Printing Films - Printing Films Archive
Featured Films
Title<br>Type Faces in the Making
Date<br>Circa 1955
Length<br>34:30
Topics
Monotype
Type Design
Typography
Matrix Manufacturing
Pantograph
Description<br>If you ever wondered how a typeface went from a designer’s drawing to a finished, cast piece of type from the Monotype; this is the film for you. Starting with an original drawing, this film goes through the painstaking and multi-step process of creating a single typeface in a single style in a single size for the Monotype composition caster.
It shows the entire process of type design and creation at Monotype including tracing using custom-made projectors, making a technical drawing (showcasing the drawing office with many women workers), making a pattern plate using a pantograph, creating a brass pattern, using a pantograph to engrave a punch, punching the brass to make matrices for the full matrix case, and finally casting the letters in type metal using a composition caster.
Title<br>Hot Line to Profit
Date<br>Early 1970s?
Length<br>15:05
Topics
Printing
Print Production
Offset Printing
Description<br>Are you a printer, typesetter, binder, screen printer, or image scanner in need of help with technical problems and are your shirt collars wide-enough to prove that it is the 1970s? If so, this is the film for you. The Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF) has a telephone hotline that you can call for technical assistance and problem-solving to help you stay profitable in the printing business.
The GATF was established in Pittsburgh, PA to help over 1,200 printers and reproduction facilities of all sizes deal with common issues affecting production and to increase profitability. They offered on-call trouble shooting, research and development in new technologies and tactics, and education to keep you and your staff informed and abreast of all new ideas in printing.
Title<br>Monotype School Story
Date<br>1968
Length<br>13:55
Topics
Monotype
Hot Metal Typesetting
Education
Description<br>This film was created to convince printing and typesetting shops to send their employees to the school to learn Monotype skills.
After a strange—and quite romantically awkward—beginning, this film showcases the Monotype School in London where students can learn the skills required to operate a Monotype keyboard for casting or photo typesetting.
We see typing and keyboarding practice using light-up keyboard boards, very close-up shots of a student’s eyes, and students listening to tapes of people speaking to test their speed of typing.
Title<br>I.T.U. Electronic Progress
Date<br>1966
Length<br>16:34
Topics
Computers
ITU
IBM
Linofilm
Photo Type
Newspapers
Description<br>A film created by the International Typographic Union to display the advancing electronic technology being introduced to typesetting and printing. It specifically demonstrates “A System to Computerize Advertising Composition at the Washington Evening Star” in Washington D.C.
This film shows an IBM 1620 computer and additional storage disks working with Linofilm typesetters that were installed in July of 1963. There is a very in-depth explanation of the process of early computer and film typesetting. Additionally, new forms of plate making with cameras and photo composition are shown.
Linotype Films
Title<br>Farewell etaoin shrdlu
Date<br>1978
Length<br>29:08
Topics
Linotype
Newspapers
Computers
Hot Metal Typesetting
New York Times
Description<br>A film created by Carl Schlesinger and David Loeb Weiss documenting the last day of hot metal typesetting at The New York Times. This film shows the entire newspaper production process from hot-metal typesetting to creating stereo moulds to high-speed press operation.
At the end of the film, the new typesetting and photographic production process is shown in contrast to the old ways. There are interviews with workers at NYT that are for and against the new technology. In fact, one typesetter is retiring on this final day as he does not want to learn the new process and technology.
This is the first time the film has ever been available in HD from the original 16mm master film.
Title<br>The Eighth Wonder
Date<br>1961
Length<br>25:00
Topics
Linotype
Pantograph
Matrix Manufacturing
Linofilm
Hot Metal Typesetting
Photo Type
Manufacturing
Description<br>Made for the 75th anniversary of the Linotype in 1961, this film shows the impact that the invention of the Linotype had on the printing industry and the world. There are excellent sections on typeface design, cutting steel punches, using the Benton engraving machine, and the manufacture of Linotype matrices.
The film showcases various models of Linotypes, machines running via tape and Teletypesetting, as well as Linofilm machines and the process of producing film type matrices.
(note: audio is missing for the first 10 seconds)
Title<br>Linotype Elektron
Date<br>1962
Length<br>10:21
Topics
Linotype
Hot Metal Typesetting
Teletype
Description<br>“In the age of jet speed,...