Want to see the printing process? A day at a printer's in Prague

We completed the printing of the cards today (it's been going on - off and on - for several months now as we print the boxes way before the cards) and Alex took a camera with him as we suddenly thought it might be really nice to show the actual process - and people.

I hope this is an enjoyable view of how our cards get printed (and how they look before cutting)!

http://www.fantasticmenagerie.com/printing.htm

wow. That is a lot of cards on those sheets. That's pretty neat to see.

OO, yes, that IS fascinating! Thank you so much for sharing!

Well, a deck is made up of four sheets - twenty cards per sheet, so it does end up looking like a lot! I thought it might be interesting to see these piles of sheets though - kind of how a deck starts out.

The printer we use is quite large by Prague standards but small by most Western standards, but we like that because we get to know them well and they are happy to have Alex there adjusting colours as the printing is being done. They are good craftspeople too - they win a lot of awards for their printing of art books. So it isn't a huge industrial thing - it's basically half a dozen very experienced guys - and btw yes, they do tell us what they think of every deck!

Thanks -- that is very interesting, seeing all the sheets like that. Is the cutting done by hand or is it automated?

Sue

Cool!

Cocobird55 said:

Thanks -- that is very interesting, seeing all the sheets like that. Is the cutting done by hand or is it automated?

Sue

Click to expand...

The cutting is automated - and goes off to another workshop. Then yet another place does the final packaging - we know all of these people, things here aren't usually done on a very large scale. One very exciting moment is when the first cut cards come back - for me it's when the cards really are "real". But that won't be for a few days yet.

Wonderful stuff Baba! I've always had this fascination with printing. It's lovely seeing multiple copies of images.

Thanks for showing that baba. I am always interested in the technical aspects of things.

There is something quite nice about actually seeing the printing in progress isn't there? We may take some more photos next time we're there - they are an interesting bunch of people and good fun to work with. They think we are completely mad - "tarot? why tarot?" - to them it's a card game. But they do like the artwork.