Monday August 24, 2009
Filed under:
Links
Type History
Typedia is Here
Typedia, a shared, online encyclopedia of typefaces, just launched today.
It’s the brainchild of Jason Santa Maria, who invited me to contribute when it was in its early planning stage. I helped mostly with the classification system. (I actually have mixed feelings about classification systems in general and I think the tags will be ultimately more useful. But the classifications will at least provide a starting point.)
I’m very excited about Typedia. I’m hoping it will be the online equivalent of resources like Matt McGrew’s American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century or Jaspert, Berry & Johnson’s Encyclopeadia of Type Faces, two books I rely on when I want to know the history of a typeface (see my Son of Typecasting series).
However, unlike a printed book, Typedia will be continuously updated and will grow in its usefulness as more and more people contribute to it.
Saturday September 27, 2008
Filed under:
Type History
The Lost Art of Type Spec'ing
Here is an example of what designers used to have to do in the days before desktop publishing:
All this for a few blocks of text. In this case, for a client’s stationery. It’s from about 1986 or so. I was already starting to use PageMaker for some jobs, but high resolution output was not available quite yet in Minneapolis, and 300 dpi LaserWriter output would not do for a job like this.
Note the note at the bottom: “Tuesday A.M. if possible.” It was probably sent out on a Monday (delivered via courier), and would have been considered a “rush” job. The markings in blue and light red were made by the typesetter to themselves. The others are mine. I don’t remember exactly, but it probably cost $75-$100 to have this copy typeset, including delivery charges.
There was never any question that the spacing and quality would be anything but perfect. None of this had to be stated in the “specs” unless something unusual was called for, like the note near the bottom that says “K 1/2 U” meaning “kern one half unit.” The finished “repro” would still need to be cut up and pasted into position on illustration board before it could be printed.
We are so spoiled nowadays. We can set the type ourselves, right at our desks (or laps), and instantly see what it will look like. No more spec’ing, or waiting, or paying big typesetting bills. On the other hand, you do have to know a lot more about setting type than you did back then to get the same level of quality.
(A possibly interesting footnote: The copy was printed out on a dot-matrix printer, an Apple Imagewriter II, using bitmapped fonts I made myself on my Mac, including one that mimics the look of a typewriter.)
Tuesday December 11, 2007
Filed under:
Type History
Helvetica on the Radio
This week, the radio program Studio 360 is airing a short interview with Gary Hustwit, director of the documentary film Helvetica. You can listen to it online.
If you haven’t seen the film, I highly recommend it. I saw it at TypeCon in Seattle this last August in an auditorium packed with fellow type geeks. Hard to beat that.
Friday April 8, 2005
Filed under:
Type History
Hamilton Wood Type Museum
A week ago, my family and I paid a visit to the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. We spent about an hour or so there with Norb Brylski as our guide. Norb was one of the last people to be employed making wood type at Hamilton. He’s retired now, but volunteers at the museum and still makes new wood type for commissions brought to the museum, such as the recent wood typeface designed by Matthew Carter.
Hamilton was one of the largest wood type foundries in the U.S. and had a virtual monopoly by about 1900. It stopped making wood type in the 1980s. The museum opened in 1999 and houses the largest collection of wood type in the world, with 1.5 million pieces. They also have all the equipment to make the stuff (it all still works) and a small print shop which visiting artists (for example) can use.
Anyway, it was pretty cool, especially if you like type. I put together a little slide show (above). If you don’t see anything, you probably don’t have the Flash 7 player. (Get it here.) The slide show will play by itself, but you can click on the pause button to stop it and browse at your own pace. If you move your mouse over the photos, a caption will appear describing the photo.
(The slide show was made using SlideShowPro.)
Saturday July 3, 2004
Filed under:
Type History
Chicago Type Landmark
On a recent trip to Chicago, I made my way to Printing House Row and snapped this photo of the entrance to the old Mergenthaler Linotype Co. headquarters:
I can’t say exactly why, but it was a little distressing to see these rather tacky ads for a photographer in the window adjacent to the entrance:
I guess I thought it would be a museum or something.