List of duplicating processes
This is a partial list of text and image duplicating processes used in business and government from the Industrial Revolution forward. Some are mechanical and some are chemical. There is naturally some overlap with printing processes and photographic processes, but the challenge of precisely duplicating business letters, forms, contracts, and other paperwork prompted some unique solutions as well. There were many short-lived inventions along the way.
Duplicating processes[]
Within each type, the methods are arranged in very rough chronological order.
- Methods of copying handwritten letters
- , using early "carbonic paper"
- Mechanical processes
- to make accurate hand-drawn copies
- Pantograph, manual device for making drawn copies without tracing, can also enlarge or reduce
- Printmaking, which includes engraving and etching
- Relief printing including woodcut
- Intaglio (printmaking) or copperplate engraving
- Planographic printing
- Line engraving
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Office_of_Consumers_Biscuit_Co_New_Orleans_1917.jpg/220px-Office_of_Consumers_Biscuit_Co_New_Orleans_1917.jpg)
1917 office with a "Multigraph" duplicating machine at lower right
- Printing/Applied ink methods
- Letterpress printing (via printing press)
- (also indirect method)
- Hectograph
- Collography,
- Chromograph, Copygraph, Polygraph
- Flexography
- Spirit duplicator (also Rexograph, Ditto machine, Banda machine, or Roneo)
- Lithographic processes
- Offset lithography
- Photolithography
- Stencil-based copying methods
- Electric pen, invented by Thomas Edison
- (also file plate process)
- Cyclostyle,
- Stencil-based machines
- Mimeograph (also Roneo, Gestetner)
- Digital Duplicators (also called CopyPrinters, e.g., Riso and Gestetner)
- Typewriter-based copying methods
- Photographic processes:
- (also reflectography, reflexion copying)
- Breyertype, Playertype, Manul Process, Typon Process, Dexigraph, Linagraph
- Daguerreotype
- Salt print
- Calotype (the first photo process to use a negative, from which multiple prints could be made)
- Cyanotype
- Photostat machine
- Rectigraph
- Airgraph (also V-mail)
- Diffusion transfer
- Verifax, Copyproof
- (also PMT')
- ,
- LightJet
- Ozalid
- (also reflectography, reflexion copying)
- Chemical processes
- Cyanotype (used for blueprints)
- Diazotype (also whiteprint, ammonia print, or gas print)
- Heat-sensitivity methods
- Thermofax (also thermography)
- Electrostatic methods
- Electrofax
- Xerography, Photocopying
- Ultraviolet-sensitivity methods
- APT process, for transferring drawings to animation cels
- Image scanning and digital printing
External links[]
- Duplicating in the year B.C. - Before (xerographic) Copies at the Wayback Machine (archived June 24, 2009)
- Making Copies from Carbon to Kinkos
- Copies in Seconds (PDF)
- Antique Copying Machines at Officemuseum.com
- Office and Reprographic Printing Cheatsheet – Preservation Self-Assessment Program
Categories:
- Office equipment
- Printing
- Technology-related lists