It is a sad day when one of the key members of the digital graphic arts communities dies. David Watson, the founder of Ultimate Technographics and the inventor of digital imposition died of a heart attack at drupa on Saturday May 31. I have had the privilege of knowing David for many years and found him to be a true gentleman, a real innovator and a person happy to share his knowledge and vision with others in the industry. His development of Impostrip the first digital imposition product in the early 1980s was perhaps the key development in changing prepress from a manual to an automated computer operation. Prior to Impostrip, imposition of pages into film flats for printing was a skilled, time-consuming manual task. Digital imposition changed the industry by both improving the quality of printing through totally accurate imposed output and allowing printing to become both more productive and more cost effective.
Commentary & Analysis
David Watson
It is a sad day when one of the key members of the digital graphic arts communities dies.
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Discussion
By Randy Davidson on Jun 03, 2008
Thanks for the post Andy. We want to express our sorrow to his family, friends, employees and customers over the loss of David at drupa.
When WhatTheyThink.com started in March of 2000, he was one of our first subscribers. He would frequently send us emails about stories we should consider writing or opine about special reports that appeared on WhatTheyThink.com. He has also been active posting his opinions here on the blog.
In my dealings with him, he was a very kind and gentle man. He always championed the small and medium printers and suppliers as true innovators in this industry. Our thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones.
Randy Davidson
President and CEO
WhatTheyThink
By Michael Jahn on Jun 03, 2008
We are all very shocked and sadden to learn of the loss of our dear friend David Watson.
Both David Lewis and I are interested in contacting people that may have images of David that we might compile into a memory book for his wife Joanne.
Anyone can upload images to this widget, and David and I will design;
http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/david-watson
so, to any and all - if you have any story you might care to share, please feel free to send it to us.
By Steve Musselman on Jun 04, 2008
I must echo Andy's comments about David's impact on our industry. Through David's vision, our industry has seen significant change for the better.
I had the fortune of working for and with David for many years. Due to his mentoring, I find myself with Agfa for the past 15 years.
David will be missed, yet his legacy continues through the re-engineering and automation of our industry, which truly started with his vision and ambition.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Joanne and Julie.
Steve Musselman
Agfa Graphics
By Jan Eskildsen on Jun 04, 2008
It is sad news, indeed. I first met David in the beginning of the 1990es in his company in Montreal, later during Ultimate's start up in Copenhagen, where I was lucky to find staff for them.
Impostrip was really hot stuff, when it arrived. Manual impositioning of films were a time consuming task, but it was eliminated or at least minimized with David's software.
By David Zwang on Jun 04, 2008
Of course, I too was shocked to hear of David's passing. I first met David in 1989, when we sat on a panel together at Lasers and Graphics in New Orleans and he presented (I believe for the first time publicly) the electronic imposition. At the time it was called PostStrip. It was created using a PC and then processed with Postscript Rips. Since then, I have seen and spoken with him over the years and watched his vision come to fruition. We will surely miss him.
By Henk Gianotten on Jun 04, 2008
David was Ultimate and Ultimate was David.
We exchanged info during several exhibitions and shows. He was a vendor with very detailed knowledge of our business, the printing business.
And he understood the (sometimes) very special European needs.
He was a very nice guy.
Sad. Very sad. David will be missed.
By Jim Hamilton on Jun 10, 2008
I’m so sorry to hear about David’s death. I spoke to him before I left for the show. I hadn’t been in touch since my Linotype days, but I wanted to ask him about some of Ultimate’s innovations around book workflows for digital print. He was very gracious and helpful and I came away with a much better understanding of the market and Ultimate’s products. It’s a shock to know that he passed on only a couple of weeks later. My condolences to the family on your loss.
By Margaret Motamed on Jun 10, 2008
David was a very active member of the CIP4 Advisory Board and we will miss his passion and enthusiasm for the print industry, JDF, and CIP4. Did I mention he was active - one of our most vociferous AB members. David, you are already missed, and somehow we can still hear your voice in our meetings!
Joanne and Ultimate, words are not enough.
Discussion
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