Prepress Fun

[gordo]

 

[Possumgal]

We used Amberlith instead of ruby. I actually had to do color seps on business cards for Best Western. The old logo, you know, the one with the crown? I had to cut out that crown with Amber and keep those little balls on top of the crown points from falling off.

Oh yeah, buddy, you trash that and I'll lock you in the darkroom.

 

[chriscozi]

Audited an art class at the local college in 1998 just to see what they taught for mechanical prep.
Wow. Almost everything was at least 30 years out of date. When the instructor asked for comments I suggested that if they wanted be the best at what they were doing they should visit a real print shop to see how it was being done - today.
Sigh.

 

[gordo]

For the record - I couldn't make this up. This RE: Print is almost a verbatim conversation that I had with the prepress manager of the print shop (where I just started working at) after I saw him tear off and trash the overlays on a customer's paste up. This happened around 1980. It changed my professional life.

 

[Repro_Pro]

I believe Rubilith masks were not suitable for reflected light photography, the shiny transparent Polyester base would reflect the light and mess things up.
They could have been photographed by transmitted light, but not at the same shot that the paste-up was taken.
Paste ups were usually shot by reflected light and sometimes with an additional back-light to minimize opaquing.

 

[Possumgal]

The pasteups I photographed with amber or ruby overlays all used large vertical cameras. They were on solid board or scrap card stock.

 

[keith1]

The line work was done with Letraset.

 

[chriscozi]

I believe Rubilith masks were not suitable for reflected light photography, the shiny transparent Polyester base would reflect the light and mess things up.
They could have been photographed by transmitted light, but not at the same shot that the paste-up was taken.

Amberlith wouldn't work but if you were lucky, if your art was at 100%, the ruby was clean, fresh, and decidedly well cut/created (few artists were that good) you COULD use them with Positive film, E to E to create film masks.

E to E. Been a while since . . .

 

[Repro_Pro]

During the 80's there were different makers of computer driven Mask Cutting Tables.
I remember warning a colleague I met at Drupa against investing over $100K in such a Dainippon Screen table.
He dropped the idea and took my advice to look into buying a film image-setter instead.

 

[SheetSqueezer]

In the days of camera ready art (before filmsetters) you needed the art, including the overlays, to make the film. Throw that away and then make the film…. from what?

 

[gordo]

In the early days of camera ready art (before filmsetters) you needed the art to make the film. Throw that away and make the film….out of what, exactly?

You had your paste-up board with the text and other line art elements. (Jeez I'm old)
For photos you might have a box outlined on that paste up board. Then a ruby lith film would be attached to the pasteup with cut rectangles of red on the clear ruby lith film. When shot on negative film those red rectangles created clear windows surrounded by opaque black. That created the windows for the images (or screen tints) and that's what was trashed.
It's difficult to explain and unfortunately I haven't found any videos that show how paste-ups were done and how litho film was created from them.
A lost art.

 

[chriscozi]

You had your paste-up board with the text and other line art elements. (Jeez I'm old)
For photos you might have a box outlined on that paste up board. Then a ruby lith film would be attached to the pasteup with cut rectangles of red on the clear ruby lith film. When shot on negative film those red rectangles created clear windows surrounded by opaque black. That created the windows for the images (or screen tints) and that's what was trashed.
It's difficult to explain and unfortunately I haven't found any videos that show how paste-ups were done and how litho film was created from them.
A lost art.

E up
E down
Spreads and Chokes
Composites
Vinyl Marks Cutters
Diffusion sheets
. . . .
Even the terminology is gone.
But semantics STILL MATTER.

 

[Repro_Pro]

 

[Repro_Pro]

Mastering a Swivel Knife was part of the fun!

 

[smalloffsetpressexperts]

AHHH the smell of devolper and fixer and the red lights

 

[gordo]

AHHH the smell of devolper and fixer and the red lights

Doesn't beat the smell of rubber cement thinner. You'll have the red lights (and other colors) without having to turn on a light switch! LOL!

 

[Repro_Pro]

The smell of melting wax had its' fans...

...

 

[chriscozi]

The smell of melting wax had its' fans......

We have a customer who uses wax on trading card wrappers and every time I go to his shop it smells like art boards . . .

 

[Repro_Pro]

This waxer was great for use on the back of the Agfa-Gevaert Copyproof photo papers.
Kodak had similar Diffusion Transfer materials family named PMT (Photo Mechanical Transfer).

 

[Possumgal]

Oh, that hand waxer. Ours would finally start leaking. They came with thin plastic-sheet inserts you could use to stop the leaks, but you couldn't use more than two. I finally had to resort to three.

I started out with a hand scanner about the same size. It was called Scan Man.