I remember many years ago, probably the late 60's, I was working for a printer in Heath, Ohio, and one day we had an elderly gentleman stop by the office and talked with Mr. Gainer, who owned the business. He was just curious, he was an old printer, had been in the business all his life, and was interested in seeing "how it is done," in a modern printing plant.
I was introduced to him, and took him on a tour of the plant. I showed him our graphic arts camera, and how it worked, showed him the negative it produced, how it was exposed and "burnt" on to an offset plate, put on the AB Dick 360 Press, and printed him a sample sheet. He was enthralled. He was "old school" and not familiar with the type of printing we did. He was very interested in the whole process.
In his day they used "hand set" type, or had "zinc's" made, or set copy on their "Linotype." This was all new to him. He was very interested in learning how things were done, "today."
Now, I am that old man, I have no idea how things are done today. Been brought to mind recently by all these political pieces we get in the mail, can't imagine how they are all printed. Everything I know about printing is obsolete, and I was in it during the evolution from Letterpress to Offset. The progress, in printing, from the 60's to the 90's was amazing. And that is all a thing of the past in comparison to the "computer age" of printing, but don't ask me, I don't know how it is done today. I am that old man who would like to see how it is done, today.
