Cincinnati Type Foundry sale flyer
We recently purchased this 11 x 17″ sale flyer. read more…
Type Anatomy
Our type anatomy chart, which was inspired by a similar diagram in U&lc magazine in the early 1980s. Access a high resolution pdf here. Besides typographic parts, we’ve included some diacritical marks, punctuation and common sorts.
St. Patrick’s leprechaun, shamrock, green beer typeface
Every year we trundle out the “Gaelic fonts,” for St. Patrick’s Day. Insular (Irish) scripts, or uncials started out as a Byzantine script which enjoyed widespread use, but they are now often associated with the Book of Kells and are viewed as Celtic, or perhaps even less accurately as Gaelic. Uncials are a script form which was developed from Roman cursive during the early Byzantine era (third century) along with the new, smooth media of parchment and vellum. Ascenders and descenders were developed in uncials, contributing to the later development of upper and lower case in early printed Gothic typefaces. read more…
Quotation marks & apostrophes versus primes
Single primes are used to mark feet, and double primes for inches. They are no substitute for apostrophes and quotation marks—a mistake made even in (shudder) company logos. read more…
The long s is often mistaken for an f
The long s (∫) has its roots in Roman cursive and was common in print in Europe from the 15th through the 18th centuries. It still appears in the German Eszett (ß), which is an sz ligature (a connected long s and short z). read more…
Optima’s monumental elegance
The names sandblasted into the dark granite of the Vietnam War Memorial were set in Hermann Zapf’s Optima. The elegant typeface is tightly leaded in all upper case to stunning effect. The dots that separate the names recall classical chiseled inscriptions. read more…
Lovely, short letterpress documentary
“If I were to be sat down at a computer and told, ‘here, you can do whatever you want,’ I wouldn’t know what to do. There would be too many choices,” says John Kristensen, of Firefly Press in this gorgeous short film. Take a moment to enjoy the rich artistry and craftsmanship in the everyday work of the Firelfy Press in Sommerville Massachusetts.
The exclamation point —“a sign of failure”
The punctus exclamativus (or punctus admirativus) first appeared in the latter half of the 14th century to mark the end of an exclamation. The Italian poet Iacopo Alpoleio da Urbisaglia claimed to have invented it. The influential Italian humanist Coluccio Salutati revived the exclamativus and its use spread in the 15th century. read more…
Virgule versus solidus
The slash on our keyboards is a virgule. The name comes down to us from Latin through French (virgula “twig”). It served medieval European literature as a comma and still does this in English language poetry. It also separates things (2015/2016), and it stands in for “or” (as in and/or) and “per” (as in feet/second). We also use it to build level fractions (1/3). read more…
Ligatures: marriages of suitable characters
Adobe Minion Pro offers a large selection of ligatures.
The ampersand is the best-known ligature but there are other commonly conjoined letters. Most Roman typefaces will include ff, fi, fl, ffl and ffi. read more…