For many years the paper was pasted up from waxed strips produced by a Compugraphic system. It was modern at the beginning of the 80s but with time – like all computer systems – it started ageing rapidly. It was, in addition, time-consuming because it required texts to be retyped, recorded onto ever more old-fashioned disks, and then the cassettes with exposed photographic paper had to be passed thorough various chemicals. The process of moving to a computer based desktop publishing system ran slowly. In September 1996, the paper went over, for the first time, from manual pasting-up to a computer based approach. The Nowy Dziennik’s graphical format was still the same as a dozen or so years earlier, so it was time for a radical change in its page design.
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This is how the Nowy Dziennik`s front page looked in 1971... |
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In its 35 year history, the page design of the Nowy Dziennik has changed three times. In the 70s and 80s, the paper’s columns were set manually, by pasting up from printed column strips. Only after photographing the layout were the plates prepared in the print shop, and were then put onto the offset printer. This system of production determined also the look of the paper.
The paper’s graphical design, which had taken shape in its first twenty years, did not change very much in the following two decades. The first page usually included 6 to 9 communiques. Pictures appeared rarely. The regular sections inside were marked out by a black strip.
The first characteristic logo of the paper appeared in 1976; from then on, the brand mark of the newspaper. Earlier, the title “Nowy Dziennik” had looked quite different: the style of the fonts used was narrow serif and with upper-case letters only. Apart from using back and red for text, blue would also sometimes appear.
The new logo saw the light of day for the first time on Independence Day in 1976. And so it remained for the next 30 years. In time, when the paper settled and its finances stabilised, the publishing capacity of the paper started to be seriously restricted by the production limitations of the printer, who for many years could not print more than 48 pages at weekends. It meant that during more important holidays, the paper was being stifled by advertisements.
Razors and wax
For many years the paper was pasted up from waxed strips produced by a Compugraphic system. It was modern at the beginning of the 80s but with time – like all computer systems – it started ageing rapidly. It was, in addition, time-consuming because it required texts to be retyped, recorded onto ever more old-fashioned disks, and then the cassettes with exposed photographic paper had to be passed thorough various chemicals.
Only from these waxed strips were the columns and pages pasted up. Most of the corrections were then made directly on those strips on which the operators had retyped the texts. So the people working in this section, apart from having to know the rules of Polish grammar and spelling, also had to have almost a watchmaker’s manual dexterity. This was because the corrections were made by cutting out letters with a razor blade. They then had to glued in, in such a way that the efforts of the corrector, would not show on the printed page. The Compugraphic system had a nice Polish font, but also a serious deficiency: it could not split and carry over phrases. A
s a result, the columns were dotted with quite a few blank spaces - or “lakes”, as the editor in chief Bolesław Wierzbiański liked to call them.
The beginning of the 90s brought two revolutionary changes to the Polish émigré publications market. The first was a wave of new immigrants from Poland, which led to a rise in the readership. The second was the revolution in technology, computerisation and the resulting flood of information from Poland. Apart from the Reuters service, the Nowy Dziennik was also able to buy the picture services of other agencies which greatly enhanced the look of the paper.
Time for change
The process of moving to a computer based desktop publishing system ran slowly. In September 1996, the paper went over, for the first time, from manual pasting-up to a computer based approach. The Nowy Dziennik’s graphical format was still the same as a dozen or so years earlier, so it was time for a radical change in its page design. The project was prepared by a team of graphics experts managed by Tomasz Tomaszewski, the former head of the Nowy Dziennik’s typesetters. The first new edition appeared on 24 September 1997.
Further years passed. The design of the newspaper was increasingly limiting the possibilities offered by the rapid development
of computer graphics. In autumn 2004, a team headed by the chief editor Maciej Wierzyński, started discussions on a new design. This time the whole project was prepared by a professional American company, Garcia Media. The same firm had provided a new look to such titles as the Wall Street Journal and Libération.
The first number with the new graphical format appeared almost 8 years after the previous redesign – on 26 September 2005, under the leadership of a new chief editor Julita Karkowska.
Tomasz De
ptuła
Nowy Dziennnik, New York
