Jordandchan

On the weekend i had a fantastically nerdy experience as I learnt how to set type by hand out at the Penrith Printing Museum.

We spent a good handful of hours setting the tiny pieces of metal type by hand (using a type gauge, composing stick and the type case) into a couple of paragraphs (a quote about typography suitably enough). It was quite incredible to be doing things by hand, that normally i would do with 1 or 2 clicks of the mouse. You certainly gain a great appreciation for the way that computers have sped up the typesetting process.

Yet at the same time you can tell that a lot of the craft, of the art of typesetting has been lost through that ease of use. It was long, tedious work, but the sense of achievement on completion (even with a few typos) was fantastic.

Apparently a typesetting apprenticeship used to last 6 years, so after 5 hours, i can certainly lay no claim to being a typesetter, but I certainly had fun.