Blog Layout

Typography: A History of Machines

Carl Shank • March 12, 2023

Typography: A History of Machines. Several years ago, Alexander Lawson wrote a series of articles on the history of typographic machines and typography, Typographic Journey—Craft to Computer (Typeworld, July 1, 1992 – September 2, 1992). He did a masterful job of outlining the major eras of typographic printing equipment. I was inspired to draft a pictorial history from those articles, noted in the graphic below.


Rather than merely a look back at the machinery and utility of typography, Lawson as well as many other typographers, and printers, for that matter, look upon typography and printing as a "fine art" — "Is it any wonder . . . if the printer, or lover of printing, who is sensitively alert to all this multi-form variability of the apparently inelastic and static medium, should wax enthusiastic over it, and claim for it a place among the fine arts?" (Will Bradley, "Is Printing A Fine Art?") Starting with Johann Gutenberg and working his way through the centuries and developments of printing and printers, Lawson with a taste for the art as well as the science of printing and typography, traces the major hallmarks of the machines that actually produced the printed page.


Printing for the masses actually began with Gutenberg in 1455 with his 42-line Bible. The sketch used in the graphical representation below comes from the free stock hosted by Dreamstime — "This sculpture of Johannes Gutenberg was made by David Angers in 1839 and was unveiled June 24, 1840. It can be seen in Strasbourg, where Gutenberg lived between 1434 and 1444, after being exiled from Mainz. At this time, he had already begun to work on his printing press, although trying to keep his projects secret as much as was possible. The inscription on the page he is holding reads: And light was made. (92145700 © CCOimages | Dreamstime.com)" Lawson notes that rather than Gutenberg inventing printing, he merely mechanized it — "In fact, he should be credited with the origination of interchangeable parts with his concept of single type letters." (Lawson, July 1, 1992) Gutenberg studiously followed his scribal predecessors in printing the Bible for popular use.


With the Foundrinier paper making machine in 1803 came the taste for and development of typographic machines, printing presses, capable of printing newspapers, like The Times of London in 1814. Printing plates followed allowing printers to mass produce thousands of copies in the lates 1800s. The Mergenthaler (called the "Merg") was a keyboard operated input machine and Linotype began their historic operation.


Interestingly, in the history of typesetting and printing, I came into the scene when the IBM Electric Ball strike-on typesetting was the rage. I worked for a small printing outfit in the Sterling, VA area that had a couple of these strike-on machines clacking away on a daily, and sometimes a 24/7 basis. We did ads and posters and especially Christian-based books, all typeset on the IBM. However, the larger display print had in the early days to be hand-set from scratch on letters that took many hours of careful labor.


We moved to the Itek Phototypesetting machine which produced display type that the printer could then make a camera-ready layout for the press. We never quite moved beyond the IBM machines and the Itek since the business went under at that time. However, I learned a lot about fast turnaround typesetting and printing. I got my hands dirty, literally, as I learned the ropes.


My next typesetting stint occurred in Schenectady, NY where in 1984 I bought an Apple Laserwriter that could take computer generated type and print at a then amazing 300 dpi (dots per inch). My Apple computers ranged from the entry level Macintosh 128K to the SE to the Classic to the PowerMac to the iMac to the Mac Cube to the Mac Mini (various iterations) to the present day Mac Studio M1. Originally designed for personal and home use, the creation of PageMaker layout program allowed people like myself to start layout and typesetting businesses that rivaled our IBM business computers. Apple computers just got faster, better, and software programming developed so that Mac-made software was also made for the IBM PC.


To see the development of typesetting machines is a rush for me. I hope you can join me in my love for the "fine art" of typography and its machines.

Successful Layout & Design

Sketch & Hand Drawn Lettering

By Carl Shank • January 29, 2025
Sketch & Hand Drawn Lettering. The history of font development includes a wealth of calligraphic fonts and artistically crafted hand drawn typefaces. A number of these lettering fonts have been drawn and submitted by smaller type foundries and entrepreneurs seeking to make their mark in the font world. A casual look at ChatGPT gives some idea as to their source and character. Fonts that mimic pencil drawings often have a hand-sketched, textured, or rough-lined appearance. These fonts are great for artistic projects, children's books, casual branding, or creative typography. The sample fonts below are mostly given for personal use only, use on personal invitations and so forth, but some have been made available for commercial use as well. They demonstrate the wide range of hand drawn fonts available for use and purchase.

Four Old Playful Fancy Fonts

By Carl Shank • January 20, 2025
Four Old Playful Fancy Fonts . CARE Typography is pleased in its historical search for antique inspired fonts to introduce digitized versions of Harper and Mikado, a Gutenberg typeface and Lacrosse. Unlike their modern counterparts, these fonts are display only fanciful fonts of a bygone era in typography. However, they exude a rich history of font development that should not be forgotten in our search for the new, the sleek, the up-to-date in type. They have been developed from the rich typographic heritage of Phillips Old Fashioned Type Book published in 1945 by Frederick Nelson Phillips, Inc, in New York. This volume has caught my historic typographic eye for its plethora of ancient font styles and formulations. The Harper446 font is especially playful, with its curly capitals, its specialized "Q" capital and, of course, its flavorful and playful small case lettering, with the raised c, e and o letters and the odd looking "g." This is obviously not a text font, but can uses in artful decorative work. The Mikado231 font does not at all look like the variations of the typeface called "Mikado" in typography history. As that history notes, "Mikado was apparently inspired by Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera of the same name. The show opened in London in March of 1885 and in New York later that same year. According to Nicolete Gray in her classic book on ornamented typefaces, the English foundry of Sir Charles Reed and Son introduced a metal type called “Japanese” also in 1885. She characterized this typeface and other oriental based typefaces as superficial in their foreign influence. Nonetheless it appears that it was later copied by several of the American Wood-type companies. The 1906 Hamilton wood-type specimen catalog shows four versions of this design; one by Hamilton and three by acquired companies. The versions by Wells, and Morgans & Wilcox are called Mikado. The Hamilton and Page versions use model numbers 204 and 156 respectively. It is difficult to determine the specific dates when this particular wood-type was introduced, but the earliest wood-type catalog I could find showing Mikado is the 1888 Page catalog. Our sample “WINTER” is a 15 line unstamped type most similar to the Hamilton version. Incidentally, another English foundry, Miller and Richard introduced a metal typeface in 1887, also named Mikado. That typeface is totally different than the one presented here." (https://www.printmuseum.org/wood-type-mikado). This Mikado adaptation has straight angular E, F, G, K, T and even raised W, X, Y in the capitals. Note the falling stems of C, L, and lower c, e, h, m and n. Again, this playful font can be used sparingly in advertisement copy and flavorful playbills. The Gutenberg700 font is again from the Phillips book samples. Note the dotted C, U, V, small g and zero. The ampersand is also interesting. Curly serifs are used in A, J, L, S. The numerals are classic old school numerals. This Gutenberg rendering is unlike any classic Gutenberg typeface that has been presented. The LacrossePhillips font has a cute left hanging serif on the capitals. It is a bold faced font, both in the upper and lower case. It is a full font offering upper and lower case lettering, numerals and other marks. These fonts are available from CARE Typography at care typography.com at NO COST. They are free to purchase and use.
Show More
Share by: