"Bill McKee" wrote in message
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"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
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"Bill McKee" wrote in message
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"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
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"Pete C." wrote in message
ster.com...

Steve Lusardi wrote:

Look for Linotype, it makes brilliant bullets. Check with newspaper
printers and ask them how they dispose of their waste, you
won't regret it. The bullets will typically cast about 8% lighter
than pure lead. They can be used to 1800FPS without gas checks
and not cause barrel leading. If I remember correctly, lead is around
9 or 10 on the Brinnel scale and Linotype is about 28/29,
which is considerably harder. Linotype bullets are much better
penetrators and do not deflect off window glass like lead bullets
do. Don't ask how I know that.
Steve


I've been out of the printing biz for a decade or two, but does anyone
use Linotype anymore? Certainly no newspaper I knew of 20 years ago
did,
they all use offset web presses with AL plates. The only place using
Linotype back then was a tiny shop that mostly did numbering and other
specialty stuff.

I doubt if there is a working Linotype machine in most states in the
country. I don't know of a single magazine that uses it for anything;
the last newspaper I knew of that used it was over 20 years ago.

The offset and rotogravure presses had plates that were burned from
hard-type originals for a long while, so Linotype was still around, to
make the "hot type" masters. But that's all been converted to "cold
type" -- computer-generated galleys. And now, most volume printing is
done without any galleys at all. It's "direct to plate" computer
imaging.

If someone still has a source of Linotype metal, I'd like to know where
it's coming from.

--
Ed Huntress


A couple of companies I worked with still used Linotype. Said it was
easier / cheaper and better for small changes in books they printed each
year. They printed tax guides as one part of their product line and lots
of pages rarely changed. Somewhere I still have my name cast in a
linotype machine there. But as to metal work, they are the bomb.

Man, there's somebody who doesn't believe in new technology. g Are they
printing the books on letterpress? Or are they using the Linotype to make
galleys for offset printing?

If it's the latter, here's a secret you might pass on to them: Any one of
us can do exactly the same thing, and produce the same results, with a
home computer and a decent laser printer today. No loss of quality. No
loss of anything.

If, on the other hand, they're printing by letterpress, then holy
hell...I can't imagine how it's easier or cheaper. Letterpresses are used
today for things like fancy invitations and wedding announcements. And a
few hobbyists have them, but they set type by hand, rather than use
Linotype. A Linotype machine is about the size of three refrigerators and
looks like the giant insect from "Alien."

The fuzzy serifs do have a kind of nostalgic quality, though. g

--
Ed Huntress


No, they have banks of pages in linotype. So if there is only a 1 or 2
line change in a chapter, easy to change, and great print. But if they
have to change a whole chapter then they use other than the Linotype. But
the Linotype produces the same pages for years with very good quality.
And these are expensive books. They may have changed now, but in 1990,
they said it was much cheaper and better with the linotype. The use
offset printing.

Hmm. We're not communicating. d8-) However, it's a side issue, so I won't
belabor it.

My guess is that you're talking about hand-setting type, not Linotype.
Linotype machines are BIG, expensive suckers used for setting large masses
of type quickly -- pages and pages. It has a keyboard and it mechanically
drops type into slots, making a hell of a racket.

Hand-setting is done in "sticks," something I did in high school, when I
worked one summer for an old-fashioned printer called Princeton
Photoprocess. It produces the same end result as Linotype, but it's more
appropriate for smaller jobs, up to a few hundred words. No equipment is
needed -- it's all labor, but it's trivial for just a line or two of type.

In any case, any Linotype metal that's available today must be from
someone's ancient hoard, or freshly alloyed to the old Linotype standard
alloy. That's more likely.

--
Ed Huntress