Thermo-Fax Printing Process

Melhorn-Boe printed all the books in this collection using a 3M Thermo-Fax Machine. Invented in the 1950s and discontinued in the 1990s, the Thermo-Fax uses thermographic printing to transfer text to the material. The heat reacts with the carbon in the ink to create an embedded typeset into the acetate from which ink is applied and transferred to the material. While it's a mostly outdated technology, the Thermo-Fax is used by printers, book artists, and tattoo artists. 

The following videos show the process of how Melhorn-Boe transforms text on a sheet of paper into a template on acetate that can be used on fabric. The first video shows how the acetate sheets are created using the thermo-fax machine and the second shows the printing process onto a piece of fabric.