Show...me...your print variations!

[steve B]

Originally Posted by savedfrommyspokes

Thank you Steve, the process you describe makes sense with the print defects.....another question (may have long since been answered) revolves around why there are WL variations from this set in the first place? It does not appear that these WL cards are missing the yellow as (with the Perry card) the team's name is yellow.

The general process was that they'd have a pasteup of the original art. pictures with borders etc, and that was photographed through filters to get a halftone for each color. (Some colors on some areas aren't halftones - the dot pattern like a newspaper picture)
Those negatives would be taped to an opaque piece of paper, or later, plastic. Some areas of that were cut away to expose what was intended to be printed making the "mask" which was basically a full sheet size composite negative for each color. That would then be used to make the plate.
Defects in the negatives could be fixed with a sort of red whiteout, or with red transparent tape.
All of that was done by hand.
So if the person making the mask goofed and left the name blocked off on the yellow plate the card would get a white name. After the decision to fix it, the mask could be altered to expose the name are, and new plates would be made.
The place I worked didn't have to do that in the time I worked there. We did have a few days of work when the camera guy took the pics for an entire booklet while he was under the influence of a liquid lunch and decided to clean the area just before doing the camera work. Thousands of spots from airborne dust that all had to be fixed - manually with that red whiteout.....they thought I had decent attention to detail so I got a space at a light table and a couple days working at fixing the masks.