1898 Indentures

Many thanks to Chris Greenhill for sending in details of his grandfather’s long career in the print industry, along with his Indenture document, which was signed in 1898.

Chris says: “I gleaned the following from my grandfather’s last surviving daughter, my aunt.… Read the rest

William Caxton Quincentenary

Many thanks to Mike Wilson for sending in this picture of a poster that he bought in 1976.
It seems to have been very well produced and Mike tells me it is in excellent condition.

1954 Compositors Handbook

Many Thanks to Mike Wilson, from Yorkshire in the UK, for sending in this story.

This 104-page booklet was full of tables and facts for the printing trade.

Following a diary, there were tables for working out night rate payments, starting from £6 10s 6d (£6.51) per week.Read the rest

Free Cobb Shinn Retro Clipart

Cobb Shinn Examples

Metal Type is proud to offer this superb 1950s retro clipart.

The zip file contains three versions of the same artwork in True Type Font (.ttf) Open Type Font (.otf) and Scaleable Vector Graphics (.svg) formats.

There’s also a text file telling the story of Cobb Shinn.… Read the rest

Compugraphic Universal 2

It would appear to be one of the Whittaker company’s early photosetters.

Compugraphic
Steve Robertshaw, Ex Whittaker & Compugraphic UK Engineer, updated this page with the following:

The Machine refered to in the Whittaker collection is in fact a Universal 2.

You will note on the nameplate next the name Universal II TG (Total Graphics) this makes it one of the last Universal 2 manufactured.… Read the rest