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What's the best way to detect color touch?
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Started by dr_manhattan,

46 posts in this topic

VintageComics

VintageComics

Posted
Posted

By training your naked eye to see it. Once you recognize what to look for it jumps out at you.

 

Special lights don't always catch it.

 

 

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Mike's Rack

Mike's Rack

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The best way that I have found is to spend time learning what it looks like. Look at as many books that you can that you know are color touched as you can and you will begin to ID the tell tale signs. Besides the obvious, bleed through, different color shades etc., look for signs of creasing that don't break color. Sometimes the texture is a giveaway, if a crease has the texture of a color breaking crease but the color is not broken then it is probably color touch. Look on areas of the book that generally see more wear like the edge of the spine fold. Inspect black areas particularly closely. Look closely at creases that run through different colors.

 

I have an LED black light but I don't find it particularly helpful. But, I also have a tactical LED flashlight that I use to prescreen my books for CGC. This has been my most valuable tool to detect not only color touch but also other defects that were virtually invisible under regular lighting. In the end, if you do this long enough, color touch will slip by but with practice, it is easier to detect.

.

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Davenport

Davenport

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Another good one...

 

1) Amateur color touch is usually very easy to spot. The best way to find it is to take a close look at your book under good lighting, with focus on the spine, corners, and edges. The most common amateur color touch by FAR (in my experience at least) is black marker pen. Fortunately, it's also usually the easiest to spot. Look at the inside cover and see if there is any "bleed through" where the ink has bled through the cover. Most marker pen ink will bleed through the cover because the solvent in the ink cuts through the sizing on the paper before the solvent volatilizes, and carries the ink pigment all the way through the paper.

 

Sometimes the amateur color touch won't show any bleed through, but it will still be visible from the outside of the cover because you'll see a stress line or crease that should break color but doesn't. Oftentimes you'll be able to look closely at it and see the subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) difference between the original inks and the amateur color touch. Using a magnifying glass or a ground glass loupe can help, but once you know what you're looking for, you'll be able to see color touch with the naked eye as long as you have good eyesight.

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Ze-man

Ze-man

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Posted
Apologies if this has been asked on the boards before - I can't find the thread.

 

So what's the best way?

 

The best way?

 

Depends on the era of book, and type of CT applied.

 

SA can be totally different then GA due to inks, coverstock, and gloss.

 

Was it topically applied with s brush? Or colored in with maker? Or pencil?

 

Most of the time, if you hold a comic off angle, under a decent light source you will find CT stands out as you move the comic around.

 

As mentioned already, comics are printed in a manner that makes hand applied CT recreation impossible. All one can hope to do is mimic the intended color, and fool the eye. It looks muddy compared to original dot matrix.

 

As Roy said, once you get used to seeing CT, it stands out. Some worse then others.

 

All depends on the amount, and type of CT applied.

 

Bleed through obviously being very easy to detect.

 

As Roy said, CT is like porn. When you see it, you know it.

 

Or maybe he didn't say that exactly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ze-man

Ze-man

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Torch?

 

Where you from gov'na?

 

j/k

 

Yeah black light can show some CT.

 

It can be used to determine quickly if certain forms of marker are not present. But that does not mean a black light will show everything.

 

Or be relied upon more then your eyes.

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AndyBoBo

AndyBoBo

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I picked up this one - apparently I still had the PM when the boardie answered your same question when I asked him...

 

Regarding black lights I recommend this site.

 

I have one and it has helped out tremendously. Remeber black ink does not show up under UV light. To check if it is black color touch you need a magnifier and a real good light source. I use an ott lamp. You can get them at any crafts store.

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VintageComics

VintageComics

Posted
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I vote for Black Light with color touch

 

If you rely on just a black light you're going to miss a heck of a lot of colour touch. Not all colour touch shows up with a black light. Or maybe you didn't read the thread.

 

 

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inconceivable

inconceivable

Posted
Posted
Apologies if this has been asked on the boards before - I can't find the thread.

 

So what's the best way?

 

The best way?

 

Depends on the era of book, and type of CT applied.

 

SA can be totally different the GA due to inks, coverstock, and gloss.

 

Was it topically applied with s brush? Or colored in with maker? Or pencil?

 

Most of the time, if you hold a comic off angle, under a decent light source you will find CT stands out as you move the comic around.

 

As mentioned already, comics are printed in a manner that makes hand applied CT recreation impossible. All one can hope to do is mimic the intended color, and fool the eye. It looks muddy compared to original dot matrix.

 

As Roy said, once you get used to seeing CT, it stands out. Some worse then others.

 

All depends on the level, and type of CT applied.

 

Bleed through obviously being very easy to detect.

 

As Roy said, CT is like porn. When you see it, you know it.

 

Or maybe he didn't say that exactly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The best way is to find an expert who can teach you.

 

Dan

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mar-vell

mar-vell

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Posted

i remember back in the day a certain big time dealer got in trouble for selling a lot of books that had been worked on. The term was micro dot color touch. i remember at a SD con i was looking at a CGC 9.2 NM- spidey 2(PLOD) with a dot on the spine and i couldn't see it then a certain prominent restorer( at that time) pointed it out to me and said 5 years ago nobody ever would have known it was there but now with CGC these are being found. I have never personally come across the micro dot technique outside of this instance and truth to be told i still couldn't see it when pointed out and i usually see touch ups easily so i just assume its so tiny its much harder to see iwth the naked eye and just used on really high end books back then to achieve minty status. Anyone here seen that type of work? Is it really harder to detect?

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lizards2

lizards2

Posted
Posted
By training your naked eye to see it. Once you recognize what to look for it jumps out at you.

 

Special lights don't always catch it.

 

 

I'm still mystified by that JIM 84 - the CT jumped out and punched me between the eyes way before the tear seals.

 

I probably answered my own inquiry there, though, as that was the first time I've seen tear seals in person.

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lizards2

lizards2

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So, which light do you recommend?

I picked up this one - apparently I still had the PM when the boardie answered your same question when I asked him...

 

Regarding black lights I recommend this site.

 

I have one and it has helped out tremendously. Remeber black ink does not show up under UV light. To check if it is black color touch you need a magnifier and a real good light source. I use an ott lamp. You can get them at any crafts store.

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Ze-man

Ze-man

Posted
Posted

Found a file on my old hard drive with tons of previously CT'ed books I took photos of.

 

Photos are not the best, but show enough of what black light does,and does not always reveal.

 

Learn to recognize the non black light photos, because last time I checked they won't let you turn off the lights at a convention.

 

If you see a dot matrix peeking out under a blurry area. It's CT.

 

DSC04938_zpsa7a96703.jpg

DSC04945_zps8bc541bb.jpg

 

DSC04956_zps704ac7a0.jpg

DSC04951_zps4077cb40.jpg

 

DSC04959_zps28dca93f.jpg

DSC04949_zpsac94a70e.jpg

 

DSC04960_zps48e6de7a.jpg

DSC04950_zps7550e226.jpg

 

DSC04935_zps0c2512cc.jpg

DSC04948_zpsf2668faf.jpg

 

DSC04957_zps04a6a514.jpg

DSC04952_zps476f3ed9.jpg

 

DSC04930_zpsdbe7a7bd.jpg

DSC04955_zpsca1cc324.jpg

 

DSC04929_zpsc28a74f8.jpg

DSC04953_zps93ddcf15.jpg

 

I got lots more if interested.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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