Animalcules is an original Cambridge Imprint design, first published in 2019. It is a simpler one-colour version of our ‘Milky Way’ design, which is itself loosely based on an eighteenth-century French domino paper. Here only the base colour is printed, and at a much smaller scale, to create a simple and very pretty paper that is particularly suitable for book-binding and other projects that require a regular small motif. The name is van Leeuwenhoek’s term for the tiny life-forms that he was the first person ever to see, looking at pond-water using the microscope that he invented in the late seventeenth century.

Cambridge Imprint paper is printed in England on responsibly sourced paper of archiving quality, using vegetable oil-based inks that are kind to the environment. Each sheet is printed in one or two hand-mixed inks on uncoated 90 gsm stock to create a high-quality matte paper with a hand-printed feel to it.

Each sheet measures 50 cm x 70 cm.