For the first method, a color can be made of thin varnish and burned lampblack, the latter being present in fairly large quantity but very finely rubbed-down. Into this color is mixed a quantity, equivalent to one half the mass, of gum solution that is almost as thick as the color itself. Everything must be mixed perfectly. If the solution is too watery, it is not easy to mix it.
Three clean rags of cotton or linen are needed for inking. The first is used to wet the stone and to clean it again in the end. The second is colored with a small quantity of printing-color and rubbed in by thorough wiping to and fro. The third rag is used to clean away any surplus that may adhere. Then the first clean rag is used to cleanse the stone thoroughly.
All three rags must be wetted with gum solution, and the first and third must be washed several times during the day.
The stone plate is harder to clean at first than after some fifty impressions have been made. Often there will remain little specks of color on the prepared places, which are easy enough to wipe away but are inclined to reappear. To remedy this it may be necessary to use more clean rags in the beginning or more gum solution. If the stone has been polished very well in grinding, this trouble will not be very noticeable if at all. Under any circumstances, it will disappear gradually during the printing, so that at last it will be possible to clean the surface with the very same rag that lays the color on and is permeated with ink.
In the second method, the wiping is harder in order to take more color away from the shallower lines, so that they will be pale compared with the deep ones which then will appear very black and strong.
If the full beauty of a well-made copper plate is to be equaled, care must be taken, as said before, to achieve the proper depth of engraving, and the stone must be wiped harder. Otherwise the method is the same, except that beautiful, shining impressions often can be made by using a firm color, if the stone can bear the necessary tension.
The inking-in with the ink-roller is like the same process in other methods, except that the color must be softer and the roller well filled with it. It is necessary, also, to learn by practice how to work the color into all the deep lines.
The impression must be made immediately after inking, as otherwise the color will sink too deeply into the stone and not give a strong impression without renewed inking.
The paper must be wetted a little more than in the other method.
The tension of the press is according to the size of the plates, but on the whole must be two or three times greater than for the other methods. More pressure still may be needed for very fine work, as the finer lines often are harder to print than the coarse ones.