Graphotype was a brand name used by the Addressograph-Multigraph Company for its range of metal plate embossing machines. [1]
The machines were originally used to create address plates for the Addressograph system and mark military style identity tags and other industrial nameplates.
The machines came in a number of variants with sliding, hand wheel or keyboard selected letters. The keyboard models and some rotary select units were motorised to allow faster operation.
The machines used in making Addressograph plates would deboss (stamp into the plate) the letters into the plate resulting in a well defined printing surface resembling the typewriter fonts of the day on the reverse side that would be used to transfer the details (usually customer addresses) onto envelopes or form letters. The same style was used in the early 1940s to 1980s for the US military identification tags and the tag details could be transferred onto medical charts using a hand held imprinter in field hospital conditions.
These same machines also found use in marking other nameplates and rating plates in industry and for this an embossed (raised letters in the style found on contemporary credit cards) marking style was preferred for ease of reading and maintaining a flat surface on the back of the plate. Military tags moved over to this style when the imprinting use was deprecated in the late 1960s and new machines would only be supplied as embossing units as the address plate market had been taken over by the computer revolution.
Dog tag is an informal but common term for a specific type of identification tag worn by military personnel. The tags' primary use is for the identification of casualties; they have information about the individual written on them, including identification and essential basic medical information such as blood type and history of inoculations. They often indicate a religious preference as well.
In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system. The word grapheme is derived from Ancient Greek γράφω (gráphō) 'write' and the suffix -eme by analogy with phoneme and other names of emic units. The study of graphemes is called graphemics. The concept of graphemes is abstract and similar to the notion in computing of a character. By comparison, a specific shape that represents any particular grapheme in a given typeface is called a glyph.
A rubber stamp is an image or pattern that has been carved, molded, laser engraved, or vulcanized onto a sheet of rubber. Rubber stamping, also called stamping, is a craft in which some type of ink made of dye or pigment is applied to a rubber stamp, and used to make decorative images on some media, such as paper or fabric.
A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate, license plate or licence plate, is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. All countries require registration plates for road vehicles such as cars, trucks, and motorcycles. Whether they are required for other vehicles, such as bicycles, boats, or tractors, may vary by jurisdiction. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric ID that uniquely identifies the vehicle or vehicle owner within the issuing region's vehicle register. In some countries, the identifier is unique within the entire country, while in others it is unique within a state or province. Whether the identifier is associated with a vehicle or a person also varies by issuing agency. There are also electronic license plates.
A cookie cutter in North American English, also known as a biscuit cutter outside North America, is a tool to cut out cookie/biscuit dough in a particular shape.
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Laser engraving is the practice of using lasers to engrave an object. Laser marking, on the other hand, is a broader category of methods to leave marks on an object, which in some cases, also includes color change due to chemical/molecular alteration, charring, foaming, melting, ablation, and more. The technique does not involve the use of inks, nor does it involve tool bits which contact the engraving surface and wear out, giving it an advantage over alternative engraving or marking technologies where inks or bit heads have to be replaced regularly.
Music engraving is the art of drawing music notation at high quality for the purpose of mechanical reproduction. The term music copying is almost equivalent—though music engraving implies a higher degree of skill and quality, usually for publication. The name of the process originates in plate engraving, a widely used technique dating from the late sixteenth century. The term engraving is now used to refer to any high-quality method of drawing music notation, particularly on a computer or by hand.
A keypunch is a device for precisely punching holes into stiff paper cards at specific locations as determined by keys struck by a human operator. Other devices included here for that same function include the gang punch, the pantograph punch, and the stamp. The term was also used for similar machines used by humans to transcribe data onto punched tape media.
Photoengraving is a process that uses a light-sensitive photoresist applied to the surface to be engraved to create a mask that protects some areas during a subsequent operation which etches, dissolves, or otherwise removes some or all of the material from the unshielded areas of a substrate. Normally applied to metal, it can also be used on glass, plastic and other materials.
An addressograph is an address labeler and labeling system.
In the United States, vehicle registration plates, known as license plates, are issued by a department of motor vehicles, an agency of the state or territorial government, or in the case of the District of Columbia, the district government. Some Native American tribes also issue plates. The U.S. federal government issues plates only for its own vehicle fleet and for vehicles owned by foreign diplomats. Until the 1980s, diplomatic plates were issued by the state in which the consulate or embassy was located.
A label printer is a computer printer that prints on self-adhesive label material and/or card-stock (tags). A label printer with built-in keyboard and display for stand-alone use is often called a label maker. Label printers are different from ordinary printers because they need to have special feed mechanisms to handle rolled stock, or tear sheet (fanfold) stock. Common connectivity for label printers include RS-232 serial, Universal Serial Bus (USB), parallel, Ethernet and various kinds of wireless. Label printers have a wide variety of applications, including supply chain management, retail price marking, packaging labels, blood and laboratory specimen marking, and fixed assets management.
A nameplate identifies and displays a person or product's name. Nameplates are usually shaped as rectangles but are also seen in other shapes, sometimes taking on the shape of someone's written name. Nameplates primarily serve an informative function or a commercial role. Whereas name tags tend to be worn on uniforms or clothing, nameplates tend to be mounted onto an object or physical space. Nameplates are also distinct from name plaques. Plaques have larger dimensions and aim to communicate more information than a name and title.
Pad printing is a printing process that can transfer a 2-D image onto a 3-D object. This is accomplished using an indirect offset (gravure) printing process that involves an image being transferred from the cliché via a silicone pad onto a substrate. Pad printing is used for printing on otherwise difficult to print on products in many industries including medical, automotive, promotional, apparel, and electronic objects, as well as appliances, sports equipment and toys. It can also be used to deposit functional materials such as conductive inks, adhesives, dyes and lubricants.
An Israeli vehicle registration plate, or an Israeli license plate, is a vehicle registration plate, a metal or plastic plate or plates attached to a motor vehicle or trailer, used in Israel for official identification purposes.
Vehicle registration plates in Trinidad and Tobago are categorised using prefixes based on the type of vehicle and feature up to four succeeding digits. Registration plates in Trinidad and Tobago are supposed to be either white figures on a black background or black figures on a white background. All motor vehicles that are operating in the roads of Trinidad and Tobago are required by law to have a registration plate affixed to the front and rear of the vehicle at all times except during very specific situations. This current system has been present for over 40 years.
Stanley Aaron Dashew was an American inventor who developed many devices in diverse industries, but remains best known as one of the founders of the plastic credit card industry during the 1950s. Working alongside Joseph P. Williams, then Vice President of Bank of America, Dashew introduced the Databosser, which embossed numbers read from an IBM punch card onto a credit card, originally aluminum alloy, then plastic.
Graphotype may refer to:
The use of markings on British military vehicles expanded and became more sophisticated following the mass production and mechanization of armies in World War II.