Paper can be dissolved in waters, vapors or fluids, and/ore perhaps other solvents, but not to the extent that the solution is substantially changed as that would ruin the process.
Inserting a piece of paper into this mold changes the structure of the paper in such a way that the form is permanently altered upon evaporation of the sluicing medium's content.
After the trial and error process the concave/convex sheet can be adhered via suction to nonporous surfaces.-- rcarty, Nov 11 2009 Magic whiteboard http://www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk/faqs/ [The_Saint, Nov 12 2009] Is the idea to emboss little suction cups onto paper? I'm not sure that paper is the right stuff to make a suction cup from - too porous, and not compliant enough to accommodate any surface unevennessnesses.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 11 2009 Pertinent/possibly not pertinent:
I built a prototype page turning device using a suction cup to pick up the page. The deformation of the page even at low vacuums was suffient to deform and capture the second page beneath the target page.-- normzone, Nov 11 2009 Yes, but was the suction applied continuously? If so, I would warrant that the first page was sufficiently porous to allow the vacuum to seep through (so to speak) and grab the second page.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 11 2009 Yes, it was continuous. I'm not sure that I can grant you that level of porosity. How would I test that in some crude yet verifiable manner? Dust?-- normzone, Nov 11 2009 Easy. Apply the vacuum to one page only, then bring the second page into contact with the back of the first one.
If the second page is then held, it's due to porosity.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 11 2009 [norm], when I worked in a print shop, some of the machines used a row of suction cups to pick up each sheet in turn. Worked very well even on the thinnest paper.-- pocmloc, Nov 12 2009 This has sort of been done already. I think the term is baked. See link.-- The_Saint, Nov 12 2009 Paper already does this when applied to a sheet of glass. I thought it could be enhanced slightly.
This was the byproduct of my brainstorm on how to quickly make a lot of papers that suck.-- rcarty, Nov 13 2009 The papermaking process includes a step known as "calendaring", where the paper web is drawn through rollers to be pressed. Hard and glossy surfaced paper is formed with fillers and a lot of pressure.
Before the invention of the continuous papermaking process, individual sheets were hammer- or press-formed. Such a process could easily produce papers in non-flat shapes ideal for your intent.-- lurch, Nov 13 2009 //how to quickly make a lot of papers that suck.//
Oh, you mean legislation?-- bdag, Nov 13 2009 random, halfbakery