Facsimile - Facsimiles in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Facsimiles in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Advances in the art of facsimile are closely related to advances in printmaking. Maps, for instance, were the focus of early explorations in making facsimiles, although these examples often lack the rigidity to the original source that is now expected. An early example being the Abraham Ortelius map (1598). Innovations during the 18th century, especially in the realms of lithography and aquatint saw an explosion in the number of facsimiles after old master drawings that could be studied from afar.

At the present time, facsimiles are generally made by the use of some form of photographic technique. For documents, a facsimile most often refers to document reproduction by a photocopy machine in modern times. In past times a technique such as the photostat, hectograph, or lithograph may have been used to create the facsimile. And in the digital age, an image scanner, a personal computer, and a desktop printer can be used to make a facsimile.

Read more about this topic:  Facsimile

Famous quotes containing the words age, mechanical and/or reproduction:

    Men and women approaching retirement age should be recycled for public service work, and their companies should foot the bill. We can no longer afford to scrap-pile people.
    Maggie Kuhn (b. 1905)

    There is only one evil, to deny life
    As Rome denied Etruria
    And mechanical America Montezuma still.
    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    An original is a creation
    motivated by desire.
    Any reproduction of an original
    is motivated by necessity ...
    It is marvelous that we are
    the only species that creates
    gratuitous forms.
    To create is divine, to reproduce
    is human.
    Man Ray (1890–1976)