<P> Today , with the American newspaper USA Today as an inspiration , launched on Tuesday 4 March 1986 , with the front - page headline , `` Second Spy Inside GCHQ '' . At 18p ( equivalent to 48p in 2016 ) , it was a middle - market tabloid , a rival to the long - established Daily Mail and Daily Express . It pioneered computer photo - typesetting and full - colour offset printing at a time when national newspapers were still using Linotype machines , letterpress and could only reproduce photographs in black and white . The colour was initially crude , produced on equipment which had no facility for colour proofing , so the first view of the colour was on the finished product . However , it forced the conversion of all UK national newspapers to electronic production and colour printing . The newspaper 's motto , hung in the newsroom , was `` propa truth , not propaganda '' . </P>
<P> Today , with the American newspaper USA Today as an inspiration , launched on Tuesday 4 March 1986 , with the front - page headline , `` Second Spy Inside GCHQ '' . At 18p ( equivalent to 48p in 2016 ) , it was a middle - market tabloid , a rival to the long - established Daily Mail and Daily Express . It pioneered computer photo - typesetting and full - colour offset printing at a time when national newspapers were still using Linotype machines , letterpress and could only reproduce photographs in black and white . The colour was initially crude , produced on equipment which had no facility for colour proofing , so the first view of the colour was on the finished product . However , it forced the conversion of all UK national newspapers to electronic production and colour printing . The newspaper 's motto , hung in the newsroom , was `` propa truth , not propaganda '' . </P>
when did newspapers start printing in color uk
when did newspapers start printing in color uk
1986
1986