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Jan 18, 2023 21:26:55   #
I started using "DUCT" tape in the 1960s for just that -- sealing joints in HVAC duct work, then watching the cost of the good stuff steadily climb and dozens of imitators come on the market that had little tensile strength and adhesives of dubious value.

Then the "art" phase began using the ubiquitous silver tape for all kinds of projects from clothes to billfolds. Not to be restricted to the silver product, the brand name "DUCK TAPE" appeared offering dozens of patterns and colors. To make things more confusing or clear depending on your point of view, Office Depot has

Duck® Duct Tape

listed as the description for the silvery version sold alongside all of the colors and patterns.
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Dec 12, 2022 15:29:19   #
Yes, I've mixed so much Kodalith I could probably do it in the dark. Although it has been 20+ years since I've mixed any in any great quantity. The shop where I worked until retirement still has a darkroom but now it only sees use to make an occasional negative to make a polymer plate. The imagesetters and processors are long gone as all platemaking is now digital.

I just thought of another darkroom experience. I and my lab partner were in the big demonstration darkroom developing some pan film for a color separation in total darkness. We heard someone come in through the light lock and realized it was Mr. Henchey because we recognized his keys jangling. He went around the corner to where the film was stored to get some film for another darkroom. We heard some boxes being shuffled and some muttering, and then the white lights came on for just a second with an "Oh, there it is" and headed out of the darkroom. It happened so fast that neither of us said anything. We just fixed and washed the film and took it out to the light table for inspection. When Mr. Henchey came by he saw the solid black negative and Charlie just commented that while we were developing the film, "someone" came in and turned on the white lights. He couldn't believe he had turned the on lights because he knew what we were doing.
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Dec 12, 2022 04:04:39   #
When I was in college in Oklahoma in 1966-67, I transferred to the Technical College in Okmulgee to study lithographic photography. It was housed in a former army hospital. Most of the buildings were connected by covered halls that made it easy for the many disabled Viet Nam vets who were taking classes under the GI Bill to get from their dorms to classes and to the dining hall. The lithographic classrooms, camera galleries and darkrooms were in a former surgical wing so the walls were all green tile. We had three Robertson process cameras with 30"x30" film vacuum boards and all with copy boards larger than the film boards. Overall size 22 to 30 feet from film board to end of copy board rails.

The primary camera instructor was long past retirement age but generally had the knack of making learning fun, although we wondered at times why we were learning some things. He was mostly all business, but we'd learned bits and pieces about his work history but more likely we knew more about which grandchild was playing Little League that afternoon. Film chemicals at the time were available in standard brands/formulas but Mr. Henchee's method was to mix chemicals using the basic ingredients and we were taught the function of each chemical and what effect changing the strength of each solution and the ratio of combinations of solutions and temperature had on the film. Mix chemicals, expose film, develop, analyze results. Change chemicals, repeat . . . .

One day some of us were kind of complaining to the Stripping instructor about why Henchee was teaching us such details when we knew there were cubitainers of Kodak Litho Developer Parts A & B in the darkrooms. [Before you get bent out of shape over "Stripping instructor," stripping is a no-longer-used process of stripping the emulsion off of film and transferring it to a sheet of plate glass for platemaking.] The term continues to mean the process of assembling negatives to expose printing plates but the process is becoming outdated because most plates are imaged with lasers. Mrs. Piquano sympathized with us a bit and then suggested that the next morning we make a quick trip to get donuts at the morning break and then join her and Mr. Henchee in the faculty break room and ask him what he did in WW II.

We got the donuts and five of us headed with some trepidation to the break room. Mr. Henchee greeted us with a twinkle in his eye when he saw the donuts. Mrs. Piquano just said. "They've come to as you some questions." His first answers were a bit evasive like, "I worked in photo reconnaissance in England." After digging out a 10"-sq. negative and a 3 ft-sq. print, we learned that he was "loaned" by Kodak from their research labs. He didn't just "work" there, he was head of the technical division. They maintained the aerial cameras, and tested various films. exposures, filters, etc. Then various developing chemicals and processes to achieve the greatest detail possible in the film and prints. He was technically a civilian but functioned at the rank of colonel.

He asked if we'd like to see one of the reconnaissance cameras and of course we said yes. He brought it in the next day on a hand truck along with more negatives and maps (prints) -- and we brought more donuts.

About the time we were about to head back to class he said, "About the question you didn't ask." (Mrs. Piquano tattled on us.) I want you to learn to never quit asking how and why something works and never be afraid to ask if there is a better way. He repeated that message several days later, then told us we would be using the premixed chemicals for the rest of the term.

Dennis
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Dec 1, 2022 00:58:40   #
Caledonia and Caledonia Italic was designed for the Linotype company in 1938 and the Bold and Bold Italic came a little later. It was and is a popular font for books. New Caledonia is a slight redesign for computer use. If I remember right the change was mainly in the italics. Linotype mats require that the regular and italic letter be exactly the same width. Computer fonts do not have that requirement and letters like the lowercase "f" can have a little more swash on the descender and extend slightly under the adjoining letter which isn't possible on the solid Linotype matrices.

I too like Libra and have it in the original letterpress lead type that I can use for printing, foil stamping, and bookbinding.
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Dec 1, 2022 00:35:35   #
Don't worry about Futura and Helvetica — Arial will do just fine and it will be on virtually every computer. It was designed especially for the computer and readability on the screen.

I spent 60+ years in the printing industry with nearly all of that time spent in various areas of typography, type design, and using various machines over the years that created the finished type we used in books, magazines, and all sorts of other printed materials. In the later years we had to take screen legibility into consideration because much of the material had dual usage.

In the heyday of phototypesetting machines, each company had to create their own library of fonts that fit the requirements of their machine's capabilities. Usually this was just by copying and renaming — a font name could be copyrighted but the actual design of the letters could not. Thus, Helvetica became Helios, Times Roman became English Times, Americana became American Classic, etc.

The typographical world changed again with the advent of the Personal Computer (PC) and Adobe's introduction of Type 1 fonts followed by TrueType fonts and later OpenType fonts. Fonts have moved from physical shapes in metal and drawn on paper to shapes described by a computer program and those shapes can be infinitely manipulated by other computer programs to create what we see on computer screens and translates to hard copies by laser and inkjet printers.

Type design has become a major industry with type artists creating thousands of new designs each year. Many are created for exclusive use by one company as part of their brand identity, many others are basically copies of standard fonts with a few subtle changes with little or no improvement. Then there is the vast number of unique scrips, hand-lettered styles, and funky shaped alphabets that provide so much variety and uniqueness to advertising and product label design. The OpenType format allows for many variations of each character plus accents and unique characters for multiple languages to be included in a font that are accessible by programs designed to use them.

It's a bit hard to believe but over the years I've collected over 60,000 different fonts and maybe deleted that many more because they were just bad copies of other fonts. Even yet the inventory contains many virtual duplicates. In reality I keep about 20 of my favorite type families on my computer and all of the six but Futura are among them.
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Nov 29, 2022 22:58:44   #
Thanks for posting Jerry.
I get a daily download of 52 comics that I have selected from GoComics.com. Twenty-two of them included a tribute to Charles Shultz. Quite a few of the comics I follow are from the archives, so 22 would probably be over half of the currently drawn ones I receive included a reference. At least one "political" cartoonist also included a tribute. Only two that Jerry posted were on my list.
It was also fun to learn the origin of the nickname "Sparky." I may have known it in the past but if so, it must have been lost in one of those foggy areas that seem to be increasing as the years go by.
So, thanks to each cartoonist for their clever inclusion of the Peanuts gang in yesterday's cartoons and the memories they brought back.
Dennis
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Jul 14, 2022 23:40:31   #
When I first read the title of this thread, the "Thee" jumped out at me. In reading I quickly realized that Jerry was using the spelling to clarify pronunciation.
"Thee" to me is a pronoun of long heritage. The religious movement in England led by George Fox in the 1600s was known as the Society of Friends but often referred to as Quakers. At the time the pronouns thee and thou were used when referring to the "common" folk and you and your were used when referring to those of elite status.
One of the Society's tenets was that all people were equal in the eyes of God and therefore, the Quakers used the common forms of thee and thou for everyone. Another practice in the same vein was the refusal of men to remove their hat when before or to bow to those in power. At the time, failure to remove your hat when before a judge was considered an affront and Quakers were ordered to jail for the offense. The term was at the judge's pleasure so it could easily be a death sentence. Jails often did not provide any services, so the prisoner was dependent on others to bring them food and other needs.

My ancestors came through Pennsylvania and settled in northern Indiana, then migrated again to a farming community in south central Kansas in the 1880s. My paternal and maternal grandmother's families homesteaded on adjoining properties. A small Quaker church was built and the families multiplied. By the 1950s the plain language had mostly fallen into disuse, especially by the younger generation but was still commonly heard at church and by the older community members -- especially when family members from Indiana came to visit. And there was no doubt I was in trouble when I heard, "Dennis, will THEE . . . ."

I have vivid memories of trips back to Indiana where we'd sleep in feather beds and I'd get a glare from Grandma if I didn't remember to use the plain language when speaking to the adults. In the 50s the church tradition of the men sitting on one side of the aisle and the women on the other was still practiced and several of the older men wore the traditional flat-brimmed hats and the women pleated bonnets, with the men removing their hats only when praying. Traditions changed, and by the 70s, families were sitting together and the hats and bonnets were no longer seen.

I still find myself unconsciously using thee and thou when I'm conversing with an older person . . . but those are getting fewer as the years go by.
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Jul 2, 2022 21:13:11   #
Longshadow wrote:
"CRLF"

They'll drop the "carriage" because there is none.
Wait, what's a carriage...


I was thinking of an actual typewriter when I wrote that comment. "CRLF" hasn't been something I've typed recently! But it and like ilk of other printer commands, screen control commands, and disk control commands still reside somewhere in the little-used grey matter. A slipcase of Wordstar manuals and 5" discs and some other programming manuals reside above my desk as a reminder of what once was. Today, interface programs perform and mask most of the drudge work of HTML although it's amazing how many keyboard shortcuts I use every day hark back to Wordstar.
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Jul 2, 2022 20:37:36   #
TreborLow wrote:
From my aging memory, the two spaces were standard with typewriters. They used a standard width for each letter. To better indicate the end of a sentence, the extra "white space" was a good idea. (We scan as we read, and that extra clue made it easier to comprehend the sentence.) Yes, I still do it! However, it is less critical now since the computer kerns all the letters (see example of kerning below), so a single white space is still noticeable. But I agree, two spaces is still better!! I am using it now as I type, and will see what happens when this gets posted.
Stay safe,
Bob

Here are 10 letters on each row.
iiiiiiiiii
wwwwwwwwww
From my aging memory, the two spaces were standard... (show quote)



Sorry, that is not "kerning"—it's just a good example that a variable-width typestyle is being used, as opposed to a mono-spaced font where each 10-character-line would be the same length.

"Kerning" is the adjustment of spacing between any two letters, punctuation mark, or symbols to make the space between all elements appear even. Each character of a variable width font is given a specific width to accommodate its planned design. This includes a small amount of whitespace on each side of the letter that when combined with the whitespace on the side of the adjoining letter will give the appearance of even spacing as the word is assembled. Thus, a straight vertical edge of a letter will usually have a little more space than a curved letter like an "o."

This works for most letter combinations but then there are the oddball combinations like: AWA ATA AVAVAT A" Too Two AT, "one."

AAAAAAAAAAAA
VVVVVVVVVVVV
AVAVAVAVAVAV

VVVVVVVVVVVV............
V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V.

TTTTTTTTTTTToooooooooooo
ToToToToToToToToToToToTo

............""""""""""""
."."."."."."."."."."."."

AAAAAAAAAAAAA""""""""""""
A"A"A"A"A"A"A"A"A"A"A"A"


To handle the oddball combinations, the type font may contain a kerning table that includes a set of rules and/or a listing of actual pairs of letters giving the exact number of units of space to be removed from between each combination of letters listed. The kerning table may include thousands of pairs depending on the needs of the design. Most modern fonts contain kerning tables and most modern applications use them but sometimes the option needs to be turn on. Previously disk space and the computing power needed to use and display the results was a concern. Not so much today.

We'll see how the examples actually post. Most of the examples show kerning as I type with the exception of the quotes following the period. That just means that the font currently being used doesn't have a definition for that pair. The font I use most often would have moved the end quotes over the period somewhat so that the quotes don't look like they are just hanging out in nowhere land. If it was a personal font I'd probably go into it with a font editor and add the pair to the table, but when you are on the web, you just usually have to take what you get!
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Jul 2, 2022 19:24:19   #
pendennis wrote:
My foray into typography came via hand-set type. The one using a composing stick and loose type. Between words we were told to use an "en" space, and to use "em" space after periods and colons. Commas and semicolons called for the "en" space.

The same was for line spacing. Lines were separated via "en" spacing, and paragraphs separated by "em" spacing. Our shop teacher was the primary editor, and he regularly red-lined those settings when wrong.

It's been carried over to computer typing for me.
My foray into typography came via hand-set type. ... (show quote)


I spent 60+ years in the printing industry, with most of that time in typesetting, design, and editing/proofreading. In the beginning, a composing stick was in my hand much of the time and I was setting handset type. If not that, I was redistributing what I had set the day or week before.

The goal of good typesetting is primarily legibility. Exactly what it takes to achieve that goal varies widely depending on who is setting the rules. We had shop standards for various kinds of work only to be superseded by the demands of individual customers.

The typesetting case has many options for spacing not even dreamed of by those sitting at a keyboard—unless that keyboard is controlling an advanced specialized typesetting program. Metal type sizes in the USA 1886 are defined in points based on the overall size of the body of each piece of type from top to bottom. The size of the printed type varied depending on the style of the type and how much minimum space the designer wanted between the lines. There are approximately 72 points in an inch and it would seem that 18-point type would all be the same size—about 1/4-inch high less the amount the designer allowed for space between the lines. But alas, the visual size varies greatly. Many traditional styles used in books have long ascenders and descenders leaving only maybe 1/4th of the total vertical space for the bowl of the lowercase letters—known as the "x-height." Another typestyle might have very short ascenders and descenders leaving nearly half of the vertical height for the bowl of the lowercase letters.

Horizontal spacing is historically described in ems, with an "em" being a square of the body size of the type. The next size down is the "en" that is half the width of an em. Smaller sizes are referred to as fractions of an em—"3 to em," "4 to em," etc. In smaller sizes, the smallest cast space is usually 1½ or 2 points thick. The range of sizes increase as the type gets larger. For really close spacing, 1-pt brass and 1/2-pt copper spaces are usually available.

The choice of what word spacing and sentence spacing is used varies by the design width of the typeface with word spacing tending to be slightly wider as the size set smaller. Ease of reading depends greatly on the ability to easily separate and define the shape of words. An oft-used rule is to use the width of the lowercase "t" in the font being used as word spacing. Those, like myself, that feel additional space between sentences contributes to ease of reading, might choose to use double the word spacing.

It's hard to know exactly what contributed most to today's emphasis on "single" spaces between sentences. I've lived through several generations of typesetting systems. In some early ones, the programs couldn't deal with double spaces. They were barely able to rejustify text into different column widths and single spaces at the end of sentences were required if you didn't want the second space to appear at the beginning of the next line when a new line break happened at the end of a sentence.

The other driving force has been the design concept that type blocks should be a uniform "grey" and "double" or additional end-of-sentence spacing interferes with that concept.
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Jul 2, 2022 17:44:08   #
Longshadow wrote:
It used to also remove duplicate carriage returns.




(five)
Use to have to go:
.
.
.
To get vertical spacing.



I wonder how many younger readers will stumble over "carriage return."
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May 10, 2022 20:27:24   #
This story involves "big" bills but also illustrates the change in value over the years.

In the spring of 1961 my grandfather asked me if I would go to town with him on Saturday. That request was getting more common as he was well past 80 and hesitant to drive if his knees were bothering him. I learned on the way to town that the reason for the trip was to shop for a new truck for hauling grain.

The first stop was at the Dodge dealer but they didn't have a truck with a hydraulic hoist that grandpa liked. The second stop was at Swinson Motors, the Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Cadillac dealership. Earl Swinson, who owned the company with his brother and officially "retired" was there, but talking to someone else. He and grandpa just exchanged nods of recognition. They had been friends since the late 1930s because of their common interest in flying. A salesman came over to inquire about grandpa's interest and we were quickly on our way to the truck lot.

The interest quickly focused on a new Chevrolet truck with a 350-bushel steel box bed and the wanted hydraulic lift. A cash price was negotiated. . . . but there was one more dealership to check.

The Ford dealership had a couple of options, both a little cheaper, but it was obvious that Grandpa liked the quality of the custom box bed of the Chevrolet better.

Next was lunch at a local diner -- an unusual event, as we seldom ate out this close to home. Then to the bank, where grandpa retrieved some bonds from his safety deposit box, cashed them, and then requested three $1000 bills and deposited the remainder in his account. The bills were tucked safely away in the pocket in the bib of his overalls. At the time, I'd seen a few hundred-dollar bills but never anything larger. Then back to Swinson's.

When we walked in, we could see that the truck had been moved up to the back lot and was clearly visible through the back windows. The salesman saw us coming and came to greet us. This time Earl had his cup coffee and was reading the newspaper but obviously aware of the situation. There was some small-talk about what the other dealers had (or didn't have) and again I heard "cash sale" and that the price was a little too high. An offer of $3000 cash, tax included was made and rejected. Then grandpa turned toward Earl, pointed to the truck through the window, and said, "Earl, will you take $3000 cash, tax included, for that truck out there?" Earl put down his paper and ambled over. "Yah, I'll take $3000 CASH including tax."

With that, grandpa pulled the three $1000 bills out of the bib pocket and handed them to Earl. The salesman had a confused look on his face, probably also wondering if his commission had just gone out the window as he realized that the two men were long-time friends. Earl just shoved the bills in his hand and said, "Write it up."

I now marvel at what $3000 could buy back then -- or how much $3000 really was at the time. And then remember the 1934 or '35 wooden-box truck that we took in later in the afternoon. It had always been kept in the truck barn so was in really good condition for its age -- the oak bed and box was worn but beautifully polished from use. I've wondered what happened to it.
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Mar 7, 2022 00:50:16   #
I got kind of a funny call from my nearly 50-year old daughter about a month ago that started off with, "Hey dad, how do you make sausage gravy." Her husband was off on a business trip and she was hungry for biscuits and gravy. Mark doesn't care for cream gravies so she has never made it just for herself, just has it when they are out for breakfast.

Overall she is a great cook and makes killer biscuits and other yeast and quick breads but somehow she missed out when Gravy 101 was taught. I quickly explained the basic proportions of fat and flour for the rue and if the sausage was lean she would probably have to add some bacon fat or butter. Later that day I got another call announcing a happy success.

I grew up on a Kansas farm/dairy/ranch and there was gravy on the table more often than not. My favorite is still the gravy made after frying chicken. Or the "Thin Gravy" that was from my paternal Grandmother's side of the house. Sausage was fried in dozens of thin half-dollar sized patties and then a little cream was added to the skillet and just a bit of flour, then more cream and milk plus salt and pepper, then left to simmer and the milk and cream to absorb the spices from the sausage. It was usually served for supper on cold evenings when bread was to be baked the next day. It was ladled over the leftover "stale" bread -- the heels were my favorite because they didn't get quite so soggy. Or just put some in a bowl and dip your bread in it like soup. Some of the simplest foods are the best.
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Feb 25, 2022 04:01:19   #
Just thought about why I originally bought the padding knife.
We had just received a huge contract for padding "counter checks" for a small banking chain. Now it's hard to imagine walking into a grocery store and at each cash register there was a rack of blank checks for most of the banks in the area. Where I grew up in south-central Kansas that would include banks for maybe a 25-mile radius. Can't remember that far back, how about the first credit card you ever had or saw? Mine had a $300 limit -- I couldn't hardly believe it -- that was more than I took home in a month.
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Feb 25, 2022 03:38:49   #
bwilliams wrote:
I was in the printing industry for many years and it is a padding knife. To make scratch pads you used to stack up the paper and paint it with padding compound. when it dried you would slice the pads apart with a knife like that.


Congratulations! bwilliams finally got it right! There is a well-used padding knife out in my shop that I bought about 1965. They need to be kept very sharp and without nicks so that they don't tear the paper.

A couple of months ago a simular question appeared on another venue about the knife's companion tool -- a pad counter -- an adjustable tool for separating a stack of paper into equal lifts when inserting the grey chipboard backing in the stack before applying the glue.

P.S. drucker is German for printer
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