— Type for you.

Here is a great short film about  Typoretum. An opportunity to see our presses in action and the craft of letterpress printing.

via A Blog about Typography, Letterpress and Printing History | News from Typoretum

Fresh from his three-month placement at  Typoretum, Jamie Murphy, a Dublin-based designer and letterpress printer, is seeking funding for an exciting letterpress book project – a limited edition of The Works of Master Poldy.

The book will be printed by hand from wooden and metal types at  The Distillers Press in Dublin, where Jamie is about to undertake a design residency for the coming year. Experimental typographic treatments will act as illustrations and the book will be printed on Zerkall mould made paper and hand bound by Tom Duffy at his workshop in Dublin’s Five Lamps. The book will measure 38 x 22 cm and will be available in two variants. Jamie hopes to launch it on Bloomsday, June 16th this year.

We doff our printer’s hats to Jamie and wish him the very best of luck with this admirable project!

via A Blog about Typography, Letterpress and Printing History | News from Typoretum

A hand mould, for the casting of metal printing types.

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 Yard, Holborn Bridge, in 1792.

Figgins’ designs reflected a trend in the early nineteenth century toward the use of bolder types, rather than the lighter faces popular at the end of the previous century. The new style of types met with a mixed reception, with descriptions of them ranging from “the most brilliant typographical innovation of the nineteenth century” to them being described as a “typographical monstrosity”. Figgins is also believed to have introduced the term ‘sans-serif’, with the introduction of a typeface of that name in 1836.

All images shown below have been extracted from the book ‘Vincent Figgins Type Specimens – 1801 and 1815’, published in 1967 by the Printing Historical Society. This book reproduces, in its entirety, a publication of specimens of printing types by Vincent Figgins dated 1815 showing a range of types and typographic ornaments ranging in size from sixteen lines Pica down to Diamond at a diminutive 4½pt.

View of the Figgins Type Foundry c.1833.

via A Blog about Typography, Letterpress and Printing History | News from Typoretum http://blog.typoretum.co.uk/2013/03/28/type-specimens-from-the-vincent-figgins-type-foundry-%e2%80%93-1815/

A short documentary by White House Films, filmed at the Distiller’s Press in Dublin, Ireland, featuring  Jamie Murphy who is currently here at Typoretum on a 3-month Leonardo da Vinci programme placement.

via A Blog about Typography, Letterpress and Printing History | News from Typoretum http://blog.typoretum.co.uk/2012/12/17/%e2%80%98for-the-love-of-letterpress%e2%80%99-film-2/

http://vimeo.com/m/50308217

A short documentary by White House Films, filmed at the Distiller’s Press in Dublin, Ireland, featuring Jamie Murphy who is currently here at Typoretum on a 3-month Leonardo da Vinci programme placement.

via A Blog about Typography, Letterpress and Printing History | News from Typoretum http://blog.typoretum.co.uk/2012/12/16/%e2%80%98for-the-love-of-letterpress%e2%80%99-film/

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 typesetter a few years later.

In 1897, Monotype established a factory in the UK, producing type mostly from designs that were already in common use at that time. Following the successful introduction of the Monotype system the company went on to develop a raft of new typefaces, many of which became hugely popular, such as Times New Roman and Gill Sans.

Monotype Supercaster Matrices

The exhibition will be showcasing selected pieces from the Monotype archives including artwork, original drawings, typecasting artifacts and publications. Admission is free, and you can book a ‘guided tour’ (also free) via  Eventbrite.

Monotype – Pencil to Pixel is at Metropolitan Wharf, 70 Wapping Wall, London E1, from 16-23 November and opening times are 10.00am-7.30pm.

Original drawings for the Gill Sans typeface

Detail of a Monotype Composition Caster Matrix Case

via A Blog about Typography, Letterpress and Printing History | News from Typoretum http://blog.typoretum.co.uk/2012/11/15/pencil-to-pixel-%e2%80%93-exhibition-of-artefacts-artwork-from-the-monotype-archive/

We’re delighted to be exhibiting our ‘In the Midst of Life I Woke’ letterpress poster alongside fellow “Artists of Spitalfields Life” in a forthcoming exhibition at the Ben Pentreath Gallery in Bloomsbury, London.

The exhibition runs from 7th-24th November and further details can be found here.

via A Blog about Typography, Letterpress and Printing History | News from Typoretum http://blog.typoretum.co.uk/2012/11/05/the-artists-of-spitalfields-life-exhibition/