Letterpress printing with Caligo safe wash relief inks

First time for me, printing my vintage metal letterpress, using Caligo safe wash relief ink, and I’m impressed with the results. I didn’t use any modifier for the ink, just straight from the tube, too. The font size is 14pt, so not too tiny, but small enough to be a good test of the ink performance.

Letterpress in Adana chase, ready to print.

Adana 5x3 printing press, inked up with Caligo safe wash relief ink, cyan.

Letterpress printed fine, on 1250gsm greyboard, which is one of my stock surfaces. Caligo is a relatively slow drying ink, so I wasn’t worried about the rollers drying out while I worked.

Once I’d printed the letterpress phrase, I moved on to printing the illustration, which is a rubber stamp made from a digital drawing. This was inked by hand, using a speedball soft roller.

Cleaning up my metal letterpress, Adana, and stamp was easy. Caligo safe wash relief ink cleans off with soap and water (add neat washing liquid to the ink surface, then wipe with cold water and a soft sponge.) No solvents required, which is a real benefit to this ink. The colours and quality are great, and they really do clean up with soap and water, even though they are an oil based ink.

Letterpress and relief print on recycled greyboard.