After 9 years of editing the reel news, I was hoping to go out with a bang. However the last two issues have seen the return of the photograph bugaboo. I have no intention of going into a long explaination in the Reel News, so I will bore all the readers of this forum.
When I first started as Editor nine years ago, I had a low quality laser printer. I printed up the Reel News and took it to a print shop in Nampa and things came out pretty good. I worked at lots of ways to improve the magazine and felt that by producing the copy on my computer and taking the results to a print shop saved quite a bit of money for ORCA, and this income was used to enlarge the magazine over the years.
About 6 years ago, I purchased a high quality H-P laser printer hoping for wonderful new things for the Reel News. Instead I found the quality of text and illustrations was great, but the photographs were worse than they had been. I then talked to several printers and went on line and read up on printing photographs. I learned that my new printer was printing too high quality a photo. This was hard for my dull brain to accept. I had to reduce the print quality from 1200 dpi to 600, or better yet, 400 dpi. It was simple – printed photos are made up of dots, and most professional print shops print at about 85-95 lines per inch. I learned that this translated into about 195 dpi for photograph. It was an amazing contradition to me: To make photos reproduce well for a professional print shop you had to decrease the quality and make the dots very visible.
OK, I changed all my printer settings and through experimentation and consultation we got the photos back to where they were acceptible. Not the quality of a print shop, but acceptible. By reproducing the photos myself and in this manner, I was able to save over $100 per issue and put the money into expanding the Reel News.
However, enter Bill Gates. Whenever the point was reached that everything looked pretty good to this untrained eye, Bill Gates would intervene. You don’t believe Bill Gates had anything to do with our little magazine—HA! Every time things would be running smoothly and looking good, he would change Windows. We went through Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows ME, and finally we are at Windows XP, service pack 2.
Each change resulted in one of those domino cascades. To make my laser printer run correctly, the drivers had to be changed. And every time the drivers were updated my printer produced different results. Each time Bill made another million by updating Windows, our puny little magazine was affected.
In November of last year I received a notice from Hewlett Packard that new drivers were available that would make my printer run much better. It had been doing a few weird things ever since I upgraded to Windows XP. They were correct—Things that hadn’t been going right with my printer were suddenly corrected. The print and photos looked great… Until they were reproduced in the Reel News. They looked great when I printed them, but coming from the print shop they were disasters.
After two issues of struggling with lousy photos, I geezerly brain finally kicked in and I looked at my printer settings. The new drivers had reverted all my settings to the default that H-P figures are best. All the settings I had so laboriously worked out had been changed. I’m hoping things will look better for my final issue.
EXCUSES, EXCUSES...
-
Reel Geezer
- Ultra Board Poster
- Posts: 2314
- Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2003 11:06 pm
- Location: On the Snake River or Lake Lowell
- Contact:
-
Jim Schottenham
- Super Board Poster
- Posts: 848
- Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2003 10:27 pm
- Location: Upstate NY
- Contact:
You're not alone........
Phil,
I think Mr. Welch from General Motors would agree with you. Here's a blurb that I keep for a good laugh:
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon."
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release (by Mr Welch himself) stating:
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
I. For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they re-painted the lines on the road you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason,and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought "Car98" or "CarNT. " But then you would have to buy more seats.
6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run on five percent of the roads.
7. The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single "general car fault" warning light.
8. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
9. The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.
10. Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither needed nor wanted them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50% or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.
12. Every time GM introduced a new model car, buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
13. You'd press the "start" button to shut off the engine.
I anxiously await the first "reel" twist to this post. Mr. Vernon, would you care to "tackle" this one? Harvey? Richard?
I'c continue, but it looks like windows just shut dow
I think Mr. Welch from General Motors would agree with you. Here's a blurb that I keep for a good laugh:
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon."
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release (by Mr Welch himself) stating:
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
I. For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they re-painted the lines on the road you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason,and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought "Car98" or "CarNT. " But then you would have to buy more seats.
6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run on five percent of the roads.
7. The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single "general car fault" warning light.
8. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
9. The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.
10. Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither needed nor wanted them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50% or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.
12. Every time GM introduced a new model car, buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
13. You'd press the "start" button to shut off the engine.
I anxiously await the first "reel" twist to this post. Mr. Vernon, would you care to "tackle" this one? Harvey? Richard?
I'c continue, but it looks like windows just shut dow
-
reels4me
Halftones(photo) repros
The kind of paper that halftones are printed on reflects the quality obtained. For magazines, (enameled coated stock) require any where
from 100 screen(dots per inch) up to 150 screen the type of paper in
the RN is more absorbent so best results can be had in a range of
75 screen to 85.
from 100 screen(dots per inch) up to 150 screen the type of paper in
the RN is more absorbent so best results can be had in a range of
75 screen to 85.
the world aint perfect
Phil , will you quit wooring so much? You have always done a fantastic job, after all has anyone complained? You dont have a printing shop at your desposil , we all can read and see the articles in the mag. I get coments all the time on the REEL FIX column , folks are actualy able do to the drawings fix their reels! and some of those drawings are not the best in the factory manuals I use! Now will you quit freting before I turn HARVY on you! Go fishing tommorw and enjoy life! Your frozen OHIO conection Col. M. lorens aka SWIM JIG PS you all best hope I wasent doing the MAG, as NO one would be able to read it!
Jim, I have to agree with Welch, but I still won't buy a GM car. By the way, I thought a Comdex was a J.W. Young reel.
Geezer, no need for the sackcloth and ashes. We're all proud of you. The dpi problem has some technical solution somewhere. Hard to imagine why a coarser laser print gives better results than a fine one when followed by a coarse screen, but so what? We'll be switching to color anyway, just like the NFLCC--right?
Geezer, no need for the sackcloth and ashes. We're all proud of you. The dpi problem has some technical solution somewhere. Hard to imagine why a coarser laser print gives better results than a fine one when followed by a coarse screen, but so what? We'll be switching to color anyway, just like the NFLCC--right?
-
Richard Lodge
- Super Board Poster
- Posts: 1251
- Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2003 10:00 pm
- Location: Massachusetts
DPI?
Great post, Jim. But my version of Windows-64 would only let me read the first three words of each line.
And, by the way, what's all this talk about dpi and halftones? I thought that was one of those new cop shows, DPI: Miami.
Phil told me I could produce the magazine on the rotogravure press in my office.
And, by the way, what's all this talk about dpi and halftones? I thought that was one of those new cop shows, DPI: Miami.
Phil told me I could produce the magazine on the rotogravure press in my office.
thats not a PRESS!
Richard, in my pile of items I have a KELSY LETTER PRESS plus the type and the chases etc! lots of ink green and black some red, and some pre cuts! on lead on wood! We used to print all the cards for E-Z action products company on it! no there is NO WHEEL, you have to load it one page at a time, push real hard, take out the printed sheet and set out to dry! A lot beter that Ben Franklins SREW PRESS! lets see we used to do 600 cards a day in 2 colors and the UPC code , so if you dont take too many aution breaks ypu may get done in time to start the next issue of THE REEL NEWS! If you want id darker you PUSH harder, keeps those arm muscels ready for casting your FLY ROD, YIKES you wont have time to fish with this press posibly you can get a wheel and convert it to motor press, we never could aford the $15.75 for the upgrade! Oh tes the joys of keeping trim while you work! no Need for these after hours exercise places so you save money that way and can buy more reels! Got to MUSH reels are calling they want fixed! your OHIO conection Col. M Lorens aka SWIM JIG in a cold OHIO -
Harvey
- Super Board Poster
- Posts: 1086
- Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2003 6:17 pm
- Location: Ft. Lauderdale
- Contact:
Hey, You guys quit runnin' down the letter press. I ran a 28X40 Miller two color for years and set my own type. I did produce boxes from carton stock but still remember the problems when some bafoon smashed a plate on a run befor me. Sure was glad when we finally went to a Man-Roland offset. I even have 'sperance on a Craftman 22x20 one armed bandit. You know, the one it took three arms to feed and clear one!
"H"
"H"
-
clinton_beeler
- Advanced Board Poster
- Posts: 291
- Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2004 2:32 pm
- Location: Tulsa , Oklahoma
and that will be nice
And how doyou think he will do brail!? with a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with #14 shot? Harvy you had a leter press with a motor on it? shame on you , ours never had that luxury option! we pulled it by hand , how do you think I got these musscels? You go play with your MILLER, most of the guys I know drink their MILLER ha ha , Your Ohio Conection Col.m. LORENS aka SWIM JIG -
john elder
- Star Board Poster
- Posts: 8669
- Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2003 2:44 pm
HMMM!!!
John, Its a beer! miller high life! most likey never got over the rockys to you people , will send some to you via cape horn! If you ever watch a CLEVELAND Indians game vs you ball club whats its name you will see the ad ha ha Dont ask me how it taste as I dont drink beer, or whisky or other FIRE WATER , my tribial chief ie WIFE wont allow it! Ok John go adj a reel or two and think MILLER TIME ! ha ha YOUR OHIO CONECTION at 7degrees Col. M. lorens aka SWIM JIG