I make things on the internet
This recent image of typesetters, from Shorpy, reminded me of a photo that I took at the National Print Museum in Dublin awhile back. It was of a boy’s indenture agreement to serve as an apprentice compositor in a Letterpress shop. Highlights of seven years service include: no fornicating, gambling or frequenting of ale-houses. I’ve transcribed the document and made the text available.
Behind the redesign of the New York Times Magazine. Great visual and typographic treatment
Mistakes in typography grate the purists from the NYT.
“I think sometimes that being overly type-sensitive is like an allergy,†said Michael Bierut, a partner in the Pentagram design group in New York. “My font nerdiness makes me have bad reactions to things that spoil otherwise pleasant moments.â€
I’m not at the anaphylactic stage of typographic allergy yet — more the sniffly, dry and itchy eyes sort of thing.
Letters from the Hellbox is an irregular column from Martin McClellan on typographers.
Want to know why books will never go away? Read this blurb from the description of Code(x)+1.
The book is a durable artifact in which author, reader, and the artisans who make and preserve them enter into ordered and potentially pleasurable relationships. A printed book is enhanced by the materials and processes with which it is made. The book in the era of digital reproduction is an object of pleasure as well as a container of information. To consult information relieved of the pleasures of turning a page, smelling ink, or admiring the binding, we can rely on the internet. The book as ark of deposit requires neither electricity nor fossil fuel to either read or maintain. The book as an object dwells at the intersections of writing and art, philosophy and poetics, science and scholarship. The structure of a book is a sculpture for reading. The meaning is transmitted and the book remains.
The production run is limited to 500, anyone want to buy me a copy?
Goudy Fonts is a tribute site, dedicated to the work Frederic and Bertha Goudy and their impact on American typography. I am type is one of Goudy’s more famous essays on the subject. This quote is a bit dated, but I like it.
I am the leaden army that conquers the world. I am type.
That essay and others can be found in Texts on Type.
Scott Hansen and Alex Cornell have put together an excellent field guide for colour management. On that note, some of the mac people who upgraded to Snow Leopard may be interested in knowing why things seem to be darker with more contrast.
Jan Tschichold’s The Form of the Book still soundly trounces the modern competition. His work focuses on what not to do, rather than showing you a bunch of examples of what you can do.
The Los Angeles Times has redesigned their website to make it cleaner, crisper and more innovative. I’m liking the new look, finding that it’s more newspaper-like and ties into the print aesthetic better.
Sound advice from an interview with Jim Coudal
When you think to yourself, “In 18 months I’m going to start my crocheted beer coaster company,” the problem with that sentence is the 18 months. What you’re really saying is, “I’m afraid.” Do it now. If you bankrupt a company before you’re 25, that’s like a badge of honor! Get out there.