Slipsheeting
(Did you mean a Hal Shapiro apazine?)
When a fanzine is being printed, especially by mimeography, wet ink on the newly printed page may smudge onto the back of the next sheet to be printed, making the printing look muddy. Called set-off or offset (not to be confused with offset printing), this is made worse by overinking.
To prevent set-off, one can slipsheet, or insert slipsheets — spare sheets of old paper (crudsheets) or cards — between sheets of paper as they are printed. Another word for this process is interleaving. This can be done by hand, usually by a second person, or with a mechanical attachment called, naturally, a slipsheeter.
Afterward, removing the extra paper is called de-slipping.
The use of extra-absorbent paper, such as Twil-tone, causes ink to dry rapidly, and can make slipsheeting unneeded.
| From Fancyclopedia 2 Supplement, ca. 1960 |
| Interleaving freshly-run mimeographed pages with absorbent sheets to prevent offset is one of the more uninspiring jobs of publication. Some machines like the AB Dick electrics have automatic slipsheeters, and various fans have tried to devise elementary devices to let them handle mimeography single-handed. In Hyphen, James White described Walt Willis' experiements with a shaker which distributed rice grains over the page as it hit the tray. WAW added that rice was too light to shake out properly and he was experimenting with airgun shot -- BBs to us Yanks. |
| Publishing |
