Small Printing Press, 1980s
June 22, 2018 2:48 PM Subscribe
I was just remembering back to the printing shop my junior high school had back in the 1980s, and I can't find links or descriptions of the processes I remember, mostly because "printing," as a subject, has changed a lot in the past thirty years and it's difficult to filter through all the noise with the generic terms I remember -- details inside.
So, I'm looking for descriptions, photos, technical terms, manuals, etc., that describes any or all parts of this printing process we had in school. Here's pretty much how it worked:
You start with, say, a 11x17 sheet of white paper that will become a booklet, and mark it up with nonphoto blue to organize your document, and the add text and other details by hand in solid black. Photos have to be halftoned (I was never involved in that process, I think he actually had an actual print shop produce those when needed, we were encouraged to photocopy out of royalty-free line art books).
This next part is the big thing that started my search: Text was typeset on a machine, which had a variety of fonts available on (I think they were embedded in disks you spun to select a letter) that then printed the lines onto transparent sticky tape, which you cut/tore off to physically stick to your pasteup where the text goes.
Once you're done taping/pasting everything together, a transparency is made of your document -- can't remember if it is positive or negative -- which was then laid over the top of a metal sheet/foil (about the thickness of 'heavy duty tinfoil' you can get at the store) which had a photosensitive coating. It was then exposed to UV light for a certain amount of time, after which it was washed which removed the coating where the ink won't be, and/or hardened it where the ink should be picked up.
The foil had holes on the ends for the press to grab onto -- this machine was much like a mimeograph machine but much larger and faster, you clipped the foil to the printer's drum and it spun around, inking the foil, pulling in the paper, spitting out the finished sheet you worked so hard on.
I could spend hours going down the Google rabbit hole of pre-computer printing methods, but I'm hoping there's people here with better memory than me about what the various steps were called (what was the typesetting machine? How did the photosensitive printing plate process work? Was this actually just a glorified mimeographic system and not a "real" printing press?). Thanks!
So, I'm looking for descriptions, photos, technical terms, manuals, etc., that describes any or all parts of this printing process we had in school. Here's pretty much how it worked:
You start with, say, a 11x17 sheet of white paper that will become a booklet, and mark it up with nonphoto blue to organize your document, and the add text and other details by hand in solid black. Photos have to be halftoned (I was never involved in that process, I think he actually had an actual print shop produce those when needed, we were encouraged to photocopy out of royalty-free line art books).
This next part is the big thing that started my search: Text was typeset on a machine, which had a variety of fonts available on (I think they were embedded in disks you spun to select a letter) that then printed the lines onto transparent sticky tape, which you cut/tore off to physically stick to your pasteup where the text goes.
Once you're done taping/pasting everything together, a transparency is made of your document -- can't remember if it is positive or negative -- which was then laid over the top of a metal sheet/foil (about the thickness of 'heavy duty tinfoil' you can get at the store) which had a photosensitive coating. It was then exposed to UV light for a certain amount of time, after which it was washed which removed the coating where the ink won't be, and/or hardened it where the ink should be picked up.
The foil had holes on the ends for the press to grab onto -- this machine was much like a mimeograph machine but much larger and faster, you clipped the foil to the printer's drum and it spun around, inking the foil, pulling in the paper, spitting out the finished sheet you worked so hard on.
I could spend hours going down the Google rabbit hole of pre-computer printing methods, but I'm hoping there's people here with better memory than me about what the various steps were called (what was the typesetting machine? How did the photosensitive printing plate process work? Was this actually just a glorified mimeographic system and not a "real" printing press?). Thanks!
Sounds like you had some flavor of an optical/photo typesetter.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:14 PM on June 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Thorzdad at 3:14 PM on June 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
The actual final printing process sounds like offset printing, which we also did in my circa 1990 high school print shop. I don't remember a typesetting component like that, but we did use a similar process; in our case we made graphic designs on the department's new-fangled Mac computers, printed them to transparencies, and exposed the plates with them.
posted by Funeral march of an old jawbone at 3:18 PM on June 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Funeral march of an old jawbone at 3:18 PM on June 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
I once worked in an office that had recently retired a phototypesetter such as you describe—the one we had was called a Varityper and it was a beast. We still had some of the type wheels shoved in a cabinet. Its successor used a CRT to resolve individual letters, which projected through a lens onto the photosensitive paper.
My guess is that the actual printing was done on an offset press, but I'm not sure.
posted by adamrice at 3:40 PM on June 22, 2018
My guess is that the actual printing was done on an offset press, but I'm not sure.
posted by adamrice at 3:40 PM on June 22, 2018
I took graphic design in high school in 1984-85. And I worked in prepress in the 90's through 00's
In high school, we used an ITEK typesetting machine to set type, but this did not come out on transparent paper, but imaged onto photographic paper which then needed to run through a developer. This machine did use various font disk, which looked like this, that you insert into the machine after programming. It stops and allows you to swap out font disk when a different font is programmed. The language used to program is very similar to CSS.
The various design components then went through paste-up/layout. First, the page is marked up with non-repro blue pencil. Then every elements are pasted using wax. And if you were printing 2 colors or more, then you would use red masking film, rubylith, to cut out areas for each colors you want to print.
Once this layout/paste-up is made, then you move into the prepress stage. A negative is taken of each color using a stat camera. The negatives are then taped on to a mylar with pin registration which correspond to the hole punched on the metal printing plate and the printing press so all colors can stay in registered to each other. This mylar with the negative is then lay on top of a metal plate coated with chemicals, then placed in a vacuum frame to ensure optimal contact between the negative and the metal plate. Any slight air bubble will make the image blurry. It is then exposed with an UV light. After exposure, it is then send through a developer.
This metal plate then gets mounted onto a press. And off you go.
Other big names in photo typesetting machines back in the 80's are Compugraphic and Varityper as adamrice point out in above comment.
Your mention of transparent type makes me think of Letraset Rub-Off Letters.
Hope this helps you jog some memories.
posted by gloturtle at 4:36 PM on June 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
In high school, we used an ITEK typesetting machine to set type, but this did not come out on transparent paper, but imaged onto photographic paper which then needed to run through a developer. This machine did use various font disk, which looked like this, that you insert into the machine after programming. It stops and allows you to swap out font disk when a different font is programmed. The language used to program is very similar to CSS.
The various design components then went through paste-up/layout. First, the page is marked up with non-repro blue pencil. Then every elements are pasted using wax. And if you were printing 2 colors or more, then you would use red masking film, rubylith, to cut out areas for each colors you want to print.
Once this layout/paste-up is made, then you move into the prepress stage. A negative is taken of each color using a stat camera. The negatives are then taped on to a mylar with pin registration which correspond to the hole punched on the metal printing plate and the printing press so all colors can stay in registered to each other. This mylar with the negative is then lay on top of a metal plate coated with chemicals, then placed in a vacuum frame to ensure optimal contact between the negative and the metal plate. Any slight air bubble will make the image blurry. It is then exposed with an UV light. After exposure, it is then send through a developer.
This metal plate then gets mounted onto a press. And off you go.
Other big names in photo typesetting machines back in the 80's are Compugraphic and Varityper as adamrice point out in above comment.
Your mention of transparent type makes me think of Letraset Rub-Off Letters.
Hope this helps you jog some memories.
posted by gloturtle at 4:36 PM on June 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
The press itself sounds like a standard offset litho jobber.
posted by rhizome at 4:55 PM on June 22, 2018
posted by rhizome at 4:55 PM on June 22, 2018
Best answer: Your typesetter sounds like a KROY 190/Gestetner 88 lettering system.
posted by scruss at 6:46 PM on June 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by scruss at 6:46 PM on June 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
Are you talking about a Ditto Machine?
Oh, that grown-up, responsible feeling when the teacher trusted you to crank the ditto or mimeo machine!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:34 PM on June 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Oh, that grown-up, responsible feeling when the teacher trusted you to crank the ditto or mimeo machine!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:34 PM on June 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
gloturtle, that Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies is a joy!
posted by scruss at 6:07 AM on June 23, 2018
posted by scruss at 6:07 AM on June 23, 2018
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