Established in 1961, Kuwait Times was the first daily English newspaper in the Gulf, marking a significant milestone in regional journalism. Over the decades, its printing process has undergone substantial evolution. IT Director Islam Al-Sharaa, who has worked for Kuwait Times since 1983, shared insights into this transformation.

In the newspaper’s early days, traditional intertype and manual printing methods were used, reflecting the technological limitations of the time. “Everything was manual back then. We used ‘Intertype’, where we typed the letters manually, using liquid lead ink. This would then be printed on plain paper. Pictures and headlines were added separately,” Sharaa explained. He described how a special director worked with page makers to assemble the pages. “The linotype process involved printing and manually gluing photos and headlines to the pages to finalize them,” he added.

Kuwait Times later adopted the phototypesetting machine, which projected light through a film to create text on photographic paper or film. These images were then developed and manually arranged into pages. Page makers would cut and paste images, headlines and text onto layout boards. The complete page was photographed to create a negative, which was then used to expose light-sensitive aluminum printing plates. These plates were mounted on printing presses, with ink transferred from the plate to a rubber blanket and finally onto the paper.

As technology advanced, color pages were introduced in the mid-1980s. This process involved reflecting the pictures in different colors four times manually to capture the true color. A few years later, a special scanner was installed to sort the colors automatically, reducing the process to about an hour and a half per page.

A significant turning point occurred in 1992 when Kuwait Times underwent a radical transformation, becoming the first Gulf newspaper to transition completely online. The newspaper modernized its equipment and printing technology, and in collaboration with the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, it launched its first website. This marked a shift from manual printing to faster, more efficient digital technology, offering higher-quality prints at increased speeds.

“This allowed for the digital layout of newspaper pages, eliminating the need for physical paste-ups. Technology further streamlined the process by sending digital layouts directly to printing plates, enhancing speed and accuracy. While some traditional printing methods remained, the shift to digital prepress reduced errors and improved turnaround times,” Sharaa explained.

He noted the entire process has since become much faster. Today, pages can be created on a computer and sent directly to the printing press for plate creation. Sharaa emphasized that this technological evolution made the printing process easier, smoother and more flexible. Now, they can halt printing for any corrections or news updates, whereas, in the past, it was difficult to stop the printing process due to the labor-intensive manual adjustments required.

“The printing process is easier now, but the evolution has eliminated many roles. Now, everything relies on machines instead of manual work. Today, Kuwait Times leverages cutting-edge technology to meet the demands of the digital age, delivering fast, updated news,” he concluded.