The register
Journal
Notes on engraving, substrates, and the awkward business of designing a document that has to be believed.
01
Hello world!
02
Why a line you can feel is worth more than a line you can only see
Relief is the one property of a printed document that a picture of it cannot carry.
03
The rose engine, and why the machine is the secret
A guilloche cannot be drawn. It can only be generated — which is precisely the point.
04
What a certificate is actually for
Most documents we print will never be examined by an expert. They are designed for the person who has thirty seconds.
05
Paper before ink
The substrate is the only part of a document that has to be committed to before anything else can happen.
06
Notes from the plate archive
Fifteen hundred steel plates, a hundred and fifty years of them, and the problem of what to do with the ones nobody can identify.
07
Against the reflex reach for a hologram
A feature nobody has been told how to check is decoration with a security budget attached.