#linotype

[uwmspeccoll]

Typography Tuesday

Today we present so-called Benedictine capitals, borders, and ornaments from The Manual of Linotype Typography, printed by the Plimpton Press for the Mergenthaler Linotype Company in Brooklyn, New York, in 1923. The Benedictine typeface family is a revival of a 15th-century type used by Bolognese printer Plato de Benedictis, redesigned by Joseph E. Hill for Linotype in 1915.

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[morokollisyo]

My art for SPNEldritch Reverse Bang. More info about the art and the fic here.

[stone-cold-groove]

No make-shifts. No evasions. This advertisement composed entirely on the Linotype. Ad for the Linotype typesetting machine - 1922.

[princessmulberry]

Making linotypes with @leyendyker. It’s going alright. Leyendyker provided the materials as well as snacks 😊

[fontseeker]

[thoughtportal]

The Linotype machine changed the world. Once called the “Eighth Wonder of the World” by Thomas Edison, it revolutionized printing, making newspapers, books, and mass communication possible on a scale never seen before.

Today, these once-great machines are fading into history, their operators growing older, their sounds—whirring, clicking, clanking—becoming echoes of the past.

This documentary tells the surprisingly emotional story of the people connected to the Linotype and the impact it had on modern life. Without it, would we even have computers, smartphones, or the conveniences we take for granted? The Linotype made knowledge accessible to the masses, but its own success led to its downfall. Now, these legendary machines are headed for the scrapyard.

[sacramentohistorymuseum]

On May 11, 1854, Ottmar Mergenthaler was born in Württemberg, Germany. Mergenthaler, a watch maker by trade, came to the United States in 1872. In 1885, he invented the Linotype Machine and revolutionized the printing industry. The Linotype eliminated the tedious need of hand setting type, especially for publication work like newspapers and books. Using a keyboard, the operator would tell the machine to send a matrix (a mold for each letter) to the assembly area. The Linotype would pump molten lead into the matrices, casting a line of type. The Linotype was in common use in newspaper offices until the mid-1970s when offset printing became the norm.

On display at the Sacramento History Museum’s print shop exhibit is a Model 8 Linotype, serial number 16618. This Linotype was made in 1913. While our Linotype is fully operational, we lack the electrical power and ventilation to use it. Want to learn more about our Linotype and how it functioned? We have an extensive video of Howard explaining the operations on our YouTube channel.

[doppleganger-rental]

Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu (1978)

The last day of hot metal typesetting at the New York Times.

Well worth a watch. The Linotype machine was a genuine, mechanical wonder.