Alois Auer

Alois Auer von Welsbach

Alois Auer (1813 – 11 June 1869) was a printer, inventor and botanical illustrator, most active during the 1840s and 1850s. He produced a number of works in German and other languages, including the first regarding the nature printing process. He was the director of the Austrian State Printing House, which created illustrated volumes of scientific interest and produced many advances in printing technology. His name, in the full title of the hereditary knighthood he was given, is Alois Auer Ritter von Welsbach (Knight of Welsbach).

Born in Wels, Austria, Auer was trained as a compositor, and in his leisure moments studied French, Italian, English, and other languages, in which he underwent an examination in 1835 and 1836 at the University of Vienna. Auer's early career began in October 1837 with an appointment as professor of Italian at a gymnasium in Linz. He acquired fluency in other languages during his travels in Germany, Switzerland, France, and England. That trip began in 1839. He studied the typographical techniques he would use when he became director of the printing office of the Viennese court in 1841. The ornamental typefaces he implemented allowed greater flexibility in printing, and the enterprise was to become highly successful, meeting the requirements of 500 European dialects (exclusive of those Russian, Turkish, and Hebrew), and almost 150 languages of the world. Under his management, the Imperial printing office became one of the largest establishments of the kind in Europe. He remained there until 1868.

The first published work on 'nature printing' (German: ), was The Discovery of the Nature Printing-Process (1853). In this he detailed the use of actual plant material, rocks and lace, impressed upon lead or into gum, to demonstrate what he saw as a major advance in the productions of botanical works. His intention was to produce 'artistical-scientific objects', while greatly reducing the problems of producing herbaries and other works of natural history. Another illustrator, Henry Bradbury, began producing work by a similar process after seeing Auer's invention.

The interest in the natural sciences, physics, and languages was met by publications that included his own works. The various printing processes and an extensive history of the Staatsdruckerei, state printing house itself. Apart from the volumes and plates produced by the nature printing process, he also produced some of the earliest books to incorporate photographs. The publication of photomicrography is given to be the first.

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