Simulating the handsetting of metal type

[William Overington]

I first learned to print in the 1960s.

This was letterpress printing using handset metal type.

This was as a hobby, private press printing.

One typeface which I used was Goudy Text.

Printing using handset metal type has largely gone now from commercial printing, though not quite for some special purposes, yet is still quite strong amongst hobby printers.

Some years ago I decided to try to produce my own blackletter typeface. I called it Chronicle Text. It includes various glyphs for ligatures too, though these are in the Private Use Area, this is not an OpenType font.

https://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/CHRONTXT.TTF

I included in the font the spacing characters from U+2000 to U+200A.

https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2000.pdf

Later I made a version of the font that I called Chronicle Text Composing.

This font is mostly the same as Chronicle Text. The difference is that I designed visible glyphs for the spacing characters from U+2000 to U+200A.

This means that one can simulate manual typesetting in desktop publishing software, by turning off automated justification and using the Chronicle Text Composing font, and not using the ordinary spacing characters, but using some of the spacing characters from U+2000 to U+200A.

I recommend using U+2002 .. U+2006 and U+2009.

A post in the Unicode public mailing list reminded me of this.

https://corp.unicode.org/pipermail/unicode/2022-February/009949.html

So this morning I have had a go using Affinity Designer and its Glyph Browser facility.

I started by using an A5 landscape document, 300 dots per inch, using type at 36 point.

The spacing between the sections is by using a space at 18 point.

Here is the result of my experimenting. I exported as a png file at one third size both horizontally and vertically..

The glyphs that I designed for U+2002 through to U+200A are at the top, spaced apart using ordinary space characters.

Then there are two lines of text typeset using the Chronicle Text Composing font, the upper line having thick spacing and the lower line other spaces chosen so as to make the line of text the same length as the upper line.

I did this by starting off using thick spacing, then changing the spacing so as to increase the length of the line.

Having done that I copied the two lines of text, pasted them below and then changed the font being used to become Chronicle Text, so that the visible glyphs of the spacing characters were no longer in use.

With metal type one has a set line length for a particular piece of printing, so all lines may need adjusting of spacing to get the line to the required width.

Readers are welcome to download the fonts, install them and have a go.

William

 

[CJRM]

I had to hunt to find this again, but I thought you might enjoy it.

https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2016/08/24/cutting-the-letter-g/

[William Overington]

Thank you. That is fascinating.

The letter G is a raised miirror image on the punch.

The punch is used to make a matrix, the G an indented not-mirrored image.

The matrix is used within a mould to make a piece of metal type, the G is a raised mirror image, so a copy of the shape that is on the punch.

The type is used to print an image of a G onto paper, or possibly other material.

At each stage, more than one can be produced from each of what was produced at the previous stage.

With the handsetting of metal type, quite a lot of work (or hobbyist fun) is needed to get a print, but once the typesetting has been done a lot of prints of that particular text can be printed.

William