How did they made image printings (color especially) before computers?

[Telecolor 3007]

In 1974 you had film scanners?
But to what they connected the machine?

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

In 1974 you had film scanners?
But to what they connected the machine?

I didn't have one. The company I worked for bought it and had it imported in from Germany. That machine was about the size of an upright piano. It produced film color separations from 35 mm slides to much larger transparencies.

Similar to this...

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Ed in Tx

I didn't have one. The company I worked for bought it and had it imported in from Germany. That machine was about the size of an upright piano. It produced film color separations from 35 mm slides to much larger transparencies.

Similar to this...

My brother worked in the Graphic Arts industry for many years.
He served an Apprenticeship right after high school for the trade of Litho-platemaker.
Is the machine pictured known as a Mezzomax? If so, that was one part of his job, operating it.
Milwaukee was a large printing town, as a result of the paper mills that were close.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Is the machine pictured known as a Mezzomax?

That is an interesting question. "Mezzomax" seems obviously to be a trademark, but searching on line shows "mezzo" only as part of an old, old term, "mezzo tint," for hand-made art prints, not photographic reproductions. Furthermore, Wikipedia states that mezzo print plates were degraded slightly by each impression until they were discarded because the prints became too poor, after maybe a couple of hundred impressions.

More from searching: Mezzo tint involves a faster process than line engraving to make the ink-holding areas, by roughing the plate with a large area "rocker" tool or some kind of shavings instead of engraving one line at a time with a sharp pointed tool. The first impressions from a mezzo tint plate have deep blacks and excellent shading, but the rough plate areas that hold the ink in a mezzo tint are not as deep or durable as line engravings and get smoothed eventually by the successive high-pressure impressions.

Perhaps "Mezzomax" is a brand name for a plate making machine, intending to convey the quality of mezzo tint images (?)

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

My brother worked in the Graphic Arts industry for many years.
He served an Apprenticeship right after high school for the trade of Litho-platemaker.
Is the machine pictured known as a Mezzomax? If so, that was one part of his job, operating it.
Milwaukee was a large printing town, as a result of the paper mills that were close.

That particular machine in the picture is a Crosfield Magnascan.