A simple image used to test the process of making and printing from a photopolymer plate (and to test mixing different inks according to the PANTONE system).

I laid out something quick in Photoshop, made a .pdf, and submitted it to a service bureau (Dolphin Graphics in SF is good). They created a high-resolution (3300 dpi), high-density negative. Check out that crisp black-- much better than photocopying onto a transparency.	I used that negative to create an embossed plastic image on a steel plate (via a "polymer plate" photoexposure process, using equipment at the SFCB). You can also pay someone like Boxcar Press to make a plate for you if you want.	The steel plate is placed on a large magnet on the bed of the press, and can then be inked just like a block of type.
This lousy cell phone photo shows you some of the topography of the plate.	The first decent print (after tweaking roller height and amount of ink).	Trying a different paper, a slightly different mix of PANTONE ink colors, and the sexy SFCB 19th-century mechanical perforating tool.
Black ink with a hint of red in it.	Two layers printed slightly offset in different colors (red and a chocolate brown).	An evening of playing around.

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