03 December 2009 | Uncategorized | kimm

Today, people can print all kinds of things: teeth, 3D objects, skin… you name it.

But back in the 40s, it was much harder to print an ad.  Remember, they didn’t have neato cool computers where they could load a graphic and print it out on paper within seconds.  They had to do things the hard way.

However, World War II added a great deal of fire to the technological process of printing.  The government printed bonds, posters to advertise bonds, posters to encourage people to join the armed services and anti-German propaganda.  Printing became another war machine for the States and, like airplanes and gunnery at the time, it was constantly in a state of updating itself as it tried to beat the Germans in the propaganda race.

Offset Printing

Offset printing was actually invented by accident in 1903 by Ira Washington Rubel, but it didn’t really gain steam until the 1940s.  (It gained even further popularity in the 1950s due to improvements in ink, paper and plates.)

According to Wikipedia, “Offset printing is a commonly used printing technique where the inked image is transferred (or “offset”) from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on the repulsion of oil and water, the offset technique employs a flat (planographic) image carrier on which the image to be printed obtains ink from ink rollers, while the non-printing area attracts a water-based film (called “fountain solution”), keeping the non-printing areas ink-free.”

It’s very easy to tell if something has been created using offset printing.  If you look at a newspaper and see a page that has images where they don’t quite seem to line up, that is because one of the printing plates was a little off when they were laying down a color.

It is still in use today and is a great way for printers to make cost effective prints.

Lenticular Printing

Another form of printing that was popularized in the 1940s is lenticular printing by the Vari-Vue company.  They used this process animated  political badges and animated cereal cards.

Wikipedia says that lenticular printing is “a technology in which a lenticular lens is used to produce images with an illusion of depth, or the ability to change or move as the image is viewed from different angles. Examples of lenticular printing include prizes given in Cracker Jack snack boxes that showed flip and animation effects such as winking eyes, and modern airport advertising graphics that change their message depending on the viewing angle. This technology was created in the 1940s but has evolved in recent years to show more motion and increased depth.”

Like offset printing, lenticular printing is still used today and are very popular in printing large sizes due to enhancements in oversized lenses.  You may recognize the billboards that have one image on it that changes to another image as you drive by.

Golden Age

Another publication that helped to revolutionize printing techniques in the 1940s was comic books.  What is known as the Golden Age of Comic Books took place from the 1930s to the 1940s and was an inexpensive form of entertainment to kids, teenagers and adults alike.

In World War II, the comic books and the government saw a great opportunity for their propaganda machines to reach the minds of the youngest of readers.  In March 1941, Captain America was born and his nemesis, Red Skull, a American who became a saboteur for Germany.

Comic books used offset printing (you can see it sometimes when there seem to be double or triple images on the page) and inexpensive paper to capitalize on this broad reaching art form.

This time period really defined the hero and the bad guy.  The comic book character Spirit also got its start in the early 40s and he had several similarities to the everday man including the same flaws, but he still prevailed over evil.

Conclusion

Printing had to come a long way before it got to the ease with which we can print today, but you can still duplicate the look of some of these old printing styles.  Take a gander at the sites below to see how some people try to recreate the look and feel of 1940s printing and also look at the two videos to get a better idea of how important printing was during and after the war.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3rlsj-KEZE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy1J3vBGxu4
http://www.hotcards.com/run-a-vintage-print-ad-campaign
http://www.instructables.com/answers/how-do-I-fake-a-color-offset-print-of-a-1940s-pul/