The smell of brilliant print!

16th Aug 2016

Printed books are wonderful things, and all printed things are wonderful. Flyers, posters, brochures, leaflets – there is something so much more tactile to something printed than there is and ever will be something digital. The feeling of your fingertips sliding across the gloss or grazing across the matte finish, how it feels to flick the pages and feel them ruffle on the pad of your thumb, the three-dimensional object before you looking just as it should do: attractive and whole, the colours and contrasts, the size, shape, thickness, and the weight.

What you see and what you feel are two pivotal senses in experiencing any object. There is one other sense, though, that is perhaps far more important than you realise, and we all use it when we pick up any printed material, whether we like to admit it or not. Our sense of smell plays an important role in connecting with print. When we think no one’s looking, we’ll take our brochures or flyers, hot off the press, holding them an inch or two from our noses, and take a deep breath in. They smell so new, so full of promise and potential – our nose is our best judge of printed quality, and we all know the smell of good ink. Combined with the smell of the paper, it’s a beautiful scent.

You can stimulate sight, sound, and touch, with modern technology, but if there’s one thing you don’t get with being able to view, read, and share everything digitally, its smell, and the amazing feeling that comes with it. Sure, you could sniff the screen of your mobile, tablet, laptop, or desktop – you could sniff any part of it you like – but apart from the smell of burnt plastic (if your device is on it’s way to digital heaven), you’re not going to get a whiff of much else.

As you stand there with your printed material in hand, taking in the glorious smell of something you are so excited to be physically holding, the experience goes beyond just what you have before you, encompassing the sounds and sights of your surroundings. Whether you are stood in a library with the whispers of librarians and beeps of books being scanned, or a busy printing shop with the loud whirring and groaning of industrial printers, this all plays a part in the sensory experience, and making it unique. The more captivated you are with your surroundings, the more infatuated you are likely to be with your printed material.

Print is completely different, and can be far more fulfilling than digital. The paper stock, the finish, the colour – there are so many dimensions to print that make it so appealing, and the bonus of its satisfying smell are why people will always return to that printed paper option.