Do not underestimate the effectiveness of flyers.
Do not underestimate the effectiveness of flyers.
A well-placed flyer can reach the eyes of thousands of people per day, regardless of which social media platform they use, if any.
If you make a flyer for an event, share the file online and encourage others to print them out too.
Before sharing, remove the metadata with Scrambled Exif on Android or Metadata Anonymisation Toolkit on Linux. Sending a copy to a friend? Send it over Signal.
Printed documents have embedded yellow dots which allow tracing back to the printer which printed it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_tracking_dots
Just keep that in mind.
But your printer at a thrift shop and use it on an air-gapped PC, problem solved no?
At a thrift shop with cash
Ftfy
Is there a good way to check if running a color printer without a color cartridge will drop that stenography or switch to another kind like dithering?
I think a lot of the time, the printer will straight up refuse to print if it's out of color ink, even if there's plenty of black ink. I imagine that's to avoid getting around it.
Clearly not all printers are capable of this.
The EFF has stated that basically every color printer does this now, so much so that they stopped updating the list of the ones that do. You need to be aware of it.
The EFF stated in 2015 that the documents that they previously received through a Freedom of Information Act request[7] suggested that all major manufacturers of color laser printers entered a secret agreement with governments to ensure that the output of those printers is forensically traceable.
Every printer is capable of this stenography, and every printer does so at the behest of the US and other governments. This has been happening since at LEAST 2004.
Not everything needs to be printed.
Its really low tech to make your own mimeograph machine.
https://www.mimeographrevival.com/posts/the-tin-can-wonder-a-low-tech-diy-mimeograph-machine/
It’s even lower tech to make a Hectograph, basically a mimeograph made in a cookie sheet. It uses common materials like unflavored gelatin and boric acid.
The paint can mimeograph is really cool but it looks like the special waxed stencil paper is basically out of production (aside from a Japanese artist who makes it and is willing to sell it internationally). Do you know of another source? It sounds like it can be made diy but that is an extra step in making the flyers.
(I was thinking about how one might combine that old tech with a modern laser etching machine for some especially fancy stencil work.)
The second link for the even simpler hectograph gives some suggestions. Are you USA based?
If so, I found this supplier using the search term “mimeograph masters “.
https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/852830/SKILCRAFT-Mimeograph-Paper-Letter-Size-Paper/
That’s for 10 reams and it’s discontinued but it was the first clue for a US domestic supplier that isn’t exorbitant etsy prices, which seems a bit much, but I will keep digging to see if I can find a better source.
I have been thinking about this and looking for sources. The tattoo industry found a use for mimeograph paper to transfer guidelines onto skin. So there are sources for the paper on tattoo supply sites.
But your suggestion got me thinking about a hybrid method for the hectograph.
The gelatin layer in a sheet pan acts as a receptive surface for the ink on the transfer paper. It then releases a bit of the ink each time you make an impression.
I wonder if a laser cut stencil could be placed on the hectograph surface and ink paste squeegeed onto that. Remove the stencil and make multiple impressions. Sort of like the process for putting solder paste onto a board you are going to reflow solder?
This would bypass the need for the transfer paper entirely and allow creation of digital designs. Thanks for the inspiration. The only remaining piece to try this idea is finding the right ink formula.
The traditional smell of mimeograph comes from the aniline dyes, which are toxic AF and require care in handling and good air flow. But other inks may not do well on the gelatin. Aniline dyes are only slightly soluble in water which means the impression on the gelatin surface doesn’t wick away quickly and remains sharp long enough to make multiple copies. Overnight the ink gets absorbed and diffused, allowing the gelatin to be re-used many times.
Interesting ideas. Thanks for the inspiration.