No Digital Wax

Waxers, non-repro blue pencils, x-actos, hot lead, and typesetting machines and processors have given way to wires, laser printers, and computers small enough to carry under our arms.

It doesn’t seem that long ago most all design and prep for printed materials were done by hand. A time-consuming task that now takes far less time. Copy was produced by the writer, then the copy was stored on a mainframe computer, which then was retrieved for output. Typesetters (this was a person coding the type for output) then sent this file to an image-setter, which produced type galleys. These type galleys were then waxed or glued using rubber cement and affixed to a paste-up board based on the specific design allowing for images to be added later.

Clipart was used for artwork that either came from a clipart service or was created by local artists. Photos were supplied by a photographer and then reproduced on a stat camera designed to make photographs printable.

Once all the type and art was pasted into place, a photocopy was made of the paste-up for proofreaders who would edit the copy. Now completed, the art boards were then sent to a printer who would shoot the entire art board on a special camera to create film. This film was then stripped up in position for proofs and printing. At this point, proofs where made from these pieces, called flats, for final client approval.

Once all the proofs were approved, plates where made for the press for printing. From the press, these printed pieces went to the knife for trimming, then to the bindery where all the pieces and parts were assembled, and then shipped to their final location. Nowadays, some of these processes still exist, however, most files are sent digitally and produced digitally, all of which can start out from a machine you can almost put in your pocket.

There is a lot to be said for the ease and less mess of today’s production of printed materials. So even if those were the “good ol’ days,” now when I go home I don’t smell like chemicals, have fewer cuts on my fingers, and my hands don’t stick together from either wax or glue. But, there is still charm in doing things the old way that lingers in my mind and probably always will.