This week, I have the pleasure of casting some 18pt Garamond italic swashes and ligatures. If you’re interested, we can cast founts for you, and you can avoid paying a matrix hire charge too. The special characters are… Caps: A B C D E F G H J K M P T U Lower case: u k m(with long tail) g e(with long tail) ß(German eszett) Lower case ligatures: is ll tt ij ct st et fr ta as us nt(with long tail) gy zy gg sp Cap ligatures: Ex Qu Qu(different) QU Na Ne Ni No Nu Ra Re Ri Ro Ru Long s: ſa ſe ſi ſo ſu ſt ſs ſæ ſſa ſſe ſſi ſſo ſſu As we haven’t yet cast a fount, we’re not exactly sure how much a fount would cost: at a guess, a quarter fount might be around £35, but that’s just an estimate. I don’t imagine there will be a great demand for long s characters, but we can cast them as sort lines for anyone interested. Drop us a line on monotype@handandeye.co.uk if you’d like a price for some new type.

This week, I have the pleasure of casting some 18pt Garamond italic swashes and ligatures. If you’re interested, we can cast founts for you, and you can avoid paying a matrix hire charge too.

The special characters are…
Caps: A B C D E F G H J K M P T U
Lower case: u k m(with long tail) g e(with long tail) ß(German eszett)
Lower case ligatures: is ll tt ij ct st et fr ta as us nt(with long tail) gy zy gg sp
Cap ligatures: Ex Qu Qu(different) QU Na Ne Ni No Nu Ra Re Ri Ro Ru
Long s: ſa ſe ſi ſo ſu ſt ſs ſæ ſſa ſſe ſſi ſſo ſſu

As we haven’t yet cast a fount, we’re not exactly sure how much a fount would cost: at a guess, a quarter fount might be around £35, but that’s just an estimate. I don’t imagine there will be a great demand for long s characters, but we can cast them as sort lines for anyone interested.

Drop us a line on monotype@handandeye.co.uk if you’d like a price for some new type.

An extremely generous permanent loan has meant that Hand & Eye are now the proud custodians of some wonderful sets of composition matrices… - 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 14pt Joanna 478 - 9D and 12D Sabon 669 - 11 and 12pt Bulmer 479 - 10, 11 and 12pt Fournier 185 - 14pt Ehrhardt I imagine we’ll be making a lovely specimen of the Joanna quite soon, as a full complement of composition sizes is very rare. Now, who’d like us to set a book for them…?

An extremely generous permanent loan has meant that Hand & Eye are now the proud custodians of some wonderful sets of composition matrices…

- 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 14pt Joanna 478
- 9D and 12D Sabon 669
- 11 and 12pt Bulmer 479
- 10, 11 and 12pt Fournier 185
- 14pt Ehrhardt

I imagine we’ll be making a lovely specimen of the Joanna quite soon, as a full complement of composition sizes is very rare. Now, who’d like us to set a book for them…?

Where are you? Would you take a group of students on a tour to see how your operation works during the summer? The group is design students from the University of Delaware who visit London for five weeks each summeer. — Asked by Anonymous

Oops.  Only just saw this.  I work at Hand & Eye Letterpress, in Whitechapel in London- have a look at www.handandeye.co.uk.  I don’t own the place, but I’m sure Phil wouldn’t mind having some students visit for a bit.  Drop him a line on print@handandeye.co.uk

For the last few months, I’ve been at the Type Archive every Monday, making matrices for the (if current numbers are realistic) growing number of customers who still order them. Here’s a large order nearly ready to go out, with the mats laid out in the box (according to the Matrix Case Arrangement sheet on the right). Each mat costs the buyer about £5, so this full mat case (upper and lower case, roman and italic, with figures & punctuation) costs about £1,300…

For the last few months, I’ve been at the Type Archive every Monday, making matrices for the (if current numbers are realistic) growing number of customers who still order them. Here’s a large order nearly ready to go out, with the mats laid out in the box (according to the Matrix Case Arrangement sheet on the right).

Each mat costs the buyer about £5, so this full mat case (upper and lower case, roman and italic, with figures & punctuation) costs about £1,300…

I’ll be casting some founts of 12pt Old Style No.2 for sale this week; roman only at the moment, but you can drop us a line if you’re interested in italic or small cap founts.

I’ll be casting some founts of 12pt Old Style No.2 for sale this week; roman only at the moment, but you can drop us a line if you’re interested in italic or small cap founts.

We at Hand & Eye were down in Margate at the weekend, doing a little talk about running a letterpress business and, in my case, wittering on about running casters. As it turns out, a lot of people there were former printers, comps and machine minders, so there were plenty of anecdotes flying around, and a lot of empathy for the complexities of running Monotype equipment. If you’re in the area, there’s an exhibition of some lovely printed work, in a variety of media (silver gelatin, screen prints, linocuts, etchings, engravings; and none of this so-called ‘giclée’ nonsense, either), including the above print designed by yours truly and printed by Mary Plunkett. More info at www.pushingprint.co.uk.

We at Hand & Eye were down in Margate at the weekend, doing a little talk about running a letterpress business and, in my case, wittering on about running casters. As it turns out, a lot of people there were former printers, comps and machine minders, so there were plenty of anecdotes flying around, and a lot of empathy for the complexities of running Monotype equipment.

If you’re in the area, there’s an exhibition of some lovely printed work, in a variety of media (silver gelatin, screen prints, linocuts, etchings, engravings; and none of this so-called ‘giclée’ nonsense, either), including the above print designed by yours truly and printed by Mary Plunkett.

More info at www.pushingprint.co.uk.

I’m starting to think…

…that our Composition Caster is some sort of petulant pagan deity, demanding a second-degree burn to a limb of choice before deigning to do its job.

I hear today (via Phil Abel, via Richard Russell) that the Oxford University Press, with its 19 casters, used to cast a ton of metal type every day, with one employee being solely in charge of melting down and re-casting the used type into new ingots.

I’m pretty happy when we have 30kg of good type set in a day- apparently I should set my sights higher. And I should increase the RPM…

The Pilcrow (part one)

I love articles about typographic elements. You should too. Here’s a nice one about the pilcrow, one of mu favourite shapes-you-can-make-with-a-pen.

Mansard Extra Bold (from Virgin Wood Type)

Another font from Bill at Virgin Wood Type- this one is a revival of a nineteenth century face, cut from patterns made from a digital fount.  Interesting to see something come from woodletter, becoming digitised and then be remade into wood again…