Impressió

Muséum folie, a walk through the printing process

A real madness! A journey into the heart of the graphic printing project of the Muséum Folie del Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle.

The museum, located in Jardin des Plantes in Paris is considered one of the benchmarks and the first in the world in number of annual scientific publications. Since its inception, the museum’s goal has been research and teaching for the benefit of all.

The book travels back in time from its exceptional collections. From minerals and rocks, animals, plants, prehistoric objects, anthropology, etc.

For printing we use the UV LED technology of our 8-color Speedmaster Heidelberg UV LED on the different printing substrates. A meticulous work to obtain vivid and defined colors that will highlight the details of the images that are part of the museum’s extensive collection.

The printing process became a challenge due to the extreme complexity of fitting the blue and green hot foil on the cover, with the added difficulty of achieving the correct definition of the smallest dots and lines. First the blue film was stamped, with which it was necessary to make several passes to obtain the tones and suitable definition. The action was repeated with the green film and finally completed with the dry butterfly-shaped relief that follows the hot foil.

At the same time, the block of interior pages, along with the endpapers, entered the workshop to paint the edges by printing with pink color that contrasts with the blue of the cover.

The last stage of the process, where the project took its final form, was the binding of the inner pages with the cover, at which point the green headbands were also added.

Technical characteristics

Format
Closed format 20 x 23 cm.

Cover
Wibalin Natural of 135 g. (Winter & Company)

Guardes
Arena Ivory of 140 g. printed in 1+1

Inner
288 pages with Creator Star of 135 g. (Lecta) printed in 4 + 4
120 pages with Arena Ivory Bulk 1.7 of 100 g. (Fedrigoni Papers) printed in 1 + 1

Binding
Hard cover of 2,5 mm with flat spine, lined with endpapers and headbands.

Finishings
Two-color hot foil with delicate profiles on the cover, back cover and spine, 75% of the surface.
Dry relief (embossing)
Painted edges