Printing Evolution - Thirty Years Past to Present

D Ink Man

Well-known member
Please listen to this to what I have to further offer here. In my reply yesterday to an offset failed print job, I gave an absolute means to find out why this problem occurred, and is continuing to occur. Any time you have an issue or problem you need 'to find out why'. It doesn't matter if you fix a problem or a problem goes away mysteriously on it's on, it is still very important 'to find out why' it occurred. Using this mindset and approach is the only way to learn something that could potentially help you in the future. This is true with anything that is corrected or 'fixed'. Finding out why is much more important than just fixing it. This is a good principle to remember in anything we do, in any part of our functional lives.

Remember please or learn this. These were the ways of the printing world, mostly circa beginning over two decades ago, that drove the printing business and made it work. It really drove ink companies to use product and service as the number one means for being competitive. These were the days of great profits and great laboratories filled with ink technicians with knowledge of inside formulary as well as outside understanding of the printing processes their products ran on. It was a wonderful relationship between printer and inky. It built relationships and trust that made it better for everybody and provided good meal on all's tables. Unfortunately, times have changed very rapidly to a lesser degree of these types of skillful, savvy, beneficial conducts that previously resulted in natural profiting.

Now some may believe that this product, service method is no longer necessary because of changes that have happened in the transmission of communication. The digital era, the world wide web, new print processes and generally less ink stuffs on paper could easily thwart the necessity for past methodologies. I understand but disagree. Because this arena has admittedly shrunk; it should only make the surviving lithographers and "REAL" printing humans to reach back and learn from the not to distant history on how to be successful and profitable. The choice to put competitive activity in a price first mode is a fatal mistake. With these means, all involved are seeking ways to drive down costs that ultimately will erode prosperity because of the sacrifice of quality and less use of intelligent skillful people to deliver products to be proud of. We are going down a vortex to hell because of the path that is now taken. Studying history and reading this I hopes sensitizes our Print Planet and all business and mankind to the reality that we are in and should perhaps consider slowing down and revert to proven formula from the past. Our children, grandchildren and successors are counting on us. I hope all consider this writing moving forward. It is a monumental task at this point to spread these words with far reaching breadth, belief and comprehension. It is my wish that at least some take consideration. Our children, grandchildren and successors are counting and putting faith in all of us. We have responsibility. Let us do just that.

D Ink Man
 
You're quite correct about the importance of figuring out why a failure occurred. Unfortunately most printers have no training or understanding of how to go about doing that. In talks with printers at LabelExpo the consensus was that the generation of people entering the trade are button pushers. Their expectation is that you press a button and what is intended by doing so is what will happen. If it doesn't that's not their concern - they did their part of the job by pushing the button.
The race to the bottom price-wise that saps the ability of vendors to provide meaningful support and reasearch is a reality that I do not see changing anytime soon. Printers are simply treating their suppliers the way that they themselves are treated by print buyers.

“I was in a printing-house in Hell, and saw the method in which knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation.”

– William Blake
 
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Gentlemen and fellow Lithographers,


A Slight Detour.......


Quote- " Ever increasing electronic traffic numbs our brains, dumbs our speech and often displaces off-screen reality"

Dr. David Zigmond G.P.


The Silicon Valley Disrupters, read the article from www.city-journal.org


Regards, Alois
 
Gentlemen and fellow Lithographers,


I suggest you read the article in "What They Think" web blog regarding this topic, entitled " .................Millennials Want a Career in Print" blog,

by Nick Gawreluk.


Regards, Alois
 
Good riddance. I hope that the craft is replaced by craftiness. I.e. leveraging the tools available for a competitive edge and/or reduction in production costs.

Totally agree. Old crafts should be replaced by new ones. The industry has been held back by mixed up thinking and now is being successfully attacked by a whole different approach to putting ink on paper. The future has been taken out of the hands of the craft preservers and rightfully so. And it has been such a disaster that the engineering and science factions in this industry have listened to the craft factions and believed what they were told.

If people are so insistent on performing their craft skills, then they should do it on their own time and their own dime. The last time I looked, printing was a business meant to earn money. It is not to preserve skills of a small group of people who seem to have little interest in changing, to be more competitive by developing new methods and technology in order to increase quality, capacity and shorten delivery.

To those who overvalue craft, I suggest please retire. Get out of the way. You have not done a good job for the next generation.
 
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A craftsman is not a luddite, he is a person that is proud of his work and continues to improve his skills and knowledge to improve his product. This is historically demonstrated in our industry by craftsmen going from letterpress to offset, from offset to waterless, cameras and pasteups to imagesetters to platesetters, from wet copiers to the latest in digital printers.

A craftsman is proud of his work . . . not just a commodity producer that gets by by pushing the green button and not caring what comes out the other end.

I for one am proud when referred to as a craftsman by other in my industry and my customers . . .. .
 
Gentlemen and fellow Lithographers also Mr. Erik Nikkanen,


I suggest you read this 1 page of the PDF - "From Gutenberg to Juan Doe: The Dulling of Quills, The Inking of Fingers and the Bluing of Collars"


and perhaps Erik will show some "Humility "


Regards, Alois



That was pointless. Another PDF, "Pointless Document From" Alois.
 
A craftsman is not a luddite, he is a person that is proud of his work and continues to improve his skills and knowledge to improve his product. This is historically demonstrated in our industry by craftsmen going from letterpress to offset, from offset to waterless, cameras and pasteups to imagesetters to platesetters, from wet copiers to the latest in digital printers.

A craftsman is proud of his work . . . not just a commodity producer that gets by by pushing the green button and not caring what comes out the other end.

I for one am proud when referred to as a craftsman by other in my industry and my customers . . .. .

You are a person who can go from one craft to a new one. I call that an industrial skilled worker. Skilled workers have craft skills but they don't imply that the skills should not change.

Some people, who I would call luddites, seem to want to go back to the good old days, when they were respected for the skills that were needed then and don't want to change. Every occupation has craft skills and most of them need to be continually upgraded and updated.

It is not an argument about having craftsmanship, it is about being backward.
 
Totally agree. Old crafts should be replaced by new ones. The industry has been held back by mixed up thinking and now is being successfully attacked by a whole different approach to putting ink on paper. The future has been taken out of the hands of the craft preservers and rightfully so. And it has been such a disaster that the engineering and science factions in this industry have listened to the craft factions and believed what they were told.

If people are so insistent on performing their craft skills, then they should do it on their own time and their own dime. The last time I looked, printing was a business meant to earn money. It is not to preserve skills of a small group of people who seem to have little interest in changing, to be more competitive by developing new methods and technology in order to increase quality, capacity and shorten delivery.

To those who overvalue craft, I suggest please retire. Get out of the way. You have not done a good job for the next generation.

The words of a FAILED ink transfer bladed man. Wow! Hop in the sack with Gordo and enjoy yourselves.

D Ink Man
 
You are a person who can go from one craft to a new one. I call that an industrial skilled worker. Skilled workers have craft skills but they don't imply that the skills should not change.

Some people, who I would call luddites, seem to want to go back to the good old days, when they were respected for the skills that were needed then and don't want to change. Every occupation has craft skills and most of them need to be continually upgraded and updated.

It is not an argument about having craftsmanship, it is about being backward.

Well, what really surprises me is when a "contemporary designer" comes in and wants that "letterpress look" and expects to see a debossed version of printing because they really like the look . . . I laugh and then get out the book Linotype Keyboard Operation which was published in 1940 and I believe (for some reason) that it was printed letterpress. Show them how letterpress is supposed to be printed . . . without leaving an impression on the sheet just the perfect image . . . they argue with me about how the letter press look is supposed to be . . . I also have a copy of Pacific Printer that was printed in August of 1924 (gift from a friend) filled with 4 color process, spot color sheets and all looking better than your average print shops work today - I look at it and marvel at the dedication of the typesetters, pressman, and bindery people's dedication to their craft. Printing is still a craft IMHO and for those who live to be proud of their work will remain to be.

I truly appreciate the skill that it takes to properly print, using any technology available, and produce a piece that you can be proud of . . .
not hitting the "enhance color" button on a digital front end to make the photos look better . . .
 
This is a printing craftsman - Tom Paine in Lewes in the UK:

Tom Paine.jpg


This is a press operator at the Times Colonist newspaper in British Columbia:

Press.jpg


Craftsmanship is a wonderful skill set when you're producing very limited specialized presswork as in the case of Tom Paine's printery. However, IMHO, I don't believe it has any place in an industrial scale commercial print manufacturing process. Depending on craftsmanship in that setting just represents a failure of the process.
 
Being a Craftsman does not prohibit someone from learning new skills and technology within a particular industry. If anything (as long as someone is willing to grow), it would be the exact opposite.

True, but you need to deal with the real:

Craftsmen assembling a car in the 30s:

Crafters.jpeg


Craftbots assembling a car now:

Robotics.jpg


There are no craftpersons to learn new skills.

This is the direction of commercial print manufacturing. It already exists in home desktop inkjet printers. It is happening - perhaps not yet perfectly - with commercial digital presses. It will come to other press technologies.

If you believe that the value of craft in printing is in producing printed materials, IMHO, you are riding the wrong horse. The value of craft is in the service aspect of printing - what I meant by "craftiness".
 
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I believe in the value of PEOPLE.

Top photo, 4 men 1 car.
Bottom photo countless cars, "0" people.

We have to eat to live. How do we feed ourselves, put clothes on our backs and provide shelter to live?

We will become animals, that what happens.

No answer Gordo, sorry. Shameful.

D Ink Man
 
True, but you need to deal with the real:

Craftsmen assembling a car in the 30s:

Crafters.jpeg


Craftbots assembling a car now:

Robotics.jpg


There are no craftpersons to learn new skills.

This is the direction of commercial print manufacturing. It already exists in home desktop inkjet printers. It is happening - perhaps not yet perfectly - with commercial digital presses. It will come to other press technologies.

If you believe that the value of craft in printing is in producing printed materials, IMHO, you are riding the wrong horse. The value of craft is in the service aspect of printing - what I meant by "craftiness".

Really well said and two great comparisons in the sets of photos in your last two posts.

People might think we both do not respect craftsmanship. This is of course not true. I suspect we both value craftsmanship very much but we also see the reality of what is going to happen and what needs to happen. Of course people are proud of their level of craft, but who wants to pay for it if production owners can get the same output or better with new science, knowledge, methods and technology.

The "craft vs progress" argument has been going on for about 200 years and the craft side always tends to lose it because they can't see the future. They can't even see their present situation and it usually takes someone from outside their craft to come in and change things for the better. Being blind to this situation is not a useful skill.
 

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