The End of Hot Lead & The Letterpress

The End Of An Era in Typesetting


(Taken from Font. The Sourcebook, Black Dog Publishing)


"The second half of the twentieth century saw massive shifts in technology that would ultimately lead to the end of metal type. With the close of the Second World War, the austerity of prolonged privation gave way to a renewed sense of of cultural experimentation...the advent of rubdown lettering systems such as the Letraset, and the invention of the personal computer, meant that typeface design became an increasingly democratic discipline, foregrounding a whole host of divergent principles and practices"


I think what the author is saying here compounds the theory that the introduction of digital typesetting opened up an entirely new realm of creation for people who were merely interested in design, but yet lacked the skill that was previously associated with something so specialised as font creation & printing. 


The development of Off-set Lithography was one of many nails in the coffin for metal typesetting, as it became easier and more cost effective to produce high quality prints. The process of Lithography was adapted by Ira Rubel, an American whose former employer manufactured decorative patterns on tin novelties. He adapted the same process that was used for this and applied it to paper instead. 


The original invention of Lithography was developed in the late 18th century, but despite this it didn't become dominant until around the 1960's when there was a massive technical shift from the Letterpress method. The letterpress method has reached the limit of it's potential, where lithography was new in comparison.


(Taken from: From Gutenberg to OpenType, Robin Dodd)


"It (Lithography) is based on the principle that water an oil do not mix...Off-set Lithgraphic printing presses have cylinders fitted with very thin aluminium printing plates. The image adheres to the plate photographically. The plates wrap around the cylinders and have a surface grain; giving them water carrying properties as well as allowing anchorage for the image. Unlike letterpress, the paper does not touch the printing plate. The plate is inked by rollers, so that the ink just adheres to the image and is rejected elsewhere by the presence of moisture. The inked printing plate transfers the image on to a rubber coated cylinder, which the transfers the image on to the paper."


The Letterpress

The Process of Lithography

Despite this, the letterpress remained an effective way of printing black & white, and alterations could be made at a much later stage than Lithography. However, to print half-tones or colours on a Letterpress, high quality coated art-paper was required. 


For things such as book with illustrations, this was costly and a lot more difficult to implement than simply printing the entire book using Offset-Lithography. 


(Taken From: From Gutenberg to Opentype, Robin Dodd)


"...it was a letterpress convention to print text on cheaper paper, and insert sections throughout the book with illustration printed on art paper."


Lithography allowed a cheaper method of producing books that were of high quality than the ones currently available.


"Off-set Lithography was able to print half-tone photographs on less expensive paper, making it possible to combine illustration with text on the same page...This offered greater flexibility in the design as well as a less expensive product, thus offering the public a more exciting kind of book at a time when television was thought to be posing to challenge to reading."


Here is an example of the development the printing specialisation, has become less specialised. While at this point in time, both methods require skill to use, I can already see it made printing more accessible as well as potentially expanding the user base for consumers who are interested in reading. I relate this to the development of digital fonts and software used to create them. As technology has improved, the accessibility of the practice is greater.


While I believe that during the beginning of Lithography's rise, it made it possible for design to be taken in a new direction, thanks to it's additional flexibility that the letterpress lacked.


(Taken from Font.The Sourcebook, Black dog Publishing)


"Some printers found that they particularly enjoyed organising visual materials in readiness for reproduction. They "evolved" in to graphic designers."


I do not believe that at that point in time was the consumers view of these outcomes was necessarily changed. Perhaps later on in to the 50 and 60's when Lithography finally outdid the Letterpress, during the 20's I believe that it was such an emerging technology that not everybody embraced it immediately. 

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