Typesetting

This is not a book you would “read.” It’s a book you browse, really.

It’s a reproduction of an early 20th century instruction manual on how to become a typesetter. Typesetting was the process of arranging small blocks with raised letters (“movable type”) on a plate for use in a physical printer. You had to do this backwards for it to come out forwards.

Clearly, we don’t do this anymore, except as a historical curiosity. But this was the process developed by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz Germany in the 1500s that changed the world of information.

This edition I have is a faithful reproduction of a manual for new typesetters. On the back, it says:

This book has been considered important throughout human history. And so that this work is never forgotten, we have made efforts in its preservation by republishing the book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped, and designed. These books are not made from scanned copies of their original work, and hence the text is clear and readable.

It’s short – maybe 50 pages. And the last chapter is mostly review questions for group discussion, or maybe a test?

The book covers typesetting as a specific practice, with emphasis on how to space letters to justify text, and definitions like point sizes and justification cases. And there are also things like how to stand (you weight should be shifted to the left, for some reason), and protocol things such as not talking too much, because a “chattering person” is a “nuisance.”

I bought this book because I love printed text, and I’m curious about the work we’ve gone through as humans to get it. I don’t think I ever intended to read this from cover to cover. Rather it was exactly what I hoped: an interesting look back on an obsolete practice.

If anything, I bought it to honor one of the foundational steps that’s gotten us to the current information age.

Book Info