Bromoil printing and bromoil transfer

by Emil Mayer

The following is the procedure in transferring. A blanket must first be interposed between the rolls of the press. The best thing to use for this is two or four thin smooth cards, which may be covered at top and underneath with two sheets of thin linoleum. The latter are not absolutely necessary. The print may now be introduced into the machine either by entirely removing the blankets, or by rolling them out far enough so that the middle sheets can be easily bent away from one another. The position of the transfer on the transfer paper should be marked with a pencil, and, if a plate mark is desired, a piece of cardboard cut to the proper size should be properly placed on the transfer paper, and the whole passed through the machine. The transfer paper, thus prepared, should be laid on a perfectly flat white blotter, and the bromoil print, which should be held very carefully by the extreme edges, should be lowered to the position on the transfer paper previously marked with the pencil. Any small ink marks thus caused can be easily worked out later. The back of the print should be dried with a white blotter and then a second sheet of the same size as the bottom one placed on it. The transfer paper with the print lying on it is thus placed between the two sheets of blotting paper, so that the water pressed out in the transfer may be readily absorbed.

If attention is not paid to this precaution, it may easily happen that the transfer paper, as a result of partial moistening by means of water pressed out of the bromoil, may become wrinkled or distorted. Then the two blotters, with the transfer and the print between them, are placed between the two middle cards and the transfer begun. The principle of gradually increasing the pressure in this, which was introduced by E. Guttmann, has proved satisfactory in practice. One begins first with a light pressure, so that the transfer passes through the rolls with scarcely noticeable resistance. Then the pressure should be increased a little by tightening the upper wheel of the machine, and the work continued in this way until a certain, not very high pressure of the rolls is obtained, which one soon learns to estimate with a little experience. One can now, or at any later stage, take the transfer paper with the adhering print out of the press and, holding one part of the print firmly down on the transfer paper, with the hand or a straight edge, lift the free end carefully, in order to ascertain whether any and how much of the ink has been transferred from the print to the transfer paper.

According to the result of this observation, the print is either entirely lifted off or the transfer continued with increasing pressure. In this way, with careful management of the work, one is absolutely certain of obtaining the best possible results in transferring. Still, my opinion differs from that of the inventor as to the reason for the satisfactory action of the gradual increase of the pressure. What happens is that in the initial passage under low pressure the print is immediately firmly attached to the transfer paper, so that its shifting on the transfer paper, which previously very frequently occurred, is avoided. When this adherence is once attained, we can proceed at once to that pressure of the rolls which is the most favorable for the transfer of the ink, if we are sure of it. This frequently happens when one has already made transfers from a print. With still unknown conditions, naturally the gradual increase of pressure is advisable.

The print, removed after the completion of the transfer, can be again inked up immediately or later, and again transferred. Naturally it must first be immersed in water, so that it can again take up that which it has lost in the transfer. In the new inking-up one can use as desired the same ink or another color, and also alter the print as seems best. If the bromoil print, which has been once used for transfer, is to be again used for the same purpose, it is well to completely remove any adherent traces of ink by going over it with a swab of cotton soaked in a solvent. It may then be dried and can be used again at any desired time.

When transfers have been repeatedly made from a bromoil print, it may happen that the film blisters. This phenomenon is usually only noticeable when the print is again immersed in water after the transfer; as long as the blisters are not too numerous, they do not cause much trouble in the transfer. The answer to the question as to how often a bromoil print can be transferred depends on the resistance of the gelatine film. In practice it has been observed that the number of possible transfers varies between five and twenty-five.

The transfer process can also be used in bromoil printing as a method to free a print that has been too heavily inked from the excess of ink; such a print is passed through the machine together with any completely smooth paper which is free from folds, until it has given up its excess of ink to the paper, and it can then be soaked and inked up anew.

The process of application of ink to the dry print, outlined in [Chapter IV], can also be used to advantage in the transfer process. Any bare spots on the finished transfer can be inked up at will, by dabbing on ink of any tone value with the oil-printing brush; thus the sky, which may not be satisfactory, may before transfer be wiped quite clean on the print, the outlines of the landscape cleared up with a brush dipped in ammonia water if necessary, and the values of the sky put in on the finished transfer. This procedure is particularly advisable in polychrome transfers, with which a blue sky flecked with clouds can be easily obtained in this way.

The subsequent application of ink to the finished transfer finally offers the possibility, by tinting the whole transfer with a very delicate coating of a suitably chosen ink, of imparting a different mood to the picture. Thus, for instance, one may give a transfer made on white paper a faint yellowish tint; it may be effective to surround the picture with a border of this tint, using a suitable mask to obtain sharp outlines; this yellowish tint is only visible in the high lights, as it does not show in the deep shadows. In similar fashion a darker tint surrounding the print may be put on with ink and brush.

It is obvious that the transfer, especially when fresh from the press, can be easily and thoroughly retouched with rubber, water-color or charcoal; first of all those places should be treated from which the ink has been removed in consequence of the unavoidable touching of the print with the fingers, or to which the ink has not transferred for any reason. With transfers fresh from the press, any places that are too dark can be easily lightened with the rubber.

The transfer very soon dries. Obviously it does not require defatting. The inks act better on the absorbent transfer paper than on the bromoil print itself, as they sink into the paper instead of remaining on the surface of a gelatine film. The final result no longer resembles a bromoil print, but has its own individual character and is a product which it is difficult to compare with the bromoil print as regards esthetic effect. The bromoil print has a certain charm which is lacking in the transfer and vice versa. In any case the transfer process is worth attention, since on the one hand it can be of practical value because of the possibility of the duplication of bromoil prints, and on the other hand it enables one to use varieties of paper which were not hitherto available to the amateur.