French – calquer (to make a copy). Latin – calx (limestone). The word became widespread in Russian in the 19th century. It was borrowed from French, in which the original meaning was “to make an impression on wet lime.” Etymological Dictionary of Semenov
Tracing paper. Types and applications
Tracing paper (French calque) is all translucent grades of paper, most often white or colored in the paste. Ordinary white translucent paper has today been transformed and is located among designer paper collections. The transparency of tracing paper is achieved by grinding the fibers finer than in regular paper and adding binders and resins. Therefore, tracing paper is usually denser than paper of the same thickness. There is no standard and generally accepted classification of tracing paper. Most often it is divided by areas of application (types of printing): for artistic work (drawing, drawing, coloring; usually white, from 40 to 480 g/m2); for PPC (plain-paper copier - copier for plain paper), i.e. for electrographic devices (most often white, 90-480 g/m2); for traditional types of printing (mainly offset and screen printing, 40-480 g/m2); for plotters (inkjet and pen). This article will focus mainly on tracing paper for electrographic and traditional types of printing.
Tracing paper in rolls is intended mainly for engineering work on plotters and laser copiers, as well as drawing in ink and pencil. Most often supplied in widths of 297, 420, 594, 610, 841, 914 mm (imported), 420, 625, 878 mm (domestic). Office formats A4 and A3 are popular for printing on copiers and laser printers, and for offset and stencil printing, printing formats are preferable - 70x100 cm, etc.
Modern tracing paper:
- classic white;
- all colors of the rainbow and with splashes;
- matte, with parchment imitation;
- gold and silver;
- with various designs;
- with patterns imitating water ones.
Traditional use - booklets and calendars, usually the second (lining) sheet after the cover. Tracing paper is used for text inserts in invitations and cards. Sometimes they select an envelope from tracing paper to match or in the same colors. Business cards on tracing paper are also popular.
Trading marks of trademarks Abezeta And Canson practically do not cause problems in printing.
Ways to work with tracing paper
Offset printing. Tracing paper from the presented companies has proven itself to be excellent in an offset machine, but the surface of the tracing paper is not absorbent, so foil inks are strongly recommended. Tracing paper does not dry well, to avoid the paint being squeezed from one sheet to another, it is better to unload the receiving tray in a timely manner and keep the finished prints in small piles, the paint should be fixed.
Printing on digital machines. Excellent recommendations for using cripples in this type of printing.
Printing on toner digital printers (Xerox, Canon, Konica Minolta, Ricoh, etc.). When printing, you need to test one sheet. Sometimes the toner does not adhere to the tracing paper properly and falls off. When printing, it is necessary to take into account the temperature of the fuser, since you can lose not only paper, but also the printing device. As a rule, such material features (low heat resistance) are indicated in the specification. Exotic problems are also possible - some brands of paper tinted in the mass change color after heating.
Silk screen printing: It fits perfectly on tracing paper, the opaque volumetric paint on translucent paper is very beautiful. Interesting effects are produced by applying selective varnish to tracing paper.
"Translucent" afterprint. Pure cellulose tracing paper is a very brittle material, especially at high densities, so creasing and folding must be done extremely carefully, and for tracing paper with a density of 200 g/m2 and higher, it is generally better to avoid folding. To avoid creases, be sure to crease (preferably double or reverse), fold only in the direction of the grain, and try not to create folds for tracing paper that are denser than 170 g/m2. This material is capricious when cutting: special attention when cutting and carving - sharpening knives.
Embossing is embossed, blind and foil. For cripples, this is possible, but you need to carefully select the temperature and pressure of the stamp, and carefully make the cliche. The useful property of tracing paper was discovered at the Department of Finishing Processes at Moscow State Unitary Enterprise. The binding material “Balakron-Thermo”, which changes its color during blind and embossing under the influence of a stamp and temperature, gave the unpleasant effect of sticking to the stamp during operation. In such cases, our printing houses begin to select embossing modes (pressure, temperature). In the West, this is avoided by using a gasket in the form of special paper under the stamp, but it is not supplied to us. Students experimented and embossed “Balakron-Thermo” through a sheet of tracing paper. It turned out that one A4 sheet can easily withstand up to 10 prints! When embossing, you need to pay attention to the depth of the stamp, since most types of tracing paper are not as flexible as cardboard of a similar density. But when embossed, an interesting effect is obtained - the tracing paper loses its transparency.
Glue tracing paper It is better to use synthetic adhesives; water-dispersed adhesives can cause a wave-like effect at the gluing site.
Tracing paper is sensitive to changes in climatic conditions; to avoid curling of the paper before and after printing, the material should be protected from drafts and changes in temperature and humidity.
A common property of all types of tracing paper is the ability to quickly absorb moisture and increased sensitivity to changes in conditions in the printing shop, so the packaging should be opened immediately before printing, and during operation, ensure that the humidity and temperature are maintained at a stable level (+20 °C and 50% humidity). There are also difficulties in post-printing processing: the material is very dense and does not cut well (the recommended stack height is no more than 5 cm).
P.S. Before ordering material for printing, do not forget to consult with the technologist of the printing house where you plan to carry out the order. When working with any designer paper, study and follow the manufacturer's recommendations.
The article was written based on materials from the site www.publish.ru
To the question of what tracing paper is, you can get different answers. The most popular meaning of this word is transparent paper on which you can draw and draw. At the same time, the term is used by phraseology to create variants of words borrowed from other languages. Housewives use tracing paper for baking and preparing various meat rolls.
Transparent paper and its purpose
Before the advent of the computer with its design programs, combining components, parts and duplicating drawings was done using tracing paper. The builders checked the coincidence of the load-bearing walls and supports on the floor plans. Sheets with drawings made in ink were superimposed on each other and placed opposite the light source. All lines and places of contact of parts that went beyond the dimensions were clearly visible.
Now drawings are made on a computer and thick transparent tracing paper (paper) has been created for the printer. It is used mainly by builders and designers to test and demonstrate various options for placement, layout, installation of life support systems, security and other communications on building plans.
An old engineer will answer the question of what tracing paper is - paper for copying and duplicating drawings. The copyist transferred the lines from whatman paper to tracing paper, laying it on top. Black mascara was most often used. Copies were then made on photosensitive paper in the quantities required for production.
Making tracing paper
Regular tracing paper is produced in rolls and packs of sheets of standard sizes. It is made from bleached cellulose and wood pulp, ground to flour. The filling is cotton or glassine. Calendering - passing between hot rollers - and strong squeezing promotes good gluing and oiling. This gives transparency and the desired surface roughness.
The use of grinding to form smaller fractions makes the tracing paper stronger. Since the cost of using complex equipment greatly increases the cost of paper, we chose a middle ground. The components are crushed to medium size, and in a drying drum the finished product is passed through rollers.
Tracing paper for drawing in ink using a pen and drawing pen was made smooth from a thin glossy film of celluloid, less commonly vinyl and lavsan. The matte surface was then sprayed on one or both sides. The paper was rough and could be used for polishing copper and soft alloys of aluminum and iron. An ordinary ballpoint pen quickly breaks down when drawing on such a surface.
How to make tracing paper yourself?
You can create translucent paper yourself; just answer the question of what tracing paper is and how it differs from regular paper. The easiest way is to moisten a regular sheet with gasoline free of oils and additives. You need to copy quickly, as the writing paper will dry out and lose its transparency.
To create a matte, stable tracing paper, wax is used. You can melt it in turpentine to saturate the sheet and wait until the turpentine evaporates. Paper laid out on hot metal absorbs wax well. Simply apply it evenly and rub in. You can use this tracing paper to draw with a pencil, watercolors and colored ink. The lines do not blur, the image is clear.
In addition to wax, castor oil gives writing paper a stable transparency. Dissolved in alcohol, it is applied to the sheet. Dries quickly. You can draw with ink and pencil. This technology is interesting because of the reverse process. You can remove the oil from the sheet with alcohol and the paper will become opaque again, the pencil drawing will remain intact.
A design for embroidery and other occasions can be easily and quickly copied using tracing paper. Just place it on the image and secure it. Then draw the contour lines with a pencil or ink, if a little, you can use a ballpoint pen and liner. Colors and shades are applied later.
The side of the tracing paper with the ink design is applied to the dampened wood or leather. This is what tattoo artists and wood carvers do. The image is mirrored. Needlewomen additionally use carbon paper or simply fasten the paper to the fabric and embroider on it using satin stitch, placing stitches on top.
Tracing paper can replace a canvas for an artist. Drawings are copied and colors are applied with watercolor paint, pencils and ink. The image turns out bright against a translucent background and looks great.
Other uses of tracing paper
What is tracing paper in the kitchen? This is a material that does not absorb or allow fat to pass through. The dough does not stick to such paper. Therefore, tracing paper is often placed in baking dishes, on sheets. It is used to roll rolls from minced meat and other soft ingredients.
Nikolay Dubina [email protected]
Tracing paper ( fr. calque, English. Tracing paper) is a thin transparent paper used for drawing, light and hand copying. Tracing paper appeared at the beginning of the 17th century. This is a translucent, rigid paper containing finely ground cellulose. Its structure is characterized by high density, which makes it possible to make it as thin as possible.
Before the era of computer-assisted drafting, tracing paper was used in design and construction to jointly view floor plans or mechanical level drawings together to check the compatibility of different design sheets drawn by different people. Tracing paper is a kind of analogue of many “layers” in computerized drawing. Currently, various types of tracing paper are produced that can pass under the rollers of a printer or copier without jamming or jamming. Such varieties are used for printing a drawing of a standard assembly or a drawing of a part, as well as when searching for an engineering solution by overlaying it on the main drawing.
Tracing paper is usually made from bleached sulphate cellulose with the addition of wood pulp, rag and cotton pulp without filler (or with a small content) and is well sized. Or, as an option, from ready-made glassine.
High-quality tracing paper, used for copying drawings in ink and for blueprinting, is heavily moistened during production, calendered under high roll pressure and oiled with film-forming substances. It is the high degree of compression of relatively simple paper that partially ensures its transparency to light.
The main property of tracing paper is transparency. There are two ways to achieve it:
- calendering;
- increasing the degree (degree) of grinding of cellulose fiber.
The second method is more effective because, along with high transparency, it allows for high strength, but it is also more expensive to manufacture. It is also possible to combine the two methods. It is this path that some modern domestic manufacturers have taken, which has made it possible to obtain a high-quality product while maintaining an acceptable price.
Tracing paper for drawing and copying with a pencil (matte, without a glossy side) is precisely transparent, non-calendered paper. Tracing paper with a glossy side was of two types in the USSR:
- ink, on a paper base with a semi-gloss sheen, very thin and fragile, much thinner and mechanically weaker than pencil tracing paper;
- film-like lavsan, where the glossy side was the most transparent film base (lavsan, celluloid or vinyl), noticeably thicker and stronger than both types of paper, and a rough translucent matte coating for drawing was applied to the film itself.
The surface of double-sided matte tracing paper is much more abrasive than that of ordinary drawing or office paper. This significantly accelerates the wear of non-ball tools that operate on the principle of direct sliding of metal on paper, such as metal quills and fountain pens, rapidographs and drawing pens. In the absence of an abrasive stone at hand, matte tracing paper is used as a grinding material to polish factory calligraphic nibs to an acceptable gliding smoothness (chamfering the contact area) and rounding the outer corners of the pen that scratch the paper.
Matte pencil tracing paper from the Soviet era is so abrasive that it can be used as a handy grinding material not only for soft metals like copper and brass, but also for steel and even glass.
Cripple standards
Substance |
Density |
Humidity |
Roughness |
Transparency |
Tensile strength (mD) |
Surface Alkali pH |
Today in designer collections you can find not only matte transparent paper, but also textured, colored and mother-of-pearl tracing papers. Oddly enough, the technology for making this type of paper is still unknown to many people. Only product manufacturers are privy to the secret of its creation.
Initially, the product was intended for drawing work. Basically, only specialists in this field knew what tracing paper was. Today the product is used in many areas. It is used for manual copying, and now even a primary school student can easily answer the question of what tracing paper is.
However, not every artist dares to use this paper in their work - and all because sometimes the result can be completely unpredictable. In principle, tracing paper is an essential item for people in creative professions, such as artists. An architectural student will also not be able to do without tracing paper.
The use of this material allows you to significantly reduce the time required to create several layouts. This type of paper is not afraid of repeated folding, and in addition, this material is quite durable. Tracing paper is compact for storage.
Designer tracing paper is a very capricious material, but at the same time extremely beautiful. Don't forget that two problems can arise when printing. Not all types of tracing paper can be used in printing, since on some it is simply impossible to carry out a high-quality transfer.
Another problem is that it may be difficult to feed the sheets into the press, as well as to pass the sheets through it while printing. That is why it is better to entrust this process to professionals.
Tracing paper on the Russian paper market
Despite the apparent diversity, the supply of cripples on the Russian market is quite limited. Nevertheless, what is offered will more than cover the needs of even very demanding customers - both in density and size, and in color. So, what is offered by large suppliers?..
Alexander Brown
The German factory Schoellershammer has existed since 1784 and is famous throughout the world for its tracing papers. The successful combination of traditional papermaking methods and modern technologies has made them a role model and quality standard for translucent designer papers. Buyers are provided with classic white GlamaBasic tracing paper.
Pure cellulose tracing paper GlamaBasic bleached without adding chlorine, do not contain acids and are highly resistant to aging. They are suitable for most printing and finishing methods: letterpress and offset printing, silk-screen printing, varnishing, laminating, embossing, die-cutting, laser die-cutting, hot foil stamping, creasing and folding. Also suitable for use in office equipment: inkjet and laser printers. In any case, it is recommended to make a test print before printing.
Density (g/m2): 92, 112, 150, 180, 280.
Format (cm/cm): 70x100.
Antalis
Made by Arjowiggins, England
Transparent tracing paper Curious Translucents Clear and colored tracing paper Curious Translucents Color- an innovative collection of designer papers, fully FSC certified.
Curious Translucents are pure cellulose tracing papers of the highest quality. The line of cripples allows you to play with the shades of paper and the printed image, and has many effects: Clear - natural transparent; Clear Effects - Linear; Space Dust (splashes); Colored - metallic, bright and natural shades:
- Curious Color Bright white - extra white;
- Curious Color pearl - mother of pearl;
- Curious Color silver - pearl silver;
- Curious Color gold - mother of pearl gold.
Curious Translucents tracing papers are suitable for the main types of printing: offset printing with foil and UV inks (following the manufacturer's recommendations), screen printing, flexography. Embossing, die-cutting, and folding are excellent post-printing processing methods.
Density (g/m2): 90 and 100.
Format (cm/cm): 70x100.
Europapier
Made by Schoellershammer, Germany
Primed tracing paper Glama Digital made by Schoellershammer, available in 112 and 150 g. This tracing paper is HP certified and is part of a wide range of specialty media for HP Indigo machines. Supplied in 460x320 mm format, packed in packs of 250 sheets.
FSC certified.
Bereg Company
Manufacturer: Fedrigoni, Italy
GSC (Golden Star Color)
Pure cellulose colored translucent paper, tinted in the paste. Supplied in sheets of 70x100 cm format with a density of 100 and 200 g/m2.
Large selection of colors:
- Blue - dark blue;
- Yellow - bright yellow;
- Red - red;
- Green - dark green;
- Coffee - coffee;
- Cream - creamy;
- Fluo Green - fluorescent green.
And also metallized:
- Gold - golden;
- Silver - silver.
GSK (Golden Star K)
Pure cellulose paper of high transparency - “tracing paper”. Available in two shades of white: Extra White and Premium White. The bleaching process is carried out using a chlorine-free method. Paper is completely biodegradable and recyclable.
Supplied both in sheets of printing format 70x100 cm, and in sheets for digital printing from A4 format for office equipment to 32x46.4 cm for HP Indigo. Density range - from 80 to 240 g/m2.
Pergamenata
Pure cellulose translucent paper imitating matte parchment. Supplied in SRA3 format sheets for digital printing and in 70x100 cm printing format sheets in a density range from 90 to 230 g/m2.
Available in two colors:
- Bianca - white;
- Naturale - beige.
Pergamenata Pearl
Pure cellulose translucent paper with a metallic sheen. Has a double-sided mother-of-pearl coating. Available in sheets of 70x100 cm format.
Available in three colors:
- Ice - ice;
- Silver - silver;
- Bronze - bronze.
All presented papers are FSC and ISO 9706 certified (durable or long lasting paper). They are designed taking into account the specifics of offset, silk screen and flexography printing, and have shown excellent results in post-printing processing. Materials supplied in digital formats are certified by HP Indigo and Xerox.
Tracing paper produced by the Fedrigoni concern has proven itself in Russia. Over the past 20 years, it has pleased Russian printers with the quality and high technology of the material, and designers and artists with its original appearance and a wide selection of possible applications.
Take B
Manufactured by Schoellershammer (Germany)
In addition to pure cellulose translucent white tracing paper Glama Basic, which was already mentioned above, the company offers Glama Color- also pure cellulose, but tinted tracing paper.
It is recommended for offset, silk-screen, letterpress printing, as well as for varnishing, embossing, blind and foil stamping. Digital printing does not guarantee consistent results. Preliminary testing is necessary.
Density 62 g/m2 -
250 sheets and 100 g/m2 - 125 sheets.
- Glama Basic - white;
- Glama Color - dark burgundy;
- Glama Color - black;
- Glama Color - blue;
- Glama Color - green;
- Glama Color - pink;
- Glama Color - red;
- Glama Color - wine red.
Made by Zanders, Germany
Pure cellulose tinted tracing paper Zanders spectral, wide range of colors. Recommended for offset, silk-screen, digital (preliminary testing required), letterpress printing, as well as varnishing, embossing, blind and foil stamping. Digital printing does not guarantee consistent results. Preliminary testing is necessary.
The collection contains envelopes.
Supplied in sheets 65x92 cm and 70x100 cm; 100 sheets per pack.
Density: 100 and 200 g/m2.
- Snow white;
- White;
- Honey;
- Mint green;
- Blue frost;
- Pink lollipop;
- Lilac fog;
- Cherry;
- Orange;
- Sunny yellow;
- Yellow-green;
- Blue Lake;
- Ultraviolet.
Pure cellulose tracing paper Zanders T2000. Recommended for multicolor offset printing, for making original layouts, drawing, copying. Digital printing does not guarantee consistent results. Preliminary testing is necessary.
Supplied in sheets 70x100 cm.
Density 9095 g/m2 - 500 sheets, 8085, 110, 110115 g/m2 - 250 sheets, 150 g/m2 - 125 sheets.
Palette: regular translucent.
Manufacturer: Fabriano, Italy
Cellulose paper Pergamon with a “crystal” effect, in appearance it resembles Trans Marque tracing paper with a similar pattern.
Made from ECF cellulose and FSC certified. Suitable for single-color and full-color printing using offset and screen technologies. Digital printing does not guarantee consistent results. Preliminary testing is necessary.
Supplied in sheets 70x100 cm.
Density 110 g/m2 - 200 sheets; 160 g/m2 - 200 sheets.
Before the era of computer-assisted drafting, tracing paper was used in design and construction to jointly view floor plans or mechanical level drawings together to check the compatibility of different design sheets drawn by different people. Tracing paper is a kind of analogue of many “layers” in computerized drawing. Currently, thick types of tracing paper are being produced that can pass under the rollers of a printer or copier without getting wrinkled or stuck. Such varieties are used for printing a drawing of a standard assembly or a drawing of a part, and when searching for an engineering solution through overlay on the main drawing.
Manufacturing
Tracing paper is usually made from bleached sulphate cellulose with the addition of some types of wood pulp, rag and cotton pulp without filler or with a small content of it and is well sized. Tracing paper can also be made from ready-made glassine. Here is a recipe for making transparent paper from the book “1750 practical techno-chemical recipes” (5th ed., V.I. Gubinsky, p. 22): “Harvey, in London, treats the paper with drying oil and, after removing excess oily particles with gasoline , washed in a chlorine bath; then, after drying, it is treated again with hydrogen peroxide.”
High-quality tracing paper, used for copying drawings in ink and for blueprinting, is heavily moistened during production, calendered under high roll pressure and oiled with film-forming substances. It is the high degree of compaction of relatively plain paper that partially ensures its transparency to light.
The main property of tracing paper is transparency. There are two ways to achieve it:
- increasing the degree of grinding of cellulose fiber.
The second method is more effective, since along with high transparency it allows one to achieve high strength, but it is also more expensive. It is also possible to combine the two methods. It is this path that some modern domestic manufacturers have taken, which has made it possible to obtain a high-quality product while maintaining an acceptable price.
Types of tracing paper
- pencil matte, embossed without a glossy side - it is a transparent non-calendered paper, suitable for drawing and copying with a pencil on both sides - now it is used as an artistic material for copying or parallel sketching, by overlaying and drawing on top of the source.
- ink with gloss, a paper base with a semi-gloss sheen on one side - thinner and more vulnerable, much thinner and mechanically weaker than pencil tracing paper, often breaks when wet on a wet line, both sides are suitable for ink, the pencil fits only on the matte side - drawn with ink on the glossy side side, gloss as a measure against the failure of pigment into the depth of the fibers, and a drop in line contrast.
- lavsan with gloss film, where the glossy side carries a transparent film base (lavsan, celluloid or vinyl), noticeably thicker and stronger than both types of paper, and a thin rough matte coating for drawing is applied to the film itself - only one side is suitable for drawing, less more abrasive for sliding metal tools than tracing paper.
Wear of the drawing tool on tracing paper
Double-sided surface matte tracing paper is more abrasive than regular drawing or office paper. This greatly accelerates the wear of tools without a ball, which work on the principle of direct sliding of metal on paper, for example, metal quills and fountain pens, rapidographs, isographs and drawing pens.
In the absence of an abrasive stone at hand, matte tracing paper is used as a grinding material to polish factory calligraphic nibs to an acceptable gliding smoothness (chamfering the contact area) and rounding the outer corners of the pen that scratch the paper. Matte pencil tracing paper from the times of the USSR is so abrasive that it can be used as a handy grinding material not only for soft metals like copper and brass, but for steel and even glass.
Extremely carefully or very rarely, use direct friction tools on pencil tracing paper, such as a dipping pen, drawing pen, rapitograph and isograph - the latter were often worn down in just 1 year of working on pencil tracing paper, although when working on whatman paper they calmly endured 6 years or more of wear. The rayfeeder was ground down even faster, within a month of work until a quite noticeable flat hemp-end formed, instead of the original rounded tip.
Along with some tests, pencil tracing paper was checked for abrasiveness - glass previously frosted with large abrasives was treated with GOI paste No. 3 (chromium oxide, grain size 8-17 microns), on top, sanding was carried out with matte pencil tracing paper made in the USSR in the 1980s - the result was a complete disappearance of the shine and gloss declared for this paste number, at the same time a clear improvement in glide. During the subsequent control test polishing with GOI paste, the gloss returned, but the surface of the glass became less slippery to plastics and Teflon than after the previous polishing with matte tracing paper.
The second glass sample, matted with coarse abrasives, was treated with GOI paste No. 3 (chromium oxide, grain size 8-17 microns), and additionally finishing sanding paper with an abrasive marked as J3000 grit JIS (silicon carbide, grain size 4-5 microns). On top, sanding was carried out with matte pencil tracing paper from the 1980s - the glass lost any hint of gloss that appeared after sanding with J3000 grit abrasive, it became rougher, and the sliding of the Teflon plate glued to the measuring equipment-weight weighing 145-150 on the glass also deteriorated quite noticeably. gram
In total, the approximate assessment of the abrasiveness of pencil tracing paper lies between 8 microns and 4 microns, if translated into the European FEPA grit system, it subjectively corresponds to sanding paper from p3000 to the more similar p5000 FEPA, grain size 7 and 5 microns - with an important correction, very rapid wear abrasion of active “grains” on the surface of the tracing paper, as a result, an extremely small volume of material removed by one section of tracing paper.
Specifications
| Substance | Density | Humidity | Roughness | Transparency | Tensile strength ( ) | Surface Alkali pH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ISO 536 | ISO 287 | ISO 8791-2 | ISO 2469 | ISO 1974 | ISO 6588 | |
| / |