[Leica] IMG: Remnant of the Past

[imra at iol.ie (Douglas Barry)]

Great anecdote, and wonderfully told, Jim :-)

Douglas

On 05/10/2021 14:47, jshulman at judgecrater.com wrote:
> You indeed paved the way in color printing, which had been renowned for 
> not only inaccurate color but iffy registration.  I recall seeing purple 
> hams from K-Mart circulars, usually slightly out of register ("purple ham" 
> became shorthand in our house for a K-Mart shopping trip.)
>
> In the 1980s and 1990s I was the marketing director for a catalog company 
> that, though considerable growth, printed more than six million catalogs a 
> year in eighteen variations.  After considering several major printing 
> companies, including Donnelley (also famed for printing telephone 
> directories,) we chose World Color Press, a relative newcomer that was 
> building brand new plants around the nation.
>
> Our catalog was slated for production at a rural Wisconsin site, recently 
> opened in what had been farmland.  During a tour of the facility my rep 
> mentioned that they printed Playboy magazine, and that some potential 
> clients refused to do business with them for that reason.  I said it sure 
> didn't matter to us, so long as our job was done properly and on budget.   
> We arrived at the proofing room, with 5000K lighting for a uniform 
> standard of judging match of the original files to printed pages.  There 
> was a huge proofing table filled with copies of that month's centerfold, 
> being proofed by about six ladies who could have been archetypes of 
> Grandma from a Normal Rockwell illustration.  They were bent over the 
> table, peering through 10X Zeiss loupes, makes sure the pubic hair was in 
> register.
>
> I walked up to one of the ladies and said, "Interesting job."  Without 
> pickup up her head she replied, "Keeps the family fed and the kids in 
> school," with uninterrupted attention to some model's pudendum.
>
> When I think of all the teenage boys who were worried that mom would find 
> the stash of Playboys hidden under the bed, I also consider that Grandma 
> wanted to make sure they were completely satisfied.
>
> Jim
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: LUG <lug-bounces+jshulman=judgecrater.com at leica-users.org> On 
> Behalf Of Brian Reid
> Sent: Tuesday, October 5, 2021 9:23 AM
> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] IMG: Remnant of the Past
>
> 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-Enhance
>> d.JPG.html
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