Tip #12

While in a perfect world, this wouldn't be necessary, a recent experience has convinced me that when planning to print in a light color, it is probably best to do a preemptive cleaning before inking up.

I was trying to print my logo on some yellow envelopes. Lately, I've been taking to adding just a little bit of ink of the same color to create an effect in between doing a blind deboss and inking in a darker color. So, I inked up with a small amount of yellow.... 

The rightmost print was my first run. Obviously, someone had left the press with a good amount of blue or green ink on the rollers. So, after a round of cleaning, I was able to to print with a very light yellow (middle print). In the end, I wanted something a little less subtle and added some more yellow (left print). If I had done the round of cleaning before inking up, I would have saved time and ink.

Of course, if the person before me had cleaned up properly, this wouldn't be an issue.........