Category Archives: Technology

Restoring that ol’ saw – a Hammond Glider

Posted on February 1, 2023 by Brian Lawler

Now that the Smyth machine is working, I decided to take on a new project. Last fall I offered to restore a 1960s era Hammond Glider TrimOsaw for the Shakespeare Press Museum at Cal Poly. This machine is best described … Continue reading →

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Running the Landa Nanopress

Posted on June 5, 2022 by Brian Lawler

Part III [Part II] [Part I] After numerous visits to the printing plant where the Landa Nanopress is running, I have a pretty good idea of how that machine works. I am assisted by a very nice diagram on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Bookbinding, Imposition and Pagination, Printing and Printing Processes, Software, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lining Livermore, der zweite Teil

Posted on February 27, 2022 by Brian Lawler

This is a continuation of a blog I wrote two days ago. To read the first part, click here. After I put all the letters (called “glyphs” In typography) into a master Adobe Illustrator document, I built the destination environment for the … Continue reading →

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German & EU Pharmaceutical Safety using Blindenschrift

Posted on February 7, 2022 by Brian Lawler

I walked into the local Apotheke this afternoon to buy a couple of over-the-counter medicines. Both were easy to find. I paid at the cashier’s counter and turned down an offer for a bag to carry the two small packages. … Continue reading →

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Saved by the wire (and the fiber-optic cable)

Posted on May 3, 2020 by Brian Lawler

You would never think that a wire could slow Internet speed. Well, perhaps you would think of that, but I hadn’t thunk about it much. I was once warned by my friend Eric that the wrong kind of wire could … Continue reading →

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Saved by the RAID

Posted on April 11, 2020 by Brian Lawler

I’m in my second week of online teaching. It’s particularly difficult because my class is a hands-on course in digital photography and color management. But this quarter it’s all hands-off. And that is making me crazy. The announcement that I … Continue reading →

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Electronic motor control
and my obsession with a 1935 bookbinding machine

Posted on February 25, 2020 by Brian Lawler

This is the second part of my obsession story. To read the first part, please click here. And that’s where my odyssey began. Alternating current induction motors use the frequency of the line power (60 Hz in our case) to … Continue reading →

Posted in Bookbinding, Education, Imposition and Pagination, New technology, Printing and Printing Processes, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Running the five-color
Pearl press postcard

Posted on October 21, 2019 by Brian Lawler

In 2019 I began the restoration of an 1895 Pearl press, a treadle-powered letterpress that was donated to the Cal Poly Shakespeare Press Museum. That press was a rusty machine when we took delivery of it. I took it to … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Printing and Printing Processes, Software, Technology, Typography, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

An EOS R follow-up:
two months later

Posted on August 3, 2019 by Brian Lawler

I bought the Canon EOS R camera in May after considerable research and a one-week rental test of the device. I am the Staff Photographer of Festival Mozaic, a classical music festival in San Luis Obispo. Each year I shoot … Continue reading →

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The Laowa Probe macro lens – after a week

Posted on May 25, 2019 by Brian Lawler

I have been shooting with the Laowa lens now for a week. Of course it rained for three days, so I didn’t get out as much as I had hoped. My overall impression of the lens: it’s well-built. It’s beautifully … Continue reading →

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