STILL ROLLING: THE PEOPLE Keeping Print Alive

Keeping watch on every page, every night

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Sixty-year-old Abdul Razak joined Singapore Press Holdings' prepress team over 312 decades ago, as a film stripper.

That was his designation, and his work was to scan and enhance the pictures, as well as manually create the advertisement layout so that they would appear well in the paper. He still does that though with some changes in the processes - along with a lot more, as a senior pre-press specialist now.

The pre-press team prepares and ensures that all elements and components of the digital files of the next day's paper, which are sent from the newsroom, are complete and final for printing.

Starting work each evening at 5.30pm, he'll be at his desk for the next few hours, watching the flow of text and visuals transmitted from the newsroom to ensure that every word, image and advertisement is in its proper place.

At the end of a shift, his eyes and back will be sore. But he still enjoys his job.

"We have to be ready to receive a new page. There will be new editorial content to look out for, there will be a new photo to enhance. I have to try not to make a mistake.

And I must complete everything in a short while. I enjoy that," he says.

His production manager, Ms Sumithy Kamalakaran, 56, who has been with the department for more than three decades, is equally enthusiastic.

When she joined the company as an assistant graphic technician, the pre-press team numbered over a hundred people working on one floor at Times House in Kim Seng Road.

In those days, there were no digital files. Instead, newspapers were primarily printed using letterpress technology. This process involved applying ink to a raised surface, often made of metal or lead and composed of individual pieces of type set by hand, which was then pressed onto paper.

She remembers the occasional late night visits from senior editors were of the paper, including the editor himself, to approve the final layout before it was set for print.