Lmst

I’ve updated the running hand-list of Rob Roy Kelly’s 1964 folio with newly located copies at http://www.woodtyperesearch.com. Of the 45 folios Kelly produced, 33 have now been located. The most recent addition to the running list is No 5, now located in a private collection in Kansas City, Missouri. This was Kelly’s personal copy, recently consigned by his daughter. In addition, a spring trip to Special Collections in The Hugh M. Morris Library at the University of Delaware in Newark, provided the opportunity to examine the library’s full copy (No 16) as well as a truncated set made up of the twelve-page introductory text and numbered plates 30, 33, and 38.

It is my hope that with the publication of this list, locations of the remaining complete folio may come to light.
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#WoodType #TypeSpecimen #type #typography #LetterForms #Lettering #history #archive #design #GraphicDesign #LetterPress #LetterpressPrinting #LetterpressLove #GoodType #TypeMatters #TypeTopia #TypeCollect #NineteenthCentury #AmericanWoodType #Archives #Bibliography

Tan cloth covered folio box with title label reading Wood Type.

Four index pointers and one arrow all pointing to the right, printed in black on warm red paper stock.

Ornate Tuscan type specimen, showing letters A–Z, numbers 0–9, and some punctuation, printed black on white stock.

@mass_driver Just to clarify: the US is something of an exception in this regard. :) In the EU — and in the vast majority of countries that have signed the Berne Convention, to the best of my knowledge — even letterforms themselves are regarded as copyrightable artistic creations.

#copyright #typeface #letterforms #fonts

HBD Darius Wells born 26 April 1800 Kingsboro, NY. He invented the router—a lateral revolving cutting tool—to make the first machine cut wood types. 1st specimen catalog in 1828 co. became D. Wells & Co in 1835 & Wells & Webb in 1839.

He was an active abolitionist, and ran a “station” on the underground railroad in Patterson, NJ helping enslaved humans make their way north to Canada to live as free humans.

#WoodType #router #letterforms #typography #design #bibliography #archives #libraries

Happy Birthday Darius Wells—born in Kingsboro, Fulton County, New York, on this day April 26, 1800.
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Wells was the inventor of the routing machine — a lateral revolving cutting tool — which he used to produce the first machine cut wood types in the United States. His first workshop was at 161 Broadway (behind George Long’s book store). He published the first wood type specimen catalog in 1828. The company became D. Wells & Co in 1835, then Wells & Webb when he partnered with E.R. Webb in 1839. Wells retired from wood type manufacturing in 1856.

Wells was also an active abolitionist, and helped run a “station” on the underground railroad in Patterson, NJ helping enslaved humans make their way north to Canada to live as free human beings. Mr. Wells served as Postmaster of Paterson 1861–1874 appointed by Abraham Lincoln.
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Image is from _Specimen of Plain and Ornamental Wood Type, cut by machinery_ held in the ATF Library Collection at @columbia_rbml.
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#WoodType #router #TypeSpecimen #TypeDesign #letterforms #typography #letterpress #type #design #GraphicDesign #NineteenthCentury #OnThisDay #birthday #bibliography #archives #ArchivesOfInstagram #libraries #collections #excelsior

Type specimen showing HOE set in 24-line Gothic Condensed Back-slope, from 1840 Wells & Webb catalog in the ATF Library Collection, Columbia University Library.

Black and white portrait of Darius Wells, with pronounced halftone dot.

Type specimen showing Italian and Gothis Italian, from 1840 Wells & Webb catalog in the ATF Library Collection, Columbia University Library.

Accidental typographic palimpsest, encountered in Special Collections at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
——— #WoodType #letterforms #typography #archives #libraries #collections #bibliography #TypeSpecimen #TypeDesign #TypeHistory #letterpress #type #design #history #NineteethCentury #19thCentury #Palimpsest

Overlapping typographic forms from 1854 Wells & Webb wood type specimen catalog. Cream colored stock with low contrast tonal value letterforms.

Overlapping typographic forms from 1844 L. Johnson specimen catalog. Cream colored stock with low contrast tonal value letterforms.

Overlapping typographic forms from 1827 George Bruce specimen catalog. Cream colored stock with high contrast tonal value letterforms.

HBD Henry P Hamilton born 21 Apr 1862 youngest of 3 brothers, worked with older brthr George at _The Detroit Record_ as a printer & then with oldest brthr James at Hamilton & Baker, later Hamilton Mfg Co Credited patents USD37308 & 37309
http://www.woodtyperesearch.com/hamilton-mfg-672-673

#WoodType #letterforms #typography #archives #libraries #collections #bibliography #TypeSpecimen #TypeDesign #TypeHistory #letterpress #type #design #history #NineteethCentury #19thCentury #patents #uspatents

HBD Henry P Hamilton born 21 Apr 1862 youngest of 3 brothers, worked with older brthr George at _The Detroit Record_ as a printer & then with oldest brthr James at Hamilton & Baker, later Hamilton Mfg Co Credited patents USD37308 & 37309

http://www.woodtyperesearch.com/hamilton-mfg-672-673

——— #WoodType #letterforms #typography #archives #libraries #collections #bibliography #TypeSpecimen #TypeDesign #TypeHistory #letterpress #type #design #history #NineteethCentury #19thCentury #patents #uspatents #ThisDayInHistory

Happy Birthday Horatio Nelson Bill—born in Lebanon, Connecticut, on this day March 25, 1824.
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Horatio worked as a sign painter before he (and brother Jeremiah) cut wood type for Edwin Allen in Windham, Connecticut. The brothers formed their own wood type company, H & J Bill, in 1850 based in Lebanon. They moved the company six miles north to Willimantic in 1851. The company was known as Bill, Stark & Co 1853–1854. In late 1854 the company was shuttered and subsequently sold to William H. Page in 1856. Horatio was listed as Type Maker on his 1863 draft registration and listed variously as a sign painter, house painter, and fine arts painter in the 1870s and 1880s.
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Image is of Tuscan Open as shown in the 1853 _Specimens of Machinery Cut Wood Type, Manufactured by Bill, Stark & Company, Willimantic, Connecticut._ (held in the ATF Library Collection at Columbia University, Rare Books & Manuscripts.
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#WoodType #TypeSpecimen #TypeDesign #letterforms #typography #letterpress #type #design #GraphicDesign #NineteenthCentury #OnThisDay #birthday #bibliography #archives #libraries #collections

Ornate letter “F”, black ink on cream paper.

Ornate letter “I”, and “R”, black ink on cream paper.

Ornate letter “E” and exclamation point, black ink on cream paper.

Full page of type specimen catalog spelling ouy “Hartford” “LUSTER” and “FIRE!” in ornate type forms. Specimen Catalog held in the ATF Library Collection at Columbia University, Rare Books & Manuscripts.

Happy Birthday William Hamilton Page—born in Tilton, New Hampshire, March 14, 1829. Page lived nearly 40 years of his adult life in Norwich, Conn as a wood type manufacturer. Images shown here from 1878 specimen catalog, slightly repurposed from specimen catalog from 1867. Engraving likely created by Charles Tubbs. More text & images about Page’s life and work at www.woodtyperesearch.com/william-hamilton-page/
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Image of the engraved title page from _Specimens of Wood Type, Manufactured by Wm. H. Page Wood Type Co., Norwich, Conn._ (1878); held in the ATF Library Collection at Rare Books & Manuscripts Library, Columbia University.

Image of the engraved title page from _Specimens of Wood Type, Borders, Rules, &c., Manufactured by Wm. H. Page & Co., Greenville, Conn._ (1867); held in the Kemble Collection, California Historical Society (currently being transferred to Stanford Special Collections)
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#WoodType #TypeSpecimen #TypeDesign #letterforms #typography #letterpress #type #design #GraphicDesign #NineteenthCentury #OnThisDay #birthday #bibliography #archives #libraries #collections #excelsior

Image of the black engraved title on light brown page from _Specimens of Wood Type, Manufactured by Wm. H. Page Wood Type Co., Norwich, Conn._ (1878); held in the ATF Library Collection at Rare Books & Manuscripts Library, Columbia University.

Interior of 1878 catalog showing three decorative wood type specimens, printed black ink on cream paper. Spelling out “cone” “mend” “Rome”.

Image of the multicolored engraved title page from _Specimens of Wood Type, Borders, Rules, &c., Manufactured by Wm. H. Page & Co., Greenville, Conn._ (1867); held in the Kemble Collection, California Historical Society (currently being transferred to Stanford Special Collections)

Amazing crowdsourcing project by Richard Ardagh @richardardagh documenting the phenominal Type Archive in London. Stunning, handsome, pretty, luxe, erudite…pick your adjectives! Typographers, historians, siblings-in-ink check it out, and definitely consider supporting the project so it can make it’s way into the world.

https://vol.co/collections/type-archived
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#typography #letterpress #letterforms #archives #libraries #collections #bibliography #history #design #NineteenthCentury #19thCentury

This week’s prediction from myself

# AI will disrupt typography

AI will soon produce fonts, dynamically, on the fly (and other insects), and fully meeting not only the comfort of accessibility needs, but also the individual tastes of the individual viewer

There’ll be a fluid idea of what a font is and isn’t any more, rather than a fixed letterform design and ethos, it’ll be able to change phenomenally (we’re heading that way with ‘multiple masters’ and more contemporarily Opentype Variable Fonts
If that notion is taken to an extreme making every possible dimension and parameter maximally variable then you get a font that can look exactly like any font in existence and many that don’t – is it even a ‘font’ at all by then, if it has no look until the end

I think AI generated fonts will be very popular because they will of course be far cheaper, more dynamic and flexible, and easy to select by giving context rather than requiring actual taste

Of course it’ll disrupt more than the traditional and digital font vendors, it’ll displace type designers too – as there’ll be no need for this tedious ‘back end’ phase of typography where a ‘font’ is drawn up and encapsulated in a file in order to be made available to computers which will then use them to draw the glyphs on screen or on paper – it can all happen at the end of the process directly and responsively – responding not only to space available and mechanical details of the medium, but also weather, day, fashion, news, viewer demographic, subject matter, etc #Prediction #AI #typography #fonts #typefaces #letterforms #design

#silentsunday #letterforms

3 trees in a the woods. the position of their trunks and branches make it look like the letters X Y

Loving these unintentional glyphs
#typography #letterforms

Styrofoam packaging. The support shapes make forms that look like letters

Playing with forms for letters. #improvisedletters #letterforms #spontaneouslettering #almahoffmannlettering #almahoffmannletters #almahoffmann

Demo #E #X

#typedesign #letterforms #typedaily #fontforge

came across this vision of the future by Dwiggins: The Five Hundred Years: A Time Problem (1941)

looking forward to a "century of awakening", but hope the "machine horde" doesn't get us first.

#paperposts #timelines #scifi #letterforms

Timeline of the past as viewed from a fictional future. the data range is 1940 (when this was created) to 2440. It's by Dwiggins and is titled A Chronology derived from the Texts. It describes a change in how letterforms change for human before and after the 'machine hordes'

Join #DynamicFontDay 2023!

Pushing boundaries of Devanāgarī type design
KimyaGandhi@bird.makeup, @motaitalic, BERLIN

Devanagari letters have a rich history, but technological limitations have hindered their digital evolution — until recently. #OpenType, #Unicode, and widespread internet use in #India have opened up new possibilities. Now is the perfect time to explore and innovate with these #letterforms and push the boundaries of #Devanagari #typedesign.

visit: https://dynamicfontday.com

Het vakmanschap om duizend jaar geleden deze prachtige letters uit te hakken is ongeëvenaard | The craftsmanship to carve these beautiful letters a thousand years ago is second to none.
#coevorden @KasteelCoevorde #handlettering #handtype #typografie #typography #typographic #letterforms #type #typedesign