Copy Cat

Last year, the American Swedish Institute approached Bolger Concept to Print—a large, family owned printer based in Minneapolis—about a highly unusual printing project.

The American Swedish Institute owns a one-of-a-kind book, "Värmlands Gåvan," a documentary record of local parish life in the Värmlands region of Sweden in 1951. The book contains original watercolor renderings of parishes throughout Värmlands, with text, produced by a manual typewriter, typed on the surface of the watercolors. The volume offers a view of a now-lost world as parishes in Värmlands underwent a complete reorganization in 1952, with some churches forever shutting their doors.

Based in Minneapolis, the American Swedish Institute was founded by newspaper publisher Swan J. Turnblad in 1929 "to foster and preserve Swedish culture in America." Värmlands gave "Värmlands Gåvan" to the American Swedish Institute as a gift, and the American Swedish Institute recently decided to return the favor and present a copy to Värmlands.

Exactly how a first-rate, archival-quality reproduction of the highly unusual, 50-year-old book would be created, however, was another matter.

After viewing the book, dik [sic] Bolger, a Bolger Concepts executive officer, presented three methods of reproduction to the American Swedish Institute. Bolger thought the most likely reproduction options were either using one of the company's four Heidelberg offset ink presses, or hiring artists to recreate copies of the original watercolors. Both methods, however, would be rather expensive.

Lastly, Bolger considered using the company's Xerox DocuColor 12 printer/copier. Yet Bolger didn't think the DocuColor 12 print quality would be sufficient for such a high-end job.

After scanning the book's individual pages on a Heidelberg Topaz flatbed scanner and running the scanned pages through the DocuColor 12, Bolger couldn't believe the results. "The DocuColor pages had such high quality that frankly, it shocked the hell out of me."

The DocuColor 12, which utilizes a six-micron toner for sharp images, features a copy resolution of 600x600x8-bit depth resolution for color printing, plus a host of color management controls.

Although the blackness of the type on the original pages varied depending on how hard the manual typewriter's keys were struck, the typed text on the DocuColor 12-produced copies were uniform. Bolger overcame this problem by producing separate color curves for the type.

Bolger Concepts printed two copies of the book on the DocuColor 12, using Mohawk 100-lb. Superfine Soft White Eggshell paper. Jana Pullman, a Minneapolis-based bookbinder, rebound the original book and bound one of the copies using blue-dyed goatskin. The second copy is unbound and archivally stored at the American Swedish Institute.

What does the American Swedish Institute think of its new copy of "Värmlands Gåvan"?

"It is fabulous," says Marita Karlisch, the institute's archivist and librarian. "Bolger Concept did an amazing job. If you put the two books side by side, you can't tell which is the original."

For dik Bolger, the project has changed his opinion of the DocuColor 12's capabilities. Previously, Bolger Concept's chief use for the DocuColor 12 was producing display boards for presentations. "Now," says Bolger, "I've had to look at the DocuColor 12 anew. Printing this job with this machine produced a savings of 50% over the conventional process for our client."