OW IT’S MADE
PAPER PRODUCTION
nd camera cards, the
o develop negatives,
wanted to use with a
Year’s Eve fire, and
ve the chosen photo
inted to be placed on
e layout. Pictured are
e negatives with the
rcled photo printed
nd ready to be placed.
n order to know the
ize to make the photos,
an editor would use a
piece of paper to put
the scale, column size
and description of the
left.
T
Two other ways negatives were
viewed. The left is a slide that the
paper would recieve from either a
reporter or a contributing photog-
rapher to look at to print. Above are
medium format negatives. Medium
format cameras were used before
standard film cameras.
imeliness is of the essence in the newspaper business. Once stories were
researched, reported, written and then edited, rows of compositors would
be poised to work all night setting type for the next day’s paper. With the
coming of the telegraph to parts of the U.S. in the mid-19th century, editors
commonly kept one or two compositors late into the night ready to set stories
that came in from the telegraph. The dots and dashes of the telegraph message,
often consisting of just key words and phrases, were hastily transcribed by the te-
legrapher and given directly to the typesetters. Compositors were skilled enough
to decipher the telegrapher’s scribbles, compose full sentences while setting type
(letter by letter) by hand, and complete the entire story by deadline.
The Linotype machine, developed in the 1880s, combined the processes of
composing text, casting type, and redistributing the type molds. By working a
keyboard, the Linotype operator assembled molds, or matrices, of letters, num-
bers, or punctuation marks in sequence. The matrices were then mechanically
held in place while molten type metal was forced into them, creating a line of
type (“lin’ o’ type”). The individual matrices were automatically replaced in the
machine’s magazine for reuse.
The Linotype increased the speed of a typesetter fourfold. Once a story was
received, the type was set by hand, letter by letter. A typesetter dropped small
metal letters into a hand-held tray called a “stick.” Individual lines of type were
then placed by hand onto a page form. When a page was completed, it was then
sent to a plate room where a curved metal plate was made from the page form.
The page form was then placed on the printing press. Modern technology has re-
placed the Linotype process through a method called phototypesetting. The page
is laid out with slight adjustments allowed. The final version of the page is then
approved by the editor on duty and sent for processing There, the page is taken
in its computer format and transferred onto film in an image setter. The film is
then taken to a processor who develops it and adjusts it for its final look. Photo-
graphs are scanned into another computer and inserted into the page layout. The
pages that are set to be printed together are then taped down onto a device called
a “stripper.” The strippers are then put into frames on light-sensitive film, and
the image of each page is burned onto the film. A negative is then made of the
whole page, photographs and text. The film of the page, usually done two pages
at a time, is then placed on a lighted box. Next, an aluminum plate containing a
light-sensitive coating is placed on top of the image of the pages. The light box is
then switched on, and ultraviolet light develops the image of the pages onto the
aluminum plate. The aluminum plate is then bent at the edges so that it will fit
into a press, and is fitted onto plate cylinders.
The aluminum plates of each page next move on to the actual printing press.
The plate cylinders then press the image of the page onto a blanket cylinder,
leaving a version of the page’s image on the cylinder’s soft material. When the
paper runs through the press, the blanket cylinder presses the image onto it.
The chemical reaction of the ink, which contains oil, and jets of water into the
process result in the actual newspaper page of black or colored images on a white
background. Since oil and water do not mix, the areas where ink should adhere
to the page are black or colored, and water washes away the parts where ink is
not needed. Next, the large sheets of printed newsprint move on to another large
piece of machinery called a folder. There, the pages are cut individually and
folded in order. This entire printing process can move as fast as 60,000 copies
per hour.
**from madehow.com
200th l 13