NOTES
PRINTING PRESS
- San Serifs developed from taking an egyptian face and taking out the feets.
- 1900s is when San Serif is used for writing text.
- 1796 Lithography invented.
- Up till this point printing has not changed a lot.
- Still using same basic system that Gutenberg made.
- The first iron was created in the 1800s.
- Used about 1/10 of a human effort on a wooden press.
- Frederich Koening made the first double cylinder steam press in 1814.
- This could print 400 sheets an hour.
- The double cylinder steam press was able to create 1100 impressions.
- People are freaking out because people are becoming expendable.
- Printing press are replacing human work force.
- 'Luddite' is a term against computers, technology.
- Printing press wasn't warmly embraced as people were concern of feeding their children.
PENNY PAPERS & ADS
- Paper became cheaper. It went from 3 cents to 1 cents.
- Penny papers are more geared towards the common people.
- They had to appeal to a wider audience. Needed a broader spectrum of subjects.
- They started to sell ads in their papers.
- Visually conservative. Very blocky kind of page.
- Penny Papers were more enlightening and focused on happier things.
- In 1841, John Cooper became the first ad men.
- John Cooper used to work for a newspaper placing ads.
- Media buyer is the person who places the ads.
- You can learn about travel, what people bought, what people were interested in.
- Not about the craft. It's business.
- 1886, Otmar Merganthaller perfected the linotype machines.
- Papers were limited by 8 pages.
- He first files a pact for a linotype machine that allows a person to do composites.
- By 1886 there are 300 machines that have become patented. And 1000s more waiting to be patented.
- Otmar is a german immigrant. He comes up with this idea with casting type.
- He thought of a way to cast letters faster.. words at a time.
- One line of type machine could do the work of 7 or 8 compositors.
- Up till this point, there was a pretty good business casting type. But that collapsed when the Linotype.
- The American Type Founders Company came about because of this. This is a business scenario.
- Linotype is the precursor of what our keyboards are today.
- Gutenberg press, steam press, linotype machines all shaped printing.
PHOTOGRAPHY
- Joseph Niets (sp?) took the first photograph taken.
- Henry Fox Talbet (sp?) experimented with photograms.
- Photograms became an interesting play item for early artist.
- A photogram is taking a piece of light sensitive paper and exposing it to light.
- In 1889 Kodak released a camera that an average person can use.
- This was huge because anyone can use a camera.
- There wasn't a great use for publishing.
- They would send photographers out to shoot scenes and send it to illustrators to carve woodblocks to be used to print.
- 1880 came about the first half tone plate. In order to print a photograph you need to print out a half tone.
- With a halftone people were able to print photographs with continuous tones.
- Halftone allows you to print a photography.
- 1861 to 1865 was the civil war. Photographs were mostly the aftermath. Because had long exposure.
- People complained about authenticity of the civil war photos.
- Photoshop we always do that all the time.
- You can't do that in journalism that is unethical.
- Edward Moybridge(sp?) photographs multiple images of a horse.
- First tentative steps towards motion pictures.
- Edward took pictures of horse to win a bet on a way a horse moves.
- The Victorian era for graphics was noted for aesthetic confusion.
- Marked as a period of having very strong religious beliefs.
- William Henry Fox Talbet in 1884 created the title page of Pencil of Nature. There's gothic lettering, vine work, renaissance motif, etc. All touchstones of Victorian age aesthetic.
- Lithography is printing on stones. The advantages of litho stone you could do gradation, crazy curvy lines, more flexibility.
- Lithography was invented in the 1700s.
- In early 1800s they invented chromo lithography.
- Printing now had people and typography together.
EPHEMERA
- Scrap cards are cheap and colorful. Anyone can have colored art in their home.
- Tigers, fruits, faces, peacocks, Moorish tile patterns, Santa, clowns, etc. = stuff. Scrap cards had lots of subjects.
- Victorian's loved illusions of depth and very intricate patterns.
- L Prang and Company created these scrap cards.
- Scrap cards is a great example of Victorian era graphics.
- Spirit of nationalism was strong in the Victorian era art.
- This is also the same time period were there was lots of posters on circuses and entertainment.
- "Carry Us All" … Carousal.
PERSONAL THOUGHTS
In class today we focused a lot today on the evolution of the printing press and how it eventually took over people's jobs. As printing press became more and more popular they started to use them in newspapers and pages. In the beginning of class we saw a short 20 min video on worker's living arrangements. It was so insane how a whole family could sleep on one bed. It feels so unfair and so cruel to have those living arrangements. I could not live in those houses. I did not know there were so many different kinds of printing systems. I learned a new term called 'Luddite' which was really interesting. I did not know that it meant people who feared technology. It feels so weird to be against technology. The thought of being counter technology is just very foreign to me. I can't believe papers were so ridiculously cheap. Three cents is already cheap for a paper and to think that one cent is a big difference says a lot about the money, economy, and currency. Penny Papers really rolls off the tongue.
I really enjoyed the photography section of the lecture. I'm a photographer but I don't know a lot about the history of photography. It was interesting to know about halftones and the first photographs. It's so insane that photography had such a long exposure that it couldn't capture humans unless they were dead still. I did not know there was high controversy with civil war photography that it was staged. I loved your insert on photoshop and how it's also controversial like how it was back then. I found it interesting that photography was integrated into papers.
Victorian style is very distinctive to me. Probably the most eye-catching historical style to me. The intricate patterns and illusion of depth and detail really screams Victorian style. I want to learn more about Victorian era and style. I think their whole culture is very interesting.
QUESTIONS AND RESEARCH
I really liked the discussion on photography and how old civil war photos were 'reenacted' and was claimed as not authentic. Especially that things back then ties with things we do today lie use photoshop to touch up photos. What is your opinion on edited material? Do you think photoshop is an evil or a tool?
Lithography sounds really interest (and extremely difficult). Ink is really easy to sink into paper. But how does the ink in lithography sink into stone?
Lithography sounds really interest (and extremely difficult). Ink is really easy to sink into paper. But how does the ink in lithography sink into stone?
