oh, thanks!

I obtained some transparent white ink today. I had had this brilliant idea that I’d print thank-you cards in the blind (that is, with no ink whatsoever) but even when I was doing a blunt-force amount of impression it just wasn’t enough, so I printed them tonight using a mix of transparent white plus just a bit of black.

Inadvertently I ended up with a “fading” gradient effect, wherein the bottoms of the letterforms were darker than the top, but I decided that I actually liked this and it wasn’t just laziness at makeready.

These are set in 60pt. Cheltenham Condensed. I made 25 of them. I needed to thank a lot of people for being so nice to me on my birthday.

Update: There has been some (surprising) significant interest in these cards. I initially made a very limited run of 25, and have used about eight for my personal purposes. If you’d like some, I’d be willing to print more if you make it worth my while in some trivial way! Let me know.

Tags: cards, cheltenham, Letterpress, type

Letterpress is good for me because it forces me to do tedious things that require patience. I seek character development and aesthetic, and this gives me both.

Last week, I attacked a drawer full of spaces. I feel fortunate to have a drawer (which appears to be a Hamilton Wells job case: not a particularly common case layout, it would seem. It’s not really made for spaces, but it serves the purpose well) full of spaces, but they were in mad disarray and there were motes and piles of filth and mystery wedged into every slot. Plus the spacing was all mixed up, which isn’t joyous.

Spaces Drawer, Before. Dirty and mixed up.

It took me four and a half hours to sort all of the spacing.

I got a nice, sealed box of American Type Foundry (ATF) 10-point quad spacing on eBay. It has never been opened. ATF went out of business in the early 1990s. I’m not sure when these spaces were made. Could have been decades ago.

Still sealed. I like the little sayings on the tape.

Shiny, shiny, old new quads.

Spaces drawer, after. Shinier and organized. And clean.

I took all of the spacing out and used our air compressor to blow the caked and loose gunk out of the boxes. Then I oiled the whole thing with orange oil. Type cases are traditionally unfinished (except for the front) and the oil seems to do nicely.

Tags: american type foundry, atf, organization, quads, spaces, type

I’ve read this twice now, and twice I have thought it amazing that there are people who have not heard about this book. I suppose this is because I am buried in my own perspective: former college graphic design major and current amateur letterpress printer.

The re-read was prompted by my recent work of rehabilitating my old Chandler & Price press, and trying to learn everything about this elegant art. Bringhurst’s brilliant book is both reference and narrative, something to keep at hand when setting type and trying to remember average letters per 20-pica line in 10-point fonts, but also something to curl up with. What a peculiar balance!

Bringhurst isn’t just a type expert; he’s also a poet. As such, the tone is master-crafted and evocative. He speaks of motion and negative space and the moods of the printed word. All this while dosing you with history and the occasional barbed interjection (Mr. Bringhurst is not a fan of Helvetica or Cheltenham, for example).

The first half a dozen chapters focus on type in a pan-technological study. The foundations laid here are relevant both to setting type by hand as well as kerning in Adobe Illustrator. Then there are a few chapters on layout–which manage to integrate proportion, mathematics, musical harmonies, the Golden Mean and a certain amount of mysticism and reverence. Toward the end of the book, there is more detail on digital typography (which I must admit I skimmed because of my current focus).

If you do anything with type, read this book. It is required.

LibraryThing Tags:

read, printing, letterpress, design, reread, printing, layout, readin2008, nonfiction, reference

As always, see all of my reviews on LibraryThing.

Tags: Books, font, graphic design, layout, nonfiction, reading, reference, review, type

It came! It came! The poor UPS guy was confused because I received a box that didn’t say “Amazon.com” on it. I’m known around here as a black hole for Amazon products.

He had to wheel this stuff in. The Caslon stuff itself wasn’t too hefty, but the spaces and the leading–well, they are made out of heavy metal, see.

Caslon, upper and lower case, in 12-on-14pt and 18pt

I was a bit worried about finding leading. You need it to set type; it is non-optional. You may be familiar with it in your regular life from word processing or graphics program–the leading metaphor is still alive and kicking. But with letterpress, one has to deal with it concretely. Unfortunately, the gentleman responsible for the vast majority of leading and slugs for the entire country passed away last year. Supplies are tight. I have a friend who used to work for one of the larger letterpress supply companies in the country (if one can call any of them “large”), and he confesses that he “killed the machine” that produced their leading. So I’m glad to have this grip of leading because I’m not sure the next time I’ll be able to find any.

2pt. leading and 6pt. slugs

I also got what looks to be four lifetimes’ worth of 14- and 18-pt. spacing. I was worried there wouldn’t be enough spaces in the Caslon.

Spacing

Tags: caslon, lead, m&h, spaces, type

“When in doubt, use Caslon.”

–Traditional Printer’s Adage

Today I ordered my first ever fresh foundry type, from M&H in San Francisco. To do this I talked on the phone with Louie. Another M&H rep said Louie had worked there for 58 years. While this is a mathematical improbability, Louie knows his stuff. I will soon have a run of 12-on-14pt. and 18-pt. Caslon, and I intend to build my core around this type.

Caslon seems like an appropriate choice for several reasons:

1. Historical relevancy: Caslon was cut in the 1730s by English type designer William Caslon. It’s a Baroque face–faces, really, there are dozens of fonts that go by the Caslon moniker–that has stood the test of time, and was designed in an era when printing was three-dimensional. Of course, that goes for any type designed before the middle part of the 20th century. But still.
2. Flexibility: Caslon is a stolid, unassuming typeface that can be plunked into a lot of situations and won’t look flustered. It doesn’t scream its own personality so much that you get distracted.
3. Extensibility: I have more chance of finding more Caslon–small caps, titling figures (that is, “capital” numerals as opposed to “lower case” numerals. Sorta.), quaints and ligatures (e.g “ff”, “ffl”, etc., which are cast as one character instead of two or three)–than other fonts. It’s common.
4. Taste: I’m fond of it. Though it did run a close heat with Garamond. I actually like Garamond, a Renaissance face, just a tiny bit more, but it’s slightly more delicate and finicky.

The “12-on-14″ bit means that, to account for Caslon’s long ascenders and descenders (the lines on “d”s and “p”s and th like), M&H recommends getting the 12pt. version on 14pt. type. The appearance of the font is that of a 12-pt. font but takes advantage of the extra space available on 14pt. sorts. It sounds more complex than it is.

Top: Adobe Caslon Pro, 2nd Line: Adobe Caslon, 3rd Line: Adobe Garamond Pro, 4th line: Garamond Premier Pro. Of course my Caslon will look completely different than the two digital versions. But to give you an idea.

Tags: hobbies, type