Each year the Chesapeake Chapter of the American Printing History Association produces a calendar via letterpress. These calendars are sold to generate funds for student memberships and special projects sponsored by the group.

Several people have complained about the calendars not being useful and that they should be more grid-like. I suspect they were talking about some of my more experimental months over the past several years.

So, this year I went for a grid with the most impact with the least trouble.

The calendar is 7" x 11" so I started with a 12" x 12" sheet so I could rotate it in the press.

The design is one plate printed with an 8-color or so rainbow roll with the paper rotated at a 60° angle to the rollers. Once the first run was finished the article was trimmed, and the plate moved (photopolymer on a Boxcar base) to allow us to print it at a new angle. It was rotated about 30° in the other direction and shifted 1 pica in both directions.

After the printing was completed, it was trimmed, so the calendar was square with the format.

You do get some interplay with the resulting color. Pretty cool and way easier than it looks. You just need a press that can accommodate the size of the sheet to start with and be prepared to recycle a bunch of paper.