Box of hand bookbinding tools, Government Printing Office [electronic resource]

1920's

Speed was increasingly the buzzword in the printing trade. The introduction of offset presses and photographic processing techniques revolutionised the industry, new printing houses were established, and the first apprenticeship programmes were introduced. Just when the industry had finally recovered from WWI, the Great Depression knocked it back again with reduced wages, unemployment, and a restructuring of the trade. But printers somehow survived and contributed in style to the country's unique Centennial publishing programme of 1940.