Vintage photofinishing texture plates ???

TDH · Aug 22, 2019

Hopefully someone can help.
Back around 1970 I worked in a portrait studio that did Kodak C prints in-house.
After the print was dry it was sandwiched with a metal "textured" plate and the pair
was run through a small roller press to impart the texture onto the surface of the print.
Does anyone remember this process, what it was called or where I could find the plates.
The only thing similar I can find is ferrotype plates but that's not it, these had a range of
textures raised on the surface of the plate.

Thanks!

laser · Aug 22, 2019

Professional finishing labs had several techniques to alter the surface characteristics of C prints (EKTACOLOR Paper Type C). Spraying with various lacquers eventually lost favor primarily because of the influence on image stability. Texturing worked as you described and provided a wide variety of attractive results. It stressed the emulsion and support and can cause image stability issues. I am not aware that hardware is still being manufactured. Current Pro Labs might still offer the service.

TDH · Aug 22, 2019

Ha, finally somebody who even knew what I was talking about!
Thanks for the reply, I'm sure nobody makes them anymore. I am just hoping to find an old sample to use for some project work.
Hopefully someone of our age has one stored away somewhere, at least I can use it as an excuse to go to more photo swap meets!

glbeas · Aug 23, 2019

Only other way I can think of is using a letterpress with an embossing die. This would have to be made to cover the size of the print and unless you happened to own one of these presses would be an expensive proposition for the occasional print.

voceumana · Aug 23, 2019

They are often called texture machines, and they are still manufactured, though expensive: https://www.midwestphotographic.com/texturemachine.html

You can probably find such equipment used--I've seen them on ebay from time to time.

TDH · Aug 23, 2019

glbeas said:
Only other way I can think of is using a letterpress with an embossing die. This would have to be made to cover the size of the print and unless you happened to own one of these presses would be an expensive proposition for the occasional print.

Yeah that would be an option. I remember these plates being just larger than an 11x14 and the roller press was a bit larger than that. Not sure if the press
was simply an etching press re-purposed or a specialty item sold with the plates. Thanks for the reply.

TDH · Aug 23, 2019

voceumana said:
They are often called texture machines, and they are still manufactured, though expensive: https://www.midwestphotographic.com/texturemachine.html

You can probably find such equipment used--I've seen them on ebay from time to time.

Thanks, I have seen the modern presses with embossing texture built into the roller but those things are hugely expensive!
I'm going to a photo swap meet tomorrow, I'll post if I find any. I know I have seen some there in the past.

Vintage photofinishing texture plates ???

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