Rhino Red Prints Blog
What are Blueprints, Whiteprints & RedPrints
May
Blueprints are something we are familiar with and associate with a technical drawing represented on paper. But what exactly is it? Why is it Blue or White, or in the case of this website – Red? Well, the original Blueprint was an engineering drawing made using contact print process on a light-sensitive paper. It was first introduced in 1842 by Sir John Herschel. He was an English astronomer, mathematician, chemist and inventor. He made a lot of contributions in the realm of photography, among which was the invention of the original blueprint.
The original blueprint is a light-sensitive process – a chemical reaction – that turns the paper blue. That leaves the original drawing in white lines and makes them quite distinctive and clearly visible. That is where the blueprint came from. It was quickly accepted in construction and industry. However, with the improvements of time, came the inevitable improvement of the blueprint – the Whiteprint.
The Whiteprint is so called diazo process. The diazo chemical process is another chemical reaction process, which results in the opposite of the blueprints – a blue lines over white background. In general, due to the fewer toxic chemicals used, improved simplicity and user-friendliness /due to the white background/, whiteprints superseded blueprints in the late 1890s. They were generally abandoned around 100 years later, although their life expectancy as products was measured in decades.
In the early 2000s, due to the constantly improving computer platforms, widespread Xerox machines availability and the toxicity involved /in whiteprinting/, Whiteprints were already part of the past. Digital era displaced almost everything, among which of course, were those technical drawings. Software improvements alongside with ease of work led to the next level of technical drawings. This is where we come – Rhino Red Prints.
The Red Print is not specific invention as the blueprint or the whiteprint. It is the name we picked for our website, because we liked the idea from our very first drawing which was a vector file made with red lines. We decided not to use blue nor black. It was easier to work with red. It is vivid as a final product too. Red Print can be accepted as a digital variation of the blueprint or the whiteprint. However, there is no chemical reactions nor fading process due to age. We are living in the digital age now.
Thanx to all that, we ended up with the Red Print. It is a whole new thing inspired by the traditions introduced by blueprints and whiteprints. We can now make any print in any color. Our final products are in black. But when we draw, we stick to Red. And that is where the original Red Print came from.