[Leica] OT: Kodak shuts Canadian plant

[mcintyre at ca.inter.net (mcintyre@ca.inter.net)]

BD

I work in the commercial printing industy. 25 years ago, it was all paste up 
from galleys,
rubylith 
overlays, art boards, stripped in PMT halftones. Film was shot on a graphic 
arts camera,
and plates 
were made photographically from the stripped film. 

Then imagesetters started to make inroads, and wide format film (40"), 
hi-resolution,
punch registering, 
accurate screens came in. The guys who used to run the cameras and do the 
manual film
assembly 
took courses in imposition software, quark, photoshop etc. They took their 
industry trade
skills, like 
how a press signature works, how books are assembled, how ink behaves on a 
press, and
reapplied 
them by learning new tools. 

Now virtually everything we print uses direct-to-plate technology. The same 
guys (and
gals) who used 
to run the image setters now run the plate setters. 

Your daughter's appreciation of tonal range, image quality, esthetics and so 
forth are her
advantage. 
Whether she knows how to balance a print using Selectol soft and normal 
Selectol is only
an application 
of that knowledge. She should find a mac, photoshop, some books and see 
what's there. A
good print 
still requires someone who recognizes the difference, and knows when to 
adjust the
exposure 
(traditional) or a histogram (digital). When the print industry was changing 
over, there
were a lot of 
challenges and technical problems. But the tide continued, and the 
underlying pressure to
make it work 
eventually did make it work. 


> The end is neigh. The other evening my daughter was saying she's
> panicked that she'll be out of a job in a couple months. She's a black
> and white printer for a small place in Concord, MA that does exhibition
> and book printing for all sorts of big name people, and prints for the
> NY Times for the collection prints it sells. They've always used Ilford
> paper and can no longer get it, and she says they're having trouble
> getting Agfa because people are buying it up in a panic. She's concerned
> that when they have to tell clients that certain papers aren't
> available, the reaction may be 'to hell with it, why stick with silver
> any more.'
> 
> I know that what I'm hearing is a 26-year-old's over-reaction, but it is
> telling.

> mcintyre@ca.inter.net
> Subject: [Leica] OT: Kodak shuts Canadian plant
> 
> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041209.wkodak1209/BNStory/Business/