A 19th-century natural-history plate engraves itself: cream laid paper with a pressed plate mark and a ruled border, the subject cut first in outline and then in swelling, tapering hatching and cross-hatching that follow the form; details are magnified in double-ruled roundels that fly to the margins on leader lines, roman capitals and italic names are cut letter by letter, and transparent watercolour washes bloom under the finished lines. Made for museum labels, nature and science explainers, craft and object stories, and textbook-style figures.
Use this styleTell us the subject (a plant or animal, an object, a building or a map), the parts each section should magnify, the names, scientific names or terms to engrave on the plate, and the exact facts and figures. You may choose the wash colours (ochre, umber, madder, sea green, blue-grey) or keep the film black and white. Everything is engraved in code; you can also upload photos, which are engraved as hatched oval portraits.
A ginkgo spur shoot with four fan-shaped leaves and a pair of seeds engraves itself: veins forking again and again, cross-hatching in the shadows. One roundel magnifies the forked veins at the leaf base, another the seeds, noting that ripe seeds smell of rancid butter; the title and Latin name are cut above, and golden and apricot washes bloom at the end.
Copperplate Engraving · 16:9 · 10.0s