Tag Archives: Type

Los Ultimos – Letterpress printing in Argentina.

Endless Letterpress is a documentary about present of woodtype presses in Argentina, filmed by Nicolás Rodríguez Fuchs. Sadly I discovered this film after the fundraising effort had ended but more information can be found at fb.com/losultimosdoc “Buenos Aires deepest suburbs, July 2013. Three old print shops disputes the printing of cumbia and boxing posters. Second […]

I am the leaden army that conquers the world. I am type.

Of my earliest ancestry neither history nor relics remain. The wedge-shaped symbols impressed in plastic clay by Babylonian builders in the dim past foreshadowed me: from them, on through the hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptians, down to the beautiful manuscript letters of the mediaeval scribes, I was in the making. With the golden vision of […]

Hand typecasting at the Atelier Press & Letterfoundry

The Atelier Press came into being in 1970 as the private press of Stan Nelson. Stan has been interested in printing since the age of nine, and formerly operated as the Nelson Job Shop and later as Norse Custom Printing. After becoming aware of the world of Fine Printing, Stan chose to name his press […]

A Cornucopia of Wooden Types.

Here at  Typoretum, we have embarked on an ambitious project to create a limited edition portfolio of experimental designs printed directly from wooden types. The book will be letterpress printed on Victorian printing machines and will feature over 200 individual wood type faces from the private collection of Justin Knopp, founder of  Typoretum. The estimated […]

Letterpress ‘IEE’ poster for Public Service Broadcasting.

Public Service Broadcasting commissioned  Typoretum to design and letterpress print a limited edition (100 copies) poster, to accompany the launch of their debut album ‘Inform, Educate, Entertain’ (publicservicebroadcasting.net/inform-educate-entertain-out-now/) in May 2013. The posters were printed from antique Elongated Sans Serif wood type and Granby Light metal type onto high-quality 170gsm cartridge paper, signed and editioned […]

Type Specimens from the Vincent Figgins Type Foundry – 1815.

The British punch-cutter and typefounder Vincent Figgins (1766-1844) ran a notable London typefoundry and is credited with designing the first Egyptian (slab serif) typeface, which he simply named ‘Antique’ and released in 1815. Figgins was originally apprenticed to the typefounder Joseph Jackson, a student of William Caslon I, and established his own typefoundry in Swan […]

Pencil to Pixel – Exhibition of artifacts & artwork from the Monotype archive.

The history of  Monotype dates back to the late 19th Century, when it introduced groundbreaking new technology that revolutionised the production of metal type for letterpress printing.  Tolbert Lanston, the inventor of this technology and founder of The Lanston Monotype Machine Company, patented this mechanical typesetting system in 1887 and introduced the first hot metal […]

The Typoretum – A short film by Richard Hunter

The third in the ‘dying arts trilogy’. A quick look into the world of Justin Knopp; and what it’s like for him working in the art of traditional letterpress. http://vimeo.com/42332067

Preserving traditional Chinese printing – Mr Chang

This article has been extracted from an article on the BBC News Asia website, written by Cindy Sui and dated 1st May 2012. The movable-type printing system invented around 1040 AD helped to revolutionise the world by making books and other written material easily available. It is one of the most important inventions of mankind, […]

Lewis Mitchell – Typecaster for life

A delightful short movie by the San Francisco Chronicle showing Lewis Mitchell at work, casting type on Monotype machines in the basement at the  Arion Press in San Francisco. “I thoroughly enjoy the sound of the machines turning, and seeing the type come out is a joy,” Mitchell said. He can tell by the sound […]