sistency for working. By adding a little varnish we soon had the inks in excellent condition for printing.
Very often it will he found that a job is to be bandied soon after coming from the press. In such cases setting-off and smearing can sometimes be avoided. For example, say the job is to be printed in medium blue ink; mix one part ultramarine blue, one part bronze blue, and about two parts zinc white; the result will be a good blue which will work well and dry quickly. Any mixture of inks in which zinc white predominates will work well and dry quickly, without the printer being annoyed by the sheets setting-off.
It is sometimes hard to make an ultramarine blue, a violet, or a purple ink print smoothly upon some papers; the best result is obtained with these inks when they are printed on an unsized paper; the colors will invariably lay smoother and look much better than when printed on sized paper.
In bronze work, the best result is generally obtained when a fine writing paper is used. In the use of enameled or coated papers, the printer will frequently be troubled by the fact that after the work is completed the bronze powder will rub off at the slightest touch; the reason for this is, the greater part of the sizing does not remain on the surface, but, instead, it goes through the enamel or coating, to the body of the paper, leaving the powder to come off when it is touched. This trouble can be overcome by printing the form first in the sizing and then, when dry, running the work through the press a second time and applying the bronze powder at the last printing. The first printing is for the purpose of filling the paper so that the size will remain on the surface in the second printing. When paper is sized or property filled, so that the size when printed will remain on the surface, there will then be no danger of the powder coming off.
In printing half-tone and fine wood engravings, the best result will be reached when a fine enameled book paper is used. A more
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