Stan creates books in the old tradition (From Stroud News and Journal)

Stan creates books in the old tradition

WITH changing trends and new technologies, it's not often that people have 'a job for life' anymore, but typesetter Stan Lane has achieved just that.

Stan, who runs Stonehouse-based Gloucester Typesetting, became a typesetter when he left school at 16 at a time when all publications were typeset and printed in that way.

Although the industry has largely died out since then due to new technology, 51 years on, Stan is still producing books in the traditional way.

"I'm carrying on with an old tradition," said Stan, 67.

"When I first started it was a huge industry and there was about 100 people working in our printers."

He started his career working for Gloucester company John Bellows, before moving onto Gloucester Typesetters.

But when that went bust he decided to go it alone and set up his own business, under the same name, in Stonehouse.

Stan, a grandfather who lives in Eastington with his wife Janet, is passionate about his work and has enjoyed every day, in fact he can't think of any low points.

"That's why I've enjoyed my life so much," he said.

"It has become an art form for me - my wife reads books and it's just not a pleasure to look at the pages of modern books because they lack the wonderful, well-designed typefaces.

"When you open one of the books that I print it's got more of a high quality feel about it than normal books - you can actually feel the letters on the page and everything has to be of the highest standard."

As most printwork nowadays is printed en masse using new technologies, Stan is kept busy printing limited edition texts for publishers who want a high quality traditional feel to their books.

Although there are other traditional typesetters around, Stan is the only one left who will take a book through the whole publishing process from design and typesetting through to printing and binding.

Stan works using monotype - a process of single character typesetting. He uses molten metal to cast the individual letters and then puts them together to form pages, which are then impressed into the paper.

Following that, Stan will bind pages together and put a cover onto the book.

He is currently working on a book of poetry for Philippa Roberts, who is using Stan's service to produce a collection of her grandmother's poetry, and he is also hoping to secure a contract to print the complete works of Shakespeare.

If he is accepted for the Shakespeare contract, Stan said it will take him years to complete it as he works at a rate of approximately 100 pages of print a week.

His satisfaction stems from always striving to do it better.

He added: "I do it the best it can possibly be done and I've worked for some really top London publishers.

"As typesetters we have to know the house-style for every publisher and I deal with copy that comes from all over the world."

Stan, who has no plans to retire, works six days a week with one day put aside for his other passion - golf.

"My wife agrees that if I were to give this up I would feel lost," he said.

"It's because all through my working life I've always enjoyed trying to be a little bit better than average - I've never felt like it's hard work even though I put 100 percent into it everyday," he said.