There are lots of ways to create "tactile graphics". Raised lines on paper is one of the simplest and more common since most other methods are too expensive and/or cumbersome and require tools that are not always on hand when you need them. In a pinch, I find that even a standard pen and plain paper can be used on a mouse pad or other deforming surface to raise lines from the back. If you have trouble drawing backwards (I do!), it helps to draw in the dront with a marker and then retrace the lines that bleed through from the back.
You'll get better and more durable raised lines with thicker braille or heavy weight craft paper and embosing tools designed for the task (desctibed below). Alas, the thicker paper makes bleeding drawings from the front through to the back more difficult.
Various tools for embossing paper are available from Hobby Lobby, Michael's, APH, etc. under names like "Embossing Stylus" or "Embossing Set". Some examples being: Royal & Langnickel Soft Grip Embossing Stylus Set for $4.99, Metal Embossing Set for $7.99 and Paper Blossoms Paper Tool Kit & Case for $14.99 (sale price $8.99).
Once again APH has the priciest options with their mediocre single stylus DRAFTSMAN: Tactile Drawing Tool seling for $7.05 and their Crafty Graphics, Unique Stenciling Tools kit selling for $41.10. On the plus side the kit does come with a handy wooden eraser (a $3 value) and some kind of un-explained wheel thingy. For better and cheaper "wheel" tools see the Pounce Wheels in the Fancy Pens section.
Then there's erasing. The more time you have invested the worse mistakes are. Luckily with some care both braille dots and embosed lines can be erase from paper to some extent with wooden "erases." Their "magic" is having a tip pointed enough to target exactly what you want to erase but rounded enough to "erase" withough marring plus a wider plam grip for applying preasure. They're available from APH $3.00 or from braillebookstore.com for $2.99 and free shipping. Of course you can always make your own or fake the same effect using a regular stylus carefully. Erasers are hardly required but they're affordable and handy.
Sometimes it's not enough to have a line. Sometimes you're trying to contrast "this" from "that", say land from water on a map for example. You could build up the land. Or cover the "water" with felt, a different textured constructions paper To do...
To do... Fiskars Texture Plate Assortment (set 2 = 12-56597097) 2 3
According to this site the original set up was called a "Sewell pad." It also says the "magic paper" is a "mylar polyester film" and should sell for $8 to $10 per hundred sheets. The idea is that you put the "magic paper" on a "rubberized pad" (AKA mouse pad) and draw with most any "stylus", even a ball point pen will do. The big value is that the lines somehow pop up despite the stylus pressing down. Meaning that you can draw the image as you'd see it on the top surface instead backwards on the back like most manual methods. This saves you form having to reverse the image in your head and having to flip the paper over and over and over to refine and check your work. It can also make drawing sessions more "interactive" since nobody has to let go of the page or reorient to update the image. Alas I can find no references to these names, products or prices.
APH sells more or less the same thing, though somwhat more advanced, called a DRAFTSMAN Tactile Drawing Board for $177.00 Just a wee bit pricey.
APH also sells most of the parts seperately. The DRAFTSMAN: Tactile Ruler for example is $36.35. The DRAFTSMAN: Tactile Drawing Tool isn't bad for $7.05, though it's not required. The essential part is the magic paper itself or the DRAFTSMAN: Tactile Drawing Film. At $6.00 for 25 sheets it's not as cheap as the other web site would have you belive but it's still quite affordable.
APH apparenly doesn't sell the base part of the DRAFTSMAN with the ruberized pad seperately. Just as well since it seems to be about $100 or more of the kit's price. And a mouse pad from WalMart for buck or so will do the trick, though less than ideal being less than page-sized. For $15 to $30 or so any number of page-sized neoprene iPad, laptop or binders will do an even better job. In fact, we bought a neoprene 3 ring binder and added a pencil pouch for the stylus and a ??paper holder?? to hold some of the magic paper to make an affordable, portable kit for classes, allowing virtually anyone to create tactile graphics on the fly whenever needed.
At the 2012 NFB National Convention on Dallas we saw a company who's name has esaped me demonstrating a soon-to-be-released product, a thermal "erase" for the magic paper. It basically melted the magic paper flat again. Quite the trick really. Just hot enough to undo the raised lines but not enough to damage the rest fo the paper or, more importantly, burn the user. I was pretty skeptical at first but gave it a whirl. Tactily it was a smashing success and worked like a charm. Visually, however, the "erased" line leaving something of a visual mess. Alas, I can't find any hnits of the comany via google. Which is probably just as well. They said that the cost of the electronic eraser was projected to be about the same as the Drafstman kit - in the $177 range. Thanks but no thanks...
To do: Photos, eraser, paper holder above
Pen, stylus, Pounce Wheel, line drawing tool, whatever you call them...
Once again APH sells a nifty set, the Tactile Graphics Kit: Line-Drawing Tool Kit for $64.00. And again, ouch. Especially since one of the 3 included tools is a simple DRAFTSMAN: Tactile Drawing Tool worth $7.05 and another is one I don't use much (never so far except to test it). But... That third tool, which I can't find for sale seperately, is so useful that it's almost worth the asking price for the set. That tool's claim to fame is a simple but effective single line wheel on one end and a scary sharp double line drawing tool on the other. I generally use the one end for most lines, natually, and the other end ocationally for heavy lines, borders, etc. With that one tool I can bang out a fairly complex 12 by 18 inch map in an hour or two.
I'd never heard of a "Pounce Wheel" till I read this web page. Then I went looking for them. This seems to be the propper name for what APH is selling. I haven't tried these but they seem to be a much more affordable solution. At five bucks a piece or sets for $15 to $20 for a set the price is right. They seem to be very similar to the single ended tool I use the most. Alas they don't have a double wheel. And don't count on someone being able to tel the difference between lines made with different wheels using different numbers of teeth. Generally that isn't so, making the sets with different wheels kind of useless. I think that thisNo. 10 Pounce Wheel - 15 Teeth Per Inch is most like the tool I use the most.
To do... Photos, count teeth
This is were it gets deep. And expensive. Not as deep and expensive - or convenient! - as a real braille or tactile graphics printer but still... There are several things necessary for successful hand embossing of useful and educational material. You'll want to print as big as possible since tactile graphics don't do well cramped. You'll want to be able to print on as many materials as possible including papers, card stock and possibly foam sheets, etc. And, since you have to emboss from the back and most of these materials are opaque you'll want to be able to print you design (including braille) backwards on the backside as well. (I prefer to print normally on the front side too to make the tactile lines stant out visually too.)
The prtiner I chose to achieve this is with the Epson Stylus Photo R3000 Inkjet Printer. It's a bit pricy with a retail price of $799. Most of the time it's "on sale" or available with a "rebate" for much less. Sometimes hundreds less. I bought mine at $300 off. I think I've seen $400 off, at which point it's almost worth buying just for the ink. Which is one of the downsides. Ink is expensive. Like $30 per cartridge and this baby takes 9, count them!, 9 cartridges. They're high capacity cartridges to be sure. And you don't use much if you're not photo printing. Less if you're only printing back and white. But still... Ouch.
What this printer offers, however, is pretty much exactly what you need. It prints on 13" X 19" paper cut sheet (we use 12 X 18 White Heavyweight Tagboard from Hobby Lobby) and can take rolled paper for up to 13" X 44". It's Windows printer driver comes with a feature to print frontwards and backwards (plus larger "mosaics" if you like and other special effects). It also has a "front loading" straight through paper path that allows printing many flat, ridgid surfaces up to 1.3mm or 0.051 inches thick that otherwise woudln't go through a printer. Nice. Oh, and it prints very nice pictures on photo paper too!
Generally... More to do.
A possibly cheaper solution that we have not tried is the Epson WorkForce WF-7010 Inkjet Printer. I don't believe it was available when we bought the R3000 or we might have gone this way. Certainly it has the same 13" X 19" or 13" by 44" maximum printing size. It's designed for thicker braille-like photopaper. I don't know if its printer driver allows backwards printing but, coming from the same manufacturer and being capable of double sided printing, one would assume... What it lacks is the straight through paper path so only those materials that you can bend through the printer can be used. But that's pretty much all we've used ours for anyway. Printing on more ridgid things really a "might use, would be nice to have" feature and not a requirement. With a list price of only $199.99, down to $149.99 after a $50 rebate at the time of this writing (5/14/2013) the WF-7010 may be a perfectly adequate and very affordable alternative to the R3000.