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Re: card board "printing plates"



 7-19-2000

List,

To expand a bit on Terry's definition and description of mats, these were
still common back in the mid-60s when I was a humble editorial assistant
batting out press releases in a public information office. It was common in
those days for newpapers to use 60 dot-per-inch halftone screens (our major
local newspaper was still letterpress); a mat was (often) a halftone in
reverse--it was easy to see the raised dots in a glancing light.

I frequently found a mat in publicity packets distributed nationally. We
often made the decision on sending the mat to one newspaper and the "slick"
(b/w glossie photograph) to another. As I recall, by the 1970s mats had
disappeared. I wish I had saved a few.

Jan Boles
Smylie Archives
Albertson College of Idaho

-----Original Message-----
From: Terry Abraham
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Sent: 7/19/00 4:59 PM
Subject: Re: card board "printing plates"

These are called mats (from matrix). According to my desk dictionary:
the
intaglio, usually of papier-mache, impressed from type or a cut [i.e.,
illustration], from which a stereotype plate is cast.

These were used to cheaply distribute illustrations, which were then
created in hot metal in each shop for printing. The product was often
nailed onto a piece of wood type-high whereby it became what this
question
started out with.

   ---Terry

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-
Terry Abraham   Special Collections, University of Idaho
<http://www.lib.uidaho.edu/special-collections/>


On Wed, 19 Jul 2000, Rob Dishon wrote:

> Dear Listers,
>
> Thanks to those who responded to my oral history query.  Reading the =
> printing blocks question reminded me that i have not yet discovered
how or =
> what these card board pieces that appear to have been used to print
ads, =
> photographs and whole articles where.  I realise that i should have by
=
> this time in my career figured this out  but i havent so i thought i
would =
> throw it out here.  What on earth are these things, what are they
called, =
> how were they used and how are people storing/using them in  the
archives? =
>  I know they are out there as i have seen them in at least three of
the =
> archives i have worked in.
>
> Thanks again to all who respond.
>
> Rob Dishon
> Archivist
> LaGuardia & Wagner Archives
>
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