Setting type has been an exciting, new experience for me. In a way, the repetitive motion of it is soothing. The hardest part was figuring out the spacing, especially when we were justifying the type. I was sure glad we had a practice run for printing our paragraphs. Luckily, I caught a couple of mistakes before it was time to make our final project. Something of interest to me was the 'Four Demons,' referring to the letters p, q, b and d, as they look really similar on the type. On our handouts there was a great trick to deciphering which letters are which. You simply look at the type (nick up) and slide the descender/ascender. This reveals what the actual letter is! This is very helpful for when you are returning to type to its spot in the case.
It was exciting to finally do some inking and printing. I was surprised by how much work it was to surround the type with furniture and tighten it up before inking it. It is quite a process! Luckily, it was not terribly messy like I imagined it would be. Only three more classes to go; I can't wait to see the end product!
I also really enjoyed setting the type, and I agree that the process was soothing. However, I'm not sure that I would do it day after day, I feel like I would need something to stimulate my mind every once in a while. But I feel like it's a very calming activity. I'm glad we got the opportunity to do something like this, not many people can say that they have set type and then printed it on a printing press!
ReplyDeleteI find it funny how we viewed setting type as a soothing process when it must have been somewhat stressful to the people who had to set type at a fast pace to meet a deadline. I can't imagine having to go at the pace they did since it took me forever just to find each letter. I agree that it feels amazing to have made this book from scratch right down to setting our own type.
ReplyDeleteI agree Emily the "four demons" that you spoke of were where all of my mistakes came from. It was very difficult to decide which was which. The frustrating thing for me was how easy it was to make a small mistake and lose all of your hard work! I can't imagine having hours of my labor wasted because I dropped it on the floor!
ReplyDeleteThe most frustrating part for me was definitely setting up the furniture to surround my type. I would finally get done with my line, and then realize that I had left out a word or a letter, making me go through the entire process of setting the extra spaces just right so all the words were (mostly) evenly spaced.
ReplyDelete