Wedding Invitations

Wedding Invitations Thermograpy

Thermography is known as the process in which thermal powders are being spread on the wet ink of the print application, after that being heated to melt the powder into one solid mass which is raised above the surface of the print.

There are two known styles of thermographical printing: the first is called thermal printing, the paper being coated with some kind of material that changes its colors when is heated, and the thermal ink transferring printing, melting a ribbon on the surface of the paper. Thermography is also known as imitation engraving or poor man’s engraving, but in comparison to the engraving process, the first uses an ordinary lead type washed with ink.

Even if the actual name of the inventor is not know, because of the lack of documentary reports, it is know that an engraving method similar to thermography was used back in the 1900’s, but we are talking about a primitive form of thermoprahical printing since it was all hand made. Until the invention of the first thermography machine in 1915, this printing style was done by a person by dusting a printed piece of paper with resin while the ink used is still wet, the excess resin being shaken off only after that. By using a heating source the paper was held over it so that the powder would melt and so obtaining the raised letter effect.

Since we trace the history of wedding invitations as dating way back to the middle ages or even before this dark era, the first methods of sharing information about a wedding ceremony were quite rudimentary, being either verbalized or hand written on a piece of paper but only by those who had the basic education about how to read and write, and I’m referring to the nobility or monks.

The printing press, invented by Gutenberg in the fifteenth century, was not used for printing wedding invitations until the beginning of the twentieth century when the custom of sending wedding invitations reached the United States. At the time, printing a wedding invitation was considered of being distasteful while hand written calligraphy skills were highly appreciated. Lithography, invented by Alois Senefelder in 1789, soon replaced the printing method, producing distinctive and sharp inking without using the engraving,

which consists in hand writing a text on the back of a metal place by using a carving tool, after that being used to print the wedding invitation.

Thermography allowed the development of the mass produced wedding invitations but cheap as it may be, this method was to become the most common form of writing the invitation cards. They weren’t special anymore, although the raised letter effect made them beautiful.

My humble suggestion is that, if you do have some extra money to spare for the wedding invitations, do choose the hand written cards because they give an unique characteristic to your wedding invitation, making them as special and they can get.