The Old and the New: InDesign for Letterpress

The printing press and moveable type, invented by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th Century, brought a revolution in the mass distribution of the printed word, and literacy among common people. Over time, modern lithographic offset printing supplanted the technology, and letterpress became a dying art.

In recent years, letterpress has experienced a resurgence in popularity as artisan printers and designers collaborate to create individual, short-run pieces that reveal more tactile and expressive printed material than possible with commercial offset or digital printing.

When studying graphic design at Otis College of Art and Design in the early 1980s, Rebecca Chamlee was introduced to letterpress printing, book binding and artists’ books. She was also an early adopter of the Mac and software applications as a young freelance graphic designer. As a full-time book artist today, she utilizes Adobe InDesign and Photoshop to design and create imagery for her letterpress printed, hand-bound book editions.

In this talk, Rebecca will show how she uses modern software for the layout and planning of her books, made with hand-set type in the tradition of Gutenberg, alongside digitally produced photopolymer plates for images; a perfect intersection of old and new technology.

Topics include:

• Layout in InDesign with letterpress in mind
• Soft-proofing multiple-color images
• File preparation for photopolymer plates
• From computer to press-bed
• Things to remember when designing for letterpress

Getting to Valley College

Los Angeles Valley College is located in Van Nuys. Some maps and directions say Valley Glen, but it's really Van Nuys. By car, it's east of the 405, north of the 101, west of the 170 and south of the 118. It is served by Metro bus lines 154, 156, 167, 656, as well as the Metro Rail Orange and Red lines.

Getting to the Parking Structure—There is only one parking structure on campus. The campus is bordered on the north by Oxnard Street. Turn into the campus from Oxnard onto Ethel Street. You will be going south. The parking structure is on your right. You can park free on the second, third or fourth floors of the parking structure. Do not park on the first floor.

Getting to the Campus Center Building—The two-story Campus Center is southwest of the parking structure. If you exit the parking structure to the south you will be on Hatteras Street. Hatteras dead ends into the Campus Center. There is no entrance from Hatteras directly into the Campus Center. Go to the left of the Campus Center and enter it from the south. Do not go to the right to try and enter the building as it's complicated.

Getting to the Fireside Room—If you enter the Campus Center through its south entrance, the Fireside Room is on the left as soon as you enter the building. It is on the first floor. If you enter the building through the front, be aware that the Campus Center has two front entrances. The one on the left says Campus Center. But the one on the right says Monarch Hall. Enter through the Monarch Hall entrance and follow the hallway to the south side of the building to the Fireside Room. If you get lost—Ask someone to direct you to the Parking Structure or to the Campus Center Building. Don't ask where the Fireside Room is. Few people will know.

Meeting Notes

By Alan Bell

Rebecca Chamlee began the evening by announcing that September 19 was just a day after Type High Day. Type High Day, she explained, takes place September 18, or 9/18 which matches up with .918 inches, which is the top-to-bottom height of printing type in English-speaking countries. Whew! We had to jump through some hoops, but we got it. Talk about inside baseball.

But it was a fitting introduction because Rebecca was about to begin a presentation on her activities related to the unlikely combination of InDesign and hot metal. She has mastered a sophisticated process that allows her to create limited edition fine art letterpress books sought after by collectors around the world. She is an associate professor at Otis College of Art & Design where she teaches bookbinding, letterpress printing, and artist’s book classes; and heads the Book Arts minor program. She also holds workshops at her studio and book arts centers throughout the country.

Rebecca uses newfangled InDesign to plan a layout, and old style letterpress technology to execute it. Who wants to assemble a page full of 10 point individual metal letters, pull a proof, and then discover that 12 point would have been better?

Matching InDesign generated type to handset type isn’t as simple as it might first appear. It’s more than just dialing in the same point size. Kerning must be turned off since you can’t kern metal type. Tracking is part of the mix, but so is set width since the characters might be ever so slightly different. Once she achieves a close match using these global tools, she still might have to tweak at the individual glyph level. But once it’s done for a particular font in a particular size, it doesn’t have to be done again.

Rebecca’s work is marked by the use of layered imagery. She prints images using photo polymer plates rather than the metal engravings that were used in the past. She uses InDesign to test color combinations or see what a layout will look like after successive passes through the press. In this regard, she explained the difference between transparent white ink (which you can see through) and opaque white (which you can’t). Combined with translucent paper, she can come up with quite a few intricate and striking effects. Among the ways she tests effects in InDesign is with the multiply blending control.

InDesign isn’t the only Adobe app she uses of course. She said she loves Photoshop’s vibrance control. “Images don’t have to be flat,” she said.

She prints using a Vandercook Universal IIIABP motorized press, an upgrade from the Vandercook 4 she had previously. And speaking of “previously,” she spoke of her early computer which had 8MB of RAM, of working with InDesign version 2, and of doing work for non-profit organizations including KCET. In 2007 the new chair at Otis was instrumental in her attending the CODEX international book fair which accelerated her interest in letterpress printing and opened up an opportunity to make her work available to the public. In 2011 she received a grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation.

In addition to the craft involved in the production of the printed pages, a significant part of Rebecca’s craft is their assembly, i.e., bookbinding and, for some projects, the creation of slip cases. As with the other elements of the book creation process, bookbinding involves particular materials, cut in particular ways, using particular glues, cements and stitches. It’s a complex, multifaceted process.

Rebecca surprised the crowd and one lucky winner in particular by adding one of her limited edition books to the evening’s raffles. Perhaps fittingly, it was won by Jeffrey Schimsky, one of LAIDUG most steadfast and loyal members.

But the most unexpected event was yet to come. Just before the raffles, Co-Manager DeShawn Burton dropped a bomb when he announced that he had accepted a new position in Kansas City and would be moving to the Midwest within the month. The surprise announcement caught everyone unawares. Deshawn is a 2005 founding member of the Los Angeles InDesign User Group and remained its public face following its 2010 reboot. Once the announcement had sunk in, the members of the advisory board who happened to be present discussed the consequences both for this user group as well as his own user group energies. DeShawn checked – something he hadn’t done before – and Kansas City does have an InDesign user group. The KCIDUG is about to get a burst of new energy. The Los Angeles InDesign User Group appreciates DeShawn’s many years of service and wishes him well in his new position.

Farthest Attendee

The bona fide LAIDUG member who travels the farthest specifically to attend the meeting will receive her or his choice of any one deal at MightyDeals up to $50.00. Mighty Deals offers fonts, templates, apps, e-books, etc. You need to prove to us that you traveled farthest to attend this meeting. Having recently moved to the area from somewhere else won't cut it. Be prepared to show us indication of your current residence—perhaps a driver's license or a utility bill. Decision of the administrators of the Los Angeles InDesign User Group is final. Winner — Quiana Hairston

Raffles

LAIDUG is supported by raffles of donated prizes. No one is required to participate in the raffles. Raffle tickets are: 1 for $3, 2 for $5, 5 for $10, 11 for $20, 24 for $40, 32 for $50 and 65 for $100. All major credit cards are accepted.

Raffle Prizes and Winners

Super bloom, a Limited Edition Book Signed and Numbered by Rebecca Chambee Winner — Jeffrey Schimsky

GoProof from Oppolis Software. 3 month subscription for 2 users. Value $300.00 Winner — Adam Khalid
Proofing add-on for Adobe Creative Cloud. Version history tracks what has been changed and by whom.

Markzware. Any single product. 12 month subscription. Value $199.00 Winner — Chris Meyers (PDF2DTP)
Choose one from the list below:
Q2ID (Quark to InDesign), Convert and open QuarkXPress files in InDesign.
PDF2DTP (PDF to InDesign), Convert PDF files to InDesign.
ID2Q (InDesign to Quark), Convert and open InDesign documents in QuarkXPress.
MT (Markzware), Convert InDesign documents to IDML files readable by InDesign CS4 through CC 2017.
FC (FlightCheck), Check native and PDF files for printing quality.

Expo Creative Asset Manager for Mac from Insider Software. Value $149.00 Winner — Robin Schiff
Digital asset manager that allows you to view, tag, search and manage images, icons, fonts, audio, video, app documents.

Suitcase Fusion 8 from Extensis. 12 month subscription. Value $119.95 Winner — Helen Jun
Font management program that allows you to organize your fonts from one plane—including system fonts, purchased fonts, fonts synced from Adobe Typekit, Google fonts, etc.

Font Agent Pro from Insider Software. Value $99.95 Winner — Robin Schiff
Font management that allows you to organize, distribute and control your fonts.

InMotion Hosting. Web hosting and free domain. Value $90.00 Winner — Robin Schiff
Web hosting company.

DTP Tools Cloud for InDesign. 6 month subscription. Value $77.40 Winner — Chris Meyers
Suite of 14 different InDesign productivity tools.

Adobe Stock. 15 image licenses. Value $44.00 Winner — Robin Schiff
Royalty-free, high-quality photos, videos, and illustrations.

InDesign Magazine. 6 month subscription. Value $30.00 Winner — Robin Schiff
Monthly PDF publication devoted to InDesign how-tos, in-depth features, and quick tips.

About the Presenter

Rebecca Chamlee

Rebecca Chamlee is a book artist, printer, writer, and bookbinder who has published innovatively designed, letterpress printed, limited-edition fine press, and artist’s books under the imprint of Pie In The Sky Press since 1986. Her work is in prominent special and private collections throughout the U.S. and has been exhibited widely.

As a self-taught naturalist, Rebecca’s artist’s books examine the intersection of her artistic and scientific interests by collecting and cataloging the natural world. Rebecca is an associate professor at Otis College of Art and Design where she teaches bookbinding, letterpress printing, and artist’s book classes and heads the Book Arts minor program. She also holds workshops at her studio and book arts centers throughout the country.