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The Anime is an adaptation based off the Light Novel and Manga and might contain different terminology from the source material. |
A copy of Myne's first printed children's bible, made with mimeograph printing.
Printing is an innovative technology that was first established in Ehrenfest by Myne, who used her memories of her life on Earth to recreate early printing methods.
Printing Methods
Since awakening in the new world, Myne has attempted several early printing methods, listed here in the order they were created.
Woodblock Printing
Wilma draws a detailed design on a block of wood.
Woodblock printing is the earliest method Myne attempted, because it requires minimal machinery outside of wood, ink, and carving tools.
A mirrored version of the final design is drawn onto a large block of wood. Then, a person uses precise carving tools to carve out all areas that will not be coloured in the final drawing. This creates a large stamp, called a "woodcut," that can be used to copy the same image onto many sheets of paper.
Ink is applied using a roller; if one is not available, a small brush can be used, but this takes more time and leaves more room for errors. Then, the paper is set on top and carefully pressed down using a baren, which applies even pressure without damaging the paper.
Woodblock printing has a number of drawbacks:
- It is time intensive and difficult to precisely carve out any design, especially detailed designs. Additionally, if the carving is not done in negative, it will result in a black page with white letters and a negative image of the picture. That requires the carver to carve out all the wood around the letters, leaving them raised.
- Unlike the printing press, which uses moveable letter types that can create any combination of words and letters on the page, a new woodcut must be made for each individual printed page.
It is theoretically possible to use woodblock printing with copper instead of wood. Rather than carving the design, it would be etched out with acids. However, Myne soon discarded this method as unrealistic due to the difficulty of obtaining the materials and the danger the acid might pose to the children in the orphanage workshop.[1]
As a result of the challenges associated with woodblock printing, Myne ultimately opted to switch to stenciled templates and later full-on mimeograph printing. However, her lesson in using simplified art and designs held true for the other methods as well.[2]
Mimeograph Printing
An attempt at using a detailed woodcut design (left) compared to a simplified stencil (right).
Mimeograph printing uses pre-cut stencils, similar to the stamps used in woodblock printing, but is overall a much simpler and more adaptable printing method.
On Earth Mimeograph printing is used with templates made of plastic or wax paper. Myne used a kind of pseudo-mimegraph printing, where the wax paper was substituted with thick regular paper. Once a design is drawn on the paper, a peson uses a precision knife to cut out the areas that will be filled with ink in the final design. The stencil is then affixed to a normal piece of paper using a mimeograph frame.[2]
The mimeograph frame (a wooden frame with a thin silk mesh, fitted to a hinged stand) is used to keep the paper and the template in place and prevent smudging or smearing when ink is applied. Once stencil, paper, and frame are all affixed on the stand in the correct order, the frame is closed and ink is applied using a roller.
Using thick paper comes with two disadvantages.
- The templates can only be used a single time. Once the ink dries, the template curls up and deforms, making it unusable for a second printing session.
- Having to cut the thick paper is much more difficult than cutting the much thinner wax paper and thus does not allow for as thin lines to be made, which won't allow the artist to bring out as much detail.
Like woodcut printing, a new stencil must be cut by hand for each individual page or design. As a result, mimeograph printing is best suited for printing illustration, sheet music or at the most short text passages.
While still not ideally suited for this purpose, compared to woodblock printing, mimeograph printing is better suited for mass production in several ways. It is less time consuming to cut paper stencils than to carve wood, and it doesn't require the expertise of a woodworker. The designs can also be cut normally, without needing to be mirrored or inverted. Finally, the thinness of the stencils makes it possible to use multiple templates on a single page, making it more adapatable than the full-page woodcuts.
Pseudo-Mimeograph printing was used to print the first mass produced book in Ehrenfest, the children's bible.
Related Technology
Baren
A baren is a tool for pressing paper evenly against a woodcut template without damaging the paper. It is made from a single board of wood of the fitting size, that is wrapped in a layer of clothes, which in turn is wrapped in a layer of bamboo.[3]
Plant-Paper Ink
The ink commonly used for writing in Ehrenfest is not sticky enough for use in printing. It also is designed for the sturdier material of parchment, and will cause the thinner plant paper to decay over time. Instead, Myne made a new type of ink from soot and linseed oil.[3]
Precision Knife
The precision knife is a small and narrow blade used to cut paper. The handle is made out of wood and the exchangable blade is made of metal. Myne requests the blade to be fit perfectly into the handle to ensure safety. Due to it's narrow, thin and exceptionally sharp blade, it is highly advisable to either use a cap over the blade, or store the knife in a special case to prevent accidental damage to the blades or injury.
Precision knives were first designed by Myne and commissioned at a local smithy.[2]
Roller
A roller is a tool to apply ink in woodblock and mimeograph printing. It consists of a cylinder made from metal at its core, that is surrounded by material to hold the ink, like cloth and a handle.
Using a roller makes it far easier to apply the intended amount of ink evenly over entire pages of paper, while keeping one's hands clean. Rollers were first designed by Myne and produced by a local smithy.[2]
Printed Products
Products are listed in the order they were first created.
Picture Book
When Myne found out she was going to be a big sister, she decided to make a picture book for the baby. It has pictures containing simple forms like squares and triangles arranged in certain manners. It uses particularly thick paper to make the pages more resilient and long-lasting, since a babies the books are intended for are far too young to treat a book with care.
Children's Bible
After making her first picture book, Myne's first larger project was a children's version of the bible with illustrations by Wilma. This was originally made using mimeograph printing.
See Children's Bible.
References
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 2 Volume 2. Chapter 9: Making Picture Books with Woodblock Printing
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 2 Volume 2. Chapter 10: Black-and-White Picture Books
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 2 Volume 2. Chapter 8: Black Oil Paint