Frank Romano on Typesetting Services

[Dave Hughes]

Frank's latest video takes a fascinating look at the short-lived typesetting service industry.

You can also see this video on the WhatTheyThink website here:
https://whattheythink.com/video/121025-requiem-typesetting-service/

https://d3a577syzx0or3.cloudfront.net/video/2024-09-frank-typesetters.mp4

[Patrick Reagh]

Frank's brief video brought back memories of my apprenticeship at a typesetting service. It was Andresen Typographics in Los Angeles.

My employ began in 1969 and it was then a five-year union (ITU local 174) apprenticeship. Typesetting was then considered a skilled trade.

It was also the dawn of cold type or film setting as it was called. Thus began the steady decline of the skillset needed to compose type.

Thanks Frank, well done,

Patrick Reagh

[Geoffrey Quadland]

I bought my first letterpress in 1963, when I was 19. There was then, of course, a need for type (among many other things). Some used type had already been obtained, but I didn't have enough. I started dealing with Einnehmer and Taylor on east 45th street in New York because it was not far from my father's office.

They were a typesetting service and were easy to deal with, even for a young lad who was obviously not very experienced. They put out a rather extensive one line specimen book. Although I never did it, they also advertised that a person could set type from their cases.

They were also a dealer for Stephenson Blake, and I did buy some SB type from them. At one point in time, my father needed to reorder 10,000 letterheads for a client. He offered the job to me. I took one of those letterheads to Einnehmer and Taylor and asked them to set the job two times, and have it for me that afternoon. That was necessary because I had taken the train to the city and I didn't want to have to make a second trip. After a minor amount of push-back, they agreed. They had the linotype ready for me later in the day. I printed 5,000 sheets with each set of type, and the job came out quite well.

[Geoffrey Quadland]

Thank you Frank, that really brought back memories!