Computers
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- Title
- Farewell etaoin shrdlu
- Date
- 1978
- Length
- 29:08
- Description
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.
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- Title
- Modules Make Sense
- Date
- Circa 1968
- Length
- 25:40
- Topics
- Description
Monotype made this film to showcase their newer, computer technologies that were finally coming to the market in the late 1960s. Based on the idea of modules which could be interchanged as needed for printers’ and typesetters’ specific needs, Monotype is desperate to show they are using modern circuit boards and tape-reading “computers” and are not behind the times.
Even though they are doing their best to talk about computers and modern technology, this film still has a great deal about their mechanical keyboards, composition casters, and non-digital machinery. At the very end of the film, they literally walk over to their R&D department to show a preview of their Monophoto 600 Film Setter, which is their first truly-electronic typesetting machine.
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- Date
- Circa 1958
- Length
- 22:54
- Topics
- Description
This film showcases Monotype’s answer to the upcoming phototypesetting revolution. They take great pains to show how little has changed from the old, hot-metal Monotype machines by replacing the hot-metal pot with a light source and the brass matrices with individual, photo negative matrices for exposure on paper or film. This cautious approach was in order to assuage the fears of printers who did not want to change.
Throughout this film, you see what is new (including a session in the red-light darkroom) along with everything that has stayed the same (same keyboard and punched paper tape). Watch a woman “stripping” in new lines of text using techniques that would have seemed futuristic and fanciful in the late 1950s.
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- Date
- 1966
- Length
- 16:34
- Topics
- Description
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.
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- Title
- Linotron 1010
- Date
- 1966
- Length
- 10:27
- Topics
- Description
The Linotron is a very early CRT exposure machine. It creates a page (not just a line) of text at one time. Using a film grid of characters, it can create up to 1,000 characters per second.
The film starts with a great animated sequence showing the speed of change and the overwhelming mass of communication. The Linotron 1010 is a CRT machine in three parts; the control unit, the character generator, and the output/display unit. It no longer uses tape input, but now uses magnetic tape from computers.
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- Date
- 1967
- Length
- 10:28
- Description
Created by Mergenthaler to show off the newest typesetting, film and computer machines to the American Newspaper Publishers Association.
This film was created at a time when all newspapers knew film and computer technology were the future, but they were not yet convinced in which technology to invest. It features the Elektron, tape-perforating keyboard center, Linofilm Quick, and other early-computer machines.
Many newspaper men in suits, thick glasses, and skinny black ties.