What Is a Bon à Tirer Proof in Screenprinting?

Before I print a single numbered edition, I pull one final proof and mark it BAT.

Bon à tirer. French for "good to pull."

That proof becomes the reference for the entire run. Every print I make from that point forward gets compared against it. Colour match, ink opacity, paper position, squeegee pressure. All of it.

Why the BAT Matters

A screenprint edition isn't like offset printing. Each pull is slightly different.

The BAT locks down what "correct" looks like. When I'm forty prints into a sixty-print run and the light's changed and I've been working for six hours, I need something absolute to check against.

Without that reference, the edition drifts. The first print and the last print stop looking like they belong together.

I learned this the difficult way at Central Saint Martins. I printed an entire run of fifteen without keeping a master proof. By the end, the registration had shifted half a millimetre and the ink had thinned out. I couldn't sell them as a consistent edition.

How I Use the BAT in My Studio

Once I've mixed the inks and dialled in the registration, I pull test proofs on the actual stock. Not cheaper paper. The real thing.

I adjust squeegee angle, ink viscosity, screen tension. I pull another. I compare.

When one proof matches what I saw in my head when I drew the artwork, I sign it BAT and pin it to the wall under a daylight bulb.

That proof doesn't get sold. It stays in the studio for the entire print run. Sometimes I'll photograph it too, just in case something happens to the physical sheet.

What Gets Checked Against the BAT

Every detail.

• Ink deposit. If I'm printing a solid red, the BAT shows me exactly how much tooth the paper should grab. Too thin and the colour goes flat. Too thick and it clogs the halftones.
• Layer alignment. On a four-layer print, even a quarter-millimetre shift shows. The BAT proves the registration marks are working.
• Paper bite. Somerset Velvet behaves differently to Fabriano Rosaspina. The BAT captures how the first layer sits before I overprint the second.
• Ink cure state. If I'm using UV-reactive or metallic inks, the BAT shows me what the dried surface should look like three days later.

BAT vs Artist's Proof

They're not the same thing.

An artist's proof is part of the edition structure. I typically hold back two or three APs for my own archive or to send to exhibitions.

The BAT doesn't count as part of the edition at all. It's a working tool. It's marked "BAT" or "Bon à Tirer" in pencil below the image, and it stays with me.

Some printers keep the BAT and then later offer it for sale as a collector's item. I don't. Mine are usually covered in fingerprints and squeeze marks by the end of a run. They're shop-worn. They've done their job.

When the BAT Changes Mid-Run

Sometimes it has to.

If a screen breaks or the weather shifts humidity overnight and the paper cockles, I might need to re-proof and create a new BAT. When that happens, I document it. Edition note, date, reason.

Collectors buying edition prints deserve to know the process was consistent. If I've had to pull a second BAT halfway through, I'll include that in the certificate.

Transparency matters more than perfection.

Why This System Exists

Screenprinting came out of commercial printing. Before artists picked up squeegees, it was posters and textiles. Production work.

The BAT system came from lithography studios in nineteenth-century France. Master printers needed a way to maintain quality across large runs without the artist standing over them for every sheet.

The artist would approve one proof — bon à tirer — and the printer would match it. Simple, effective, still relevant.

In my studio, I'm both artist and printer. But the system still works. It keeps me honest. It stops me from accepting a slightly off-register print because I'm tired and want to finish the run.

What Happens to My BATs

They go into flat files, labeled by edition name and year.

I don't frame them. I don't sell them. They're studio records. If someone contacts me five years later asking about a print, I can pull the BAT and show them exactly what the edition was supposed to look like.

That's the whole point. The BAT is proof that I held the line.

If you'd like to see the prints I'm currently making, visit olifowler.com. Every edition is strictly limited and hand-pulled. Once they're gone, they're gone.