Editing Split-fount inking (section)

{{Short description|Printing technique}}
[[File:Helix, v.1, no.3.5, May 4, 1967 - DPLA - c5473574c42f7978da5186b4964c5fdd (back and front).jpg|thumb|Split-fount inking ("rainbow roll") in a 1967 copy of the Seattle underground paper ''[[Helix (newspaper)|Helix]]''. Art is by Gary Eagle<!--Q124371759-->]]

'''Split-fount inking''' also known as '''split-fountain inking''' is a [[printing]] technique which allows for subtle gradations of multiple colors without the use of more complex and costly methods such as [[Color_printing#Color_separation_process|color separation]].

In order to achieve these effects, an ink tray normally intended to receive a single color of ink is instead carefully loaded with two or more separate colors, which then bleed together when applied to the rollers, dynamically creating continuous ranges of hue transitioning from one to the other of the originally applied colors.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ephemerasociety.org/split-fountain-printing/ |title=Split Fountain Printing |last=Sheaff |first=Richard |website=Ephemera Society |date=25 November 2019 |access-date=August 11, 2023}}</ref>

In use from at least as early as the 1870s, the technique was notably used in the 1960s by poster creators such as underground comic artist [[Gilbert Shelton]], who designed posters for a music venue in [[Austin, Texas]] called The [[Vulcan Gas Company]]. The rainbow-like gradients and vivid swirls of color achievable via split-fount inking were effects that matched well with the psychedelic aesthetic of these works.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Patoski |first1=Joe Nick |last2=Jacobson |first2=Nels |author2-link=Nels Jacobson |date= March 1, 2015 |title=Homegrown: Austin Music Posters 1967 to 1982 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S1RfCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA29 |publisher=[[University of Texas Press]] |page=29 |isbn=978-0-292-77239-7 |author-link= }}</ref>