Best (or Worst) printing delvelopments during your career?

[jezza]

Mizomex plate step-n-repeat machine

Yes, yes, yes! What a piece of kit 

[Joe]

Hey, what about internet message forums? Best or worst? 

[jezza]

Kind of works for me!

Seriously though, anyone coming into the trade has such a massive advantage with somewhere like this. The web is a little taken for granted, but I would have killed for something like this place and the members 20 years ago.

[Joe]

Same here. I've learned a lot from sites like this. I came into the trade back when the older guys didn't exactly volunteer how-to's to just anyone. You had to pry the information out of most of them and beat it out of some.

[Sparky]

When I was at C.G. in '90 I used an AOL account to research info on a problem I was having with my Mac at the time. (very limited resources then) My new GM and the HR manager walked in and saw what I was doing (it was after I had punched out). The next day I was suspended for 3 days without pay for "unauthorized use of company equipment" 

try and get a job today that doesn't somehow involve the web

[frailer]

Sorry forgot to mention the Mizomex plate step-n-repeat machine I ran at Continental Graphics around 1989 also.

Only saw one of those Misomex machines operating at a print expo here, mid-90s. What a strange electro-mechanical beast! How did they get to that accuracy? Musta been a nightmare of micro-adjusters/worm-drives/vac valves'n'solenoids...you name it. Can't imagine the maintenance on one. 

[30YearsandCounting]

No maintenance at all.  We had one for years and I can only remember one little electrical problem that we had.  That thing was built like a tank (and weighed almost as much as one).

[G_Town]

No maintenance at all.  We had one for years and I can only remember one little electrical problem that we had.  That thing was built like a tank (and weighed almost as much as one).

Yup i ran a couple as well and they were built to last. The area that held the whole exposure head ran on 4 steel bearings/wheels. One time we had a tech come in to do some P.M. on the machine and he found 1 of the four bearings was broke in half and we had been running that way for some time without any issues on press.

 

[gnubler]

When I was at C.G. in '90 I used an AOL account to research info on a problem I was having with my Mac at the time. (very limited resources then) My new GM and the HR manager walked in and saw what I was doing (it was after I had punched out). The next day I was suspended for 3 days without pay for "unauthorized use of company equipment" 

try and get a job today that doesn't somehow involve the web

I worked at a place about six years ago where the entire management was completely computer illiterate (eg: the owner once called me into his office, pointed to his screen, and asked me to "make this go away". It was just a Finder window, so I told him to click on the X in the top corner) Well, for some stupid reason I thought it would be cool to set up my work email notifier to play the infamous "You've got mail" sound every time mail came in. After a couple days of this, the owner asked me if all this email was work related and I had to show him that indeed it was. He still didn't understand why my work email was making that sound, as if I was guilty of something, so I just got rid of the sound. The funny thing is, every person in the building always had AOL chat IM windows open on their screens every time I passed by their offices - everyone except me, because I was actually there to work.

[Alan Thompson]

Back in the day I used to scan lots of agency work on a Crossfield Drum Scanner. The agencies were VERY picky about detail, color, sharpness, etc.  Yea most of you remember them. Well now the same ones go out and buy themselves a Umax flatbed scanner from Walmart for $89 and supply the scans. Yea you guessed it..... some how they don't care about the quality anymore.

[EyeTech]

We had 2 Misomex s/repeat machines, and in one corner of the room a Junior Printex manual step and repeat - the steps were taken care of by a handle attached to a dial with holes around the perimeter, you calculated the distance you wanted to move in the X direction and rotated the handle so many times then pushed it inwards to locate a pin into the the correct hole. Positives were held in place with tape and silver foil to mask out the edges.

Other plates that had full out film were exposed via a carbon arc in a vertical frame - if anyone from health and safety is around, look away now - to get the carbon to strike you'd nudge them apart via a small lever with your fingertips.

BTW I was apprenticed at that time to the litho print division - we had to go to every dept in our first year before we were let loose on the presses (3 years later!).

[Gutnbg]

We also had two Misomexes and one Cortron.

A Cortron is a step-and-repeat machine, like a Misomex, in much the same way as
Rosie O'Donnell is a woman, like Vida Guerra.


I've been trying to think, since I'm still convinced that the best thing is the DTP Revolution/PostScript, what was the worst development?
I think someone touched on best and worst both being DTP.
More specifically, I think giving technology to those who don't know how to use it, and can't find a way to learn is a bad development.

I speak of our customers, mostly, who are given a box with some cool software and no training. I won't speak for everybody, but I would bet a lot of us have had a situation like this: "We're trying to get this account, and they use XYZ program. I'm going to the office supply store and pick one up, do you think you can learn it well enough to process their pages?" And we answer, "sure," even though we can only guess that we are about to learn the program from hell. But we have also had lots of training at this, and we will be able to pick it up, whether we like it or not.

But I feel sorry for the people who are thrown into the deep end; the ones who have long hair and tattoos, so they must be the artsy ones, so the boss puts them in charge of the newsletter and buys CorelDraw, Photoshop and the latest version of Publisher, and two years later expects them to put out multi-purpose masterpieces.

[G_Town]

mmmmm  Vida......I'm sorry were you saying something??

[beck]

How about the wonder of Spellcheck? (delvelopments...see Post title) 

As long as we're talking about S&R machines, I spent about 4 years on an Enco S&R machine.  Manually load the film, raise & lower the chase, make all movements by hand.  Complete with a micrometer for fine-tuning those dimensions.
Then I worked on two different Krause S&Rs before getting into the Mac side of things.

Thank God (I think) for CTP.

beck

[elmo3]

Back in the day I used to scan lots of agency work on a Crossfield Drum Scanner. The agencies were VERY picky about detail, color, sharpness, etc.  Yea most of you remember them. Well now the same ones go out and buy themselves a Umax flatbed scanner from Walmart for $89 and supply the scans. Yea you guessed it..... some how they don't care about the quality anymore.

Reminds me of the agency that was extremely picky about type, to the point of obnoxiousness--right up until the time they discovered Pagemaker.  No more were they sending in typesetting work.  Suzy Secretary or somebody was "setting the type" and they just requested film from that, nothing more.