Nov 22 2008 [comment]
Printing — how it used to be
Just discovered this wonderful little gem from a post on TYPO-L (ATypI). It’s from a series of films produced by Holmes (Burton) Films, Inc. Enjoy!
Thus press work is particularly fitted for young men who like to work with machines…. Work conditions are generally satisfactory, as are housing, hygiene, and hours.
Fancy a change of career?
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v16745488GpXEWg2QVia archive.org
— Hochuli & Kinross
23 comments * comment * trackback
David P Crawford
Amazing!
Nov 22, 2008
David H.
Lest we forget.
Nov 22, 2008
S. Orban
I’m a printer myself (lithography), it’s allways a pleasure to see those process. I’d love to get a small letterpress, but well, no time to exploit it.
Nov 22, 2008
Andy Polaine
Linotype really does look like hell.
Nov 22, 2008
Youssef Sarhan
Fantastic, I am spending next week working on a manual letterpress, this was a great video to watch in advance. :)
Thanks
Nov 22, 2008
johno
Youssef
Be sure to post some photos of that.
Nov 22, 2008
Jonathan Wagener
yup, really cool. work was hard and interesting in those days. :)
Nov 22, 2008
Thomas Vanhuyse
We have some of those machines (the smaller ones) at school, including a Linotype, but they haven’t been used in probably a couple decades unfortunately. One of the elder teachers showed us around once, and gave a small demonstration on how to correctly set text and how to use the machines. Was one of my favourite hours in school last year, really interesting!
It’s great to see these machines in action, thanks!
Nov 22, 2008
Milan
Thank you!
Nov 23, 2008
Cristhian Bedon
Wow, sometimes the older things are the better ones, Nice find.
Nov 24, 2008
在法国
So nostalgic.
Nov 24, 2008
T Y P O R E T U M
Ah, those were the days!
Thanks for sharing that gem with us Johno and good luck Youssef; with your foray into the wonderful world of letterpress.
Nov 24, 2008
fotomurthy
so refreshing to see it now | its still apt :)
Nov 24, 2008
Flavio Hebaru
really cool stuff
Nov 24, 2008
Dmitry (novosibirsk)
really nice :)
Nov 25, 2008
Micheli
Excellent !!!
Nov 25, 2008
Sascha
Wow. I love this Video and think back to the Videopost 4 Months ago.
Typesetting, from where do you get this things.
http://vimeo.com/1459865
Nov 25, 2008
Wayzgoose
I’m almost shy to post this, but so much nostalgia!
I started my apprenticeship as a compositor in 1955, and can confirm that the industry then was exactly like the film. What a pity aspiring designers cannot get hands on experience with setting metal type as shown in the film. I am sure it would help restrain the awful habit of changing faces, size and founts on a single page. Not to mention much better use of white space. Whereas in the “olden days” it could take twenty minutes to change one parameter, now it is a millisecond.
I shall now retire to the back of my study for fear of an exploding computer.
Nov 26, 2008