We Used To Call It Printing (1969)

[Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] um [Music] [Music] do [Music] foreign [Music] this [Music] [Music] yes we used to call it printing and for centuries after gutenberg started the whole thing by inventing movable type it was printing the printer sometimes with the help of an artist set words in type and he printed books graphic communications today is something else it involves more people more sciences and skills more activity than gutenberg could have imagined artists today shape ideas into graphic forms and rely on other specialists to reproduce them yet they have a link with gutenberg they think of their work as he did as a combination of art and adventure sometimes the adventure is more pop than purposeful more medium than message and mostly for laughs dimensional printing relies on photography for its novel effects the sense of depth is an illusion created by first photographing objects through a special plastic lens then viewing the picture through a similar plastic lens scenes are carefully arranged for their three-dimensional quality on production runs pictures are printed normally then laminated with lens material to match the original [Music] setting type by telephone is one way publications make sure their regional editions match the original new stories in the wall street journal written and edited on the east coast are encoded on paper tape and sent over telephone lines to regional plants like this one near san francisco duplicate tapes are created on arrival and connected to typesetting machines when the tapes are played back their preparations cause the machines to set the right letters and cast them in lines of type [Music] this is just one of many changes taking place in the production of newspapers [Music] in this plant a new computer will eliminate paper tape electronic circuits will activate type setting machines automatically other papers are using photo mechanical and electronic equipment to set type photographically the front page is the last to be locked up late news items are added and shifted according to editorial priorities right up to the edition deadline [Music] then page one is plated and the presses start this plant also sends copies of its pages to the journal plant in riverside california for distribution in the los angeles area and surrounding states from the metal type forms clean proofs are pulled put on a facsimile cylinder and synchronize with the receiving station as the cylinder spins a tiny beam of light scans the page and this signal is transmitted by microwave almost 400 miles to riverside where it is recorded on film developed plated printed and shipped with such modern technology the wall street journal has become the only national daily newspaper in the united states [Music] perhaps the greatest appeal and the greatest challenge of graphic communications is in color reproduction each page each set of plates is carefully proofed checked corrected and checked again in the case of this advertisement each proof is pulled on the paper stock and with the inks used in the magazine in which it will appear but control of reproduction quality begins long before the proof press stage it begins with the separation cameraman who photographs the original art through filters to separate each color into its primary components the cameraman skill is the first measure of the final printed product he must know the original art the printing process the final use and the best way to get the result he's after [Music] new developments in technology are changing graphic communications electronic scanners for consistent color separation new light sources developments in metallurgy and chemical emulsions new materials and new ways of making plates these are bringing higher standards and fewer variables to all the hard work graphic communications has to do in the marketplace [Music] every label is an appeal for attention and each one of those labels must be designed art must be prepared copy written type set and all the other steps taken and this too is graphic communications [Music] a packet of seeds is something else not so much an appeal to buy as a promise of fulfillment and the packet itself is part of the promise [Music] do [Music] this is a gravure cylinder it's made of copper clad steel carefully balanced and after it's been meticulously made ready it's ready made for long press run big reviewer presses print ten colors in a single pass five to a side they print millions of magazines or millions of mail-order catalogs for millions of whatever needs to be said or done films for packaging or foil for packaging or paper for packaging [Music] tablets and capsules don't have a lot of printing usually just the manufacturer's trademark and sometimes the size of the dosage but even that might be an important message [Music] drug bottles have labels and so do tubes soft drink cans beer cans and coffee cans are printed too by a different process called metal decorating [Music] think of all the special interest publications that are printed every month professional journals alumni news trade publications and hobby magazines [Music] as these flashing characters show the main thrust of graphic communications is towards science and technology this photo type setter exposes type in a variety of sizes and at great speed bypassing metal type entirely it delivers clean proofs on film a further advance in technology is this computer-driven electronic typesetter entire volumes can be programmed into the computer and printed out on the face of a cathode ray tube where they are photographed as page units ready for plate making data processing technology is now a vital part of graphic communications programmers and production specialists are working together on new application this press starts with a roll of paper and delivers a finished book [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] but people in graphic communications are also committed to the traditional strongly stitched carefully assembled books [Music] [Music] graphic communications has much to offer young people including some excellent colleges at which to learn about it [Music] fine arts students have always been interested in graphic techniques now with prints in demand more of them than ever are exploring traditional methods to create original designs [Music] many other young people aware of the career possibilities in the field are going to schools that teach graphic communications [Music] they start with the fundamentals in type the first step is to set it by hand from there they go on to learn all they can about the art and science of printing learning by doing [Music] um [Music] but not this young lady she doesn't plan to be a typesetter she's majoring in journalism but now she knows how a line caster works and that will never be wasted knowledge on a newspaper industry schools often sponsored jointly by companies and unions are busy too with apprentices learning basic skills an experienced journeyman retraining for new and better jobs that's a sign of the times the technology of graphic communications is changing so fast that a man entering the field now can expect to retrain four times before he retires [Music] so [Music] there is probably no single industry that affects so many of us and that offers so much as it moves from a craft to a science it needs scientists chemists physicists technicians and engineers it also needs craftsmen photographers artists and businessmen managers salesmen specialists and finance scheduling administration production personnel and people with ideas art directors advertising men [Music] people with strong opinions editors writers educators communications specialists and all the people who want to think of their work as both art and adventure graphic communications we used to call it printing [Music] graphic communications we you