marks (section of).]

In section the two register marks would be as above.

The register marks must be smoothly and evenly cut so that the paper, in
printing, may slide easily home to its exact place.

When the design of the key-block and the two register marks have been
cut and cleared, the trace of paper and paste on the uncut parts of the
wood should be carefully washed off with a piece of sponge and warm
water. The block is then finished and ready for use. The key-block,
however, is only one of the set of blocks required for a print in
colour, but the colour blocks are simpler and require, as a rule, far
less labour.

The colour blocks are planned and established by means of impressions
taken from the key-block. For this purpose the register marks are
inked[2] for printing as well as the design on the block, and the
impressions must include both. These impressions are taken on thin
Japanese paper, but not necessarily the thinnest tissue. If the thinnest
is used, it should be pasted at the corners to a sheet of stiffer paper
for convenience in handling.

[2] The preparation of the ink for printing is described on p. 54.

It is then a fairly simple matter to take one of these key-block
impressions and to make a plan of the various colour-blocks that will be
required. These should obviously be as few as possible.

It is not necessary to provide an entire block for each patch of
colour, but only the extent of surface required for each coloured
portion of the print, as well as for its pair of register marks. Patches
of different colour that are not adjacent to one another on the design
of the print may be cut on the same block, provided they are not too
close for free colouring of the block in printing. Each block also may
be cut on both sides, so that there is considerable scope for economy in
the arranging and planning of the colour blocks.

When the arrangement of the plan of colour has been simplified as far as
possible, a new block is prepared as described above, and a sheet of
thin Japanese paper (unsized) is cut large enough to cover the print
design and its register marks. The clean surface of the new block is
covered thinly with starch paste well rubbed into the grain, and while
this is still wet an impression on the sheet of thin Japanese paper is
taken of the entire key-block, including its register marks in black,
and laid before it is dry face downward on the pasted surface of the
new block. This sh