THE LINOTYPE MACHINE VS THE MACINTOSH: A COMPARISON
By: Andrea Blanco Graphic Design History Fall 2011
1
INTRODUCTION
2
THE MACINTOSH
3
THE LINOTYPE
4
SIMILARITIES
5
SOCIALLY
6
THE ARGUMENTS
1 INTRODUCTION As we move towards a more user friendly and technology based era, we as users and consumers demand so much more out of technology, which forces it to keep on producing. Through the ages technology has made it much easier for users to interact with products for example, computers and printing machines. The computer revolution spun into what it is today from the creation of the first
Apple Macintosh computer and the age of proficient printing began with the invention of the Linotype machine. Both the Macintosh computer and Linotype made it easier than ever before for the users of the product to interact with it and also created a whirlwind of other new products that were improvements upon these two originals.
2 First off, Apple’s Macintosh computer was created as a series of personalized computers that made it more possible for users to create and work in the privacy of their own homes. Steve Jobs introduced the “Mac” on January 24, 1984. It was later known as the first successful, at home, widespread computer that used a mouse to interact with the Graphical User Interface. It was introduced
THE MACINTOSH
around the same time as the revised, previously used, Lisa came out. The Mac came with a large RAM, a floppy disk drive, a black and white monitor, a mouse, and a couple of applications – MacWrite and MacPaint. This original model created the look and feel of the Macintosh body for all future Macintosh computers and started the widespread use of the Graphical User Interface.
3 In comparison, the Linotype was a “line-casting� machine, or one that would shape metal pieces into molds, used in printing introduced in 1884 by Ottmar Mergenthaler. The name came from the obvious use of the machine, which formed a single line of type at a time. It was used for many years by newspapers and general printers. Mergenthaler conceived the idea of creating metallic letter
THE LINOTYPE
molds, called matrices, and casting molten metal into them, all within the machine. The machine required one person to operate it by sitting in front of the machine adjusting the machine to the desired point size and line length that the copy needed to be set at. The machine would heat up and the operator would begin to set the type, running through the entire process of setting each line. It is important for
the operator to be an expert in diving words as each line ends and figuring whether or not a word will fit within the set. This was very efficient and showed great improvement from the manual typesetting of each letter, punctuation mark, and space, the method previously used. The first Linotype machine was installed in the printing office of the New York Tribune and the first book to ever be printed with the Linotype machine was called, The Tribune Book of Open-Air Sports.
4 SIMILARITIES Although the two machines were created about 100 years apart from each other, there still lies similarity between the two when looking at concept and use. Both of the Machines were created to be more efficient than their previous technologies. The typewriter and manual typesetting proved to be arduous work when typing up documents, books, newspapers etc. With the creation of
the Linotype, users were able to have things printed quicker and in greater quantities. When the Mac was created it created many new ways of interacting with the computer for a user. It was more user friendly where the operator could go in and edit lines of text and print a final, polished product. It was also easier to create and store much larger documents of text than ever before. The Macintosh was used as more
of a home operating computer rather than for data input, like the previous Command Line Interface computers. the operator to be an expert in diving words as each line ends and figuring whether or not a word will fit within the set. This was very efficient and showed significant improvement from the previously used, manual typesetting of each letter, punctuation mark, and space. The first Linotype machine was installed in the printing office of the New York Tribune and the first book to ever be printed with the Linotype machine was called, The Tribune Book of Open-Air Sports.
5 Socially both made it easier for users to accomplish the simple goal of writing a document or typing something up without having to deal with the strenuous work of restarting projects or doing things one at a time, requiring a lot less manpower. The Mac, for example, also offered a couple new applications such as MacWrite and MacPaint. Apple cut down on the number of desktop models
SOCIALLY
they had available to consumers and combined them all into the 1998 iMac which surged a refreshing feel within the Macintosh brand. Current Mac computers are meant to be used in the home, professional and education realms. The newer versions of the Macintosh include the iMac, Mac mini desktop models, Mac Pro, the MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops. Similarly, the Linotype ma-
chine revolutionized typesetting and most importantly newspaper printing, making it easy for few operators to set type for many pages on a daily basis. Before Mergenthaler’s invention of the Linotype in 1884, it was unheard of for a newspaper to contain more than eight pages.
6 There are several arguments as to why each of these products were proven to be much more user friendly than their predecessors. The Mac used a Mouse like the one used for its previous version, Lisa, which forced the user to stray away from arrow keys and focus on mouse use and interaction. It contained a 3.5” floppy drive with 400 KB of space, which was 25% more than was being used before by
THE ARGUMENTS
their competitors, IBM. The Graphical User Interface was introduced, similar to the face of Lisa, however, it used square pixels rather than rectangular pixels which made it easier to arrange and place graphics on the screen. It introduced the same menu bar at the top of the screen that we still use on today’s computers with the “Apple,” “File,” “Edit,” “view” and other dropdown tools which made com-
mands easily found and acesssible for users. The original Mac also contained a 8 MHz 68000 processor, which was 60% faster than the 5 MHz processor found in Lisa. The spread of larger memory capability also meant an increase in prices of the computers, decreasing the consumer market since only few could afford to pay the extra $200$400. Another great thing about the Macintosh was that users were able to write even more compact code than ever before. As far as the Linotype machine, type setting, especially for newspaper publishing was revolutionized and allowed for printing companies to produce much more
with a lot less effort. The Linotypes greatest advantage was the fact that it allowed for operators to set many pages of type on a daily basis, something that was never able to be done before. The Linotype only meant good news and brighter futures for print, newspaper and magazine companies during this time.