You know you're old when . . .

[old guy]

press operators that say you cant print without ink presets. printing on finished sizes on the small presses because there are no crops. some of these kids never seen a ruler in their life i think.

 

[MailGuru]

You definitely know your old when your first computer program was written with a soldering iron and jumper wires. THEN, progress came along, and you wrote your programs to 80-column punch cards.

And, when you addressed mail pieces with a Cheshire labeling machine.

 

[dabob]

What's a good example of something they "you can't do that" about?

You can't send them down the street to the competitors printshop for the box of halftone dots we lent them last month . . .

 

[mwc]

You can't send them down the street to the competitors printshop for the box of halftone dots we lent them last month . . .

In these cases, if you can't get NEW dots, you might have to break out the dot-stretcher tool...usually the maintenance person or shipping clerk probably knows where it is....(maybe)......

 

[dabob]

In these cases, if you can't get NEW dots, you might have to break out the dot-stretcher tool...usually the maintenance person or shipping clerk probably knows where it is....(maybe)......

Wow . . a dot stretcher. . . never had one of those but wasn't there a thread about that recently . .. but we were looking for that paper stretcher and edge gluer the other day

 

[mwc]

Yeah, first sep shop I worked at...one of the strippers sent me out for a dot-stretcher 'cause the drum scanner operator cropped the scan too close and it wouldn't fit properly in the ruby mask he just cut. Just needed to get one or possibly two rows of dots wider...

 

[Manafaith]

How about Shooting PMT's (well just the darkroom in general) and then breaking out the X-acto to cut up some Ruby

 

[dabob]

Oh how I miss the smell of RA developer and rubylith in the morning

 

[keith1]

I once tricked a bindery girl to go to the paper wholesaler and ask to borrow their paper stretcher. It was only a couple blocks away. From there she was referred to another wholesaler. The reason she didn't go was because she didn't want to walk that far.
Also spent a brief while at a shop – that had been around for about 20 years – where not one employee knew what a line gauge was. I was dumbfounded. When I arrived, they were also still doing cut & paste. This was about year 2001 I think, when computer design was well established.
Few years later I hung up my own sign.
Now I have to shovel snow

 

[old guy]

i grew up down river from chicago. live outside phx az now its 90 today. you can keep your snow.
remember cameras that had the copy board in one room and the film board in the dark room? you had to use 2 rooms to make an enlargement or reduction on a piece of art.

 

[Manafaith]

OH YES....still have one in the Graveyard (Basement)

 

[keith1]

Yep. The old horizontal cameras. And the darkroom that stank from the chemicals. Tray developed for a long time, then eventually got a film processor.

 

[dabob]

If you can remember hand developing a 3M "R" plate with the red lacquer . . . Oh it smelled so good . . . .

 

[Alois Senefelder]

I can remember during my apprenticeship printing small print runs (20/50) copies from the "Stones"


Regards, Alois

 

[abc]

PitStop is 20 years old this year, still remembering buying version 1.0 with Acrobat 3.

 

[aqazi81]

You know you're old when . . .you visit a customer's pressroom and a young machine minder calls you uncle.

 

[Slammer]

PitStop is 20 years old this year, still remembering buying version 1.0 with Acrobat 3.

Ventura publisher, learning postscript to make a rounded text, Apple II´s, Compugraphic 9400 on a GPIB and that was the hyper modern stuff, Misomex with a punchcard... The list goes on and on and on.

 

[Prepper]

What about carbon arc plate burners? Along with tray developing, linotype and kluge, Miehle...

 

[nelly]

When i was an apprentice film planner the guy had me painting halftone dots with opaque for hours. They were the punch holes from the film punch collection tray. The long weight too that i had to carry up from the flatbed proofers downstairs. Boy that roller was heavy. I had to fold small pieces of planners foil until the folds were perfect. Oh and i got sent to the baker's on my first day to get 2 virgin tarts. The pair of women who ran the baker's actually gave me some to take back. They were bakewell tarts but i never knew that at the time.

 

[old guy]

What about carbon arc plate burners? Along with tray developing, linotype and kluge, Miehle...

we do number jobs on the meihle and foil/emboss and die cut on the kluges everyday got a windmill too.