Previously on 'A Moment Of Cerebus':
Dave Sim, working with George Peter Gatsis, has remastered the first two collected volumes of Cerebus to restore details and quality in the artwork lost over the thirty years since they were originally published (as detailed here and here). After Cerebus'
original printer Preney Print closed its doors, Dave Sim moved his
printing to Lebonfon in 2007 as at that time they were still capable of
working with photographic negatives and making printing
plates as Preney had done. And then Lebonfon switched to digital
scanning and printing - a technology which struggles to faithfully
reproduce Cerebus' tone without creating moire patterns (as detailed in Crisis On Infinite Pixels).
Dave Sim continues to work with Lebonfon to ensure the print-quality of the new Cerebus and High Society editions (as detailed in Collections Stalled). Now read on...
WEEKLY REPORT ON CEREBUS (16th PRINTING) &
HIGH SOCIETY 30TH ANNIVERSARY S&N GOLD LOGO (11th PRINTING)
DAVE SIM:
(by fax, 8 November 2013)
Our Project Director at Lebonfon, Josee Michaud, has come up with a potentially game-changing 11th hour solution. Quoting from her 5 November e-mail to George:
"remove the dot scan in desired areas [the] recreate new pattern using a layer... if you're using Photoshop to create the new pattern, you need to: 1. Create "layer" 2. add Color 3. choose % (example: Black 33%) 4. IMAGE/MODE/BITMAP change "RESOLUTION" to your preference (minimum 12000 dpi) the "METHOD" use: "HALFTONE SCREEN". When making your changes/tests please use "POSITION 12" and send to us for proofing."
"remove the dot scan in desired areas [the] recreate new pattern using a layer... if you're using Photoshop to create the new pattern, you need to: 1. Create "layer" 2. add Color 3. choose % (example: Black 33%) 4. IMAGE/MODE/BITMAP change "RESOLUTION" to your preference (minimum 12000 dpi) the "METHOD" use: "HALFTONE SCREEN". When making your changes/tests please use "POSITION 12" and send to us for proofing."
George will be trying this out on a few of the "problem children" pages this weekend.
If it works, this could become the Michaud Solution for restoration of mechanical dot screen pages from the pre-computer age of comics.
Stay tuned.
Stay tuned.
cc:
Matt Demory, DIAMOND COMIC DISTRIBUTORS
George Gatsis, THE BLACK DIAMOND EFFECT
Patrick Jodoin, IMPRIMERIE LEBONFON
3 comments:
I just suggested that a little while ago in a comment on this blog. I didn't think Dave would want to go that route. Assumptions makes... well, you know the rest. Good on him for trying it.
Removing the tones digitally and replacing them digitally is something Colleen Doran and her assistant Allan Harvey have been doing on A Distant Soil for over a year. The first volume was restored this way and has been out since July. The results are flawless.
I didn't know I had to leave my full name. It's Traci Fields.
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