It’s been a minute.
After an epic trip back to the UK, with a sprinkling of a Moroccan adventure to a Essouiran music festival am now back to my desk. Back to the plan ahead.
The final panels for my graphic novel actually all landed last month, on my birthday would you believe, and the current stage is working on the print plan - using Spectrolite.
Spectrolite
Spectrolite is a free Mac desktop app built by Amelia and Adam Greenhall from ANEMONE - and has been an incredible tool ever since my nice print man, Shinsuke-san, over at Hand Saw Press in Tokyo, told me about it.
I’ve been playing around with it, testing which inks I will use in the separation process in the Riso printing and it’s fast, effortless and accurate. I tested some printed using the inks that the studio has as the results are pretty spot on.
Using the app
There’s a wide range of inks to create palettes from.
Here is the main Canvas page with a sneak preview of Page 1 of my upcoming graphic novel, with some dummy tests.
You can explore how different paper types affect the look.
The layout options are huge and super helpful. For different zines, comics, books, the possibilities are endless for world building. I’m even considering using it for other projects down the line at an earlier concept stage.
You can halftone or posterise your artwork for that classic riso texture, then export clean files as PNGs or PDFs, ready to print.
So, more tinkering for now… but the next big milestone is setting up my Kickstarter page and reward plan.
Incidentally, Spectrolite is also a rare Finnish labradorite gemstone, known for its dark base (often black) and shimmering play of colours—labradorescence. It’s said to enhance psychic abilities, spiritual communication, and emotional stability.
Photo Credit: Shyamal (Wikipedia)
Photo Credit: Shaddack (Wikipedia)
Rocks are cool.
More to come soon and thanks for reading x