Tag: Typography
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Printed before written
I linked this story of the Cherokee syllabary in previous item. It’s worthwhile at the current moment, so reprinting it from 2023. = = = = = START 2023 REPRINT: Okie blogger K. Latham posted an interesting brief feature on the Cherokee Advocate, a weekly paper in Tahlequah that was first founded in 1844. I…
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Fordist wins
Interesting article on local newspapers that still succeed. The top 25 by circulation, mainly digital now, include a few in the expected places like LA and Chicago, but the list is dominated by much smaller cities. The author notes that several of those smaller city papers are owned by the Newhouse chain, including Harrisburg. When…
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π Day
Keeping up a tradition… π Day again! Since I’m talking typography lately, I’ll hash and rehash a couple items from 2019. = = = = = Thinking about Trump as Pied Piper. When the metaphor first appeared in those DNC emails I didn’t quite understand it. After learning that Trump is Roy Cohn’s protege, I…
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Debunking Day 2
The new “history” of the Intel IC is part of a much larger fake “history” written by the Tech Lords to glorify and deify the Tech Lords. The “history” makes a special point of OMITTING the role of IBM. The San Francisco Tech Tyrants vanquished the old Rust Belt tech industry and rewrote the world…
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The Markup Man
This 1957 film on printing careers reminded me of the STUPIDEST decision I ever made. Speculating about the past is pointless, especially when based on information that wasn’t available at the time. Some of this info was available, some wasn’t. The film itemizes the various specialties in printing. One is the Markup Man, who lays…
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Back to Lessing
In October I switched from bus to taxis. At that point the laziness was necessary. After a series of hard dental sessions and bad weather I had built up an overanxious and overstressed condition, with bad balance, constipation and lots of weird little anxiety symptoms. The balance trouble made it nearly impossible to stand steadily…
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Brutalist typography
This 1970s film is teaching journalism students about proper design. It’s unapologetically brutalist, in the same denaturing spirit as Corbusier in architecture or Cage in music. Remove all beauty. Remove all decorations. Remove all variation and improvisation. Only stark colorless rectangles are allowed. Replace it with squared-off type masses… Short words, short sentences and short…
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Only driven by
Books have algorithms too. The physical aspect of a paper book is its algorithm. The font, paper quality, margins, spacing, and binding determine whether the book can be perused occasionally with difficulty, or kept in a bookholder to read at leisure. I always read books in a bookholder, usually while eating. With an especially good…
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It’s even older
Noticed an article in NewSuperstitionist, describing how causality can be re-introduced into the quantum world. Why bother? Causality exists in the REAL world. Nature doesn’t care if we set up an abstract spiritual world of angels on pinheads or live/dead cats in boxes. Quantum is a modern religion, not a description of reality. Quantum theologians…
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Easy correction
When a demon worries about an event or phenomenon, whether it’s “global warming” or “pandemics” or AI, the demon is really informing us about his plans. Psychopaths blame and frame innocent bystanders. I didn’t imprison and strangle you for two years, some dude named Virus imprisoned and strangled you. I didn’t turn off your electricity…
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Morse Day!
[I tried to write the title in code, but WP insists on condensing the spaces so it’s unreadable.] Today is Morse’s birthday! Since we tributed his original invention a couple years ago, we’ll just reprint. = = = = = START REPRINT: Last week I took a linguistic look at Morse and cranks and eccentrics.…
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π Day
Keeping up a tradition… π Day again! Since I’m talking typography lately, I’ll hash and rehash a couple items from 2019. = = = = = Thinking about Trump as Pied Piper. When the metaphor first appeared in those DNC emails I didn’t quite understand it. After learning that Trump is Roy Cohn’s protege, I…
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Novative Ruption
In sync with my recent items about the history of Standard Register and the history of Electrotyping, and in sync with previous item about Bible IP, received an email just now from Monotype. I vaguely remember buying a license for a computer font LONG ago, maybe 2004. At that time I was trying to sell…
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Electrotyping, part 1 of 3
[Redated and slightly revised after I decided to continue the subject. This was originally a single free-standing item.] = = = = = Electrochemistry was the first practical use of electricity. The first attempted telegraphs used electrolytic bubbles in water as the indicator. Stereotyping was already mature in 1840, as an industrial process involving papier-mache…
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Electrotyping, part 2 of 3
Part 1 showed the essential process of electrotyping in a small-scale experimental setup. Real factories like Kellogg’s Patent Insides used bigger machines in mass production. Here again is the Kellogg building in KC, placed in my down-home scene. Most of the Kellogg building was devoted to electrotyping, with hot-lead composition and the writers and researchers…
Polistra's Mill 