Editing Microprinting (section)

{{Short description|Printing at a small scale}}
{{For |the archival film processing technique that reproduces images of documents |Microform}}
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| image1 = USD100-microprint USA.jpg
| image2 = Usdollar100front.jpg
| footer = Close-up of microprint incorporated on US$100 paper currency, hidden in the collar of Franklin's shirt
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'''Microprinting''' is the production of recognizable patterns or characters in a printed medium at a scale that typically requires magnification to read with the naked eye.  To the unaided eye, the text may appear as a solid line. Attempts to reproduce by methods of [[photocopy]], [[image scanning]], or [[pantograph]] typically translate as a dotted or solid line, unless the reproduction method can identify and recreate patterns to such scale.  Microprint is predominantly used as an [[counterfeit|anti-counterfeiting]] technique, due to its inability to be easily reproduced by widespread digital methods.

While [[microphotograph]]y precedes microprint, microprint was significantly influenced by [[Albert Boni]]<ref name=price>{{cite journal |last1=Price |first1=Miles |title=The Microcard Foundation |journal=American Bar Association Journal |date=April 1953 |volume=39 |pages=304–305 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VSQMvwRpV_8C&q=microprint+originally+invented+by&pg=PA304 |access-date=9 October 2015 |publisher=American Bar Association |issn=0747-0088}}</ref> in 1934 when he was inspired by his friend, writer and editor [[Manuel Komroff]], who was showing his experimentations related to the enlarging of photographs. It occurred to Boni that if he could reduce rather than enlarge photographs, this technology might enable publication companies and libraries to access much greater quantities of data at a minimum cost of material and storage space.  Over the following decade, Boni worked to develop microprint, a micro-opaque process in which pages were photographed using 35mm microfilm and printed on cards using offset [[lithography]]. ({{US patent |2260551A}}, {{US patent |2260552A}})  This process proved to produce a 6" by 9" [[index card]] that stored 100 pages of text from the normal-sized publications he was reproducing.  Boni began the [[Readex|Readex Microprint]] company to produce and license this technology.  He also published an article ''A Guide to the Literature of Photography and Related Subjects (1943)'', which appeared in a supplemental 18th issue of the Photo-Lab Index.<ref name=metcalf>{{cite journal |last1=Metcalf |first1=K. D. |title=The Promise of Microprint: A Symposium Based on The Scholar and the Future of the Research Library |journal=College & Research Libraries |format=PDF |date=1945-03-01 |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=170–183 |issn=2150-6701 |doi=10.5860/crl_06_02_170 |url=http://crl.acrl.org/content/6/2/170.full.pdf+html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140625082645/http://crl.acrl.org/content/6/2/170.full.pdf+html |archive-date=2014-06-25 |access-date=2015-10-08 |doi-access=free |hdl=2142/35340 |hdl-access=free }} [https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/35340/crl_06_02_170_opt.pdf?sequence=2 Alt URL] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151121065946/https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/35340/crl_06_02_170_opt.pdf?sequence=2 |date=2015-11-21 }}</ref><ref name=erickson>{{cite journal |last1=Erickson |first1=Edgar L |title=Microprint: A Revolution in Printing |journal=Journal of Documentation |date=March 1951 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=184–187 |doi=10.1108/eb026173 |issn=0022-0418}}{{Subscription required}}</ref><ref name=boni>{{cite journal |last1=Boni |first1=Albert |journal=American Documentation |date=Summer 1951 |page=150 |url= https://www.proquest.com/openview/bc86eb894470ea44293671f4136cf9ad/1 |format=PDF |title=Microprint |volume=2 |issue=3 |access-date=2015-10-08|doi=10.1002/asi.5090020304 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>