Weddingbee Blog

I am one of those people that watch movies and then immediately turns to the DVD extras in order to reveal the movie magic. And after my post on Monday about our invites, I got a lot of questions about Gocco printing. Although there isn’t an exact science to the Gocco, and I am no means an expert, I thought I would share a little advice and some of the tricks I have up my sleeve.

1. What Gocco model should I buy?
There are several different models available for purchase, but most commonly PG 5, PG 10, PG 11 and the PG6 Large Machine. I recommend going to Northwood Studios FAQ about the Gocco models to decide which one is right for you. I choose the PG 11 because of the clip-in registration plate and movable printing pad from Northwood Studio. These capabilities were a God send and made printing and aligning perfect. Plus, I bought the full kit with inks, bulbs, screens, user instructional manual, basic gocco instructional CD-ROM, blue filter, RISO pen, and batteries (AAs), RISO screen cleaner (15 ml), illustration booklet, and Advanced Gocco Technique DVD for a little over $300 with shipping.

To give you a visual idea of why I love my PG 11, here is a photo of my registration plate. In order to save screens, I burned the two bird images on the same screen, blocked off the one I wasn’t using with paper, and aligned the other image using the registration plate. These are my Thank You Card Envelopes, which I will reveal later.

2. Is the Gocco economical?
I think you have to evaluate your individual situation. This was a question that was hard for me to answer at first, but with a little research I found the perfect solution. I wanted to customize all of our wedding stationery; therefore, that meant either working with stationery designer, printer, or Gocco. Looking at our budget, my need for a personal touch, and price comparisons, the price of the Gocco (including the purchase of the machine) was a lot cheaper. That being said I am printing a ton of projects: 75 Save-the Dates, 100 Invites, 100 RSVP, 100 Directions Card, 100 Envelopes, 85 Thank You Cards, 85 Thank You Card Envelopes, 75-100 Escort Cards, 12 Table Numbers, 75-100 Programs and more that I haven’t thought of yet. To be honest, if you are only printing your invites I don’t know if the Gocco is right for you, but if you are going to print a lot of projects I say DO-IT!

3. What is the Blue Filter?
Repeat after me with your right hand raised, “I will always use the blue filter.” Why am I so adamant about using the blue filter? Because this Cookie didn’t use the blue filter and burned a big old ugly mess onto her first ever screen (i.e. the print was scorched onto the master.) The blue filter prevents excess toner from burning onto the master to give you a sharper image. I recommend buying the Risco brand because it conveniently fits behind the master in the Gocco.

4. But Miss Cookie, I’ve been really good about using my blue filter but my prints are patchy?

I have a few suggestions:
1. Use a good laser printer and print multiple copies. Laser printers get a good clean line and distributes the carbon content the best. (If you have successfully used a ink jet, please share). Because our home and my work (small nonprofit) doesn’t have a laser printer, I use Mr. Cookie’s work printer. I also have him make three copies, and I carefully pick which one has the best toner coverage.
2. Use a Vector based program like Illustrator. Although I used Photoshop to print out the mountain in our invite — which turned-out fine — you can kinda see the pixels in the print even though I had the dpi set to 300. Vector graphics print clean and smoother and burn very well!
3. I use and waste a lot of ink. Even though you only really need a smooth 1/8″ inch layer of ink, I ink my babies-up. Why do I do this? Because on some screens, especially when I print multiple colors very close together, the ink will inevitably hop over to the other color when I lift the cellophane to re-ink. Then I have to delicately wipe the red out of the brown. PAIN IN THE ASS! For my mountains I used my finger (really you should use a little squidgy) to get an even coverage on the plate. Inevitably in every project, you will have some prints that come out like this…

… patchy, bad and sprinkled with a few curse words after you lift up the Gocco. Plan that out of every 100 prints about 10 will be wasted.

5. Miss Cookie I recently bought my Gocco but don’t have the courage to use it?
Just do it! I had a scenic painting professor whose anecdote was, “The first line will always be wrong so just get it over with.” Translation: Stop worrying about messing-up because you will. Practice makes perfect. With each project your Gocco skills will get better and better, but they won’t until you do your first project.

That’s all I’ve got for now. For more Gocco tips, I would highly recommend Mrs. Penguin’s Q and A and browse Weddingbee Wiki on Gocco. If you have any Gocco question, please comment below and I will be happy to help the best this little cookie can!