![]() Not all my own memories of paste up are positive, I must emphatically state. But an $8 million pagination system finally signaled that it was time to put away the sharp knives and pica poles, scrap the light tables, and turn off the waxer.įigure 5: In the plate room of 1926, stereotypers formed curved metal plates from flat composed metal pages. The Chronicle was one of the last large-city papers to run a composing room, thanks to an unusual mix of union contracts, ownership changes, and timing. It was sad for me to learn that the San Francisco Chronicle recently celebrated the paste-up of its final physical page. But for anyone who worked in a high-production paste-up department, the memories will linger like the smell of Bestine and hot petrochemicals. When the history of page composition is written, paste-up will be just a footnote compared to the reign of metal (300+ years) or the coming longevity of digital pages. It had a social hierarchy of sorts and took place in a unique work environment. Paste-up, in all its glory, was more than just a page-composition technique. ![]() Paste-up is not a technique that will likely enjoy boutique revival someday, though there is a moderately active market on eBay for old waxers. And though I’m mostly thrilled it’s gone, I also feel a little sorry for those who didn’t experience it. No, my coming-of-age in the graphic arts is definitely the paste-up era. ![]() I worked in shops that still had letterpress presses, but they made plastic plates from film by then. That is until you become a cranky old whiner.Īs much as I sometimes want to, I can’t honestly date myself back to metal pages in any way, shape, or form. We say things like “but then, I was a surgeon before they invented anesthesia,” or “my first computer filled three rooms, and generated enough heat to power a small city.” In the rest of our lives we tend to want to minimize our age and experience, but in things work related, longevity is a badge of honor. In every profession people date themselves by the work practices or technology in place at the time they entered their chosen field.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |