Description
Hand set in wood and metal faces held at the press,
about 100 copies printed in black brown & red on buff tinted printing paper, SRA2 (45x32cm approx)
Specimen sheets of lettering are produced by printers and typefoundries to display their range of resources to customers, but also to use as a guide when designing. They have been produced for hundreds of years. Often simply alphabets in black, this set were produced grouped by style and in layouts to match, which is less practical but was more interesting to produce. Note that unlike in computing, letterpress printers have to have each size of each design as physical objects.
A collection of one size of one design is a ‘font’, the design itself is a ‘typeface’.
Note that tinted printing papers may not be light-fast if left exposed to light for long periods.
