How to Print From Your 3d Printed Woodblock

Today’s blog comes courtesy of 3Dhotbed collaborator Devin Fitzgerald, Curator of Rare Books and History of Printing at UCLA Library Special Collections. Devin reached out to the 3Dhotbed team in 2017 while working with Doug Daniels in the UCLA Lux Lab to scan the entire collection of 37 woodblocks held in Library Special Collections. His blog post answers some user-submitted questions related to printing the woodblock hosted in the 3Dhotbed project as well as printing images from the 3D printed woodblock.

Dr. Fitzgerald incorporated the woodblocks into a history class covering Qing history through Manchu sources. He has also written about how best to incorporate Chinese printed blocks and 3Dprinted woodblock replicas into instruction on his blog.

[Dataset: Jin gang jing xin jing gan ying tu shuo 金剛經心經感應圖說 pp. 31-32] available at https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1259405/

How To Print from Your 3D Printed Woodblock

I’ve recently received a number of questions about the Chinese printing block currently hosted on the 3D Hotbed platform. In this brief post, I will attempt to respond to several of these questions, as well as provide a brief explanation of how I have started to experiment with the blocks.

My block is warped

One common question I’ve received from users attempting to print the block is “why it is warped?” Although East Asian printing blocks were planed to be flat, repeated exposure to the moisture of carbon based “India ink,” climatic fluctuation, or improper storage will warp the wood. Most of the blocks from this collection held at UCLA are slightly warped. The warping is not too bad, considering that they are over 200 years old. When the blocks were scanned, they retained the shape of the original object. So, when you print the block, expect some warping. One important thing to bear in mind is that even warped, East Asian printing blocks are perfectly usable, since prints were pulled by rubbing – and not a letterpress.

This Block is too Big for my Printer

This can be a bit of a problem. Most standard 3D printers will not be able to print the woodblock to scale. If you want to print the block as a single piece, you will likely have to resize it to fit your printer bed. If you want a full size block, I recommended printing it in four parts, cutting it directly down the middle, and halving the recto and verso of each half. This has the advantage of giving you a flat side for printing. It also makes for a handy teaching reference since a page in a Chinese book was printed from a single side of the block, and then folded in half. For background on these blocks see

How do I Print the Image from this block?

This question is the real reason for this post. Since the woodblocks are printed with resin (a UV sensitive liquid polymer), traditional Chinese printing tools cannot be used. The video below can give you a sense of how efficiently someone could print a page using water and carbon based India ink, a palm brush, paper, and a Chinese style brayer.

Coming soon: Video

Water-based inks slide right off the surface of a 3D printed block. To print from a 3D printed block I recommend buying a speedball printing kit like this one.

For our purposes, important tools from the kit are: the brayer, the ink, and the baren. If you’d prefer not to purchase the entire kit, you can purchase those items separately. Onto printing!

1. Take your block – which maybe you’ve printed in quarters like we have in the video below – and lay them out on some newspaper.

2. Next, warm up your ink on a flat, smooth surface. A little bit goes along way.

3. Apply the ink evenly with a brayer to the printing surface.

4. Once the ink is evenly spread over the block, it’s time to select paper. In my experience, the sort of paper you choose plays the largest role in producing a nice quality print. Cheap calligraphy paper from Daiso is good for practicing.

5. Once you’ve got paper you’re happy with, it’s just a simple matter of using your baren and praying that you’ve got your inking right.

6. Now, do it about 20 more times to get the hang of it!

How to Download 3Dhotbed Toolkit Data & Other Hot Tips

SO you’ve made it to the 3Dhotbed teaching toolkit object page in the UNT Digital Library. But how do you find and download the data?

How to Download 3Dhotbed Toolkit Data

• Identify the specific object/dataset you're interested in downloading and select that item to view it's page.
• Under the View Now section on the left-side menu click All Formats

• Click Download this dataset on the next screen

• Click Download next to the file with the .stl extension

• Select Save File and save it to your computer.
• Open and enjoy in your favorite 3D viewer
• Each dataset also includes a README file in .txt format with information about how the data was gathered and edited, as well as information about printing and using the datasets.

Are you interested in seeing the files rotate?

• On the same Dataset: Model Page list, click Download next the image/gif file
• The model will open your browser page and rotate

If you encounter any errors or have questions, email the 3Dhotbed team at 3Dhotbed@gmail.com. If you download or print the data, or use the printed tools in an instruction session, please fill out our survey. 

Book History and DH in 3D - A Digital Frontiers Workshop

(From left to right) Kevin O'Sullivan, Marcia McIntosh, and Courtney Jacobs (or the 3Dhotbed crew), hosted a hands-on book history workshop for Digital Frontiers 2017.

The 3Dhotbed crew recently hosted a hands-on workshop at the University of North Texas for the annual Digital Frontiers conference.  Part presentation and part maker fare, the workshop provided attendees with an interactive introduction to the 3Dhotbed project as well as an opportunity to engage with the materials in the teaching toolkit. In the first part of the workshop, the group discussed their process developing 3D models of the tools and hosting the resulting data in a digital repository. They also discussed instruction and outreach programming made possible by the toolkit. For the workshop portion, participants had the opportunity engage in activities to learn about the various aspects of printing during the hand press era using both historical artifacts as well as 3D-printed facsimiles.

Artist and 3Dhotbed partner Syd Webb led a printing station with a platen press from her letterpress studio, 4 ACRE PRESS.

Attendees used the 3Dhotbed teaching toolkit in a mock classroom setting to mimic the multi-step process of designing and casting type by hand. At another station, they practiced composing and setting metal type in 3D printed composing sticks.  The freelance artist we worked with to develop and print the models was there to live-demo the software used to create the data necessary for a functioning toolkit. At the printing station, attendees got a chance to ink and print a pamphlet cover image using a tabletop rollerpress and a letterpress poster to take home. Syd Webb, a printmaking instructor at UNT, facilitated this station and even brought two of her personal presses for the event!  Printmaker and book artist Sarah Ellis, along with UNT Special Collections staff member Emily Aparicio, helped attendees fold and sew a quarto pamphlet using their printed cover image at the binding station. 

Attendees printed a mini-poster to take awat from the event.

The 2-hour event was a great success, and we hope to do more programming like this in the future!