Toner Transfer Etching "How-to"

The Toner Transfer Etching process is a Itaglio etching technique somewhat similar to Photogravure in the sense that it is a method of printing a photograph from a zinc plate. This is a process that I have personally developed. Unlike Photogravure, Toner Transfer does not use a light-sensitive emulsion to translate and image from a negative onto the plate; instead it utilizes the toner from a laser printer as a form of stopout when etching in an acid bath.

This tutorial presumes that you have a basic understanding of intaglio etching processes. Knowing how to create hard ground etchings and aquatints would be very helpful in your understanding of this process.

The process has only a few basic steps, and can be completed in only a few hours from start to finish.

The steps: Photograph, edit, print, transfer, etch, and print.

Things you will need: You will need all the usual materials and equipment for Intaglio etching including a press and acid bath. You will also need access to a laser printer, a hot plate or similar hot, flat surface, covers from magazines, and of course a digital camera. An image editing software such as Adobe Photoshop would sure come in handy as well.

The Process

Photograph: Basically any photo will do. The requirements of how the print must look will be dictated more by editing the image than the image itself.

Here is my original image:


Editing: Next you must edit the picture. The final printed image should be in greyscale, and the values should be inverted. The image does not need to be flipped to a mirror image; it will be flipped when you transfer onto the plate, and flipped again when you print.

The beauty of this process is that you have ultimate freedom of expression. Printing just about any image is possible. Since you are editing the image digitally it is possible to use text or use multiple pictures as a compound image. Really, go nuts.

One requirement that must be followed is that the inverted image have no areas of absolute white. Spaces of white will be printed as blank space by the printer, which means there will no stop-out on that part of the plate. If there is no stop-out at all, the acid will etch a pit into your plate. When it comes time to wipe the excess ink off the plate, you will wipe all the ink right out of these pits, creating an area of lighter uneven value.

In this photo you can see that I have gone into the picture with Photoshop's burn tool to make sure that there is at least a little bit of light gray everywhere.

Next, I incorporated some text into the design.

Now that your image is all made up, it's time to print from the printer.

Print: I really suggest having your own laser printer for this, because you will be printing on the surface of magazine pages, and the people at Kinko's are *ehem* a little reluctant to do that with their several-thousand dollar printers.

Printing on the magazine paper will allow you to easily transfer the toner onto the plate. It is also much easier to remove from the plate than other things I have tried.

Here is how the image looks on normal paper, as well as how it looks on the magazine page.

Next comes the actual transfer process.

Tranfer: The toner from a laser printer is basically just plastic, and you can melt it with extreme heat onto the plate. First things first though, you will need to rough up the surface of a new plate with some fine steel wool. This is absolutely essential. If you don't rough the surface up, the toner WILL  NOT STICK.

Once the surface of the plate is dulled down, clean it with a pinch of whiting to remove all grease and oil from the plate. This will help ensure you get a nice transfer.

Heat up your hot plate to a nice and toasty 550 degrees. I wish you could use an iron to transfer the toner, but it simply doesn't get hot enough for highly detailed images.

Once your hot plate is all heated up, lay your magazine page image-side up on the hot plate. Then drop your plate surface side down onto the image, being careful to line it up correctly. The plate will need to sit on the hot plate for about ten minutes. It really helps to apply even pressure onto the back of the plate. I push down with a damp towel and kind of massage the plate to make sure the toner really sticks.

When the time is up, move the (extremely hot!) plate into a sink under warm running water and let it sit for a few minutes to loosen up the paper. Carefully peel off the paper from the edges in. You will need to rub the rest of the paper residue off with the pads of your fingers. it should come up pretty easily under the water. It helps to use the thinnest magazine page your printer will print on. The thinner the paper, the more easily it will come off.

Once all the paper is gone, you will be able to see your image mirrored on the plate.

Etching: In the acid bath I use (nitric acid 1:10) it takes about 40 minutes to etch a hard ground etchings. For this process the plate should sit in the acid for about 20 minutes. Feather the bubbles off the plate about every three minutes because they will really build up fast. Don't worry, you won't remove any of the toner.

After the 20 minutes is up, wash the acid off the plate in the sink and remove the toner. The only thing I've encountered that is capable of removing the plastic toner is a strong acetone.

Now you're ready to print!

Printing the Plate: Ink the plate like you normally would for an aquatint. The same goes for wiping the plate. The technique that I've found works best is removing the bulk of the excess ink with heavily soiled tarlatan, and then moving onto clean tarlatan, and finally gently hand-wiping the plate to even the tone.

I use the same pressure on the press as if I was printing an aquatint. After that the printing process is the same as any other intaglio technique.

The final product:

Please, if you try this process be very careful. There are many dangerous things in an etching studio (especially that hot plate). Always follow your better judgment and any safety protocols in place.

Good luck and happy etching!


Some more examples of prints made with this process:

Roads of Gold

So, I'm pretty excited about this.

The idea behind this piece was to create a situation that would, in effect, cause the printing plate to be engraved without me having to make a single mark. The scenario I exposed the plate to would do all the work for me.

In addition, I didn't want the plate to simply lay there and be engraved.  I wanted it to play a role in it's own transformation as an active participant in the process; not just a silent recipient.  It was important to me that the plate play a kinetic role, and keep moving throughout the procedure.

This is what I came up with:

What you are looking at is the plate, covered in asphaltum (which will protect the un-scratched parts of the plate from being etched in the acid bath that comes in later), which is now attached to a turntable spinning at 33 rpm.  Opposite the plate, a long, thin needle is fixed to the cone of a large speaker.  Specific parts of specific, meaningful songs are played through the speaker, and the resulting vibrations the sound waves create push the needle back and forth (similar to a tattoo machine).

The needle scrapes away the asphaltum as the plate turns so that when the plate is later submerged in an acid bath, the acid will etch the plate where there is no protection. The parts that remain unscratched with not be etched. This creates the plate from which the final image will ultimately be printed.

The two songs "Roads" and "Fields of Gold" create a larger circle and a smaller circle, respectively. The two songs hold important value to me, as they have played roles in significant moments of my life. I interpret the images printed from this plate as a visual and conceptual representation of my memories and feelings.

I'm happy with the plate, but now it's time to print it! Pictures of the print are impending...


Update: Here is the final print.

The Death of Art, the Birth of Art.

For the first plate I've ever created, hard ground etching was used to create a plate that printed this image:

The image itself is inspired by photocopied portraits; in this case - photocopies of someone's face.

The plate was then gradually erased and reworked and erased, etc., to create a steady destruction of an image, in turn creating an entirely new image that possesses different conceptual merit.

I find that the resulting images are more engaging than the original, and that by essentially "killing" my original intentions, I have created something totally new and novel in it's own way.

Here are some examples of the process:

More to come with experimenting with the same plate.