920. Printing-Room

Printing-Room. Notwithstanding the fact that gaslight and developing papers are used to a great extent in many studios, a regular daylight printing-room should be provided, with its printing light, for it will be often necessary to finish on printing-out papers. Platinums, carbons, etc., will possibly have to be made and then a regular printing-room will be a necessity. If one intends to use developing papers exclusively, it will not be necessary to have a daylight printing-room, as a part of the dark-room may be employed as a printing-room for developing papers or a small room may be especially arranged for this work.

921. The daylight printing-room for printing-out papers should be clean, and only contain such articles as are necessary for making prints. Circumstances have much to do with the arrangement of a printing-room. An unobstructed printing-room with two printing windows, one facing east and the other south, will permit of printing at any hour of the day. As it is seldom one can have two windows owing to obstructions, a room may be arranged which need not be wide but should be quite long, and on the long side have the printing window. A very convenient window and one which will give you full benefit of all the light may be constructed as shown in Illustration No. 104. This printing light slants at an angle of about 60 degrees, and the shelf underneath this light also slants at an angle of about 35 degrees from the horizontal.

922. Ground-glass should be used, of course, in order to supply an even diffused light. If you are unable to secure ground-glass for your printing light, plain glass may be substituted, but this should be covered on the inside with tissue paper, or by using tracing cloth you have practically the same effect as if ground-glass were used and if this cloth is tacked to spring rollers attached to the top of the window, the curtain may be lowered at will. In cloudy weather you have full use of the plain glass. The printing-shelf should be about three feet deep and long enough to fulfill your requirements, or as long as circumstances will permit your building and give you a sufficient amount of printing space. The frames, when printing, are laid flat on this shelf, which is the bed of the window, small cleats holding them in place, as shown in the illustration, and preventing them from sliding on to other frames. The printing window should be of a convenient height, say about three feet from the floor.

.3. At the end of the printing-room should be a table on which to load and unload the frames. Above this table should be arranged shelves to hold small negatives both before and after printing. It is advisable to have this section of the room partitioned or curtained off from the balance of the room, in order that prints will not be flashed when loading and unloading the frames. A large shelf may be arranged over the printing window to hold large-sized negatives and a space may be shelved under the printing window to hold unused printing-frames. Two boxes should be provided, with hinged covers, one for storing the fresh unprinted paper, the other box for the prints as they are taken from the printing frames.

924. Ventilation of some kind should be provided for, and at least one of the sections in the printing light should be so arranged that it can be raised or removed. Not only will this provide for ventilation, to a certain extent, but will also enable you to print in direct sunlight, if you so desire. Ventilators should also be placed near the ceiling, for the printing-room is very likely to become quite warm, and as the hot air rises it will escape through these top ventilators. If one of the windows in the printing light is not open, then some other means for the entrance of fresh air should be provided. A small window at the end of the printing-room will answer very nicely.

925. For the average studio, using printing-out paper, it will be necessary for printing from small cabinet work, to have from 50 to 100 printing-frames the size of the negatives used for cabinet work, which is usually 5x7 size. In addition to this, one should have six or eight 8 x 10 frames, also one or two frames the size of the largest plate made. The number of frames as well as the sizes will depend upon the size of negatives you use and the quantity of work produced. The 8 x 10 frames will be a necessity, as one will desire to vignette prints many times and print a cabinet or 5 x 7 head on an 8 x 10 sheet of paper and for this purpose one should also have on hand a number of pieces of clean 8 x 10 plain glass to place in the frames to support smaller size negatives.

CHILD PORTRAIT STUDY Study No. 46 Geo. B. Sperry.

CHILD PORTRAIT STUDY Study No. 47 - See Page 584 F. A. Rinehart

926. It is important to keep the printing-room clean. It should be carefully mopped or swept each day with a damp broom, and dusted with a dampened cloth, the printing light, shelves, etc., being carefully wiped. A dusty, dirty printing-room will give you all kinds of trouble and is the cause of more or less spots, etc., on prints, all of which may be avoided.

927. In large studios a special stock-book may be kept in which to enter the amount and kind of paper used each day. There should be little or no waste of material in any department, and if a careful record be kept, you will know instantly how much paper was used in filling the orders. At the end of the week or the end of the month you can check up the total amount of paper used, which should correspond to the number of orders turned out for the same period of time, making due allowance for a slight waste. An expert printer, however, will not find it necessary to make thirteen pictures when a dozen is ordered. Each print made should count. An extra print made when filling each order will amount to considerable in the course of a year. By this we do not infer that poor prints should be delivered, but by this system you train your printer to work more carefully and he thereby avoids waste of material.