Part 3 History of Signs and Printing from Papyrus to Gutenberg

Barry K. Brown

March 29th, 2023

Signs

The world is full of signs and printing in the 21st century. Even in “3rd World” countries, there are lots of this telling you where to go shopping, what to buy, and telling you when you get there. And while most of us may give passing thought about them, that’s probably the extent of your thought on the subject.

Recapping the previous two articles on this history series, we’ve now covered what signage and print pressing were used for and the standard media that displays were made of – wood – up through electrical and neon in the past 100 years or so,

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Part 2 of the History of Sign Makers and Sign Making

Barry K. Brown

March 29th, 2023

Signs

In this second article on this history series, we’ll cover everything from the 17th and 18th centuries until the present, and my hope is that you’ll have a great handle, whether you wanted a handle on it or not, all about the signage making and the producers.

Hi again…as I said last time, if you look around, or drive around, when you live in any industrialized country on earth, your locale is full of signposts. Most of us simply accept that a sign maker made all of them, but that’s pretty much the extent of anyone’s thought on the subject.

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Digital Sign Printing Compared To Screen Printing Signs

Barry K. Brown

March 29th, 2023

Signs

Several hundred years ago when I made the fateful decision to get into the signage business, my first position was screen printing signs. Back when I started, you could be make graphic displays with lacquer inks and get high at the same time…those were the days!

Many companies who used to be screen pressing have switched over to digital printing, but there are still numerous companies who do screen-print press, and as far as I can tell, it isn’t going away anytime soon, as was prognosticated by myself and other sign experts 5 years ago.

Digital and Screen Printing: Speed vs.

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Part One of the History of Sign Makers

Barry K. Brown

March 29th, 2023

Signs

I’m going to give you a brief history so you’ll know, whether you wanted to know or not, all about signs, printing and the makers.

When you look around, or drive around, if you live in most industrialized countries on the planet, your world is full of signs. If you’re like most people, you simply accept that they are made by sign makers, but you don’t give it much thought; you pretty much just take them for granted, at least until you get lost!

Possible Story of the First Prehistoric Sign Making

In the Stone Age,

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Why Sign Makers and Their Clients Love Digital Printing

Barry K. Brown

March 28th, 2023

Banners, Signs

In some past articles I reviewed the techniques involved in how sign makers screen print signs, and I also explored various plastic materials and how they were used. Today I’m going to talk about the revolution digital printing has brought to the print industry in the past 10 to 15 years.

In the beginning, Johannes Gutenberg invented moveable type, revolutionizing the world into the modern era. One thing led to another (I will save the history of printing for 20 more articles later), and now we all have digital signage press!

In the Good Old Days,

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Decent Plastic Sign Materials To Get at a Reasonable Price

Barry K. Brown

March 28th, 2023

Signs

In my last post, I gave you a thumbnail sketch of what it takes for companies that make sign prints using the screen printing process. This time I will deal more specifically with the various types.

There is a specific ink set for screen printing plastic displays, as there is for vinyl, glass, or wood items. If you’re going to make screen-printed pvc or plastic yard graphic signage, you’d need to contact your ink supplier to ask what type of ink is best for the various materials you’ll be using in the production process. Two major ink brands we’ve used in the past are Naz-Dar™ and Sericol™,

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Where to Find a Banner Printer to Print a Full Color Banner

Barry K. Brown

March 28th, 2023

Banners

Up until the last decade, full color press was the domain of large companies that could afford the substantial color printing prices to make a banner (or rather, thousands of them).

But to produce a banner for a small business – well, let’s just say that costs were prohibitive to small business. High volume could bring expenses down to a reasonable price, but a small business could never afford to get one in full color.

Well, first off, know that I’m not going to quote print prices right here and now, but my goal here is to educate you,

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Full Color Printing from Sign Companies

Barry K. Brown

March 28th, 2023

Banners, Decals, Signs

It used to be that sign companies produced full color printing for only the big corporations like Coca-Cola, IBM, or Xerox (back when they were still a dominant player). This technology was expensive unless it was done in huge volume, especially when companies printed larger format advertising media such as posters or banners or the like.

With the onset of digital press in the 1990’s, however, businesses were able to offer affordable 4CP or 4-color process printing – to smaller corporations and companies. Today, most are able to offer to even Mom & Pop businesses.

What is 4CP/4-color Process?

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Full Color Printing of Vinyl Decal Stickers for Small Businesses

Barry K. Brown

March 28th, 2023

Decals

I’ve mentioned in other posts that full color printing of banners, signs, and displays was once the sole domain of large corporations. Because you needed large volumes to be cost-effective, these print media were mainly produced by offset printers or screen printers.

This article explores how all that has changed, including pressing of vinyl decal stickers. Print method on various advertising media including vinyl decal stickers went digital in the 1990’s and has changed the look of business since.

Most of the time we’ve found with 4 CP of vinyl decal stickers, that they and even nominally small ones (500 or more) are still produced most economically with screen,,

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Traffic Street Signs – USDOT Categories and Regulations

Barry K. Brown

March 27th, 2023

Signs

Traffic street signs include a huge variety of road markers in the US, and even more in the rest of the world. They are regulated in every country in the world by their governments, and here in the US, the USDOT oversees every state’s DOT regarding traffic street signs.

The US Government’s specific regulator, the United States Department of Transportation, or the USDOT, has a manual, called the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, or the MUTCD, which assigns letter and number codes to the various types we drive by on a daily basis.

Specified Traffic Street Signs and the Regulation of Traffic Regulation Signs

One of the most common categories are the regulatory signs.

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Part 3 History of Signs and Printing from Papyrus to Gutenberg

Part 2 of the History of Sign Makers and Sign Making

Digital Sign Printing Compared To Screen Printing Signs

Digital and Screen Printing: Speed vs.

Part One of the History of Sign Makers

Possible Story of the First Prehistoric Sign Making

Why Sign Makers and Their Clients Love Digital Printing

In the Good Old Days,

Decent Plastic Sign Materials To Get at a Reasonable Price

Where to Find a Banner Printer to Print a Full Color Banner

Full Color Printing from Sign Companies

What is 4CP/4-color Process?

Full Color Printing of Vinyl Decal Stickers for Small Businesses

Traffic Street Signs – USDOT Categories and Regulations

Specified Traffic Street Signs and the Regulation of Traffic Regulation Signs

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