This is all lovely but having grown up with foundry type, then watched it go away, I can't help but wonder after the lost sensation of holding the type specimen books, turning the pages, and experiencing light reflecting off of paper and ink.

Allow me to encourage everyone to scour tag and estate sales for old books. Keep them, look at them. Maybe even read them (I assume typophiles do this but you never know.)

Last week I had the great good fortune to chat with the director of library and archival studies at LSU. Digitizing is super important but we need to remind everyone to also keep the books. (Ah, the books.)

Read:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3562724/Hamlets-Blackberry-Why-Paper-Is-Eternal

and thank you for the post.

This is all lovely but having grown up with foundry type, then watched it go away, I can't help but wonder after the lost sensation of holding the type specimen books, turning the pages, and experiencing light reflecting off of paper and ink.

Allow me to encourage everyone to scour tag and estate sales for old books. Keep them, look at them. Maybe even read them (I assume typophiles do this but you never know.)

Last week I had the great good fortune to chat with the director of library and archival studies at LSU. Digitizing is super important but we need to remind everyone to also keep the books. (Ah, the books.)

Read:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3562724/Hamlets-Blackberry-Why-Paper-Is-Eternal

and thank you for the post.

I am strangely drawn to the Antique and Ornamental faces. The tuscan serifs are gorgeous.

I sent for both of these, and they are wonderful! Not quite as nice as physical books, but they do take up a lot less space. I find it most convenient to peruse them with QuickView on my Mac.

Thanks, Uli. I had always wondered what the quality of these is like, I’ll probably buy a set as soon as I have money.

Mark,

Can you forward me the ordering information. I don't seem to find it in the links provided.

Thanks,

James

http://www.spatium-magazin.de/category/spatium_shop/

It's all in German, but I managed to muddle my way through it (using the Translation widget in Dashboard) well enough to order the discs.

Dan posted a review last year...

http://www.typeoff.de/?p=290

see also

http://www.typeoff.de/?p=325

Cheers, Si

Try the contact form on spatium's blog –
http://www.spatium-magazin.de/kontakt/

You can write to them in English. I'm sure that they will be able to take care of any orders offline via email.

You know the way that digital paper works?
Well, what if the pixels were at the end of tiny pistons--so that a scan could record the depth of impression of metal type, and that could be displayed in the reading device?
Other dimensional 3D technologies yet to represent letterpress--lenticular, holographic, &c.

The original documents are priceless, because every copy is ultimately poor.
Remember microfiche.

Something about the scent of old books too, and their fragility in one's hands.

Nick, you and Nancy are right about the original books. But finding specimen books is becoming increasingly hard as they’ve become quite popular with book collectors. Prices for anything but the basic ATF/Linotype/Bauer books are shooting up, and they sell quickly, making them hard to find at all. Scans are a great place to start. They can also be a nice resource for finding out what was on the pages that were cut out for comping!

Oh, I do remember microfiche. I think the library might still have some old newspapers in that format. I haven't checked in a while. It still sounds like some kind of bait, though.

Here are additional samples from the two DVDs:

- www.sanskritweb.net/temporary/Sample10.jpg
- www.sanskritweb.net/temporary/Sample11.jpg
- www.sanskritweb.net/temporary/Sample12.jpg
- www.sanskritweb.net/temporary/Sample13.jpg
- www.sanskritweb.net/temporary/Sample14.jpg
- www.sanskritweb.net/temporary/Sample15.jpg
- www.sanskritweb.net/temporary/Sample16.jpg
- www.sanskritweb.net/temporary/Sample17.jpg
- www.sanskritweb.net/temporary/Sample18.jpg
- www.sanskritweb.net/temporary/Sample19.jpg
- www.sanskritweb.net/temporary/Sample20.jpg

Nancy, a font exists beyond its instantiation in one medium. A specimen book especially should be a means to convey the essence of a font, not merely be something to fondle and gawk at.

hhp

(tracking)

Szabolcs

Hmm, I wonder what the copyright status is of these images?

I've been thinking about hosting a lot of type specimen images on http://www.fromoldbooks.org/ recently.

Also, are the images of high enough quality to be useful to typeface designers?

Liam