The Strangest Print Story I’ve Ever Told …

Accepting print-ready files can be a bit of an occupational hazard.

Most are OK, and with a few quick fixes here and there, they’re ready to print.

Some are exceptional, designed and submitted to a very high standard.

And then there are the ransom notes.

Typefaces don’t match. Font sizes are all over the place, and they’re best described as a chaotic collage of punk brutalism.

One particularly horrific example recently reminded me, by sheer contrast, of the flawless order and precision of a poster we once had hanging in the studio.

A1 in size, it had the bible printed on it. Yup, both the Old and New Testaments in their entirety on one side of one sheet of A1 paper.

And with a strong magnifying glass, you could just about read the text.

I used to think this was quite a feat until I came across the story of a gentleman called Horace Edward Stafford Dall. (*)

Dall was an optical genius, and sometime in the 1940s, he rose to a challenge set by the Royal Microscopical Society.

… how small could small get.

Using a specially shaped diamond sliver, he etched both Testaments of the bible onto a one-inch square glass microscope slide.

And then … he decided to make it even smaller.

Astonishingly, with further refinements, he achieved the equivalent of 280 bibles on just one square inch of glass.

Truly extraordinary and a feat unlikely to be bettered any time soon.

And we think we’re clever with today’s technology and equipment!

Until next week.

Alec

(*) https://britastro.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/H.E.S%20Dall.pdf