Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2021/10/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Brian, you are a man of many talents! Thanks for your contribution to the trip down memory lane. On 10/5/21 8:23 AM, 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 >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information -- Jim Nichols Tullahoma, TN USA