I just spent half a day with the printers I chose for the first edition printing of Telos Tarot of 777. I got to be on site to approve the colors, and suggest small adjustments when necessary, to make them more true to the originals that were painted in the Golden Dawn color scales. It isn’t always possible to get them to match exactly, but these printers went above and beyond to do what is possible with a 4 color process.

This was exciting as it is printed on a traditional old-school 4 color offset printing press. Normally I can’t do this offset process, as in order to make it possible a large run of decks needs to be produced at once. As a small business without a lot of capital I usually have to do short runs of very small quantities at a time, which means my other decks have been printed using a digital process rather than traditional offset.

Digital printing is done on something like an ink jet printer that you might have at home, or maybe like a color copier. Except much more expensive! My other decks were done on a state-of-the-art digital printer that costs something like $350,000 USD!!! These digital presses can be liquid based or dry toner based ink, but the ink goes on top of the paper creating an an enamel like finish.

Because the Kickstarter for Telos Tarot of 777 did very well, I can print enough decks at once to make an offset printing process possible, so this time it is something completely different and more old school. I do hope to also do a different version digitally printed at some point, but this first edition gets to be done on an offset press.

An offset printing is done on an even bigger huge also very expensive machine! But a different type of machine. First, metal plates have to be created for each “sheet” of cards, and each of the four colors of the process: Cyan blue, Yellow, and Magenta red, plus Black. The colors mix on the sheet to create the infinite number of possible colors in the artwork. The inks also sink more into the paper, and are then given a protective clear coating too making them even more durable.

This picture is to give you some idea of the size of the press, which has to be at least 30 feet long and massively heavy. It has to be on the basement floor of the old mill building it is in, due the weight. It’s so big all of it didn’t even fit in the picture.

This is a side view of the part of the press that applies the ink to each metal plate inside of those “boxes”. The plates were marked with the images of the cards in specific colors. Don’t ask me how! The metal plate puts the ink onto a rubber blanket, and then that blanket puts the ink onto the large sheet of silk card stock. See the metal cans on top? Those were the inks loaded into the machine. It is a four color process, so one of those stations is for each color, plus one for the clear aqueous UV coating at the end to protect the cards.

A top view of the press and the rollers loaded with ink. Every pressman or presswoman and every print shop might do things differently, but this shop prints the colors on dark to light as shown. First on is Black, then Cyan Blue, then Magenta, then Yellow. They mentioned keeping yellow as far away from black as possible in the process is a good idea, for reasons I can well comprehend as an artist.

After that, there is a separate tank not shown in the picture that does the clear UV coating that protects the cards and makes them more durable. I chose a Satin finish as I didn’t want glossy cards.

The paper gets loaded in one end. Cue the Powerhouse factory music!

And a printed sheet of cards comes out the other end!

The pressman then scans the sheet to check and ensure that the color levels are all printing as they should be, before running all of the sheets.

I have an up close look under a sun lamp and in natural light, to check them out. I approve! They look great! Now, be aware that these don’t yet have the foil border that is going around the card art yet. For that I chose a gunmetal color for the fronts, closest to Saturn’s lead as that was the Saturn stretch goal! This will be done in a separate process as it is a traditional metal foil, not a printed foil. The printers will make a die for that, and also another for the foiled design (in a different color) on the card backs, and use it to embed the metal foil with heat onto the cards.

These stacks of cards will have to cure for at least a day before the foiling is done. You can’t see it, but the card backs are printed too, on the other side of the sheet. Those were done first, for the entire run, then the fronts get printed in the other side. I made sure the color was a deep Scorpionic green!

I got them to tweak the color a little to ensure it was more of the blue toned green I wanted. Not sure if this photo was the first version or final version, but the difference is subtle. Also, the card backs are here shown with just the printed part, and not the part that will be foiled.

Those big printed sheets will get cut into quarters, each with 8 cards. Then the foil will be done on both front and back before they are cut. I don’t have a picture of the foiling dies as they weren’t made yet when I was there. But above is a die they will put into a different big machine used to cut the cards out of the sheet perfectly after the foil is done. In the pictures of the card sheets, the borders look larger than they will be after they are cut, because there is extra printed border (bleed) that gets cut off.

After the cards are cut, they get collated. I gave them the order I wanted them in. would you believe they do that by hand? I was surprised to hear that! With digital printing the cards can print in whatever order you want; you just put the files in a pdf. But with offset press printing they have to put the cards in order, by hand, after they are cut.

Then they shrink wrap the cards, which is also a hands on process.

The 80th card isn’t shrink wrapped, as it is a title card that I’ll sign, and for this first edition, will also number.

I’m really happy to have been able to print these locally, and support our local economy, keeping nice people in business and employed. I do all of my printing for everything in the USA, even though I am not exaggerating when I say I could choose to print overseas for about 20-25% of the cost. But I believe in supporting the local economy whenever possible, as if we don’t, we will lose places like this!

This job was done even more locally to me than my prior decks, which means not only can I be on site but it is better for the environment too as they don’t have to travel far to reach me.

This company is in an old mill building located on a river. I think it was originally a paper making factory. What is cool is that because of the riverside location they get 50% of the electricity to run the presses from hydro-electric!

So, as of right now, the sheets are printed. But it will be 5-6 weeks until I have them all here, as they still need to be foiled on front, foiled on back, cut, collated, and shrink wrapped. They tell me I should have at least some of them if not all by mid September.

Then I can start shipping the Kickstarter rewards to all those who have paid for shipping and completed the address survey. Some of you have still not done this crucial step! Those who have not by the end of August will be sent their decks in a later shipment and get later deck numbers, so please get on it, as I will be assigning deck numbers after August 31st and figuring out what and who ships first. It involves a big complicated spreadsheet, so I can’t delay assigning numbers any longer than that.

What are you waiting for?

Once the Kickstarter decks ship (meaning those with address survey and shipping payments completed), and any already previously invoiced decks ship, the remaining decks will be put on TarotCart for purchase. The first Kickstarter rewards will ship as soon as I get some of these decks, estimated in mid September.

This post was brought to you by the current Jupiter in Gemini: big (Jupiter) printing presses (Gemini) and today’s Mars-Saturn square: Mars (machines, machine shops, metal plate and dies) and Saturn (traditional processes).