Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2021/10/05

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Subject: [Leica] IMG: Remnant of the Past
From: cartersxrd at gmail.com (RicCarter)
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2021 09:44:51 -0400
References: <95c4741a-28e1-2fb1-5950-5354021348bf@lighttube.net> <64ec11ee2289a414e7a23841c52c8817@reid.org>

I swear, Brian, you have some of the BEST sotries!

ric



> On Oct 5, 2021, at 9:23 AM, Brian Reid <reid at mejac.carlsbad.ca.us> 
> wrote:
> 
> Sears Roebuck was a major force in advancing color printing, and was THE 
> pioneer in digital color printing.
> 
> By the 1960s, Sears realized that its customers expected the colors 
> printed in its catalog to be spot-on correct. As its VP of catalog sales 
> noted, "Your grandmother will hold the catalog up next to her curtains to 
> see if the colors match. If they match, she will order new sofa cushions. 
> If when the sofa cushions arrive they do not match the curtains, she will 
> return them angrily and stop buying from Sears for a while. The colors in 
> the catalog must be exact."
> 
> By the time I got involved, Sears catalogs were all printed by R. R. 
> Donnelley & Sons at its printing plant on Calumet street in Chicago. RR 
> Donnelley won and kept the contract because they were able to do a better 
> job of printing accurate colors than the competition. My involvement was 
> advising them on digital color separation technology so they could use 
> 7-color presses; the classic optical separation process didn't work well 
> past 4 colors and the filters were mind-numbingly expensive.
> 
> When my mother buys sofa cushions by mail order, she evaluates their color 
> using the screen on her iMac. Even if she could lift it to hold it next to 
> her curtains, proper comparison of glowing-screen colors with fabric 
> colors is impossible. The catalogs were better. I sometimes wish I had 
> kept one.
> 
> 
> On 2021-10-04 13:29, Jim Nichols wrote:
>> As I glanced around me on a cloudy morning, I saw this reminder of the
>> days before Amazon and other on-line sources.  Sears Roebuck, and its
>> rival, Montgomery Ward, were the mainstay of rural America.
>> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/20211004-DSCF3289-Enhanced.JPG.html
> 
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In reply to: Message from jhnichols at lighttube.net (Jim Nichols) ([Leica] IMG: Remnant of the Past)