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(I) Introduction of Guest : Mr. Yam Wai Sang
(I) Introduction of Guest : Mr. Yam Wai Sang
A master of printing, Yam Wai Sang(任偉生) is the owner of Kwong Wah Printing Company (光華印務公司) which was established by his father, Yam Chiu Kwong(任朝光) in the 1950s. As a lot of manpower was required in the printing industry, he started to help his father in printing production from an early age. Therefore, he has more than 50 years of experience in the printing field and has become an experienced printer.
(II) Tools
(II) Tools
Before using movable type printing, the printer needs to sort out the characters (字粒). Here are the tools that needed for typesetting (執字粒).
Iron pieces: Use it to consolidate each row of characters and make the characters to remain in a straight line.
Quads (瓜打): The appearance of quads is similar to the characters. It is shorter than the characters and without any carved word on it. The space on printed material is created by the quads.
Ruler: To measure the size of the characters and the spaces between characters. Quads will be added to fill in the extra space between characters.
A finished type form: Completed the sorting of characters and put them on the type form. It is ready for printing.
Clip: The printer uses the clip to sort out the specific characters from the metal type wardrobe and put it on the wooden tray.
(III) 4 main procedures of Printing: “Pick, Print, Nail, Cut” (執、印、釘、切)
(III) 4 main procedures of Printing: “Pick, Print, Nail, Cut” (執、印、釘、切)
“Pick”執 the right characters (字粒) and typesetting. Type form can print the maximum size of 8 inches x 13 inches (Make sure to 2 locks are on the type form)
Make sure the height of the characters are the same, or not use paper to uplift the characters
→ If the characters are not in the same height, it will easily abrasion or broken in the process of printing
Type form
2. "Print"印: 2 Types of Movable Printing Machine in Yam's Shop
a. Heidelberg Platen Press Printing Machine (海德堡風喉照鏡自動印刷機)
Last version of Heidelberg machine in Yam's shop
b. Hand-Press Printing Machine (手落照鏡)
These two machines only allow to use at most 2 colors of ink
Heidelber Platen Press Printing Machine (海德堡風喉照鏡自動印刷機)
Hand-Press Printing Machine (手落照鏡)
3. "Nail"釘: Nail the paper together to make it become a copy
4. "Cut"切: Paper cutting to make the copy or paper to become neat
Heidelberg Platen Press Printing Machine (海德堡風喉照鏡自動印刷機)
Heidelberg Platen Press Printing Machine (海德堡風喉照鏡自動印刷機)
The suction feeder (風喉) allows a automatic process of inserting paper
Smear ink on the sliver bend
Every time the roller take the ink to smear on the Type form and print on the paper
This machine can print 2000 - 5000 sheets an hour
Hand-Press Printing Machine (手落照鏡)
Hand-Press Printing Machine (手落照鏡)
Smear ink on the ink plate (Silver disc)
Press down the handle for roller to take ink to the Type form and print on the paper
Compare to Heidelberg Platen Press Printing Machine, the production speed is slower by manual
(IV) Development of Chinese Printing Industry in Hong Kong
(IV) Development of Chinese Printing Industry in Hong Kong
Whether the development of Chinese printing industry is good or not depends on the overall economic environment actually. However, the golden period of Chinese printing industry in Hong Kong was the 1970s and 1980s. In that period, there were over 200 Chinese printing companies in the Central and Western District, especially movable type printing. Also, those companies drove and motivated a lot of associated industries, such as selling ink, selling paper and etc. Until the later 1980s, offset printing had been booming and the number of type-foundry company (鑄字公司) decreased in Hong Kong. Finally, movable type printing in Hong Kong has been replaced gradually.
Special thanks to Mr. Yam Wai Sang & Kwong Wah Printing Company for providing all the above information
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