photoshop demonstration and suggested that I scan the pages individually instead of photographing them. With a photograph I would have to position the camera and the page in the exact same place in each shot, whereas he assured me that a scan is a lot quicker and simpler to ensure they are all the same size/colour balance etc.
It sounded simple enough.
No such luck!
It took me two whole days to scan and edit every single Metro page for my two pieces. It was awful. The largest scanner in College is A3- not big enough to fit a whole piece of newsprint inside.
I took the staples out of the Metro and treated every opened page as a front and a back which I had to number to ensure the correct order for printing. Because the scanner in college is not big enough to accommodate a fully open tabloid sized piece of paper, I had to scan the pages in four separate sections -
Front R page**
Front L page**
Right R page **
Left L page **
Once all of the pages were scanned (14 pages x 4 = 56 scans for each paper...112 in total,) I then had to photomerge the lefts and rights together and create a FRONT and BACK folder. So eventually, I was left with a METRO1 folder and a METRO2 folder, each with 14 fronts and 14 backs inside, ready to be sent to the printers.
Here's an example of page 1 FRONT and page 1 BACK of one of the Metros I chose, to give you an idea of how I managed to 'prepare the digital files'.
I explained what I had in mind, including a very convincing seed paper show-and-tell.
After a LOT of 'umm-ing' 'aah-ing', and bending and scratching of my paper samples, the technician gave me the go-ahead to 'prepare the digital files'.
Note to self: Remember to pay attention during College Photoshop inductions in the future.
I I smell of linseed oil and my clothes are covered in paint. I do not have the faintest clue about 'preparing digital files'.
Stretching and preparing a canvas? Yes. Preparing digital files? No!
The technician reluctantly gave me a quick Photoshop demonstration and suggested that I scan the pages individually instead of photographing them. With a photograph I would have to position the camera and the page in the exact same place in each shot, whereas he assured me that a scan is a lot quicker and simpler to ensure they are all the same size/colour balance etc.
It sounded simple enough.
No such luck!
It took me two whole days to scan and edit every single Metro page for my two pieces. It was awful. The largest scanner in College is A3- not big enough to fit a whole piece of newsprint inside.
I took the staples out of the Metro and treated every opened page as a front and a back which I had to number to ensure the correct order for printing. Because the scanner in college is not big enough to accommodate a fully open tabloid sized piece of paper, I had to scan the pages in four separate sections -
Front R page**
Front L page**
Right R page **
Left L page **
Once all of the pages were scanned (14 pages x 4 = 56 scans for each paper...112 in total,) I then had to photomerge the lefts and rights together and create a FRONT and BACK folder. So eventually, I was left with a METRO1 folder and a METRO2 folder, each with 14 fronts and 14 backs inside, ready to be sent to the printers.
Here's an example of page 1 FRONT and page 1 BACK of one of the Metros I chose, to give you an idea of how I managed to 'prepare the digital files'.
PAGE 1 FRONT
PAGE 1 BACK
The files were all saved as PDF's and were ready to go.
The technician was very concerned that the seeds from the paper would fly out whilst being printed, so, I was assigned to what felt like the oldest printer in the world. I had seen it before, whirring and shuddering in the corner. Oh God! Hugely aware that I was about to put £150 worth of paper in this unreliable old thing, I decided to oversee the process.
It took about an hour to clean the ink jets. The printer was so old,that the ink was all coagulated and was beginning to solidify inside itself. Reassuringly, the technician informed me that the ink was vegetable based so should not harm the seeds in any way. Great, I thought, if it actually works!
Finally, we were ready to hand feed each piece of paper, doing all of the fronts first, then turning the paper over, and printing all of the backs in the same order.
The actual printing process happened incredibly quickly apart from a few hitches. I couldn't believe it! I had had such a nightmare up until this moment - not being able to make seed paper, being turned away from silk screening, not having access to the digital suite, the scanning marathon and editing when I had no clue what I was doing...and finally, it was all coming together mockingly quickly.
The end results were flawless - perfectly accurate and looking really slick.
I wanted to mimic Metro newspapers using seed infused paper?
I had certainly done that.
Finally, we were ready to hand feed each piece of paper, doing all of the fronts first, then turning the paper over, and printing all of the backs in the same order.
The actual printing process happened incredibly quickly apart from a few hitches. I couldn't believe it! I had had such a nightmare up until this moment - not being able to make seed paper, being turned away from silk screening, not having access to the digital suite, the scanning marathon and editing when I had no clue what I was doing...and finally, it was all coming together mockingly quickly.
The end results were flawless - perfectly accurate and looking really slick.
I wanted to mimic Metro newspapers using seed infused paper?
I had certainly done that.
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