Early communication technology

MSTD 300 Media History
MSTD 328 Print Production

Index

Review

Typesetting

Moveable type spurred the printing revolution. What is the difference between hot type and cold type?

  Setting type in the 16th century was much the same as setting type in the 19th century. Note the upper and lower cases.
  Over one hundred typesetters worked in the typesetting room of the Manchester Guardian in the 1890s.
  The type case became as familiar as a typewriter to an experienced typesetter.
  This is the "stick" into which type would be set. Note each line had to be set backwards.
  An early "Simplex" attempt at mechanical typesetting.
  Mechanized typesetting at its peak in the 1950s. They make it look so clean ...
  ... but in fact setting hot type was a dirty and dangerous occupation where lead poisoning was all too common.
 

When computers were first used to set type, they printed to photographic paper which was "cold" compared to type poured from hot lead.

The Compugraphic in this photo had a ten inch floppy disk with a maximum of 20,000 bytes of storage. (Yes, only two kilobytes).

  Today typesetting is easy with computers and laser printers. To publish a newspaper does not require an investment of tens of thousands, but only a few thousand for a computer.
?
  Yet there are far fewer newspapers today than there were 50 years ago.