I'm a graphic designer by profession and, though you'd never guess, fonts are my stock in trade. I have to admit never giving much thought to the fonts used on typewriters. Even now, I wouldn't have a clue how to identify the fonts on any machine I own but I'm sure further digging in the Typosphere would help. There's a lot of enthusiasm among some typerati for certain fonts - just recently schordzi's industrial archaeology resurrected Spencerian. Blazing a trail from analogue obsolescence to a bright, if contraversial, digital future. So, I thought readers might be interested in this book. I read Just My Type a few months ago and thought it was really interesting and would make a good primer for anyone with a developing interest in typefaces, the thinking behind them and the use - and misuse - to which they are put. Typewriters, Dymo and Letraset (remember Letraset?) all get a mention in passing, but the book concentrates mostly on printers' fonts, from Guttenberg to the present day. If you haven't read it, you can download a publisher's sample here. [3.6Mb pdf]
...typing for peace, democracy, and the glory of the Typosphere
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Just my type
I'm a graphic designer by profession and, though you'd never guess, fonts are my stock in trade. I have to admit never giving much thought to the fonts used on typewriters. Even now, I wouldn't have a clue how to identify the fonts on any machine I own but I'm sure further digging in the Typosphere would help. There's a lot of enthusiasm among some typerati for certain fonts - just recently schordzi's industrial archaeology resurrected Spencerian. Blazing a trail from analogue obsolescence to a bright, if contraversial, digital future. So, I thought readers might be interested in this book. I read Just My Type a few months ago and thought it was really interesting and would make a good primer for anyone with a developing interest in typefaces, the thinking behind them and the use - and misuse - to which they are put. Typewriters, Dymo and Letraset (remember Letraset?) all get a mention in passing, but the book concentrates mostly on printers' fonts, from Guttenberg to the present day. If you haven't read it, you can download a publisher's sample here. [3.6Mb pdf]
You've probably seen my collection of fonts based on typewriter typefaces:
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Hi Richard, I certainly have, though I haven't tried any out. Years ago I found myself in posession of Fontographer and digitised my precious Dymo font (complete with barely legible #6). Only to find a little while after that I could have bought a crisper, cleaner Dymo font from a type foundry. I'll try some of yours in future some fauxcasts? BTW, enjoyed "Gathering". It made me want to make a short film of the procrastinating displacement activity we all go through before making our marks on an unsullied sheet.
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