" Camera ready art" ?

[whitewater]

I was just thinking..does anyone know what this is? LOL

I see it all the time. Does the actual customer even know? Is it only the old timers using this phrase?  (like frog) haha?

Just something i see out there and wondering about..

[Frog]

I was just thinking..does anyone know what this is? LOL

I see it all the time. Does the actual customer even know? Is it only the old timers using this phrase?  (like frog) haha?

Just something i see out there and wondering about..

As a matter of fact, I generally now use the terms, "ready to go" and "screen print friendly"

[kingscreen]

Camera-ready is a common term used in the commercial printing industry meaning that a document is, from a technical standpoint, ready to "go to press", or be printed.

The term camera-ready was first used in the photo offset printing process, where the final layout of a document was attached to a "mechanical" or "paste up". Then, a stat camera was used to photograph the mechanical, and the final offset printing plates were created from the camera's negative.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera-ready

[Command-Z]

It is an old-timey term from the days that actual cameras were used to make films from which printing plates were made. Camera-ready art was  called "mechanicals" in the offset world, everything pasted up onto boards, ready to be taken to the darkroom.

So, we usually use the term incorrectly... the camera step is now gone, so the art goes direct-to-plate or printed directly on film to take to the screen room. So, today, it would be more accurately called "imagesetter-ready" or "inkjet printer-ready" or, if you go direct-to-screen, "screen-ready."

Edit: kingscreen posted a better Wiki link as I was typing.

[Command-Z]

These big expensive cameras are now obsolete... but it was part of the package if you wanted to run a shop, not to mention the film and chemicals... and the dedicated space for a darkroom:

[Frog]

It is an old-timey term from the days that actual cameras were used to make films from which printing plates were made. Camera-ready art was  called "mechanicals" in the offset world, everything pasted up onto boards, ready to be taken to the darkroom.

So, we usually use the term incorrectly... the camera step is now gone, so the art goes direct-to-plate or printed directly on film to take to the screen room. So, today, it would be more accurately called "imagesetter-ready" or "inkjet printer-ready" or, if you go direct-to-screen, "screen-ready."

Edit: kingscreen posted a better Wiki link as I was typing.

Your post brings up an even broader, more widely used obsolete term; "typing". Nominations for a current relevant term start with "keying" but it won't catch on.

And btw, my wife is still bugging me to finally reclaim some major closet space and haul out the old Agfa Repromaster!

[Command-Z]

It is an old-timey term from the days that actual cameras were used to make films from which printing plates were made. Camera-ready art was  called "mechanicals" in the offset world, everything pasted up onto boards, ready to be taken to the darkroom.

So, we usually use the term incorrectly... the camera step is now gone, so the art goes direct-to-plate or printed directly on film to take to the screen room. So, today, it would be more accurately called "imagesetter-ready" or "inkjet printer-ready" or, if you go direct-to-screen, "screen-ready."

Edit: kingscreen posted a better Wiki link as I was typing.

Your post brings up an even broader, more widely used obsolete term; "typing". Nominations for a current relevant term start with "keying" but it won't catch on.

And btw, my wife is still bugging me to finally reclaim some major closet space and haul out the old Agfa Repromaster!

I wish I had room for a darkroom, I could make prints of my scratchboards. Film and chems might be getting harder to find, though.

We use lots of obsolete terms... "leading" for example, from back in the day when actual cast lead blocks with letters of a certain "type" were "set" side-by-side by hand. Bits of lead were added to increase the spacing, a knife called a "kerning knife" sliced away lead for when the letters needed to be closer together. Type itself was cast in a "font" at a type "foundry"... a name still given to design houses that make digital fonts. All that is way before my time, though, unlike the stat camera and things like Letraset and Zipatone.

All this technology is great, we don't have to deal with lead, photo chems or even airbrushed pigment any more. Just eye, neck and back strain.

[Frog]

An interesting "in-between" technology was the hot lead typesetting machines.
In the mid '70's, my ex-wife operated a Ludlow typesetter, at an interesting old shop in Oakland in which the guy dealt used printing equipment, but everything was operational and actually in service. She set and proofread a small publication for landlords. Around the same time, her proofreading and my limited camera skills got us temporary positions at Rolling Stone after they announced their planned move to New York. There, they were also using Ludlows, I believe.

btw, I can still remember hand setting type for a business card project in my high school print shop when hearing the news of JFK's shooting. (It was a style like Park Avenue)

[Command-Z]

An interesting "in-between" technology was the hot lead typesetting machines.
In the mid '70's, my ex-wife operated a Ludlow typesetter, at an interesting old shop in Oakland in which the guy dealt used printing equipment, but everything was operational and actually in service. She set and proofread a small publication for landlords. Around the same time, her proofreading and my limited camera skills got us temporary positions at Rolling Stone after they announced their planned move to New York. There, they were also using Ludlows, I believe.

btw, I can still remember hand setting type for a business card project in my high school print shop when hearing the news of JFK's shooting. (It was a style like Park Avenue)

Cool stuff!

I remember screen printing and sim-process color sepping before direct-to-garment printing and HSB made them obsolete.

Oh..... wait......

[bimmridder]

Flashback!! We had a camera just like that. Anyone ever hear of or use a Graphic Modifier (I think it was called)

[Frog]

Flashback!! We had a camera just like that. Anyone ever hear of or use a Graphic Modifier (I think it was called)

Nope, but I remember expensive and fragile halftone screens. What's a Graphic Modifier?
Oh, and the camera that I actually owned(own) myself was far from digital. It has rollers covered with printed numbers that were rotated and lined up to a mark, and read.

[royster13]

I ask for a "Print Ready Digital File"....

[mk162]

i was explaining this to my crew the other day.  they were in awe...of course they didn't get my moviefone voice...so that should tell you their ages.

[Sbrem]

Pretty funny question in a way; back then, if you asked that question, you would be considered totally ignorant. That was Graphics 101... It's already been explained, but let me say that I used film that originally we tray developed, then got a PMT processor and film (kinda like a polaroid). That certain sped it up. The first time I saw an Epson 3000 printing off a roll I knew we were changing that day. We used a camera for about almost 20 years...

Steve

[mk162]

we were slow to adopt the film printer...august of 2003...so in 11 years we've gone from a camera to DTS...what a difference.