The Perpetual Passion for Paper

The Perpetual Passion for Paper: As routine communications have become largely electronic, paper’s role as a mark of status has only grown. Can an exclusively electronic diploma, passport, or military commission document even be imagined? Will the bride’s family announce a wedding with advertising-supported Evites, and will the photographer supply only digital files recording the event? The more important the gesture, the more imperative a handwritten note, in part precisely because people find handwriting more difficult now. Even a commercially produced card signals that the sender has taken the trouble to visit a shop, select the proper design, find a stamp, address it, and mail it. One recent European experiment showed that even for a high-technology job announcement, many more potential applicants replied to postcards than to email announcements. And America’s continued printing of one-dollar bills signals support for the U.S. note as a reserve currency. (At the other end of the range, the $3 billion in hundred-dollar bills printed last year are used mainly overseas.) In periodical publications, the web-only option often makes sense, but the e-book is far from taking the place of print. A printing signals the strength of a publisher’s belief in a book and its willingness to take a risk. Editors and reviewers increasingly rely on electronic proofs, but books issued only electronically are seldom reviewed in major media — web or print — and bought by surprisingly few libraries, at least in my experience

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