Long Long Ago

This may bring some perspective to this time line. When Star Wars came out in the mid 1970s this was the color separation technology used in the printing industry. The averge person will have never come across a machine like this. It’s a laser drum scanner made by a company called HELL, of all things. For many years this was how separating color photos into CYMK (cyan, yellow, magenta, and black). Seeing what looks like a computer keyboard makes you think digital. But you would be wrong. This process was entirely optical. The process was as follows.

1. An artist would paint or illustrate the full color piece or a photo would be provided.
2. The finished piece would be sent to a photo lap (if not inhouse) to have transparentises made.
3. The transparentises would then be placed on the clear acrylic drum show here.
4. A laser would then somehow separate out the four colors while the drum would rotate at high speed.