The Italian islands love us. Already in the past Sardinia has honored us with an important ‘historical’ donation from a law firm, now it is the turn of Sicily, where comes from the seaside town of Sciacca another important donation from a typography that for more than 30 years has remained faithful to Apple, going through all the evolutions of desktop publishing from the first laserwriters onwards. A story of a family, once again father and son, passing on an important craft that began with lead type; a fascinating story worth sharing.
The owner, Pietro Zambrano, writes to us: “Giglio Printing House was founded in the early 1950s at the Giglio Church Convent in Sciacca. Present as director from the beginning my father Giuseppe became its owner in 1968. After his passing it passed to me under the heading of Tipografia Giglio di Pietro Zambrano. It was a classic printing house that used lead, wood and plastic movable type for the production of commercial printed matter, brochures, books and whatnot. Later a linotype was introduced for the mechanical production of lines in cast lead.
In 1987 sensing the potential of digital, along with an Offset press, a Macintosh SE 30 with Megascreen, an Abaton scanner (black and white) and an Apple Laserwriter plus printer were purchased. The basic software were Quark Xpress 1.0 and Freehand 1.0. The transition to color was with an LC then over time came various types of Powerpc, scanners, mono and color lasers, plotters and more. All that until now that everything was demobilized as it came to the end of the cycle due to age limits, obsolescence of equipment, absence of those who could continue the activity. Still, it was a good experience, with more than 30 years of loyalty to Macs, for an accountant lent first to typography and then as a self-taught also to digital graphics.”
Write to us and propose YOUR donations: they will always be evaluated and even long afterwards we will not forget!
Thanks to Peter and his generous contribution.
