Numbering an edition

Numbering an edition is a promise: it tells a buyer how many impressions of this print will ever exist. That promise is worth writing down carefully.

Edition size

Decide the size before you pull the edition, not partway through. A print is numbered as a fraction of that size, like 5/20, meaning the fifth impression pulled out of a total edition of twenty. The number doesn't have to reflect the order you actually pulled the sheets in; many printmakers number as they go, others assign numbers after the fact once they've picked which impressions are good enough to count.

AP, PP, TP, and HC

Alongside the numbered edition, a few conventional categories cover impressions that aren't part of it:

• AP, artist's proof. Impressions the artist keeps outside the numbered edition, often around ten percent of the edition size, though this varies by artist and print.
• PP, printer's proof. For a print pulled with a printer's help, a copy kept by the printer rather than the artist.
• TP, trial proof. A working proof pulled while you were still testing colour, registration, or paper, before the edition itself began. Most printmakers don't count trial proofs as part of the edition and destroy or clearly mark the ones that don't represent the final print.
• HC, hors commerce. French for "not for trade": impressions kept for documentation, exhibition, or the artist's own record, not intended for sale.

The BAT

BAT, bon à tirer, "good to pull," is the reference impression the artist approves as the standard the rest of the edition should match. Once you've pulled the BAT, it's set aside and kept as the standard to check later impressions against as you print the run, since colour and registration can drift over a long edition.

Signing conventions

Most printmakers pencil-sign below the image, in the margin: the title centred, the edition number in the lower left, and the signature in the lower right, though this varies by printmaker and sometimes by country. Sign in pencil rather than ink or a marker; it's the convention buyers and galleries expect, partly because pencil is harder to forge convincingly onto a reproduction.

Why an edition closes

Once you've stated an edition size and started numbering, that's the total that will ever exist under that number. Many printmakers deface or cancel the block once the edition is pulled, scoring a line across it or otherwise marking it unusable, so nobody, including the artist, can quietly print more later. That's what a numbered edition is actually worth to a collector: not the image alone, but the certainty that the number on the sheet is the whole story. The iPad app's Editions module handles the numbering, the proof categories, and the BAT for you as you pull each impression. See Editions.