[geeks] How can people put up with this....

[jodys at helluin.org]

On Thu, Aug 08, 2002 at 01:04:33PM -0500, Amy wrote:
> On Thu, 8 Aug 2002 jodys at helluin.org wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, Aug 08, 2002 at 12:22:24PM -0400, Joshua D Boyd wrote:
> > > You mean you have the custom engrave a printing plate?
> > >
> > I figured if I ever got married I'd get the invitations done
> > by a, for lack of a better word, retroprinter. Find someone
> > who hand sets the type and uses a manually operated press,
> > and if I had enough money I would have them done on a high
> > quality handmade paper. Anyways, just a thought.
> 
> That would be engraved invitations. They're readily available (I used
> Crane's as they use great stuff) but terribly expensive...our
> announcements ran about 5 dollars each.
> 

Well, slightly different I think. I mean I would get someone 
who actually sits down with little bits of metal that have
a letter engraved on them and puts them in order, squeezes 
them all together, puts a piece of paper on top and then 
presses down really hard. And repeats the paper bit for
as many copies as you need. A real typesetter.

I think using an engraved plate is similar (principle is 
the same), just that you don't do the "putting little bits 
of metal together". You get a block of metal with the parts 
that should be ink raised above the rest of the plate (the 
stuff that would be blank). 

I think there is something very satisfying about handset
type, done by a professional, I've not seen anything that
approaches the quality. Letterpresses additionly impart
a texture to the final product (a engraved plate would
as well). 

There are a couple of people around colorado that do 
job printing with a hand set type, and at least one who
does job printing with a hand press. Groovy, now on to
the task of finding a woman who wants to get married,
to me that is. :)

Jody