I'm a graphic designer by trade, but I learned to set type through
necessity. My first several jobs were at printing companies, and if
the typesetter was sick, or couldn't work late, or if you screwed
up the type when you pasted it up, you had to jump in and set your
own. I first learned to set type on the IBM Selectric, changing the
balls to get bold, italic, etc. I could then quickly paste up the
business cards and flyers that took up the valuable time of the
typesetter.
Then I upgraded to the Compugraphic with filmstrips of letters and
numbers. We wrapped this strip around a drum, closed the door, and
began to type. Of course, you gave the computer codes at the start
of a line or paragraph to tell it what size, font, leading and
justification you wanted. The screens were just lines of codes and
the typed text, so you had to visualize in your head what you were
doing and what you hoped you'd get. If you were good, you got what
you wanted spit out of the processor the first time. You'd hang it
up to dry, then run it through the waxer for paste up. And as a
designer, if you wanted something funky done to the type, you were
better off doing it yourself than trying to explain it to the busy
typesetters.
Then the MAC came in all it's "what you see is what you get" glory.
My first experience with a MAC was at a financial printing company
at night. I knew the owner and worked out a deal to use his MAC at
night, learning as I went along, in return for teaching his
typesetters how to use it. The perfect marriage for a designer that
knew typesetting--explaining the layout and design functions to the
typesetters, who had explained typesetting to me so many years
before.
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