Discussion

By Diane Dragoff on Sep 27, 2024

Thanks for the memories. I really wanted to become a stripper, but it really wasn't a "girl joDesign. That kind of stripper, anyways. It was really good to know the process because the computers mimicked , at least at the beginning I could think in analog and translate for the young'uns who didn't have that background in nondigital design.

By Alvaro Mantilla on Sep 27, 2024

During my first summer break after my freshman year at RIT, I worked as a "film stripper" at a newspaper in Ecuador, which also had a commercial printing operation. Stripping the films for the newspaper pages was not too difficult, however one time I was asked to assemble the films for a geography textbook. I went on with my task, and thought I had done a great job, I concentrated on being sure that the registration was perfect! Once the book went to press and I saw the first signatures coming out of the press, I noticed I made a terrible mistake. On a map of South America, the Ecuadorian line was not passing through Ecuador, but it was passing through Panama!! It was my mistake when doing the stripping... since then I stayed away from the films....

By Jules Van Sant on Sep 27, 2024

Thanks Frank - I was married to a stripper... and also supervised a group of strippers (film of course) who had to learn computers or lose their jobs ... great conversation starters!

Then there are the other film stars... Ruby(lith) and Amber(lith) from my early screenprinting days. I was never a skilled performer myself, but directed, sold, bought, reviewed...

Shoot, bump, trap, expose, proof, burn, plate... all the terms. Blueline, Velox... Oh MY! I guess I have been doing this for a minute :)

On a serious note, Skills do matter!! At the Print & Graphics Scholarship Foundation, we continue to work with educators, students, and employers to stay ahead and communicate modern terminology to the present and future print communities.

I am excited to share we are contributing to this effort and launching a fresh and expanded career guide later this year. It will be an inspiring, beautiful, youthful, living document with a web component, evolving (like we all have) and updated regularly.

Thanks for the dance down memory lane Frank!

By Joe Treacy on Sep 30, 2024

The strippers in pre-press and production departments were so important, pre-digital.

Let’s face it. No job was going anywhere until the strippers looked over the film before proofing or plating, and performed their light table magic.

And I have no doubt that all their work was on the tightest deadlines of the entire production dept.

My hat’s off to them all. We could not have gotten through the offset lithography era (and related, such as rotogravure) without them.

Joe Treacy
Director of Typography
Treacyfaces.com

By Rebecca Shick on Sep 30, 2024

Imagine, as a woman, you tell your Italian Mom that you're going to be a stripper. After all the shouting and a little explanation, all was well.

Certainly the careful QC of films prior to plating was critical to success. An errant drip of opaque had the power to stop the presses, or worse, cause a reprint. How about contacts, dupes, shrinks, and spreads to produce the trapping of colored type to a colored background? Some major science going on there.

The pristine environment of a digital pressroom is taken for granted because most people don't remember the sight of a stripper bent over a light table, with a cigarette hanging out the side of their mouth, razor blade in hand...we have come a long way in a relatively short time...in a good way.

By Stan Najmr on Sep 30, 2024

Dot etchers were magicians back then. How about Chromalin and Matchprint?