R.S.V.P. : Calligraphy by Computer With That Handmade Touch
Addressing wedding invitations by computer? Surely Miss Manners would disapprove.
Well maybe, and maybe not. Meet InScribe, a computerized calligraphy system that’s so sophisticated that it even makes tiny errors--just like a real human calligrapher.
Instead of a printer, the InScribe uses a mechanical claw holding a calligraphy pen attached to an Epson Equity II computer. Because it employs a real pen, the result is lettering virtually indistinguishable from hand-drawn calligraphy.
Hand-Drawn Look
“At first, the lettering was too perfect,” says Joe Sieber, the president of Massachusetts-based InScribe Inc. “People wanted it to have the look of hand-drawn calligraphy. So we went back and altered the program to produce tiny glitches in some of the letters. We also used an ink that can smear ever so slightly for additional realism.”
Sieber got the idea for the Inscribe system several years ago while ordering his own wedding invitations. With the help of his brother, Jon, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer science program, he developed the system. It was an almost instant success, selling to large corporations, colleges and independent stationery stores.
InScribe uses a “lettering bed,” a flat surface to which calligraphy paper is attached by magnets. The operator composes the document on the Epson monitor, hits a button and the mechanical claw proceeds to letter the document.
The InScribe is not speedier than a human calligrapher, but Joe Sieber points out one major advantage of machine over man. “The InScribe,” he says “never gets writer’s cramp.”
The basic system costs $8,500 for computer, lettering bed, software and four font styles. Additional type styles--more than 60 in all--are available starting at $200 apiece. And there are more than 60 ink colors available as well, with gradations of hue so subtle that the company can offer baby pink, bubble gum pink, conch pink, hot pink, and scorching hot pink. (For wedding invitations, however, etiquette dictates only black or blue-black.)
Citicorp, Chase Manhattan Bank and the universities of Texas and Connecticut are among the organizations with their own InScribe Systems. Even the White House, where there are calligraphers on staff, has purchased an InScribe.
‘It’s Fun’
Nathalia Adrian of the Los Angeles County Office of Protocol says that the staff uses its InScribe almost daily, for certificates, envelopes, invitations and book inscriptions. “It’s fun,” she says. “And it’s easy to use.”
For those interested in having their next invitations InScribed, the cost ranges around $2 an invitation at Los Angeles area stationery stores that offer the system. Brides who dread the tedium of addressing thank-you notes can have envelopes made up at the same time they order their wedding invitations, using the invitation list already in the computer.
The Siebers are now introducing In-A-Flash, a laser printer that can print up mass quantities of invitations very quickly. They also intend to continue expanding type styles; one of their latest, Kidstuff, simulates a child’s printing, down to the reversed E’s and R’s.
