The polychromatic Woodburytype: Colour tracking in translucent, patterned gelatin/pigment films

Leech, Damien Jon; Guy, Walter; Klein, Susanne

Abstract

The Woodburytype is a 19th century photomechanical technique capable of producing high-quality continuous-tone prints. It uses pigment dispersed in gelatin to produce a 2.5D print, in which the effect of varying tone is produced by a variation in the print height. We propose a method of constructing full colour prints in this manner, using a CMY colour model. This involves the layering of multiple translucent pigmented gelatin films and tracking how the perceived colour of these stacks changes with varying height. A set of CMY inks is constructed, taking into account the optical properties of both the pigment and gelatin, and a method of translating images into these prints is detailed.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 20, 2020
• Online Publication Date: May 26, 2020
• Publication Date: May 26, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jun 1, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 2, 2020
• Journal: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland)
• Electronic ISSN: 1420-3049
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 11
• Article Number: 2468
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25112468
• Keywords: printing; colour reproduction; gelatin; woodburytype; Kubelka-Munk theory; photography; optical properties
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6003719