Does anybody have experience in successfully reproducing the split-tone quality of Piezography prints in offset printing? I am assuming one doesn’t make tri-tone negatives/plates off of the actual prints like the old days, but instead there is a digital way to re-interpret the Piezographic print in CMYK with the possible addition of some grey inks. I’m all ears!
Sure, in this case the offset press producing the book would do a tritone and they would mix the ink accordingly to = the color of the split-tone pro print.
A target print with the pro hue split on inkjet paper measured for LAB values is also helpful for the press operators as they match the colors.
This has been done by many artists over the years who print their primary work in Piezo. It should not be done in CMYK but instead right in the ink in tritone (Shadow, Mid, Highlight).
warm regards
-Walker
Also I’m so glad you are well!
-W
Hello Geoffrey,
I’ve had long and deep practical experience with this sort of problem in my work with publishers such as Rizzoli, Phaidon, Taschen, Saraband, Chronicle, Harry Abrams, WW Norton… I’m currently working on an art book with MIT Press.
Appropriate press techniques and work flows depend, more than anyone wants to admit, on budget, your communication and working relationships with the publisher and their technical producers, contract or your 3rd party relation to it—as much as they depend on the techniques and constraints of the particular press.
Under certain increasingly common circumstances—typically and counterintuitively with generic, high volume and economy driven presses—you can find this design and aesthetic outcome of color-toned black and white photography more easily and predictably attainable than is often the case with boutique presses and processes.
There are no categorical right answers in this matter of systemic design-build and gestalt affect. There are plenty of nuanced dependencies.
I’m happy to phone with you if you’d like more detailed discussion.
Christian Korab
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