Fifteen years later, the Apple Cards origin story
Fifteen years later, the Apple Cards origin story
十五年后，Apple Cards 的起源故事
In 2011, Apple released the Cards app. The app — which required iOS 5 — let you design custom letterpress cards, with your messages and photos printed upon them — which Apple would ship to your recipient on your behalf.
2011 年，苹果发布了 Cards 应用。这款需要 iOS 5 系统支持的应用，允许用户设计定制的凸版印刷卡片，将你的信息和照片印在上面，并由苹果代为寄送给收件人。
I recently learned the origin story of Cards, and that it was specifically a Steve Jobs product. It also wasn’t smooth sailing. But first, some backstory, and inserting myself into the narrative, because it’s my site and I can do what I want here. I wrote about the app several times for Macworld. Apple complained first to me, and later to my editors, that I didn’t go deep on the fact that the cards Apple was offering were printed on 100 percent cotton paper. Apple thought my article should be updated to mention this. My editors and I disagreed.
我最近了解到了 Cards 的起源故事，它确实是史蒂夫·乔布斯（Steve Jobs）亲自推动的产品。但它的开发过程并非一帆风顺。首先，我想交代一些背景，并把自己写进叙述中，因为这是我的网站，我想怎么写就怎么写。我曾多次为《Macworld》撰写关于这款应用的文章。苹果先是向我投诉，后来又向我的编辑投诉，称我没有深入报道苹果提供的卡片是印在 100% 棉纸上的这一事实。苹果认为我的文章应该更新以提及这一点，但我与编辑们都不同意。
I wasn’t the only person ever to get in trouble with Apple over Cards. In 2019, someone wrote me this email: I saw your old review of Apple Cards linked on Twitter, and it brought traumatic flashbacks. I ran the print program for Apple’s production and fulfillment partner in those years. In my decade working with Apple and in fact my 30-year career, this project — code named Speed Racer and dreamed up by Steve Jobs himself — stands unsurpassed as a pinnacle of incompetence, project mismanagement and intercontinental mayhem. I hope to never top it. It is probably best left dead, but if you felt like disinterring it, I’m a witness to the crime…
我并不是唯一一个因为 Cards 而与苹果产生摩擦的人。2019 年，有人给我发了这样一封邮件：“我在 Twitter 上看到了你关于 Apple Cards 的旧评测，这勾起了我痛苦的回忆。那些年，我负责苹果生产和物流合作伙伴的印刷项目。在我与苹果合作的十年，乃至我 30 年的职业生涯中，这个代号为‘极速赛车’（Speed Racer）、由史蒂夫·乔布斯亲自构想的项目，堪称无能、项目管理混乱和跨洲混乱的巅峰之作，至今无人能及。我希望永远不要再经历这样的项目。它最好被遗忘，但如果你想挖掘它，我就是这起‘罪行’的目击者……”
It took me seven years to reply. I don’t know why. Although Apple launched cards in 2011, and it’s now 15 years later, this person — despite his confidence that any non-disclosure agreements have long since expired, his knowledge that the Cards app was sunset long ago, and the fact that the printing companies involved no longer really exist — still asked to remain anonymous, for fear of angering Apple. I get it. I’m going to call this person Mike.
我花了七年时间才回复这封邮件，原因我也不清楚。尽管苹果在 2011 年推出了 Cards，现在已经是 15 年后了，但此人——尽管他确信任何保密协议早已过期，也知道 Cards 应用早已下架，且涉及的印刷公司实际上已不复存在——仍然要求保持匿名，生怕激怒苹果。我理解这一点。我将称呼此人为“迈克”（Mike）。
The prints of darkness
黑暗的印刷品
In 2006, Mike was hired at a printing company that already had a relationship with Apple, handling printing for iPhoto, which let you order custom books, calendars, and cards. The company had won that business because it was also, at the time, handling Apple’s in-box production of documentation — quick start guides, instruction manuals, and the like. (Remember those?) For several years, this company worked as the exclusive Apple partner for those print products, after Apple had grown frustrated with a prior photo printing partner.
2006 年，迈克受雇于一家与苹果已有合作关系的印刷公司，负责处理 iPhoto 的印刷业务，该业务允许用户订购定制相册、日历和卡片。该公司之所以赢得这项业务，是因为当时它还负责苹果产品包装盒内的文档生产——如快速入门指南、说明书等。（还记得那些东西吗？）在对之前的照片印刷合作伙伴感到失望后，苹果将这家公司作为这些印刷产品的独家合作伙伴，合作持续了数年。
Order volume was massive, Mike told me on a Zoom, especially between Thanksgiving and Christmas when card and calendar volume exploded. The printing company had to spin up several sister companies to handle the load. They printed internationally, too; Mike, as essentially the program manager, also stood up print operations in the Czech Republic and Japan.
迈克在 Zoom 通话中告诉我，订单量非常巨大，尤其是在感恩节到圣诞节期间，卡片和日历的订单量会激增。这家印刷公司不得不成立了几家姊妹公司来应对负荷。他们还在国际上进行印刷；迈克作为实质上的项目经理，还在捷克和日本建立了印刷业务。
In 2010, Apple added a new product to the iPhoto print lineup — codenamed Downieville. Apple wanted fine letterpress printing on very toothy cotton stock. Your photo would be digitally printed on these preprinted shells. This, Mike told me, was an enormous technical challenge. The printing company had to work with a shop in upstate New York that had two dozen restored Heidelberg Letterpresses from the 1850s.
2010 年，苹果在 iPhoto 印刷产品线中增加了一款代号为“Downieville”的新产品。苹果希望在纹理感很强的棉纸上进行精美的凸版印刷。用户的照片会被数字打印在这些预先印好的卡片外壳上。迈克告诉我，这是一个巨大的技术挑战。印刷公司不得不与纽约州北部的一家作坊合作，那里拥有两打从 1850 年代修复的“海德堡”（Heidelberg）凸版印刷机。
The Steve Jobs origin story
史蒂夫·乔布斯的起源故事
In 2011, Mike said, “Steve Jobs was on one of his famous walks after having had a dinner with someone,” and he said to his walking companions from Apple, Mike was later told: “Wouldn’t it be great if I could just right now on my iPhone send [the dinner companion] a thank you card?” Apple decided to build an iPhone app just for creating and mailing cards. And the project moved fast, because it was a Steve-initiated one.
2011 年，迈克说：“史蒂夫·乔布斯在与某人共进晚餐后，像往常一样散步。”据后来告诉迈克的人说，乔布斯对同行的苹果同事说：“如果我现在就能在 iPhone 上给（那位晚餐同伴）寄一张感谢卡，那该多好？”苹果决定专门开发一款用于制作和寄送卡片的 iPhone 应用。由于这是史蒂夫发起的项目，进展非常迅速。
As it turns out, the app was built and launched during the final year of Steve’s life. The project kicked off in the beginning of 2011, and it didn’t reuse the card designs that were in iPhoto. These were new designs and letterpress templates and shells. And Apple wanted to ensure that Cards could be printed and shipped in both the US and Europe. And Apple would stamp and ship these cards for you. Which meant the printing company and their letterpress subcontracted company were printing and stamping and shipping these cards for you.
事实证明，这款应用是在史蒂夫生命中的最后一年开发并推出的。项目于 2011 年初启动，并没有沿用 iPhoto 中的卡片设计，而是采用了全新的设计、凸版印刷模板和外壳。苹果希望确保 Cards 可以在美国和欧洲进行印刷和寄送，并由苹果代为贴邮票和寄送。这意味着印刷公司及其凸版印刷分包商实际上是在代用户进行印刷、贴邮票和寄送工作。
Well, I of course went to letterpress expert Glenn Fleishman. He clarified that these cards weren’t just printed. “They were heavily debossed by the letterpress contractor into that toothy paper. (Debossing is pushing down; embossing is pressing up.) Letterpress printing historically didn’t try to put much bite into printing, preferring what’s called a kiss impression—just perfectly laying the ink on top of the paper. Martha Stewart popularized debossing because, unlike real letterpress, it felt like letterpress. The real thing seems less genuine than the re-creation.” (Glenn knows a lot about this. He even has some old photos of the letterpress printing on these cards.)
当然，我咨询了凸版印刷专家格伦·弗莱什曼（Glenn Fleishman）。他澄清说，这些卡片不仅仅是印刷出来的。“它们被凸版印刷承包商在那种纹理纸上进行了深度的压凹处理。（压凹是向下压；压凸是向上凸。）历史上，凸版印刷并不追求过深的压痕，而是倾向于所谓的‘亲吻式印刷’（kiss impression）——即完美地将油墨铺在纸张表面。玛莎·斯图尔特（Martha Stewart）普及了压凹工艺，因为它与真正的凸版印刷不同，却给人一种凸版印刷的感觉。真正的凸版印刷反而看起来不如这种复刻版那么‘地道’。”（格伦对此非常了解。他甚至还保留了一些这些卡片上凸版印刷的旧照片。）
The post with the most
邮政之最
Mike told me that Apple worked with the US Postal Service and the Czech Post on several aspects of Cards that were unique to Apple wanting things done its way: For one, Apple was unwilling to have visible barcodes printed on the envelopes — but it wanted every step of the shipping and delivery of your card tracked. That wasn’t something the US Postal Service did. Apple and the printing company created an invisible barcode that was sprayed on the envelope, visible only under certain UV light, so that the envelope itself would remain unadulterated.
迈克告诉我，苹果与美国邮政署（USPS）和捷克邮政在 Cards 的几个方面进行了合作，这些合作非常独特，因为苹果坚持要按自己的方式行事：首先，苹果不希望在信封上印上可见的条形码，但它又希望追踪卡片运输和投递的每一个环节。这并不是美国邮政署通常的做法。苹果和印刷公司创造了一种喷涂在信封上的隐形条形码，只有在特定的紫外线下才能看到，这样信封本身就能保持整洁美观。
And the USPS agreed to scan cards when sent, when processed at mail facilities, up to and including when they went out on a mail truck for delivery. The lack of visible barcodes made what would typically be a robot-driven process an extremely human-powered one, Mike said. “We wanted to make sure your baby photos were never sent to someone else,” he told me. “It was not infallible. And when cards were mis-sent, it became an emergency-level event from Apple.” Apple also wouldn’t let the printing company print postage. In fact, in the US, Apple…
美国邮政署同意在卡片寄出时、在邮件处理中心处理时，以及在装上邮车进行投递时进行扫描。迈克说，由于没有可见的条形码，原本通常由机器人驱动的流程变成了极度依赖人工的流程。“我们想确保你的宝宝照片永远不会被寄错给别人，”他告诉我。“这并非万无一失。一旦卡片寄错，对苹果来说就是紧急事件。”苹果还不允许印刷公司自行打印邮资。事实上，在美国，苹果……