Category Archives: Typography

Typography, type fonts, type design, type applications and type management.

Restoring that ol’ saw – a Hammond Glider

Posted on February 1, 2023 by Brian Lawler

Now that the Smyth machine is working, I decided to take on a new project. Last fall I offered to restore a 1960s era Hammond Glider TrimOsaw for the Shakespeare Press Museum at Cal Poly. This machine is best described … Continue reading →

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Designing a monogram font

Posted on April 15, 2022 by Brian Lawler

Years ago I made a reproduction-quality proof of a type font in the Shakespeare Press Museum at Cal Poly. This font is comprised a sets of three letters that can be assembled into monograms. Monograms were quite popular for business … Continue reading →

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Lining Livermore, der zweite Teil

Posted on February 27, 2022 by Brian Lawler

This is a continuation of a blog I wrote two days ago. To read the first part, click here. After I put all the letters (called “glyphs” In typography) into a master Adobe Illustrator document, I built the destination environment for the … Continue reading →

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Drawing the Lining Livermore font

Posted on February 26, 2022 by Brian Lawler

Deep in the recesses of the back room of the Shakespeare Press Museum at California Polytechnic State University is a cabinet. It contains about 20 drawers of hand-set metal type. We never use this type because it is difficult to … Continue reading →

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The birth of Bauschrift

Posted on February 15, 2022 by Brian Lawler

I went on a journey last week to buy some foam-core board. En route, I saw a handsome metal sign at the Technische Universität München. In English, this translates (roughly) to: MATERIAL TESTINGOFFICE FOR CONSTRUCTIONFACULTY CHAIRLARGE SCALE CONSTRUCTION The sign … Continue reading →

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Excellent typography in web pages

Posted on April 19, 2020 by Brian Lawler

In a previous post I wrote about the differences between typewriter quotes and real quotation marks, and how to do it right. I have received some nice feedback on that post. One person suggested that while it’s great to use … Continue reading →

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From variable-frequency drives
to hand-bound books

Posted on March 20, 2020 by Brian Lawler

It’s been about a month since I wrote my last blog. It was about variable-frequency-drive high voltage motor controllers and a 1935 book sewing machine. The relevance of that is cloudy, but suffice it to say that I have been … Continue reading →

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Running the five-color
Pearl press postcard

Posted on October 21, 2019 by Brian Lawler

In 2019 I began the restoration of an 1895 Pearl press, a treadle-powered letterpress that was donated to the Cal Poly Shakespeare Press Museum. That press was a rusty machine when we took delivery of it. I took it to … Continue reading →

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Getting the Typographic Tremors
reading historic roadside signs

Posted on July 10, 2018 by Brian Lawler

I just returned from a 2,018-mile journey up the coast of California, into Oregon, then back by a slightly different route. Along the way I visited and camped in National Parks, State Parks, National Forests, and private campgrounds. Along the … Continue reading →

Posted in Language and grammar, Mistakes you can avoid, Typography | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments

I’m sick @ tired of symbols being used in prose & running text

Posted on June 16, 2018 by Brian Lawler

In addition to hearing professional news announcers use singular verbs with plural nouns (There’s thousands of reasons to do this…), which makes me very grumpy, I often see symbols like @ and & used in running text. This is offensive … Continue reading →

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