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A blueprint is a guide for making something — it's a design or pattern that can be followed. Want to build the best tree house ever? Draw up a blueprint and follow the design carefully. The literal meaning of a blueprint is a paper — which is blue — with plans for a building printed on it.

The blueprint process uses a photosensitive ferric compound, which allows the image to be printed on a piece of paper. It is then dried and developed by using a solution that gives it a distinctive blue color. It's a relatively simple process, and it has several features that made it useful.

In this process, initially created just to transfer notes, two papers are exposed to a bright light, and the applied chemicals create a permanent blue compound, called blue ferric ferrocyanide, except for where the paper is covered or has lines drawn. As a result, a solid-blue document with white lines is created.

Where the light strikes the paper, it turns blue. The black ink prevents the area under the drawing from turning blue. After exposure to UV light, the water-soluble chemicals are washed off the blueprint, leaving a white (or whatever colour the paper is) drawing on a blue background.

A blueprint's signature hue is tied to a chemical process. In 1842, an English photographer, chemist and astronomer named John Herschel discovered that combining ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide created a chemical reaction and a compound called blue ferric ferrocyanide (or Prussian blue).

Blueprinting is the older method, invented in 1842. The drawing to be copied, drawn on translucent paper, is placed against paper sensitized with a mixture of ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide. The sensitized paper is then exposed to light.

Vellum is what many know as traditional blueprint paper, and it is commonly used for architectural and engineering plans for black-and-white blueprints. It is also possible to print blueprints on Mylar paper, which is transparent or frosted, by using a laser process.

A blueprint is a guide for making something — it's a design or pattern that can be followed. Want to build the best tree house ever? Draw up a blueprint and follow the design carefully. The literal meaning of a blueprint is a paper — which is blue — with plans for a building printed on it.

The blueprint process uses a photosensitive ferric compound, which allows the image to be printed on a piece of paper. It is then dried and developed by using a solution that gives it a distinctive blue color. It's a relatively simple process, and it has several features that made it useful.

In this process, initially created just to transfer notes, two papers are exposed to a bright light, and the applied chemicals create a permanent blue compound, called blue ferric ferrocyanide, except for where the paper is covered or has lines drawn. As a result, a solid-blue document with white lines is created.

Where the light strikes the paper, it turns blue. The black ink prevents the area under the drawing from turning blue. After exposure to UV light, the water-soluble chemicals are washed off the blueprint, leaving a white (or whatever colour the paper is) drawing on a blue background.

A blueprint's signature hue is tied to a chemical process. In 1842, an English photographer, chemist and astronomer named John Herschel discovered that combining ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide created a chemical reaction and a compound called blue ferric ferrocyanide (or Prussian blue).

Blueprinting is the older method, invented in 1842. The drawing to be copied, drawn on translucent paper, is placed against paper sensitized with a mixture of ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide. The sensitized paper is then exposed to light.

Vellum is what many know as traditional blueprint paper, and it is commonly used for architectural and engineering plans for black-and-white blueprints. It is also possible to print blueprints on Mylar paper, which is transparent or frosted, by using a laser process.