History
BPS: PART OF THE BAY AREA SINCE 1905 A brief history of BPS and our industry shows just how far we’ve come in the last century: 1920s - Advancing technology included continuous-roll blueprint machines with rotating arc lamps and names like Paragon, Blue Streak and Pease Automatic that provided BPS and its clients with a multitude of new benefits. Most significant was an increase in production, from dozens of prints per hour to hundreds. 1930s - Numerous enhancements were made to blueprint machines, like gas and electric drying. Photocopying entered the scene, allowing BPS to offer positive copies and supply the Bay Area with the first effective alternative to labor-intensive hand tracings. 1940s - Though invented in the 1920s, World War II delayed the widespread introduction of the diazo process with its familiar ammonia smell. This revolution would allow BPS to further increase its production capabilities and reduce costs for its customers. 1950s - Large-format photography became a mainstay at BPS. With process cameras and vacuum frames the size of entire rooms, BPS provided products like film negatives, wash-off mylars and photostats to its clients. 1960s - BPS introduced its clients to the xerographic process. This new technology offered savings in both time and expense over traditional offset printing, even though original copiers like the Xerox 914 were considerably slower than the 180 page-per-minute machines BPS utilizes today. 1970s - A decade of innovation for BPS was reflected in the change of the industry’s name from Blueprinting to Reprographics. Wide-format xerographic processes allowed BPS to begin duplication of large opaque originals without the use of photography. 1980s - The major change was made from analog to digital. With the advent of the PC and digital files, BPS began providing services like CAD plotting and large-format color prints. 1990s - Responding to the demand for quicker turnaround times. 2000s - Though the dot-com era went bust, the technologies it provided BPS and the A/E/C community proved invaluable. With the introduction of PlanWell 4.0 to the San Francisco Bay Area, BPS is poised to retain its position of leadership in the reprographics industry as its second century begins.
In the spring of 1905, Alice Hoffman and her sister started a small blueprinting business in downtown San Francisco. Little did these entrepreneurial women know that BPS would play such an integral role in the development of the Bay Area, or that, more than a century later, the company would be a leader in the industry, with numerous locations throughout the region.
1910s - Originally known as “blueprinters,” BPS employees used large glass frames to expose blueprints to the sun. Affected by overcast skies, blueprints would sometimes have to be exposed for more than two hours before being hand-developed and dried.
BPS expanded into On-Site Services. By placing reprographic equipment and staff at customers’ locations, instantaneous services from BPS became available.
