Crossed Letters - Save paper

[Chouffleur]

Quote

 

Back when paper and postage charges were prohibitively expensive, people developed a technique to convey as much information as possible on as little paper as possible.

We’re privileged to live in an age when paper, writing supplies and postage fees are generally affordable, so much so that most of us take them for granted. But things weren’t always like this. Back in the Civil War era and up until the 1900s, the paper that letters were written on and the postage charges were so expensive that people had to write on a piece of paper in multiple directions in order to save money. The technique was called cross-writing, or cross-hatching, and despite seeming unreadable, back in the day everyone was used to it and could read every word with ease.

 

 

https://www.odditycentral.com/news/crossed-letters-a-vintage-way-to-save-money-and-paper.html

[nigelg]

A palimpsest was a similar, earlier thing I believe.

[Katharine]

I've tried this before, sometimes with different ink colors to make reading it easier.  Just usually for my personal ephemeral notes, not on anything I'd give anyone else or keep for a long time.  Or I'll write one way with pencil, and then when I'm done with whatever I've written, write across it the other way with pen for my next notes.

[Karmachanic]

Morning pages

[inkstainedruth]

14 hours ago, Karmachanic said:

Morning pages

Oh, that wouldn't work for me -- I do two written lines per printed line in my journal as it is....  Plus, I'd half to remember to do it when I first woke up in the morning (and sometimes I have trouble even figuring out what to write in those 3 pages to begin with). 

Ruth Morisson aka inkstainedruth