Looking For Images Of Letterpress Script Faces

  • Fonts in Use
Fonts in Use | Yves Peters | May 7, 2012

I will be speaking at TYPO Berlin “Sustain” next week and am currently hard at work on my entirely new presentation From Metal Scripts to Digital Writing. I trace back the reproduction of handwriting from the earliest scripts for letterpress to feature-rich OpenType fonts with artificial intelligence that mimic the decisions made by letterers and calligraphers. While I have most of my material down I feel like I could use some close-ups of letterpress type, illustrating the specific difficulties inherent to producing slanted glyphs on a rectangular body. I am particularly interested in overhangs and kerns, connections, type on a non-rectangular body, and so on. As I am touching on a wide variety of script styles I will gradually add to this post which images I have received, and which ones I think I still need.

Here’s a number of examples of what I a looking for. However I would like to also have some extreme close-ups of overhangs and kerns.

24pt Civilité with 6pt floating accent (Stempel) cut in by hand
24pt Civilité with 6pt floating accent (Stempel) cut in by hand. Photo © Justin Knopp


72pt Reiner Script capitals with overhang. Detail from photo © Interrobang Letterpress

24pt Berthold Boulevard with fractions
24pt Berthold Boulevard with fractions. Photo © Interrobang Letterpress

:: UPDATE ::

Thomas Gravemaker sent me images of English-style copperplate scripts; a series on rectangular body and a series on slanted body.









Stéphane De Schrevel sent me these superb combos, showing both the type and the back side of the body, of two English-style copperplate scripts – one on rectangular and one on slanted body – and one wood type script on slanted body.






Sander Pinkse sent me these images of letterpress Mistral.


Header image: 30pt unidentified English copperplate script. Photo © Humberto Aste

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11 Comments:

  1. Hi Yves,

    you could ask Thomas Maier. On this website for an introductory course in letterpress and metal type at Kunstuniversität Linz, he presents images that show kerns and overhangs, as well as ‘Schrägkegel’ or ‘Falzkegel’, i.e. non-rectangular, slanted bodies.

    Also recommended: Martin Z. Schröder, typographer and letterpress printer in Berlin: blog.druckerey.de

    Posted by Florian on May. 7, 2012

  2. I see you’ve found a few image on Flickr. I can shoot other specific images as required.

    Of particular interest might be ATF Angle Body type.

    http://www.interrobangletterpress.com/files/interrobang_typeList.pdf

    mjb / interrobang letterpress / linotypesetting.com

    Posted by interrobang on May. 8, 2012

  3. Thanks for commenting, Michael. Just to clarify – I only showed your images here as examples of what I may be looking for. Once I have the list of images I need I will ask your permission for using them in my presentation.

    Posted by Yves Peters on May. 8, 2012

  4. Hi Yves,

    No problem linking to images I have up on Flickr. I’m happy to have become a source when people are looking for images of type. Do let me know if you need shots of anything else in particular. I have a wealth of material never photographed.

    Posted by interrobang on May. 8, 2012

  5. Hi I have an image of the overhangs in Baskerville Italic you are welcome to use. http://bearandtortoisepress.co.uk/blog/2012/05/09/baskerville-italic-2/

    Posted by Nick Coomber on May. 9, 2012

  6. Thank you very much Nick, but I specifically need scripts.

    Posted by Yves Peters on May. 9, 2012

  7. What I need most for now is images of Civilité, specifically the crazy overhangs, and Mistral for the ingenious connections. For both faces I need the actual type, not the printed result.

    Posted by Yves Peters on May. 9, 2012

  8. hello yves
    i own a full set of original mistral b.24. what would you need specifically?

    Posted by david rault on May. 9, 2012

  9. I would love to have a combo like the ones from Stéphane – the word Mistral, shot straight from the front and from the back. I already received a line with the full alphabet which I will add to this post in a bit.

    Posted by Yves Peters on May. 9, 2012

  10. Hello Yves,

    I think i’m so late on this, do you still need photos for letterpress faces? I have some in Arabic as well..

    Let me know please..

    Hussein

    Posted by Hussein Alazaat on May. 21, 2012

  11. Way too late i assume, but »Künstler Schreibschrift« might be a good example, too. I can send you some shots if you still need them …

    Posted by Lars Schwarz on Jul. 10, 2012

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