Edge painting

[TheProcessIStheproduct]

I have seen gold and silver "gilded" edges done and it looks really good, not really sure how to do it, but I would guess a weight, painted on adhesive and then gold leaf pressed on...

[graficworx]

This video features the old school way of edge edge painting.

U.S. Government Printing Office: The Bindery - YouTube

[Alith7]

Thanks for sharing that video, that was really fascinating!

[brent]

That video was way cool!

[graficworx]

I had seen it a while back, I'm glad I was able to track it down again. Its really neat to see how things were done when printing was a craft and not a commodity.

[Alith7]

I had seen it a while back, I'm glad I was able to track it down again. Its really neat to see how things were done when printing was a craft and not a commodity.

I'd still be fascinated to see how back in the 30's and 40's they mass produced full color National Geographic magazines.... for some reason that just fascinates me. With all our tech now it's hard to reproduce color, I can't imagine what it took back then!

[gordo]

I'd still be fascinated to see how back in the 30's and 40's they mass produced full color National Geographic magazines.... for some reason that just fascinates me. With all our tech now it's hard to reproduce color, I can't imagine what it took back then!

Well, it was printed with gravure which, in principle, hasn't really changed that much.

If you really want to be amazed...they were doing 8+ color process true continuous tone offset printing in the 1920s. No halftone screening at all. ( more info click here: Quality In Print: Continuous tone lithography - the Collotype process )

best, gordo