Making books is fun!

[Superfluous Parentheses]

A gentle reminder of why typesetting software is ****ing awesome.

[Lethal Squirrel]

holy crap! I had no idea so much went into making books :O

[JBert]

This makes for a nice drinking game: every time the narrator says "machine", take a shot.

[EverythingIBM]

I'm sure they could have simplified the process a whole lot (i.e. why not just make the printing blocks out of copper to begin with?). That's some heavy machinery though.

[JBert]

Those Linotype machines (or similar type-settings machines) you see at the start of the process create lead bars because casting lead takes only a short while. Casting copper in it would be far harder and more time-consuming, especially if the typed line contained an error (those machines didn't have a backspace!)

Once they had the lines of type, they couldn't use those to make printing blocks directly as they are still "negative", and they would melt when brought into contact with copper.

[chimera15]

I wonder though when this type of factory came into use and when the process changed to something else.  I know there was a changes in printing technology, as well as different choices that could be made.  For instance letter press vs electrotype.  

So is this electrotype, or something else?

[sixty]

I misread this thread title as "boobs" and was hoping to find an autobiography of a plastic surgeon inside. Oh the disappointment.

[quadibloc]

So is this electrotype, or something else?

If you set type normally, but instead of printing with it, you press the type into a substance that can withstand molten copper, which then serves to mold a single plate that is sturdy enough to print many copies of your document quickly, that would be "stereotype".

[Moneyless]

Bit of a late reply, but pretty interesting video. I didn't think there were that many steps to making books; although these days the process has probably been simplified some.

[Ekaros]

No touchtyping?