Category Archives: History

Printing and photographic history

Obsessing on a 1935 bookbinding machine

Posted on February 22, 2020 by Brian Lawler

I get obsessed about my projects. My current obsession is the restoration of a 1935 Smyth book sewing machine in the Shakespeare Press Museum at Cal Poly (I am the faculty advisor). That machine sews the spines of hard-cover books. … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventures, Bookbinding, Education, History, Imposition and Pagination, New technology, Printing and Printing Processes | Tagged bookbinding, Brian Lawler, Cal Poly, induction motor control | Leave a comment

Reminiscences of a prepress guy

Posted on September 12, 2019 by Brian Lawler

I am an old prepress guy. I owned one of the first PostScript service bureaus in the U.S. I was there at the beginning. It was painful, but overall it was a great business. We had been traditional typographers, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Color Management, History, Photoshop techniques, Printing and Printing Processes, Software | Tagged Antique press, Cal Poly, Color separation files from Illustrator, Golding Pearl restoration, Shakespeare Press Museum, Spot-color separations from Illustrator | Leave a comment

Repatriation of the Blognosticator

Posted on August 16, 2017 by Brian Lawler

After spending five months in Germany, teaching, learning, and exploring the region, we have returned to the U.S.A. It was a wonderful experience, one that I would repeat anytime if I could. During this time I was an employee of … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventures, History, Panoramic Photography, People, Photography, Printing and Printing Processes, Technology, Typography | Tagged Blognosticator, Brian Lawler, Germany, Gutenberg, Heidelberg, Hochschule Munchen, Munich, teaching in Germany | Leave a comment

Photographing the portrait-in-stone

Posted on July 29, 2017 by Brian Lawler

In April, my students and I visited the Landesamt für Digitalisierung Breitband und Vermessung in Munich (Read that story here). In English, this is the state office of digitization, broadband and surveying. Among the things they do is to … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Education, History, Photography, Printing and Printing Processes | Tagged Alois Senefelder, Blognosticator, Brian Lawler, Landsamt für Digitalisierung und Vermessung, LDBV, litho stone, lithography, Munich, Senefelder, Solnhofen | Leave a comment

Papierherstellung in Deutschland

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Brian Lawler

On Thursday we took a tour of the Gmund Paper factory in Gmund, about one hour south of Munich. Gmund is the maker of some of the finest papers in the world. In their shipping area I saw pallets marked … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventures, Art, Bookbinding, History, Printing and Printing Processes, Technology | Tagged Brian Lawler, Fourdrinier, German paper making, Gmund paper, Gmund Paper Company, paper making, paper making machine | 4 Comments

Panoramic cameras and images, Part I

Posted on June 3, 2017 by Brian Lawler

The first true panoramic camera was patented by William J. Johnston in 1904. Century Camera Company brought that camera to market in 1905 as the Century Cirkut Camera. The company later became a part of the Eastman Kodak Company, which … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Panoramic Photography, Photography, Photoshop techniques, Scanning, Software, Technology | Tagged Brian Lawler, Century Cirkut, Cirkut, Cirkut camera, Graflex Cirkut, Kodak Cirkut, Panoramic photography, rotating panoramic photography | Leave a comment

Alois was here

Posted on May 23, 2017 by Brian Lawler

Several of my students joined me and my colleague Prof. Martin Delp today for a tour of the Landsampt für Digitalisierung, Breitband un Vermessung, the Bavarian office for digitization and surveying. Here, the government creates maps, collects and distributes digital geographical … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventures, Art, History, Printing and Printing Processes, Scanning, Technology | Tagged Alois Senefelder, Brian Lawler, Hochschule Munchen, imaging with lithography, lithography, Martin Delp, printing processes, Solnhofen limestone, stone lithography | Leave a comment

Van Gogh’s Père Tanguy in perspective

Posted on May 5, 2017 by Brian Lawler

Museums often have no-photography rules, depending on their policy about allowing visitors to take photos, or the legal arrangements they have with art owners, copyright holders and other things that go beyond my pay grade. In the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Photography, Photoshop techniques, Printing and Printing Processes | Tagged Brian Lawler, fine art photography, off-axis photography, photographing paintings, Rodin Museum, Van Gogh | Leave a comment

Learning letterpress in a 14th century town

Posted on April 19, 2017 by Brian Lawler

One of the three classes I am teaching in Munich is Advanced Typography. The students are in their third year in the Print Media program at Munich University of Applied Sciences. Five of my students are exchange students from my … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, History, Typography | Tagged Brian Lawler, Cal Poly, GrC, Martin Delp, MUAS, Munich University of Applied Sciences, Nördlingen, Oskar Bernhard, typography | 1 Comment

The Poster-Paster

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Brian Lawler

In my collection of books related to printing and publishing is a delightful edition from Dover of line art engravings from the 19th and early 20th centuries. I wrote about reproducing these illustrations in a series of blogs I wrote … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventures, History, People | Tagged advertising, applying paste to poster, Brian Lawler, Munich, Munich adventures, poster art, posters | Leave a comment