Printers don’t exist anymore

That whole list displays a disturbing trend.

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THE LEFTIES WHO WANT TO GIVE EVERYTHING AWAY TO ILLEGALL ALIENS. I AM A LETTERPRESS PRINTER AND DON’T NEED GOVERNMENT SNNOPING IN ON MY BUSINESS, THE LESS THEY KNOW ABOUT ME THE BETTER. GERALD JENNY@ [email protected] t

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THE LEFTIES WHO WANT TO GIVE EVERYTHING AWAY TO ILLEGALL ALIENS. I AM A LETTERPRESS PRINTER AND DON’T NEED GOVERNMENT SNNOPING IN ON MY BUSINESS, THE LESS THEY KNOW ABOUT ME THE BETTER. GERALD JENNY@ [email protected] t

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THE LEFTIES WHO WANT TO GIVE EVERYTHING AWAY TO ILLEGALL ALIENS. I AM A LETTERPRESS PRINTER AND DON’T NEED GOVERNMENT SNNOPING IN ON MY BUSINESS, THE LESS THEY KNOW ABOUT ME THE BETTER. GERALD JENNY@ [email protected] t

Gerald - you don’t have to shout, much less drag politics into this.

Gerald, relax man. Illegal aliens arent causing the printers to close up- try blaming the internet. Saying it 3 times doesnt make it any truer.

Perhaps the Good Buddy above, alleged self styled LETTERPRESS PRINTER (apparently) could access the spell checker on the computer - His! - and (A) spell SNNOPING correctly, i. e. 2 O,s 1 P, and then, (B) edit 3 dodgy posts correctly. ? or (C) free up the send button, on THE computer, that transmits 3 identical posts all timed simultaneously, or (D) demand a refund from the L/Press College Of Knowledge (HIS)

About 15-20 years ago pressman was one of the top paying best unknown or little known jobs in the U.S. Fast forward to today and that has changed. It is true the internet has changed things. But at the same time it has made it possible for me to sell products in a way I never thought possible. In the beginning I only battled with printers in the same yellow pages as me, there was no internet only a phone number ( yes I am old - but with the mind of a 7 year old so my wife has said. ). Today, I blame myself for my fate and no one else it is just easier to put the blame on me. Our church helps with build homes in Mexico( We replace homes made from 5 used garage door tilt ups with home that is like a big well built shed) and also helps people in California ( Habitat for Humanity) and in the local community. Those efforts help me better understand human compassion. Some of nicest people I have met in my life are some of the most life challenged. I love this blog but I use it for help, information, letterpress community involvement, a mental crutch but never for a pissing contest. No one wins when we act like politicians. So today I give you all a hug to make life better. I treat words like tooth paste - once you squeeze them out you cant put them back.

Nicely stated western411.

Immigrants are not taking away printing jobs in the labor pool. They’re not coming here and filling these jobs or starting businesses that compete within our network.
What is actually happening is customers are searching for vendors who are far away and having goods shipped across oceans to fill production needs. This has been going on for some time, and has caused this industry to shrink domestically.

Not to mention tariffs on lumber and other lumber related goods (such as paper pulp) coming in from Canada, our country’s closest and best source for wood that fuels the paper industry.

The outsourcing of printed work to foreign businesses through globalization is creating a competition that is an inversion of costs and labor practices; simply put, the ‘illegal immigrants’ Gerald Jenny speaks of are not coming here and taking jobs. That is udder horseshoe, and if you believe it, I have a different udder for you to feed from.

American firms need less printing due to electronic information communication technology (email, internet, TV, etc), and don’t print as much as they used to (as has been mentioned); but what little share of printing is left happens within a market where choosing the bottom line lower cost is more important to the customer. It has been this way for quite some time, having anything that DOES need to be printed made elsewhere as the industry continues to decline.

Havenpress - Love your comments and very on point. Some days I wonder if I am the only one that see’s how mean we have become. Standard offset printing has turned into a internet driven rat race to the deep end of the pool. We tend to chase those ahead of us thinking it is the right thing to do and we must blindly follow them. Next thing you know is they get sucked down the drain - gone for forever- but now you are right next to where they used to be and cant go back.

We like letterpress for what is has brought to us. Letterpress is unique and custom and you wont ever buy it from Vista Print. We see more companies turning to custom hand crafted products and a return to craftmanship ( “craftpeopleship” - don’t want to be sexist). It is more like the shallow end of pool, not as many dreams I feel I must chase after. Just dont stand by the kid that always pees in the pool.

Hate to say it Western, but Vista Print and Moo are coming for you, too; there will at some point be a herd of windmills at Vista Print running letterpress jobs. The CTP technology is within reach to make the plates (STORK Laser engravers which were for small scale FLEXO, etc, the same way Crown Flexo does output), and there will be a point where these companies will see there is a small niche market worth amalgamating into a division and they will start it.

A while back I was involved with a startup which sought to capitalize on the greeting card market by creating a subscription service. I got involved with them to help with logistics, production estimation, scale, etc- they had in mind to start their own printshop as a means to produce in house, and wanted it to scale to various abilities. Considering the actual IPH of various available on the market machines and thinking of how to solve this problem was stimulating; it made for a good nut to crack. I figured out that it would probably take just north of $600K US to build the equipment portion (not including facilities, labor, or any kind of external expenses, just dependable 100% functioning letterpress and related finishing equipment from brokers and companies who rebuild), from screen to plate to ink to paper to finishing, for a printshop with a million unit, Bi-weekly output. 8 hour shifts running standard 5 days a week with pressmen on for around 40 hour full time jobs.
About half of that was for inker presses, half of it was for finishing, and some of it was for platemaking etc.

Nobody has the figures to really estimate how many letterpress cards are currently output per year, how many machines are standing the majority of the time or how this efficiency would be blocked by production faults, machine breakdown/stoppage/maintenence, etc; but assuming a company like Vista print or Moo did the research and wanted to get a division together, there are enterprising individuals out there willing to do the work to put it together and compete with the small guys and gals.

My niche is art printing and I have left commercial printing behind, now refer all high quality quote requests/jobs to other talented local printers who do commercial work; I would not want to compete with anyone in the commercial ‘big’ company world.

Automation and the ability to sell over the internet are what have destroyed printing as a skilled trade, broadly speaking. I was a pressman when you needed three guys to run a 4-color 40” press and the lead man did nothing but pull sheets and adjust color. One guy can do all that and more now. The Heidelberg salesman called it “de-skilling”. I wanted to strangle him, but my personal urges made no difference. On the plus side, the internet is why letterpress has a following now. You can sell non-locally with it. But skilled work in printing is now a niche because of technology, not politics.

Technology is somewhat driven by globalization these days, with giant firms trying to take a grab at the globe for industry sectors (look at heidelberg as an example);

globalization of markets via decentralized purchasing platforms and cross-globe sales;

this allows capitalization of ‘de-skilling’ and usage of cheap export labor;

politics seek to undermine this, but they’re ineffective and leave individuals feeling as if they missed the boat, and thus- in my view- politics do have a role in it to an extent.