THE LINOTYPEMACHINE

VSTHE MACINTOSH:

A COMPARISON

By: Andrea BlancoGraphic Design History

Fall 2011

INTRODUCTION

THE MACINTOSH

THE LINOTYPE

SIMILARITIES

SOCIALLY

THE ARGUMENTS

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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 tech-nology, which forces it to keep on producing. Through the ages technol-ogy 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 Li-notype 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 improve-ments upon these two originals.

2 THE MACINTOSH

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 Graphi-cal User Interface. It was introduced

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 THE LINOTYPE

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 gen-eral printers. Mergenthaler conceived the idea of creating metallic letter

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 previ-ously 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 Lino-type 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 similar-ity between the two when looking at concept and use. Both of the Machines were created to be more efficient than their previous technolo-gies. The typewriter and manual type-setting 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 interact-ing 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 be-fore. 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 typeset-ting 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 Lino-type machine was called, The Tribune Book of Open-Air Sports.

5 SOCIALLY

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 restart-ing 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 Mac-Write and MacPaint. Apple cut down on the number of desktop models

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 educa-tion 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 THE ARGUMENTS

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 interac-tion. It contained a 3.5” floppy drive with 400 KB of space, which was 25% more than was being used before by

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 proces-sor, 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 revo-lutionized 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 pag-es 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, newspa-per and magazine companies during this time.