Vague memories needing clarity

[beromat]

A bit late, been busy on other things, but thanks for the payouts info!

[beromat]

Those numbered reels, does anybody know if they are done using a known font, or are they just proprietary artwork? Looking at the fonts on my PC I can't find anything close.

[badpenny]

Something that the Gunter Wulff arts department came up with I should imagine.
Not having a printer's background I'd never heard the word font before the introduction of MS Dos word processors

[arrgee]

Not having a printer's background I'd never heard the word font before the introduction of MS Dos word processors

Before becoming an architect I spent a few years in my teens studying graphic design, prior to word processors we had to 'set' our type using individual letters from numerous fonts which were all cast in lead, strips or blocks of lead formed the spaces. We used a 'comp stick' which you held in the hand and supported the type. However, the individual letters of type were positioned upside down and back-to-front in the stick, the individual letters were of course also a mirror of the printed letter - screwed the mind for the first few times but soon got used to it. When the stick was full the block of type was then transferred - very carefully - onto a type table and all held together in a large metal frame with small expanding metal blocks around the edge that you tighten with a screwdriver. A simple page of type for printing could take hours to set. How times have changed.

[pennymachines]

Yes, printing technology remained essentially the same for centuries. I visited Strawberry Hill on Sunday, Horace Warpole's Gothic tour de force, and location of the very early Strawberry Hill Press (established June 25, 1757). Composing stick in hand, Thomas Kirgate collects letters from the 'upper case' and 'lower case' of the composing frame.