[Leica] IMG: Remnant of the Past

[Douglas Barry]

Fascinating, Brian.  There was nothing similar to Sears over here, but 
low population and huge distances must have been great drivers of 
innovation. However, having been in branch banking way back, I do 
remember being involved in applications to our corporate lending 
department for clients who wanted to buy Heidelberg Off Set printing 
machines. The machines were hugely expensive at the time and cost a lot 
more than the average industrial upgrade we came across. Squeaky bum 
time for us bankers as we deliberated our recommendations. Now? Probably 
all in scrap yards thanks to digital dominance.

Douglas



On 05/10/2021 14:23, Brian Reid 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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