I remember when BA started flying to ALG from LGW around twenty years or so ago. Coming back from ALG, all boarding passes were printed out on A4 thin card using a normal printer but everything was printed from a template on the screen. Whoever dealt with the flight list had to input the details of each passenger individually. Came out in batches of three or four bps at a time and no serrated tear line in the days when gate agents kept a part of the BP. All ready, neatly cut for passengers as they checked in and quite shiny. Am sure they wouldn’t have faded too much over the years. I do like to get an e-BP as well as a hard copy these days.