By executive order, we all took Sunday off and had a company outing to see the movie Linotype: The Film. Several of the people here are very interested in old machines so being in a dark theater instead of outside on a beautiful autumn day made perfect sense. I think their interest has to do with the precision and complexity of these machines. Also, there is the longevity; these machines may become obsolete, but they keep working and working and working! It’s impressive to anyone who writes software to look at how those things are done.

(Years ago we even bought an old Heidelberg press for no other reason than everyone was so knocked out by the complexity of the thing. I think they paid something like $25 for it. What was so interesting was how the thing actually still ran after 90+ years of service. It was still within tolerance. It’s now in a museum and does demonstrations.)

Anyway, I’m glad we saw the movie and I’d recommend it to anyone involved in any aspect of printing or design. The people depicted in the movie are quite funny and inspiring. Also the movie really gives you an idea of the precision, beauty and simplicity of newsprint. The fonts are so clean!

Plus, it’s been long since Linotypes stopped being used (1980) that you can now see how the world has drifted in terms of print quality. Most of us have gotten so used to mediocre screen fonts and sometimes less than stellar digital print quality it’s actually a bit jarring. Commercial printing used to be so nice. You can see why the guys profiled in the movie are still so in love with the machines. And don’t get me started on letter press!

I’m not just being nostalgic. All technology is a trade-off. The web is great and no one wants to go back. But it’s also good to look back. Technology changes so fast. Everyone needs a periodic reference check otherwise we easily forget certain standards of quality. It’s getting hard to remember that for almost a century when one talked about typesetting, the Linotype was it. The results speak for themselves.

I made a resolution to keep some examples of newsprint and letterpress on my wall from now; just as a reminder of what great looking print is all about.