Forthcoming

I thought I would take advantage of this last day of the year to announce two books that I will be completing early 2011.

The first to hit the press will be a book of the Scottish Ballad, “Edward,” and which follows the text as given in Thomas Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (Volume I. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1927 [as reprinted from the edition of Swan Sonneschien, 1885], p. 82-84); and which will also draw on some preliminary matter, elucidating the provenance of the text.

Set in American Uncial and printed on Rives BFK 180gsm, the book will include a drawing by the painter and master printmaker, David Rathman.

The second book, also set in American Uncial, is a story of my own making, entitled, “The Copyist.” It is quite short: 1500 words. Below is a proof of the first two paragraphs, and if you wish to read more you may download a pdf of the first two pages.


And were you to go to my post of Wednesday, June 30, 2010 you will see, put to another use, one of the galleys, already set.

Faux Faux Faux

I printed a few holiday cards this season. Two of them utilize techniques that may be of interest.

The first shows the creation of a fake deckle at the fore-edge of a card. By printing two cards as a work and turn, then folding, and tearing the long sheet in half, it is possible to fake a deckle.

Although the card shown here does not illustrate the possibility, one could print right up to the “deckle,” then tear. This is especially advantageous to those who print on the Vandercook.

The other card mixes laser printing with letterpress. Displayed is a compass rose that was printed on a Xerox Phaser 8560 laser printer, then blind embossed to give a faux “letterpress effect.”

As the Xerox 8560 holds very good register, I did not lose too many with the blind emboss. And I might say the same of the Epson Stylus Photo 2200 inkjet printer, which I have found also holds very good register.

(As for why I embossed the compass rose in the first place: anyone who has mixed inkjet printing with letterpress has noticed—and probably has been disappointed by—the flatness of inkjet against letterpress. The embossing goes a long ways toward meliorating this problem. And if you are still unhappy with the result, you might try adding a varnish to the embossing plate.)

Happy Holidays!
Philip Gallo at the Hermetic Press