Cyanotype, Vellum or Ink: Choosing a Blueprint Colorway
July 29, 2026 ·
Blueprint Helm

Every drawing in the catalogue is printed in three colorways. It is the same line work in all three; what changes is the ground it sits on, and that changes the room more than people expect.

Cyanotype

Deep prussian blue ground, pale blue line. This is the one that looks like a blueprint, because it is the closest to what a real cyanotype print looked like — the process that gave blueprints their name, where the paper goes blue and the drawn lines stay white.

In a room it behaves like a dark piece: it holds a wall on its own, it reads as an object rather than as paper, and it does the most work in a space that is otherwise light. It is also the most forgiving with warm wood and brass. If you are buying one print and want it to be the thing people notice, buy cyanotype.

The catch is light. A dark ground shows glare, so avoid hanging it directly opposite a window if the room gets hard afternoon sun.

Drafting vellum

Warm off-white ground, dark line — the look of a drawing on tracing paper. The quietest of the three. It disappears into a warm or neutral wall and reads as texture rather than as a statement, which is exactly right if you are hanging three or four pieces and do not want the wall to shout.

Vellum is the best choice in a bedroom, and the best choice for a gallery arrangement, because a group of vellum prints reads as a set instead of as competing rectangles.

Ink on white

Pure white ground, black line. The most literal reading of a patent plate — this is what the original filings looked like on paper. It is the sharpest of the three at a distance because the contrast is highest, and it is the one that suits a modern or clinical room: white walls, black frames, no wood.

It is the least forgiving colorway for a densely drawn subject. On something like the compass rose, high contrast plus fine line work can read busy at a small size. Go up a size if you want ink on a dense drawing.

Mixing them

The rule that works: vary the drawing, hold the colorway. Five cyanotype prints in a row look intentional. Two cyanotype and one vellum looks like something went out of stock.

If you do want to mix, split by wall rather than within a sightline — cyanotype in the entry, vellum down the hallway. The eye never has to reconcile them.

One more practical note: cyanotype and ink-on-white want different frames. Cyanotype takes a black or walnut frame; ink-on-white wants black or nothing (canvas). Vellum is the only one that looks right in a light oak.

Which one to start with

If you are undecided, cyanotype. It is the colorway the brand is built around, the one most people are actually picturing when they think "blueprint," and the one every collection page leads with.

All three colorways are available on every drawing, in matte poster ($29–$49), framed ($89–$159) and gallery-wrapped canvas ($99–$179). Free U.S. shipping over $75. Each piece is printed to order at 300 DPI on archival stock; damaged or wrong prints are replaced free with a photo inside 14 days.

See the colorways on any product page, or browse the full catalogue — Nautical, Medicine & Anatomy, Architecture, Coffee Bar.

What is a cyanotype, and is this one?

A cyanotype is a photographic contact print in Prussian blue, invented and named by John Herschel in 1842. It was later taken up as a copying process and became the standard way to reproduce drawings until the middle of the twentieth century — which is where the word blueprint comes from. Mike Ware's conservation paper on cyanotypes, published by the American Institute for Conservation, is the thorough account.

To be exact about what you are buying: the cyanotype colorway is a pigment print on archival matte paper in that palette. It is not a contact-printed cyanotype, and it does not behave like one — a real cyanotype fades reversibly in light and is destroyed by mildly alkaline mounting board, which is why conservators treat them so carefully.

Why are blueprints blue with white lines?

Because the process worked as a negative. The original drawing was laid over sensitised paper and exposed to sun; the paper went blue wherever light reached it, and the inked lines shielded the paper underneath, so they came through white. Nobody designed that look — it is a by-product of how the copying worked, which is most of why it still reads as authentic.

Which colorway for which wall?

Cyanotype holds its own on a dark or saturated wall and is the one that reads across a room. Vellum is warm and low-contrast, and it suits a room that is already pale. Ink on white is the minimal option and the one that recedes — it wants a white wall and good light to be worth it.