Discussion

By Graham Judd on Nov 07, 2022

What's with the PLEASE LEAVE BY REAR DOOR sign behind Joe?

By Erik Pedersen on Nov 12, 2022

Dear Editors, WhatTheyThink

Graham Judd inquired: “What’s with the PLEASE LEAVE BY REAR DOOR sign behind Joe?” Clearly, it’s likely a little inside joke for the benefit of old-fashioned letterpress compositors. For complete authenticity, ihe letters should, perhaps, have been upside down as well as being mirrored.

I learned how to set foundry type, operate a Linotype machine and remelt type metal in about 1968, when letterpress typography was quickly being displaced for most purposes, and much of my work over the next few years consisted of pulling proofs of set-up pages, redistributing the foundry type and recycling the used Linotype metal.

I kept up with my rapidly changing trade as best as I could, learning the IBM Composer, filmsetting on the Varityper, CompuGraphic and Mergenthaler V-I-P machines, then switching to the Macintosh and laser printing of composed pages, together with service bureau film output. Having kept up my skills — variously with Aldus PageMaker, Quark XPress, Ready-Set-Go and Adobe InDesign — I was at one point in 2002 offered a salary of $11.50 an hour to input and make up classified ads and handle pagination for Monday magazine in Victoria, B.C.

Not having been able to find better work after nearly 35 years in the printing trade, I switched to working as an editor for Hansard, the official verbatim record of parliamentary debates in British Columbia — which, I can honestly say is the best job I've ever had in my life. My workmates are all intelligent, kind and collegial, and the work, which we perform with scrupulous neutrality and great attention to detail, is rewarding; I feel as if I’m making a genuine contribution to the historical record.

Thanks for posting Frank Romano's interesting conversation with Joe Treacy. I remember working with Fontographer as well, until it, along with PageMaker and FreeHand, was sold to Adobe as part of their purchase of their only real competitor, Aldus. I still don't understand why such an acquisition was even permitted under competition law.

Kind regards,
Erik Bjørn Pedersen
Victoria, B.C., Canada

By Joe Treacy on Nov 17, 2022

Erik, that’s a great story. I’m fascinated to read about how resilient you’ve been throughout all the tumultuous change in the composing industry over the decades. Congratulations on being able to leverage all that to transition to your editorship at Hansard. It sounds like a great fit for you. You came through it all, on top! I was glad to see you mention Fontographer and FreeHand. So much fun to use. Best, Joe Treacy, Treacyfaces.com

By Graham Judd on Nov 17, 2022

Yes, thanks for the story Erik. I have returned to my original trade, letterpress machining, on an Original Heidelberg platen. Old school printing has caught on here in New Zealand as it has in many countries.
A special thanks must go to Frank, for continuing to post these interesting videos every week. I always look forward to viewing them.