Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

blanc de soutien en vitro

English translation:

four-colour printing with white (under)base on second surface

Added to glossary by Charles Davis
Jul 11, 2018 22:28
5 yrs ago
5 viewers *
French term

blanc de soutien en vitro

French to English Art/Literary Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting Material in a piece of art
Hello,

I am translating an art gallery programme from French (France) into English (British) and am having trouble with the translation of one of the materials. The work in question is Echaffaudage by Daniel Otero Torres.

A picture of the work can be found at the following link (about halfway down): http://www.danielotero.net/site/works1.php

Here's where it appears in the source text for full context: "Échafaudage, 2017. Impression quadri avec blanc de soutien en vitro sur plexiglas incolore 5 mm, 126 x 190 cm. Production Technilum."

Could anyone help please?
Change log

Mar 26, 2020 01:00: Charles Davis Created KOG entry

Discussion

Charles Davis Jul 12, 2018:
@Barbara I'm not sure about that. It assumes that the artist works on the colours, but here the colours are (digitally) printed, not painted or otherwise manually applied by the artist directly. "Impression quadri" implies that the artist's image is prepared as a digital file and then printed, and that's that. If the artist "intervened" (as they often say nowadays) on the printed colour, I think the description would say so, and the online image doesn't suggest to me that he did (though of course you can't really tell). So I can't see the point of printing the white and the colours on different sides, and as far as I can tell it's not normal practice. "Blanc de soutien" normally seems to denote a white background layer incorporated into the digital print file (though perhaps they're sometimes printed separately), and as far as I can tell second-surface printing (on the back) is more common generally with transparent substrates, because it protects the image and because of the visual effect. So I think it's more likely that "en vitro" applies to all the printing: that it was all printed on the back of the plexiglas. However, I'm not an expert on these techniques.
B D Finch Jul 12, 2018:
@Charles No more room in comment box below. It would make a lot of sense to print the white ground on the second surface and the rest on the top surface. That would enable the artist to work on the other colours without affecting the ground, and to conceal and reveal the ground by doing so.

Proposed translations

+1
8 hrs
Selected

second-surface (four-colour/CMYK) printing with white base / underbase

You have two terms here and they will have to be combined with the other bits. I suggest this order.

First, "blanc de soutien" is a white base, also referred to as an underbase or undercoat, when you are printing on a transparent or metal substrate instead of white paper. Normally, four-colour printing, commonly known as CMYK ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMYK_color_model ; https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrichromie ), is done on the white ground of the paper, without which it won't look right, so you have to supply a white ground digitally:

Qu’est ce qu’un blanc de soutien ?
https://sprint-for-print.com/faq/quest-ce-quun-blanc-de-sout...

"Color White Print Modes
Intended Use: Most often used for second surface printing (mirrored image on the back of a transparent substrate). [...]
Third Party Preparation (Send with Underbase): Turn on Layer Profiles for the Color-White Queue and turn on White Underbase in the Bitmap Processing options"
http://www.directcolorsystems.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11...

"En vitro" (short for "en vitrophanie") means printing on the back surface of a transparent substrate such as plexiglass. Of course, you have to print a mirror image so it's the right way round when seen from the front. As the passage I've just quoted indicates, this is known as "second surface printing". You'll also find it called reverse printing in some places, but this term has another meaning and I would avoid it.

"Comme tout support transparent, il peut être imprimé en face avant ou en vitrophanie (lecture miroir) sur la face arrière, ce qui donne un effet de relief au visuel."
https://mobiliersbois.onf.fr/onf-catalogue.pdf

"Les panneaux en Plexiglas (ou plexi diffusant ou pmma diffusant) peuvent être transparents ou diffusants pour caissons lumineux. Ce matériau rigide peut être imprimé, pelliculé, vernis, découpé et personnalisé. Il peut être imprimé recto ou verso en effet miroir (vitrophanie avec un blanc de soutien total ou sélectif)."
https://123panneaux.123imprim.com/imprimer-impression/plexig...

"Second-Surface
Refers to an item made of a clear substrate where the image is reversed and produced on the backside (or second-surface) of the substrate for viewing from the front side. Products that have second-surface printing or engraving have an advantage of having the clear substrate protect the image from abrasion, chemicals, and/or fading."
http://www.cuttingedgeinc.com/ref/gs2.htm

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Note added at 8 hrs (2018-07-12 07:08:58 GMT)
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By the way, a "blanc de soutien" is used for things like tee shirts when printing a coloured design on a dark ground:

"Sur ce type de motif nous avons un blanc de soutien (sous-couche blanche), une couche de gris et une couche de blanc (appelé blanc de réhaut)."
http://teeshirtmania.com/7_tech/serigraphie.html

And it's known there too as an underbase:

"To Underbase or Not to Underbase"
https://www.gooten.com/blog/gooten/2016/02/22/to-underbase-o...

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Note added at 8 hrs (2018-07-12 07:14:11 GMT)
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I've just realised I failed to quote the bit that used "en vitro" from my French source. Here it is, just to dispel any possible doubts:

"Comme tout support transparent, il peut être imprimé en face avant ou en vitro (lecture miroir) sur la face arrière (le visuel est alors protégé par l’épaisseur de la face avant)."
https://123panneaux.123imprim.com/imprimer-impression/plexig...
Peer comment(s):

agree B D Finch : I hadn't read your explanation of the term "second-surface", but I think it might mean that only the white ground is printed on the second surface, with the other colours printed on the front.
4 hrs
Thanks, Barbara! I don't think I can rule that out, since "en vitro" might in principle apply on to "blanc de soutien". It's ambiguous. How about "four-colour printing with white (under)base on second surface"? That would keep it ambiguous.
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks, Charles! :)"
+1
13 mins

white ceramic panel

my interpretation
Peer comment(s):

agree Antonio Tomás Lessa do Amaral
46 days
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12 hrs

white background printed on the back surface

https://123panneaux.123imprim.com/imprimer-impression/plexig...
"Comme tout support transparent, il peut être imprimé en face avant ou en vitro (lecture miroir) sur la face arrière (le visuel est alors protégé par l’épaisseur de la face avant). Nous pouvons soutenir l’impression pour éviter l’effet translucide (effet vitrail) en mettant un blanc de soutien sélectif (uniquement sur certaines zones ou sur la totalité de la surface du support)."

I think this means that the white ground is printed on the back surface of the plexiglass, while other colours are printed on the front. However, it might mean that all of the colours, including the white ground are printed "en vitro".
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