[Leica] IMG: Remnant of the Past

[Brian Reid]

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