Putting titles/words on RC paper

There may be threads on this but if so my ability with the search facility isn't up to finding them.

What I have in mind is being able to place words either on the print or below the picture in the white border. A friend who has succumbed to digital can of course simply print anything he likes anywhere he likes on his inkjet print with any font and size using his computer.

In the darkroom it's presumably not so easy. All I have come up with so far is printing( via a printer that is) black words on a clear acetate which could be placed on top of the paper to get permanent white writing on the print

Getting black writing on the borders is something else again. There may be pens which will write permanently on RC paper but even if there is, the look would depend on my "freehand ability" (poor) and is unlikely to match a word processor machine produced font.

I feel sure I have read in a previous edition of the FirstCall brochure in the U.K.that a signature could placed on RC paper by filing a fountain pen with fixer or dipping a pen nib and signing the paper prior to exposing. Would this work? It would be like writing with invisible ink. Might be OK for a simple signature but hopeless for titles where spacing and size need to be kept the same.

Anybody attempted this? All ideas gratefully received. It's a bit like the famous black line round a print then the white border. Easy in digital but difficult by hand despite what Tim Rudman says on his Master Printing book.

Actually for what it is worth, FirstCall(again) seem to have solved this with a Versamask. This not only gives perfect right angles borders but a black line by using an insert which is slightly smaller than the border mask creating a line when placed on top of the print after exposure and then re-exposing.

The website is www.versamask.de It's all in German. It looks an ingenious idea.Invented by Karl Zoepfl. Perhaps one of our bilingual members could give us an opinion of it.

Thanks

Pentaxuser

You need to create a negative containing the words that you require and contact print it in position. This can most easily be done on a computer, and outputting onto overhead transparency film. Use red ink, and convert your file to a negative prior to printing, so that the letters remain clear in the middle of the red area.

You can get titling sets at many photo stores. I have one and do all of that work in-camera. No messy computer for me - well, except for APUG of course.

PE

I do it with a repro camera, the type that makes film separations for offset printing. Print text from your computer onto white paper, reduce size on the repro camera and shoot onto lith film. Sandwich the mask you make with the camera neg and enlarge the 2 together. Quite simple when set up and you can have anything you like on it.

Clayton

Dave Miller said:

You need to create a negative containing the words that you require and contact print it in position. This can most easily be done on a computer, and outputting onto overhead transparency film. Use red ink, and convert your file to a negative prior to printing, so that the letters remain clear in the middle of the red area.

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Dave. Thanks for very prompt response. If I have understood you correctly I simply type the words at appropriate size to the print on overhead transparency film using red ink which is then contacted printed in place on the print paper. Presumably red prevents the enlarger light getting through and as a positive would ensure that the words are then white on the paper, so fine for borderless prints?

Turning the transparency into a negative presumably creates a clear area where the letters are and thereby enables "black on white" writing in the border. The red background then prevents light getting to the border.

If I have it right then three questions:

1. Why would black ink not do the job or would it?
2. On a print with borders, it presumably means using a transparency which covers the whole print area and which is all red except for the clear area so once the print has been exposed then the easel blades are raised and under red light the transparency is placed apppropriately to place the words on the bottom border thus blocking out any further exposure except in the border?

This must use a lot of ink and a transparency sheet per each different print.

There may be more economical ways but I can't think of it.
3. Most importantly, how do I make a negative of the transparency?

As long as you have the time tell me more rather than less. You cannot insult my intelligence, no matter how simple you make the explanation. I always go for the "X for dummies" books.

Thanks

Pentaxuser

And three answers.

1) Red is more opaque to the paper then black ink, as in red safe light.

2) I cut a card mask the size of the paper. This has a hole cut in the appropriate place, a little larger than the lettering area. The mask is printed a little larger than the hole, and taped in place so that it is in contact with the print. I expose this mask to white light, remove the mask and print in the usual way. You could expose a number of sheets this way first, if that is easier. Just remember which way around you did them.

3) I prepare my masks with Photoshop where there is a positive/negative toggle. If using a word processor I think you would select white for the ink colour and red for the background. Since you cannot print white you may/should get clear lettering.

You will need to experiment with exposure times, but once established it will remain constant. You will find that you can vary the type shade through grey to black. I suppose the key word here, as in so much that we do is; experiment.

I've posted an example in the Technical Gallery. Hope it helps.

Dave Miller said:

I've posted an example in the Technical Gallery. Hope it helps.

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Dave. Many thanks. Now I see it in writing it seems so straightfoward that I wonder why I could think of it or something similar but I bet I wouldn't have. I think its great that people like you and indeed the whole APUG community is prepared to help and educate like this.

Pentaxuser

Photo Engineer said:

You can get titling sets at many photo stores. I have one and do all of that work in-camera. No messy computer for me - well, except for APUG of course. PE

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PhotoEng - You suggestions sound good. Before I attempt the other approach discussed, I would like to understand you approach better. I do not live in an area where has any broadline photograph stores. If I do a Google search, what key words or phrase would I use?

This is one of those topics that is almost pushing into the hybrid forum, but there is a truly analog solution here using exposed lith film, ruby lith and kodak opaque black (how many old timers remember Opaque black? Please raise your cane. )

Two product names might help here: Press Type can be used to stick letter forms on acetate, and should you wish to engage your digital self, Pictorico OHP is the preferred material for creating digital negatives.