100% Cotton Tarlatan Cloth for Printmaking and Bookbinding

Tarlatan is an open-weave cotton cloth, sized (starched) and unbleached — left in its natural, undyed colour. This one from Totenart is 100% cotton, 15-thread, sold in 1 x 1.20 m pieces. It's the go-to material for two very different crafts that share the same need: a cloth with enough body to lift ink without falling apart, and to reinforce without adding bulk. That's why intaglio printmakers use it to wipe their plates, and bookbinders use it to reinforce a book's spine — where it's also known as bookbinder's mull or crash.

At a glance

• 100% cotton, 15-thread, sized, unbleached (natural colour).
• Size: 1 x 1.20 m.
• Main use: wiping excess ink off the plate in intaglio printmaking.
• Also used: reinforcing the spine in bookbinding (bookbinder's mull).
• No dyes or bleach: this is the unbleached finish printmakers look for.

Specifications

• Composition: 100% cotton.
• Weave: 15-thread.
• Finish: sized (starched), unbleached (raw/natural colour).
• Size: 1 x 1.20 m.
• Uses: intaglio printmaking, bookbinding.

How to use tarlatan in intaglio printmaking

After inking the plate, fold the tarlatan several times into a pad and wipe the whole surface with circular motions to remove most of the excess ink, leaving ink only in the engraved lines and textures — the coarse wipe. Thanks to the toughness of its fibres it lifts ink well without pulling it out of the grooves, and as it's used and softened by the ink itself, it can keep being used for the fine wipe too, almost like a gauze, before the final hand or tissue-paper finish.

It's also the standard material for cleaning the plate between print runs, removing dried ink residue without scratching the metal.

How to use tarlatan in bookbinding

In bookbinding it's used to reinforce the spine: it's glued directly onto the already-sewn sections, covering the spine and overlapping a few centimetres on each side, which are then glued to the boards. Thanks to its open weave, glue passes through it and binds the sections together well, while the sizing gives it the stiffness needed to hold the book block without adding bulk to the spine. It's also used to reinforce or restore damaged spines, together with specialist bookbinding glue.

Why choose this tarlatan

It's 100% cotton (not a synthetic blend, which folds less well and absorbs ink less evenly), 15-thread — not so tight that ink can't pass through well, not so open that it frays with use — and unbleached, with no added dyes or bleach. The factory sizing gives it, from the first use, the stiffness a printmaker needs for wiping and a bookbinder needs to reinforce a spine, with no need to starch it at home.

Care and storage

Store it dry, flat or gently folded, away from damp so it keeps its sizing. If it gets wet it loses its stiffness, and needs re-sizing or replacing.

Frequently asked questions about tarlatan cloth