|
|
A REPUTATION FOR EXCELLENCE
A History of the Edinburgh Printing Industry
1 2
3
4
5
6
7
8 9
10
11 12
13
14 15
16
17
18
19 2021
Commercial
printers have in the last decade been very seriously affected by
the development of the phenomenal changes brought about by the Apple
Macintosh and Postscript page description language. Those linked
to laser printers have made possible the establishment of Desk Top
Publishing which, with little training, enables previously traditional
customers to set, make-up, and print their own brochures, booklets,
stationery, for relatively small capital outlay.
The spread of photocomposition also signalled an increase in offset
printing and so many, if not all, of the large book-printing houses
were faced with the prospect of enormous capital investment programmes
to replace the slower running letter-press machines which had been
such faithful workhorses for so many years. To those costs had to
be added the not inconsiderable expenditure in retraining staff
in the handling of film and the skills required for manning large
offset presses. The old established letterpress houses endeavoured
to meet the offset challenge by introducing presses with less heavy
printing beds to obtain increased speeds and also switched from
stereo plates mounted on metal to polymer plates mounted on honeycomb
bases with the same object in mind. Those were only partially successful
and as publishers switched their publications to offset printing,
with all the advantages of photolitho reprinting, the end of the
stereo plate was in sight. As virtually all publishers’ long
life reprints had been printed from stereo and electro plates for
many years this was a mortal blow to letterpress book printing.
New companies being set up at this period had the great advantage
of investing directly into new technology and, in certain classified
areas, were aided by then government policy. Edinburgh was at a
particular disadvantage as it was designated a non-development area
and therefore was excluded from grants which applied elsewhere in
Scotland.
The development of specialist houses such as those for film-setting
became another serious and increasing problem for the old-established
book-printing house which had for so long offered composition, printing
and bookbinding services all under the one roof. Many publishers
began to use those specialist houses in the UK for photocom-position
but then opted to send their films to overseas companies to undertake
the printing and binding. Labour costs were so low in such places
as Hong Kong and Singapore that, in spite of the additional costs
of shipping finished products back to the home market, UK book printers
found their own prices had become uncompetitive.
The search for additional capital to re-equip to meet the overseas
challenge and the intensified competition at home in a smaller market
resulted in a series of mergers but, regrettably, many old established
names were not to survive the tremendous changes taking place.
Mention has already been made of the change in ownership of R &
R Clark which was gifted to the University of Edinburgh in 1946,
the year of its centenary. In 1962 it became part of the Thyne Group
and, after a management buy-out in 1979, became part of the ill-fated
Clark—Constable merger. Neill & Co., founded in 1749 as
earlier recorded, ceased trading in 1973.
|
|
Volume 1, published 1990
Buy a copy of the illustrated book?
Download a PDF (6MB)
|
