Author Archives: Brian Lawler

About Brian Lawler

Brian Lawler is an Emeritus Professor of Graphic Communication at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and was a Guest Professor at Hochschule München from September, 2021 to September, 2022. He writes about graphic arts processes and technologies for various industry publications, and on his blog, The Blognosticator.

Epson’s new dye-sublimation printers enter the market for ink-jet printed fabric

Posted on September 14, 2013 by Brian Lawler

My friends at Epson were showing a couple of new ink-jet printers at PRINT13, printers which are designed to fit into the fabric printing industry. I’m working on a project right now that involves dye-sublimation printing, and I was impressed … Continue reading →

Posted in New technology, Printing and Printing Processes | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

I have seen the future of newspaper printing

Posted on September 13, 2013 by Brian Lawler

A few years ago I got a chance to see the Hewlett-Packard M400 press in prototype form, and I wrote glowingly about that press. It was the first time I had seen an ink-jet web press. It was, and is, … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventures, New technology, Technology | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Vacation for the Blognosticator

Posted on September 2, 2013 by Brian Lawler

I finished ten weeks of teaching summer quarter on Wednesday, I turned in my grades on Thursday, and on Friday at the crack of dawn my wife and I headed up California’s Highway 101 to the Bay Area, and then … Continue reading →

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The Microsoft conundrum

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Brian Lawler

On the announcement last week of Steve Ballmer’s pending retirement, Microsoft’s stock shot up seven points as investors cheered for the future of the company without him. On NPR’s Marketplace they played recordings of Ballmer shouting “DEE-VEL-OH-PERS!” over and over … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Software, Technology, Typography | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Multiple displays save many dollars in production

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Brian Lawler

I work at a Macintosh computer with two 24-inch Apple Cinema Displays in front of me. It looks like the console of an air traffic controller. The two displays give me 39 inches (measured) of horizontal view, and just about … Continue reading →

Posted in Mistakes you can avoid, New technology, Technology | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Drawing a Coleman Lantern with Illustrator’s 3D tools

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Brian Lawler

In my last blog about the failure of my Cinema Display, I included a detailed illustration of a Coleman lantern. This was dredged entirely from memory, and included as an after-note in an illustration of a heliograph that I built … Continue reading →

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U-U-U means S-O-S for my Cinema Display

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Brian Lawler

I was a ham radio operator as a teenager, a hobby I did not pursue after high school. I was involved in too many activities to keep it going – scouts, college, girls, travel, marriage, being a parent, owning a … Continue reading →

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Mister master masker makes masking mission

Posted on July 28, 2013 by Brian Lawler

  I was visiting a friend’s airplane hangar recently when we were suddenly aware of a louder than normal plane approaching on the ramp. We looked outside and were treated to the arrival of a beautiful Waco biplane, possibly the … Continue reading →

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A Big Sur solution to overprint errors

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Brian Lawler

As I was winding south from Big Sur last Friday, where I had spent the day making a GigaPan image of the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Beach, my phone rang (I had been in a No Service area for over … Continue reading →

Posted in Mistakes you can avoid, Printing and Printing Processes, Software | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Here’s a worthwhile job for the NSA

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Brian Lawler

Missing from most of the journalistic free-for-all that has been aimed at the NSA recently is any discussion as to what spy organizations should be doing as compared to what they are doing while intercepting our electronic communications. Economic crime … Continue reading →

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