The letterpress demo that I attended was really interesting and informative. It gave me a new idea on how printing is done. It let me know how letters are printed onto text, and that the method of how printing is done. Rather than stick to the usual type-and-print method we college students do on our essays, the printing press still use the texture machines that plaster letters of all sizes onto paper. And it’s all in the digital age when the newspaper is supposedly dying in favor of the internet.
I learned a lot about the texture of printing onto a newspaper is still going strong even if we neglect the people who probably work hours printing hundreds of the same copies of newspapers every day. Even if I knew some newspaper companies use this method to print their newspapers, I still never knew that the print workers need to have proficiency if they are to make it through the whole day. From locating specific letters and punctuation in the letter box (I assume they have a name for it but I have forgotten) to placing them in the precise spot require proficient organization on the workers. That part about placing the right letters in the right spot interested me the most since one wrong misplace and it could cause the worker to start all over again entirely from scratch. I say that because of the misprint that occurred as I was printing my own paper.
The previous student noticed that one of the letters did not print and, after he informed the teacher, had to reset the entire machine all because of one single letter. Imagine if that was in a company printing thousands of printed copies of a newspaper for the following morning. This makes me wonder if they would need to recall and restart printing 500 copies of an entire newspaper all because one teeny tiny letter did not print right or there was a misprint. Would they even take the time to track down all the newspapers that had the mistake, or would they let the mistake fly since it was only a fraction of all the newspapers that will be printed.
After taking this demo of the class, I am proud to say that I honor all those workers who presumably work tirelessly making sure everything is in order when they print the newspapers, even if customers neglect the importance of them and their job.