[Leica] IMG: Remnant of the Past

[jshulman at judgecrater.com]

You indeed paved the way in color printing, which had been renowned for not only inaccurate color but iffy registration.  I recall seeing purple hams from K-Mart circulars, usually slightly out of register ("purple ham" became shorthand in our house for a K-Mart shopping trip.)  

In the 1980s and 1990s I was the marketing director for a catalog company that, though considerable growth, printed more than six million catalogs a year in eighteen variations.  After considering several major printing companies, including Donnelley (also famed for printing telephone directories,) we chose World Color Press, a relative newcomer that was building brand new plants around the nation.  

Our catalog was slated for production at a rural Wisconsin site, recently opened in what had been farmland.  During a tour of the facility my rep mentioned that they printed Playboy magazine, and that some potential clients refused to do business with them for that reason.  I said it sure didn't matter to us, so long as our job was done properly and on budget.   We arrived at the proofing room, with 5000K lighting for a uniform standard of judging match of the original files to printed pages.  There was a huge proofing table filled with copies of that month's centerfold, being proofed by about six ladies who could have been archetypes of Grandma from a Normal Rockwell illustration.  They were bent over the table, peering through 10X Zeiss loupes, makes sure the pubic hair was in register.

I walked up to one of the ladies and said, "Interesting job."  Without pickup up her head she replied, "Keeps the family fed and the kids in school," with uninterrupted attention to some model's pudendum.  

When I think of all the teenage boys who were worried that mom would find the stash of Playboys hidden under the bed, I also consider that Grandma wanted to make sure they were completely satisfied.

Jim


-----Original Message-----
From: LUG <lug-bounces+jshulman=judgecrater.com at leica-users.org> On Behalf Of Brian Reid
Sent: Tuesday, October 5, 2021 9:23 AM
To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
Subject: Re: [Leica] IMG: Remnant of the Past

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-Enhance
> d.JPG.html

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