Replication Press Technology / Science in The Cradle of Worlds | World Anvil

Replication Press

The replication press is the standard for creating books. Far more efficient that hand scribing and far better designed that the more mechanical press options.
Access & Availability
While the initial presses were independent devices, most large presses were updated to utilize power from Mystic Engines. As such a great many ceased to function after the Great Flare. Many older devices were pulled out of museums and refurbished to be in use, however the availability is not as great as it once was.
Complexity
The basic principle of the replication press it to replicate a printed work. Several methods were employed, some were based on entire book replication, others of single sheaf replication. The most common method is single large sheet of paper replication. The master is designed and placed in one area and the liquid ink and blank sheets in another. Master design is sometimes mechanical or etched, and in other cases handwritten. These masters are stored for later replication in some cases, but in others they are destroyed. Paper masters are more likely to be stored, as opposed to metal or stone. Paper masters are used most commonly for periodical publications, while stone and metal for high quality books. Paper masters tend to yield slightly poorer quality images and slightly less crisp text. Masters are in many cases designed by artists for beautiful manuscripts. Psychic masters are the most rare form of masters and presses. Almost exclusively used by races who can maintain an image in their mind with sufficient detail, these rare works often have fantastic imagery and can be rapidly produced in theory.   Entire book replication is interesting in that the device must turn pages in sequence and copy pages with magically motivated quills or glass needles. This takes days to perform, but crucial is preserving old manuscripts, or copying complete texts without creating new master pages.
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Cover image: by Markus Dehning (vertixico)

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