Lino Printing Tips: 3 ways to line up your lino prints when printing
You have spend hours and hours carving out your lino print designs, you have your printing paper ready, got your printing inks ready and now it’s time to print. Now is also the time to think about which type of registration you will need to use.
Registration? What’s that I hear you ask? Well it’s the printmaking technical term for placing your lino printing block so it prints in the same place on the paper each time.
So choosing the right registration method to suit your project really does come in handy and I’m going to show you 3 really amazingly simple and cost effective ways to register your Lino prints and if you rather watch how they are made please scroll to the end and watch the video.
1 - Simple Paper Registration - Useful for when you’re printing with one colour only
This way of registering your prints is great for complete beginners who are most likely to only going to be printing with one colour or one layer, and it’s really simple to make and inexpensive too.
Get a piece of paper larger than your printing paper or you could use a piece of acetate/plastic for a wipeable version.
Place your printing paper onto the sheet and using a pencil and ruler draw around the paper. Use a permanent marker if using a acetate sheet.
It’s useful to mark one of the bottom corners as this is where you will align your printing paper each time you print.
Then position your Lino inside the box you have just drawn and decide where you would like it to be. You could do this by eye or be more precise and measure each side to determine your margin sizes. Draw around the lino. This is where your inked up lino will go for each print.
You now have a simple registration sheet.
2 - Corner Registration - Useful for printing single colour and multiple coloured lino prints
This is really useful as a multipurpose tool. Not only can it be used if you are using one colour or printing just one layer, it can also be useful if you are printing multiple colours/layers as it helps you get your paper and lino in the same place each time you print.
A corner registration is a L shaped tool which you can buy from most printmaking suppliers. However they are so easy to make and will give you far more control over your margin sizes.
For mine I just use off cuts from framers mount board. Most framers will let you have their off cuts free of charge if you ask nicely. Or if that’s not an option then any card that is firm and shallower than the depth of you Lino will work just as well.
Get your card (pictured is 15x15 cm) and on the top left draw a square and cut this out, this is where your Lino will sit. It doesn’t matter how big this is, just make sure it is big enough for your lino to sit in comfortably.
Now you need to work out how big you want the margins around your Lino to be and draw this onto the card, measuring from the area you have just cut away. Pictured the margin is 2.5cm.
Now you need to create a raised lip, this will be where your printing paper will sit. Cut 2 strips of card.
Using PVA glue the strips into position. Weigh down with a heavy book for a few hours or ideally overnight to avoid any buckling of the card.
To make it more durable and easier to clean give it a couple coats of waterproof varnish on both sides
Your registration corner is now ready to use. Place the Lino into the cut out corner and then place the paper into the raised lip. If using a press remember to remove the corner to prevent the Lino getting stuck.
3 - Pin and Tab Registration - Useful for multiple coloured/layered lino prints
The Pin and Tabs registration are a really useful bit of kit if you plan to do a lot of multiple block or reduction lino printing as they make registration for each colour a breeze and are inexpensive to buy.
On a flat piece of board bigger than your printing paper place your paper down and draw around it.
Decide where you would like your Lino to print and draw around it. This can be done by eye or more precisely by measuring each side to work out your margins.
On one of the short edges of the board, tape down the metal pins with parcel tape. Really press any air bubbles out as you don’t want any movement half way through a print run.
Using thin card, glue or tape a corner for where your Lino will sit.
Place a sheet of printing paper in place, using your drawn out line for guidance. Then attach two tabs to the pins, they will snap into place if correctly fitted. Using masking tape attach the other side of the tabs to the paper. Make sure they are firmly attach as these will remain in place until you have finished your print design.
Attach tabs to each of your printing paper. You are now ready to print.
Watch how the 3 lino printing registration methods are made
And finally
There are so many different types of lino printing registration methods, ones that you can buy as well as making your own and I’ve shown you what I think are the 3 most simplest to make, to use and the more affordable of the bunch. And now you know how to register your lino prints you’re ready to start printing and you may be thinking you will need a printing press to do so. But take a look at my blog post Do you need a printing press to do lino printing? and get some more lino printing tips
Stop The Press
Cor Blimey I’ve only gone and written Lino Printing Tutorials: 3 More Ways to Line up Your Lino Prints While Printing. Yep that’s right, another 3 brilliant ideas to help with your Lino Registration. These include a Gridded Registration which is a variation on the Simple Registration, A Window/Jig and a Fixed Registration. So now you have 6 wonderful ways to register your lovely Lino Print creations, you lucky devils
I’ve also filmed a new tutorial to go with it, Another 3 Ways To Register Your Lino Ready For Printing over on my YouTube Channel
Links
The Pin and Tabs used are called Ternes Burton Registration Pins and are available in the UK from handprinted.co.uk
Outside of the UK they can be bought fromternesburton.com
To watch more of my videos please head over to my YouTube channel Kerry Day Arts