Drying dampened paper after printing

The temptation with drying paper is to attempt to get the pages flat after printing by putting the paper between flat boards and weighing them down to stop any crinkles appearing. We have all spilled some liquid on paper which results in cockling, but there is no need to panic. In fact the opposite is required – you need to let the paper dry naturally. Placing under weights will constrict the paper as it dries and create problems.

Drying

Preparation

• Sheets of newsprint or copier paper ideally cut to the same size as your printed sheets

• MDF boards larger than your printed sheets

• Weights – I use my boxes of type spacing

• Lots of space!

Method

1. Interleave your paper with something dry like sheets of newsprint or copier paper (I am going to try thick blotting paper at some point) which will absorb some of the moisture.

2. Like you did when dampening, divide your stack into piles of 10–15 sheets and leave for a couple of days on a flat surface. There might be a slight waviness to the sheets but this will disappear when you move on to the next stage.

3. When the paper feels dry, remove the interleaved paper and put each pile of 10–15 between boards, stacked up vertically and put weights on top.

4. Leave them to flatten overnight, or for a few days, and they will be flat.