Embossing a Pigment Print

I saw some wood block prints displayed recently that were squares, and the print area was embossed into the paper. Just sort of impressed into it. The paper had a lovely deckle edge, and the entire piece was floated in a frame with no matte. It had a nice 3D presence for a 2D piece.

I'm wondering if this is possible with a matte pigment inkjet print? I'm using Museo Max, and if I could emboss the image area I think it would be a really nice presentation for a frame.

Any thoughts? I don't know much of anything about embossing.

The block impressed into the paper is a natural part of the process. Rag papers easily allow this. I have zero experience with inkjet printing, but you could probably do it with the right paper... And after you made the inkjet print... But I ask as a printmaker (wood block, lino, intaglio, lithography), why would you want to do this? To make it look like something else?

Stamps with printer name , photographer name can be made to emboss any type of print... I personally like the pencil signature on the backside of the print, but a lovely stamp would also be quite nice outside of the image area.

You are of course referring to a hand pigment print and not inkjet?

We do this all of the time at my job (I work at a printing press). Or actually, we outsource that stuff because we don't have the equipment here. But it certainly can be done. The problem would be cost. To do it like how we do it, you have to have a die made, which will usually run you a couple hundred bucks or more depending on size and amount of detail. After that, the actual price of the embossing per unit isn't too bad.

Here's a link to the company we use: http://www.fineartsok.com/

There are probably other companies that do this closer to you, but embossing is kind of a lost art. There aren't nearly as many companies doing it now as there once was. But if you talk to some local print shops, I'm sure someone knows someone who could help you out.

If you wanted to do it yourself, it could be done. There are several DIY techniques you could look up. But most of them require some sort of die, be it permanent or temporary. The easiest way I could think of to do it yourself, if you wanted the embossing lines to follow the image (and not just emboss stuff you found in an off the shelf stencil or something), would be to get something like a Cricut and cut out your embossing pattern from multiple layers of vinyl. Then glue them together and smooth off any rough edges and emboss off of that. Or use a 3D printer to create one. These will be made of some kind of plastic, so they won't last as long or give you as defined of an edge, but it might be okay for what you're trying to do. I'd probably opt for a thinner paper for this, as the thicker papers will be hard to emboss without a press.

Just picture like a square print, such as a Rollei image. I'm thinking B&W. Then the area of the image is pressed or embossed into the paper. I think I would just need as you describe some kind of cut out. I'd match the print to the cut out/press. I'm guessing I'd first make the print, then once dry do a press.

NortheastPhotographic said:

I saw some wood block prints displayed recently that were squares, and the print area was embossed into the paper. Just sort of impressed into it. The paper had a lovely deckle edge, and the entire piece was floated in a frame with no matte. It had a nice 3D presence for a 2D piece.

I'm wondering if this is possible with a matte pigment inkjet print? I'm using Museo Max, and if I could emboss the image area I think it would be a really nice presentation for a frame.

Any thoughts? I don't know much of anything about embossing.

Click to expand...

You seem to be describing the plate mark left by intaglio processes etc - you could take a smooth blank zinc or copper plate, edges filed as per standard practice for printing etchings & run it through an etching press to drive in a plate mark. How effective it would be on dry paper rather than the dampened paper normally used for printing intaglio etc on is open to question.

I'm thinking in my distant youth, B&W prints from the drugstore sometimes were embossed like that, perhaps as part of the ferrotyping process for the super-duper gloss. You could probably make a sort of hinged die using two pieces of Bristol board, two ply mat board, or thin polystyrene. Cut a rectangle out of one side, trim the edges back a little and glue it on the other side so it centers in its original opening. A light spritz from a spray bottle might assist to do a little softening. Coming up with the pressure might be the biggest obstacle -- an old wringer washing machine? -- stack of Encyclopedia Britannica? Gotta be creative when mother necessitates invention.

For a press an old piston car jack or a variation could do the trick.

If you're just wanting the plate marks around the edges, and not worried about any of the internal details, then you could just get a plate the size that you want (made out of anything rigid like sheet metal, plywood, acrylic "plexiglass", etc.) and secure it to something, then tape the photo over it. Then you'd just score the edge with something. They make scoring tools, or you could use a cuttlefish bone or whatever else that is hard and smooth and won't bend too much or snag the paper.

Of course you could just actually go back to an earlier photographic print process like Fish-Glue prints or Woodburytypes. They're basically modified intaglio printing processes, which is the type of commercial printing that gives you the raised lettering. You'd still need a high pressure press to do those, but if you're not making huge runs, I'm sure you could cobble something together DIY. In the old days, they just used a large screw drive to create those pressures, and ced's suggestion of a car jack would probably work as well.

Then there's always carbon prints.

NortheastPhotographic said:

I saw some wood block prints displayed recently that were squares, and the print area was embossed into the paper. Just sort of impressed into it. The paper had a lovely deckle edge, and the entire piece was floated in a frame with no matte. It had a nice 3D presence for a 2D piece.

I'm wondering if this is possible with a matte pigment inkjet print? I'm using Museo Max, and if I could emboss the image area I think it would be a really nice presentation for a frame.

Any thoughts? I don't know much of anything about embossing.

Click to expand...

I love Museo Max and may attempt what you're after by soaking it after printing (don't think the Canon pigment will run). I've done something similar with leather.

Andrew O'Neill said:

The block impressed into the paper is a natural part of the process. Rag papers easily allow this. I have zero experience with inkjet printing, but you could probably do it with the right paper... And after you made the inkjet print... But I ask as a printmaker (wood block, lino, intaglio, lithography), why would you want to do this? To make it look like something else?

Click to expand...

Printmakers emboss for an appearance they like....they're not trying to "make it look like something else" ..

Perhaps this would work with rice paper and with Museo Max IF IF IF wetting it after printing doesn't make the inkjet "pigment" run excessively. I suspect moisture (or excessive moisture) would make "ink" run because that is more water soluble, but that'd be easy to test with reject prints.. .

Look in the old books. This was done back in the old days. I've got a mountain of family photos from late 19th early 20th century. There's a lot of beautiful mounts, lots of prints pasted on card mounts, embossed and plate sunk. The earliest are print out paper, very thin, mounts are lovely.