Microengraving

[db322014]

Hey fellas,

A colleague from grad school engraved two sonatas for violin and piano of a XIX composer. She called her work as microengraving.
Does that really exist? What is it about?

[John Ruggero]

New one on me. Maybe she engraves at 800% or higher? That can give some very precise results.

[JJP]

I immediately envisioned a sonata on the back of a postage stamp.

[db322014]

Good morning, fellas

Yeah, that sounded strange to me too... I thought this term "microengraving" was common among professionals publishers. Maybe she's a professional and raises the detail level to the highest. Actually, I was wondering if that microengraving referred to a calculated kind of work, where everything would be based on numeric coordinates, not done manually with a mouse.

[John Ruggero]

In the days of hand-copying, there was something called "autography" which was similar to engineering drawing of that time done on a drawing board with special equipment. It produced output that was quite close to plate engraving. Maybe she is doing something like that on a computer? There is a very fine engraver, Wesselin Christoph Karaatanassov, who does detailed work of this kind with Finale and his own battery of techniques, fonts etc. Maybe she is a disciple of Wess or does something similar.

[benwiggy]

She called her work as microengraving.
Does that really exist? What is it about?

Those would be questions for the person who used the term!

Perhaps they mean a portmanteau of "micro-managing" and "engraving", meaning extreme attention to tiny details?