Printers seem to be born
innovators. I remember many employees who “customized” the
equipment they ran for more efficiency, perhaps better ergonomics,
and (most commonly) to increase quality and production.
While watching the short
video in this newsletter about Mergenthaler and the invention of the
Linotype, I was reminded that Alois
Senenfelder had invented lithography a hundred years earlier when
he made some notes with a crayon and went on to perfect lithographic
printing to the point that it was commercially viable.
And what we call central
air-conditioning
was invented by a printer trying to control humidity in his shop
during the summer months. Since paper is organic, it absorbs water
from the atmosphere (causing wavy edges on the stacked sheets and
permitting the sheets to stretch during multiple press passes) or
conversely give up its water content in the dry winter months
(shrinking the sheets and making the skid tight and difficult to feed
through the press). Willis Haviland Carrier found a way to control
high humidity for the printer he worked for and surprisingly learned
that his apparatus also cooled the drier air.
Another invention in the
1960s offered no such wide spread societal benefit but greatly helped
printers around the globe to offer their clients accurate, repeatable
color reproduction while stocking less than twenty different colors
of ink.
Lawrence Herbert, who
owned the Pantone Printing company was working on a display card for
a hosiery manufacturer, mixing specific inks for each shade he was to
reproduce by trial and error. He wondered how it would be possible to
place an order for the same project many miles away and be assured
that each color matched the colors he'd printed. He then devised
a card which he sent to ink makers on which he'd printed a number
of different colors and listed the proportionate amount of different
color inks to mix to reproduce each color in any print shop,
anywhere. The rest is history.
Today, his Pantone ink
matching system is just a small part of what the Pantone Company
produces. These experts in the study of color track products from
paint to fabrics, molded plastics to tinted glass and defines and
classifies them, right down to an annual pronouncement for color of
the year (emerald
for 2013).
The ubiquity of four
color process printing (CMYK) has somewhat reduced the importance of
Pantone Color Matching system as Herbert created it, but there a re a
number of aides available that will help a printer reproduce a
Pantone color by screening back cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y) and
black (K) inks.
The discussion of color
reproduction became complicated with RGB computer monitors that
displayed colors that were not possible to recreate using 4 color
printing. If some of you have encountered problems translating
between the two modes, let me know and perhaps I can try to explain
the differences and why they matter.
I happen to have a couple
of old Pantone Matching System swatch books here and would be glad to
part with one to anyone who has a story (happy ending or not) of a
print job which specified printing with Pantone mixed colors. I'll
even offer a choice of a brand new book (circa 2004) or a shop worn
example with tons of street cred. And if you remember the Pantone
colors involved in the story. I'll try to rustle up a sheet of
rubylith for you.
Paywalls,
Resignations and a Death
As
publishers struggle to find ways to distribute their content while
earning enough money to pay the bills, their staffs and critics
debate the value of intellectual property and the best way to
disseminate ideas. Editors of the Journal of Library Administration
resigned
to protest the paywall securing its content and the author's loss
of control over their articles. An editor explained the the editor's
decision was partly influenced by the death
of internet activist Aaron Swartz.
RR
Donnelley Posts Loss, Closes Plants
RR
Donnelley, North
America's largest printer, posted a $849
million loss on sales of $2.7 billion in the fourth quarter. Two
weeks later it announced plans to close
two plants in Ohio, releasing approximately 225 employees.
First
Sale Doctrine and International Sales
The
Supreme Court has ruled that Supap Kirtsaeng, a California university
student, had a right to have his family purchase less expensive Asian
versions of textbooks, then
ship them to him so he could resell them profitably on eBay.
Metadata
and ONIX
The
benefit of understanding metadata for the publisher is that it can be
used to easily provide relevant information to book buyers. The most
common way to make the information available online is the ONIX
format (Online Information Exchange) that helps to organize data
storage.
Frommers
Finished, Lonely Planet Sold
After
purchasing Frommers last April as a complement to its earlier
purchase of Zagat, Google has announced it is ending
publication of the Frommer Travel Guide series. It's been a tough
year for travel guides as the BBC
has sold Lonely Planet, the travel guide publisher, for less than
half of what it paid just two years earlier.
Greenpeace
Media Assault Ends
Asia
Pulp and Paper has met with Greenpeace and other interested NGOs to
work out details for protecting
the Indonesian rainforest from further deforestation by the company.
Greenpeace has stopped its media assault on the company, at least for
the time being.
Aw,
C'mon! A Phablet? Really?
Amazon
needs to keep its ebook buyers devoted to all things Kindle and so it
will
introduce a smart phone/tablet early this summer with a 4.7”
screen, with a price possibly as low as $100 (but probably closer to
$150 or so).
Coated
Paper Goes Green...Really
The
European Union has sponsored research to eliminate petroleum based
paper coatings with a mixture
of seaweed extracts mixed with starch.
Need
Meets Genius: Short Video
A
stenographer looking for a quicker way to transcribe his notes
inspired inventor Ottmar Merganthaler to revolutionize
typesetting in the 19th
century.
Counterfeit
Cash
Most
printers are keenly aware of the counterfeiting laws in the US and
enjoy hearing about failed attempts by amateurs and pros alike to
simulate US currency. But this counterfeiter
took amateurism to a new level as he tried to return his used
computer printer to WalMart and sheets of paper printed with $100
bills on one side fell out during the scuffle.
Showing
a bit more expertise and creativity, two men were arrested in FL
after “washing” $1 bills and re-printing them as $100 bills.
And yes, WalMart was again a target.
Smallest
Book Ever
I
think the question,”When is a book not a book?” needs to be asked
after Toppan
Prining in Japan produced a 22 page book roughly the size of the
eye of a needle.
Hi-Tech
Bookmark
I
should have posted information about the Amazon
purchase of Goodreads and the uproar
from many authors over the sale. I offer instead this widely
tweeted picture of a Kindle being used as a bookmark.
Final
Thought
“There
are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading
them.” Joseph
Brodsky
