How has technology changed your job? – The daily writing prompt asks a question I could write a book about. I might just do that if I have time in the future.

I started off in the Engraving department of a large chain of weekly and monthly newspapers. I did photo reproduction (the conversion of a continuous tone photograph into a halftone – a series of dots) so it can be printed on a press alongside the stories.

Presses only put down one shade of ink (SOLID). So, it’s the size of those dots you see on the printed paper that give the illusion of a grey or color tone. That changed to a digital process after a few years into the business and change after change came at a blazing pace from then till retirement almost 50 years later.

I moved into the world of computers in the 70s and officially moved into the systems/networking area in the 80s. If you missed working with computers before the internet, you missed a special time. Anyway, the pace of change in the publishing business was and continues to be staggering.

• Technology change how we communicated.
• Technology helped eliminate some very toxic chemicals used in the printing process. I’m sure breathing a lot of that stuff in as a youth wasn’t helpful.
• Technology helped me access many things we had to figure out on our own before the internet.
• Technology gave me opportunities I never dreamed of.
• Technology allowed me to do my job from home for the last few years of my career.

I’ll get to work on that book. The details are starting to flood my memories.

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