On 2019-03-14 2:21 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: > > >> On Mar 14, 2019, at 2:02 PM, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk >> <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: >> >>> ... >> >> Personally, I think it would be really neat if some of these >> computer museums could collect complete end-product systems >> and make them run. Can you imagine showing a bunch of students >> how a newspaper was produced using a PDP-11 and one of these >> Tek terminals feeding a real printing press. >> >> bill > > I agree it would be really neat. The odds of pulling it off are slim, > unfortunately. ... > > Phototypesetters of that era were often quite big machines. At DEC we had an > Autologic APS-4, which is a gray box about 6 feet on the sides. A fair > number of customers had its successor the APS-5, which is somewhat smaller > but not a whole lot. The smallest machines I remember were the Mergenthaler > Linotron 202, about the size of a large high speed copier. Later models of > that one supported PostScript, I think,
...snip... > > And yes, those machines produce output on photographic "film" (paper rolls, > actually) which has to be developed and fixed, then cut, coated on the back > with sticky wax, and pasted onto layout boards. Out of high school I worked on a (tiny) family newspaper where we did that using LaserWriter printouts. Later we bought a Linotronic 100 which fits your description above: A capstan based laser imagesetter up to 1270dpi which was the first such device to run PostScript, and could be run over AppleTalk by the Macintosh applications and print manager. I typeset galleys with it (as it happens, with TeX, using all Adobe fonts), which were then pasted up into full pages. The L100 machine itself now needs a forever home. It is stored in Sydney NSW, Australia, so if anyone _does_ want to preserve some digital typesetting history, please get in touch. > > The whole production process, from film to layout to press, is quite complex > and comes in a bunch of variations. I understand it slightly, but all that > was the province of skilled union tradesmen whose trade has long ago vanished > into history. Yes; my 2nd job was at one of the last old-school graphic repro houses: Process cameras, manual colour separation and "combining" by the last generation trained in it. They had a very expensive (pre-PostScript) Crosfield digital workflow involving drum scanners and high resolution film recorders which was already obsolete when I started (1992). They had installed the first PostScript drum imagesetter in Australia (I'm told) -- a beautifully engineered Scangraphic -- that was my job to run. --Toby > > And never mind an actual printing press. Newspaper presses of course are > still around, and probably not changed a whole lot. They are big, loud, and > scary. Watching them switch from a used-up roll of paper to a new full roll, > on the fly without stopping, is quite a spectacle. Especially because it > *usually* works -- but if it doesn't it's rather a mess. > > paul > >
