Printing Methods Have Changed Over The Years

If one stops to consider the printing process

, and how newspapers are produced in huge numbers on a daily basis, it is amazing how many processes they have to go through to get to the end result. CTP (computer to plate) is one of the technologies used and is just one process added to prepress equipment which is yet another method for producing newsprint.

Since this century began, digital printing has leapt forward in leaps and bounds from the old method of printing. Although, dark rooms and light tables were used back then now this has become a little old-fashioned. Large format photography is what is in vogue today and they actually photograph the finished product which can include text and photos alike. This is then put into the computer where another process or stripping a photo down to several component parts takes place. All these methods mean that the image can be used over and over again. Even up to today, new processes are being discovered and developed so this is really changing the face of news printing at a fast rate.

Through these modern methods, the cost of printing is falling very fast. Although some people still want to stay with the older methods, new technology must be adopted if any publication is to keep up with its competitors for sure.

New and innovative software also means that multiple personnel can work on one page all at the same time. Reporters who are out in the field can send in their reports as and when they happen so the newspaper can get the reputation of always being first with the news. However, all humans make mistakes of course so all this work has to be proofed before the printing process begins.

In living history, people used to stand for hours entering individual letters, backwards, into forms to make an article or whole page of the newspaper. This work, called compositing, was done very painstakingly but people became so adept at reading backwards that they sped up a lot later on. Each page would then have to be inked and pressed onto paper for the 'proofers' to read through before it was sent off for the mass run.

Copy editors would then check the whole layout of the paper to make sure that everything was in the right place. It had to look interesting and effective if the public were to buy so this was quite an important part of the process. Once this was done to satisfaction, the whole thing would be sent to the printer for mass production which usually went on through the night so that people could read the news first thing the following day.

Even in this computer age, there is still a need for human intervention in this whole process since the computer cannot differentiate between words that are spelled differently but would give the completely wrong meaning to the piece. However, what computers do is to make some of the older processes defunct which gives more time for checking and printing the end product.

by: Stewart Wrighter

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