Printing type: digital and metal sources for type

[Letterpress links] [Digital Type links] [Metal Type Links/Sources] [Miscellaneous Type]

Under Construction. Draft.

No one in the first half of the twentieth century could have imagined the burgeoning interest in type, typefaces and typ`    e design that we find in the 1990s and early twenty-first century. Before the advent of computers with digital "fonts," who--besides printers, bibliographers and designers--knew what a "point" or "leading" was? With computer word processing programs that allowed users to set their typefaces, for better or for worse, we now find lay people with more sophisticated knowledge of type, but digital, not metal type. The tremendous growth in the number of available typefaces owes a lot to advertising and the wish to be noticed--whether with business signs or printed advertisements. We tend to have a short memory, so many people active today in printing, type or design are often unaware that photo fonts of 1960-1990, with hundreds of studios and thousands of designs. Much of that is being lost, except for a few collectors and institutions.

I'm primarily interested in letterforms, design and letterpress applications for metal and digital type. That interest is reflected in these links.

Letterpress Printing

Some links to sites about printing, type and letterforms. My most current links on printing, letterpress and history of the book are on the APHA website.

There's a lot of amateur activity on letterpress printing on the web and some of the results can be quite impressive. My most current links on printing, letterpress and history of the book are on the Links page of the American Printing History Association, where the links are general and (in my opinion) useful, even if the shrubbery has grown too dense for quick browsing.

More focused is the the American Amateur Press Association's resources on graphic arts. For digital faces, the Typophiles forum has an Open Directory project, listing most anything you'd want to know about typefaces. For particular faces the following digital foundries are helpful:

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Digital Type Sources

Don't neglect the excellent list created by Gerald Lange of the Bieler Press as part of the private PPLetterpress listserv website (Yahoo Registration required)--excellent for learning how to use digital type on photopolymer plates for relief printing.

Metal Type Sources

Metal type is often classed as "foundry" (cast in hard metals and intended for reuse) or "hot metal" (cast on a Monotype machine and intended for re-cyling), based on casting method. Metal type tends to be cast by hand (typically by amateurs reviving the art), by machine on a specialized caster (like a Barth--see Dale Guild) or by a machine intended to set type for printing (like a Monotype caster). The better Monotype founders make their type harder for hand setting printers than would have been done normally. I'm purposely omitting people who cast lines of type (Linotype, Ludlow).

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Miscellaneous Type Links

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Contact Paul Romaine.

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Minor update 7/2008 for Golgonooza.