Gimme a Hand(y box)

Sometimes the best ornamental experiments come from the simplest pieces in your collection. No doubt you've seen countless small handy boxes at various letterpress events and sales. Sold as auxiliary sorts for your existing type collection, they range from dots, lines, mathematical figures, parenthesis, and foreign accents. Don't pass them up! You can create a range of work with very few pieces and the bonus is they take up so little space.

I pulled out squares, dots, brackets and parenthesis from my collection.

Here are two quick forms set directly in a composing stick, using just sorts from these four boxes. To keep it even simpler, I used only those that broke down to 6, 12, 24 or 36 point.

I put the sticks on press for a quick, down-n-dirty carbon proof to see what the pattern revealed.

So much potential with even the simplest shapes! So when you come across these handy boxes, don't pass them up; just think of the repeating patterns and illustrations waiting to be printed.

Easy Ornaments

While attending the 2017 APA Wayzgoose in Los Angeles, I was inspired by the beautiful and simple ornamental work of Richard Hoffman and by the students in the workshops I taught. I also studied samples of patterns designed by Monotype using their own type:

It doesn't take much to create showstopping ornamental combinations. For the following samples I've chosen ornaments cast by the Bixler Letterfoundry, Three Ton Bridge Foundry and Skyline Type Foundry, all of whom currently offer these or similar pieces.

If you don't have a lot of experience building with ornaments, I suggest working with sizes that are divisible by 6 (6pt, 12pt, 18pt, 24pt, 30pt, 36pt) as they play well with each other and require minimal spacing.
I set 4 different sections showing what you can do with both 1- and 2-color options. Most of the sorts are 18 point, with a few 24 and 30 thrown in.

Note how corner pieces can be mixed with other ornaments and turned in different directions to create a new look or give dimension to blockier pieces.

If I'm not sure how sections will look together, I make a quick carbon proof (run a sheet of carbon paper through your proof press with whatever paper you use to proof) and scan it for digital manipulation. While the quality isn't great, it allows me to see a rough sketch of what it'll look like as well as colorize it for ideas. This is the carbon proof, scanned as a 600dpi black and white tif, with contrast adjusted. The bottom sections would function well as repeating patterns in 1-color.

I use InDesign to alter the images and play around with the color. It also shows me if I got the math right on combining elements for 2-color patterns.

This screenshot shows how the grid breaks down for the layout. I could go in and remove sections to change the design (such as taking out four 18pt pieces and putting in one 36pt sort, etc.)

Easy, breezy beautiful! Here are a few shots of Hoffman's work for inspiration. Be sure to share your experiments!

Left! Right! Center!

Without a doubt, typesetting is all about what you DON'T see on the printed page and this invisibility can be the hardest thing to learn when setting. So many parts of your brain have to be firing at the same time that I get tired just thinking about it.
When you start to set a new block of type, consider sketching out what you want it to accomplish. Will it be left or right justified? Centered? Staggered? Drawing this out can be very helpful so you know exactly what direction you're headed in and what size spacing you need to have.
If you followed the tip in the last post to organize your spacing by size, grab the box that coordinates with your type. I'll be working with 24 pt. because it's easy to see.

You probably already know that each line of type needs to be solid and flush in the composing stick. Run your finger along each line to see if anything stands out; occasionally you may run across thin spaces that were possibly cut by hand and they are a point too wide. Years ago I received what I thought was 12pt brasses and coppers. They were actually 13, and are now the bane of the 12pt spacing box. As I am able, I move them to the 14pt box where being a little under is no problem. But a point over and you could spend all day wondering why your form won't lock up. It's very much a princess and the pea situation.
I rely on my Blatchford guide for measuring spacing; a similar guide is available from Paul Aken at the Platen Press Museum.

If you are left or right justifying your form, determine what amount of spacing will be consistent on the leading edge; I like to have at least an em-quad. If you put the largest spacing material to either edge your form will be so much easier to work with because tiny spacing on the ends will certainly fall over when you remove the form from the stick.

If you think you will want to hang punctuation in your form, you can build this in ahead of time, allowing an easy space to remove for it. This is the beauty of sketching a plan first! Below the quote mark hangs into the right justified space; I added a little extra to all of the lines so it would be easy to include this.

When setting a lot of text, I first pull all of the type and then go back to space it. This way your brain is focused on one thing at a time: first, you quickly spell out what you're trying to say and second, you focus on having the same spacing between the words.

If you don't have a design background, consider purchasing a book of simple typographic norms. Setting metal type is the best way to learn because everything you're working with is a physical object vs. the unseen in design software! It is commonplace to letterspace all caps, or 'give them a little breathing room' as I like to say. It is not considered good practice to letterspace lowercase, though occasional pairs will give you fits. More on that in the future.

Start to look closely at the visual space between letters and you'll begin to understand why kerning is a thing. If you set all of the spaces the same, the print may look very wrong, given the limitations of the material (metal.) And the more you set type, the easier it becomes to see these potential problems. Below I added 2 points of spacing between the O and U and T to compensate for the additional visual space created by pairing W and A and Y together. This is a quick carbon paper proof to test the kerning; I often do this before taking the time to ink a press.

Give it a try; set a few lines and try to see the things that won't be seen when you print. Below is a line that has been letterspaced and you can see how the largest spacing is to the outsides of the centered line and it's flush between the slugs. Always set in a composing stick and don't leave gaps to be held in place with magnets; nothing wounds my soul more than seeing sloppy typesetting that relies on other materials at hand to make it work. If you do the work ahead of time and set a solid form your makeready time on press will increasingly diminish over time.

You got this!

Leads and slugs and spacing... oh my!

Leads, slugs and spacing are the mortar to all well-built type forms. And just as in construction, incorrect usage can bring otherwise solid bricks crashing down.
Leading is the space between lines of type, and it is commonly found at 2 points thickness. It is also possible to find 1, 3 and 4 point thicknesses (tip: I've been known to use 80lb cover weight paper as 1 pt. leads.) When leading is 6 points or above, it is then called a slug. Lead and slug racks often have divided space for each, with leads on top and slugs beneath. Slugs can also be found in thicker sizes; I keep these in a drawer so they don't take up all the space in the rack.

Leads and slugs can be trimmed by hand or with a saw. Both work great; they need to fit within a composing stick snugly at your desired length, but not so tight there is bowing. The top stick below shows hand cut leads and slugs (using a slug cutter, a staple all shops should have) and the bottom ones were trimmed on a saw.

If you plan to add leading to your form after removing it from the stick, be sure to test that it fits within the SAME stick before you then add it to the form on a galley. There can be slight variations in old sticks, especially if the knee (the movable piece) and main section do not have the same serial numbers.

I've often said that spacing is what separates us from the animals. Understanding it is the secret to excellent typesetting. Before breaking the bank on 19th century eBay type, consider investing in spacing. Otherwise, that glorious type won't be put to use! I recommend ordering from M&H Type Foundry, after checking your collection to figure out which sizes will be most useful. Or hit those letterpress swap meets and buy a coffee can full!
Creating down-and-dirty cheat sheets for type can be very helpful. This is what ours look like, one for each point size:

We'll save letterspacing for another day! In the meantime, don't be lazy; get the correct spacing in a range from thin coppers and brasses to em quads and 2-em quads for each size you plan to use or based on what size type you have in your collection. I have found it very helpful over the years to consolidate all spacing into separate containers by size instead of storing it within the type cases. This way you can easily move it to wherever you are setting type and you don't have to dig through all the 12 point cases to find a handful of coppers. Ours are in old wooden boxes but new-fangled plastic dividers work great, too. So do those small, metal hardware containers found at hardware stores.

When you have the correctly-sized leads and slugs as well as spacing prepped and ready to go, your typesetting speed will increase exponentially.