Weddingbee boards

Does anyone know how I might be able to accomplish printing something on archival paper with archival quality ink (this is the tricky part, I think)?  I've not heard of at-home printers being too great in that respect.

I don't know if places like Kinkos can do this or if there might be a specialty shop that can do it...what do you think?

Basically, I'm thinking of making our ketubah (Jewish marriage contract) and would need archive quality ink.  This doesn't even get into how to create the artwork for it--paint or ... I don't even know what I'd do yet.

Ideas?

I would vote no for home probably because unless it is a really high quality printer (read: super expensive) it wouldn't be archival.

Kinko's may not be archival quality, I would check with the one in your area. Another negative with Kinko's, I'm sure they have a limited number of papers and I would imagine you would want your ketubah to be oversized (bigger than tabloid aka 11x17"). I'm just guessing though. If you went bigger than tabloid they'd print it on their oversized printer. If you went smaller, they'd print it on a regular large laser printer which would give more options and you could PROBABLY provide your own paper. Kinko's is notorious for not being detail-orientated and not so helpful at some stores. I would call and see what they ahve to say.

I would also call some area printers. Some of them might have access to a printer called the HP Indigo which is basically a HUGE laser printer. It would be high quality, like running it on a press, but considerably cheaper and more effective considering you only need one and that isn't a job suited to a regular offset press that prints brochures, magazines, etc.

I would also consider letterpress. That would be GORGEOUS and they are some letterpress companies who would help you design it and print it. I'm sure this option would be pricey, but the ketubah is something you cherish so it will definitely be worth it to spend some money and time researching different ideas.

I wish the Catholic church had a some kind of contract for us to sign, but we just sign the marriage certificate/license which is not as cool to keep. Of course, that is my humble opnion.

Thanks for the responses.  I will check with local companies. :)  I'm not opposed to having it be smaller.  I was thinking of having the surrounding art piece be an actual matte piece so that it appears around the text still.

EK-I have seen these online, however, there are two issues with this:

- These texts often have blank spaces that you just fill in, making it pretty obvious that this was done--not so ideal when you want a beautiful piece of art.  You can pay someone to write out the whole thing but then I might as well do what I wanted in the first place and figure out a way to print it myself.

- I want to have complete control over the text.  We are traditional and ketubot are written differently under different circumstances (when one of the people is divorced, etc).  Because the ones available online are mostly the "fill in" kind, this isn't always the best option if you want specific changes.  I've essentially got the ketubah text written (in Aramaic), I just need to be able to have it printed somewhere.