Printing

     Printing is very important in the United States. In almost every city you will find a few printers. Most people who work there start out as apprentices. That means that you get paid while you are learning. There are a lot of jobs in the printing process. Here are some of the jobs.

     When a customer wants something printed they go to the printing salesman. The salesman shows the customer all the inks that can be printed on their manuscript. A production manager is in charge of the print shop. He plans the writing jobs. After the plans of the writing jobs are done, the artist will plan the way the printing job will look like when it's done.

     Linotype machines type on a machine sort of like a typewriter except the words and sentences come out in metal lines. Do you know how the linotype uses metal to make words? Well, the photo-type operators put the words on film. The next step is for the proofreader to check all the printing set by the print shop. Cameramen take pictures of the typed print or illustrations. After the cameraman has taken the pictures, the litho artist takes the photos and pastes them on a board called a flat. A plate maker takes all the pictures on the flat and puts them on a plate, which is a thin sheet of metal. The ink matcher sees that the inks that the customer wants are getting ready.

     To make the actual book, pressmen are in charge of the printing press. The press feeder puts paper into the printing press. A press foreman looks at the sheets of paper that come out of the press. The next step is to get all the papers bound, so the folder operator works the folding machine. Finally the last step is to deliver all the printed copies to the public. That is the job for the deliveryman.

     The author is always so pleased when his or her book is finished after that very long process.