Modern blueprint of the French galleon La Belle.

A blueprint is a type of paper-based reproduction usually of a technical drawing documenting an architecture or an engineering design. More generally, the term "blueprint" has come to be used to refer to any detailed plan. Blueprint may refer to: Look up blueprint in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Technical drawing, also known as drafting, is the practice of creating accurate representations of objects for technical, architectural and engineering needs. ... This article is about building architecture. ... Engineering is the discipline of acquiring and applying knowledge of design, analysis, and/or construction of works for practical purposes. ...

Etymology

The term "blueprint" was originally derived from the visual aspects of prints made using the contact printing process of cyanotype. It is cyanotype which produces the white lines on blue background which are characteristic of the traditional blueprint. Contact printing is a method of producing a photographic print from a negative. ... Cyanotype is an old monochrome photographic printing process that gives a cyan-blue print. ...

History

The blueprint process is essentially the cyanotype process developed by the British astronomer and photographer Sir John Herschel in 1842.^[1] The photosensitive compound, a solution of ammonium ferric citrate and potassium ferricyanide, is coated onto paper. Areas of the compound exposed to strong light are converted to insoluble blue ferric ferrocyanide, or Prussian blue. The soluble chemicals are washed off with water leaving a light-stable print. Cyanotype is an old monochrome photographic printing process that gives a cyan-blue print. ... John Herschel Sir John Frederick William Herschel (7 March 1792 – 11 May 1871) was an English mathematician and astronomer. ... 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Potassium ferricyanide (K3[Fe(CN)6]) also known as red prussiate, Prussian red or potassium hexacyanoferrate(III), is a coordination compound that is stable at room temperature and pressure and forms ruby red crystals and powder. ... A sample of Prussian blue Prussian blue (German: Preußischblau or Berliner Blau, in English Berlin blue) is a dark blue pigment used in paints and formerly in blueprints. ...

A similar process was used to produce printing proofs for offset printing. An artists proof is, at least in theory, an impression of a print taken in the printmaking process to see the current printing state of a plate while the plate (or stone, or woodblock. ... Offset printing is a widely used printing technique where the inked image is transferred (or offset) from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface. ...

Various base materials have been used for blueprints. Paper was a common choice, but for more durable prints linen was sometimes used, but with time, the linen prints would shrink slightly. To combat this problem, printing on vellum and, later, mylar was implemented. Torn linen cloth, recovered from the Dead Sea Linen is a material made from the fibers of the flax plant. ... Vellum (from the Old French Vélin, for calfskin[1]) is a sort of parchment, a material for the pages of a book or codex, characterized by its thin, smooth, durable properties. ... Mylar is a trade name of DuPont Teijin Films of Hopewell, VA, United States, for biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) polyester film used for its high tensile strength, chemical and dimensional stability, transparency, and electrical insulation. ...

Use

For almost a century blueprint was the only low cost process available for copying drawings. Once invented no technical development was required, the process was put to widespread use immediately, notably in shipbuilding and manufacture of locomotives and rolling stock for railways.

The coated material ready for use has a shelf life of two days. Every industrial area had one or two small independent suppliers who made blueprint coated materials to order. These suppliers also provided a copying service for small users.

The normal use was to have a wooden frame with a spring loaded back, similar to a picture frame with a glass front. The drawing would be traced in indian ink on tracing paper or tracing cloth. Indoors, coated paper and tracing would be loaded into the frame which was then brought out to sunlight. Exposure time varied from less than a minute to about an hour under an overcast sky. The operator could see the blue image appear through the tracing, when ready the frame was brought indoors. The material was then washed in running water to remove the unexposed coating, then dried. It gave a clearly legible copy of the drawing with a white line and dark blue background. This copy possessed unlimited resistance to light and resistance to water that was as good as the substrate.

The diazo document copying process progressively took over from blueprint during the period 1935 to 1950. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Replacements for blueprints

Traditional blueprints have largely been replaced by more modern, less expensive printing methods and digital displays. In the early 1940s, cyanotype blueprint began to be supplanted by diazo prints or whiteprints, which have blue lines on a white background; thus these drawings are also called blue-lines or bluelines. Other comparable dye-based prints are known as blacklines. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Whiteprint is the commercial terminology to describe document reproduction using the diazo chemical process. ...

Diazo prints remain in use in some applications but in many cases have been replaced by Xerographic print processes similar to standard copy machine technology using toner on bond paper. More recently, designs created using Computer-Aided Design techniques may be transferred as a digital file directly to a computer printer or plotter; in some applications paper is avoided altogether and work and analysis is done directly from digital displays. Chester F. Carlson Xerography (or Electrophotography) is a photocopying technique developed by Chester Carlson in 1938 and patented on October 6, 1942. ... A color toner bottle Toner is a powder used in laser printers and photocopiers to form the text and images on the printed paper. ... Bond Paper Bond paper is a high quality durable writing paper similar to bank paper but having a weight greater than 50g/m2. ... CADD and CAD redirect here. ... A computer printer, or more commonly a printer, produces a hard copy (permanent human-readable text and/or graphics) of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper transparencies. ... For other uses, see Plot. ... A display device is a device for visual presentation of images (including text) acquired, stored, or transmitted in various forms. ...

As print and display technology has advanced, the traditional term "blueprint" has continued to be used informally to refer to each type of image.

Blueprint companies

Although the industry has converted to the whiteprinting system, the companies have primarily stayed the same. Among the largest as of 2006 is NRI, a ReproMAX founding partner, with eight offices in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, and BP Independent Reprographics, which is the result of several mergers and buyouts between Independent Blueprinting, Crown Reproductions, and The Blueprint Company^{[citation needed]}. Whiteprint is the commercial terminology to describe document reproduction using the diazo chemical process. ... ReproMAX, based in Chesterfield, MO is the largest network of reprographic companies in the world, with a membership of over 230 independent member reprographers across North America and Western Europe. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...

With the advent in large, conglomerate, corporate entities, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find the traditional, family-owned blueprint shop. Most small to medium-size "blueprinters" are now owned by much larger corporations like American Reprographics Company (they alone own over 235 print shops in the US and Canada).[1] American Reprographics Company is the leading reprographics company in the United States, providing business-to-business document management services to the architectural, engineering and construction industry, or AEC industry. ...

However, there are still some truly independent shops. Among them are University Reprographics in Seattle^{[citation needed]}, and Bill's Blueprint in Everett.[2] City nickname Emerald City City bird Great Blue Heron City flower Dahlia City mottos The City of Flowers The City of Goodwill City song Seattle, the Peerless City Mayor Greg Nickels County King County Area   - Total   - Land   - Water   - % water 369. ... Everett may refer to the following places: Everett, Washington, about 100,000 inhabitants Naval Station Everett Everett, Massachusetts, about 38,000 inhabitants Everett, Pennsylvania, about 2,000 inhabitants Everett Township, Michigan, about 2,000 inhabitants Everett, Ontario, Canada, about 800 inhabitants The Everett Range, Antarctica, no inhabitants Everett is also...

A similar network has been built up as a connection of independent reprographers, as members of ReproMAX. As a result, ReproMAX has grown to be the largest association of reprographics companies, with over 230 current network partners in North America and Western Europe.[3] The electronic planroom and document management solution for ReproMAX is available as ReproMAX/DFS. ReproMAX, based in Chesterfield, MO is the largest network of reprographic companies in the world, with a membership of over 230 independent member reprographers across North America and Western Europe. ...

References

See also

• Floor plan

Look up blueprint in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Floor plan (floorplan, floor-plan) in its original meaning is an architecture term, a diagram of a room, a building, or a level (floor) of a building as if seen from the above (i. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ...

External Links

• Trazoide. Dibujo técnico con ejercicios y teoría practica<in spanish>
• The-Blueprints.com - The largest free blueprint / template / 3-view collection on the internet with more than 22750 prints online