The Mimeograph. The original desktop publishing.

Mimeograph is catch-all term for a (mostly forgotten) way of duplicating documents using waxed paper stencils. The term is used to describe the technology, the duplicating process and the machines that use it. It originated in late XIX century, and could be considered a kind of lo-fi proto silkscreen. It was THE tech for zines before Xerox copiers came along.

What attracted me to this medium is the fact that you can take a drawing and (relatively easily) print a series from it by hand and without any need for electricity. So, I set out on a quest to try to reconstruct this process using easily available, modern materials.

Let's get printing like it's 1889!

Further Reading: #

• Mimeograph Revival!
• Mimeograph wikipedia article
• Early Office Museum's look at Antique Copy Machines
• 1958 Baily Films instructional video of Mimeographing Techniques