Printing

[WildBill]

Most of the old-time members groaned when they read the title of this post, but I wanted to talk about printing ... Printing Letters and Words

Some of the recent posts talked about 30.06 signs and one inch block letters, etc. Puma Guy mentioned that he used to paint signs. I know that The Annoyed Man [TAM] worked in a printing shop for many years.

I have been interested in printing and typefaces every since I was about eight years old when I got a "printing press" for Christmas. It had rubber type that you could put in little steel holders, put ink on them, and turn a crank to print your personal newspaper.

Many, many years later when computers and desk top publishing came to fruition I really starting learning about the history of letters, typefaces and printing. I was amazed that I could actually print all of this cool stuff without having an actual printing press. I had a large selection of electronic fonts that I could choose from. For me, desktop publishing was a dream come true.

This is how I know about "block letters", "upper and lower case" and "majuscule and minuscule" characters.

I was wondering if there were any other members in the forum who had this same interest?

[C-dub]

Not me. I did groan just a little at the title, but not enough to not open it and look see.

[ginzu]

I learned calligraphy as a child but never had a printing press.

[WildBill]

I learned calligraphy as a child but never had a printing press.

I am left handed so my cursive and calligraphy always sucked. I could never get my handwriting to slant the right way.

[ginzu]

I learned calligraphy as a child but never had a printing press.

I am left handed so my cursive and calligraphy always sucked. I could never get my handwriting to slant the right way.

With an ink quill left hand was easy to smudge the ink. It was not so much a problem with brush calligraphy. Less worries now because my Epson does all of my printing.

[puma guy]

WB I looked at the title and when I saw your screen name Iknew right away what you had in mind.
I had a little press like that as well. Pretty neat. I also got a mimeograph thing and a screen printing kit when I was in Jr High. My hand writing was and is terrible, but I was good at calligraphy and had a pretty extensive set of calligraphy pens. I got a set of fountain pens with nibs of various widths from my dad. I printed all my work from junior high on and still do. My dad bought me a complete set of fountain pens with calligraphy nibs. I had English teacher admonish me for not using cursive, but when she go a sample of my handwriting she said I could print I turned in my term paper in italics written with one of the the pens. She was more impressed with my calligraphy skill than my composition, but I passed anyway"rlol".

[Beiruty]

Some 20 yrs ago, I was instructing Page layout for 1-page flyer type graphics design for a small printing shop. I had experience in that field for a while. Corel Draw was amazing back then.

[cb1000rider]

I was wondering if there were any other members in the forum who had this same interest?

I have very little interest. (respectfully)
However, when I was in school, they taught us engineers to block print for design drawings. I found it highly tedious, especially since I have horrible hand writing and basically had to re-learn out to print letters carefully within the lines.
In school we used CAD for the rest of it. That was a *long* time ago. Engineers still use CAD. There are a few old-school places, designers, architects, etc that still do hand drawings, but if I need to print a letter - a design spec - or a 30.06 sign to meet a technical specifications, I'm not going to do it by hand....

[J Wilson]

Spent 30+ years in the offset printing trade.Computers and Kinkos have just about killed a good it.

[jimlongley]

I was wondering if there were any other members in the forum who had this same interest?

I have very little interest. (respectfully)
However, when I was in school, they taught us engineers to block print for design drawings. I found it highly tedious, especially since I have horrible hand writing and basically had to re-learn out to print letters carefully within the lines.
In school we used CAD for the rest of it. That was a *long* time ago. Engineers still use CAD. There are a few old-school places, designers, architects, etc that still do hand drawings, but if I need to print a letter - a design spec - or a 30.06 sign to meet a technical specifications, I'm not going to do it by hand....

I still think of "Block Letters" as being that which you would see on an engineering drawing, and never lower case.

[WildBill]

Some 20 yrs ago, I was instructing Page layout for 1-page flyer type graphics design for a small printing shop. I had experience in that field for a while. Corel Draw was amazing back then.

CorelDraw is still amazing. It is my favorite graphics program.

[WildBill]

I was wondering if there were any other members in the forum who had this same interest?

However, when I was in school, they taught us engineers to block print for design drawings. I found it highly tedious, especially since I have horrible hand writing and basically had to re-learn out to print letters carefully within the lines.
In school we used CAD for the rest of it. That was a *long* time ago. Engineers still use CAD. There are a few old-school places, designers, architects, etc that still do hand drawings, but if I need to print a letter - a design spec - or a 30.06 sign to meet a technical specifications, I'm not going to do it by hand....

WB I looked at the title and when I saw your screen name Iknew right away what you had in mind.
I printed all my work from junior high on and still do. My dad bought me a complete set of fountain pens with calligraphy nibs. I had English teacher admonish me for not using cursive, but when she go a sample of my handwriting she said I could print

I took technical drawing in Junior High and learned to print. I never used much cursive since then. I wasn't real good with the drawings. My lines were never uniform in thickness. I am glad that we only had to use pencil and not ink.

As I stated earlier I was not good with calligraphy, but I wanted to try to imitate the black letter type that was used in some of my German books. I could do short passages, but always made a mistake or smeared the ink.

I was happy when I got to use a typewriter for my essays and term papers. When computers with proportional fonts came out I was in heaven.

[mojo84]

I opened the thread after to post something about brandishing.

Fonts don't get me excited.

[ELB]

For some reason, I started printing everything except my signature when I go into high school. Maybe because my brother and my father both printed. Drafting class reinforced this, and I never went back to cursive. I am not sure I could use cursive now.

When I was working as an elections clerk, I had a chance to go through the old voting books in our county, dating back to pre-1900. Everything was in beautiful (usually) cursive writing, although it was sometimes a bit difficult to decipher. Then right at WWII , it all changed -- everyone started using squarish printed/block/capital letters. It looked amazingly like my Dad's handwriting -- or more accurately, hand-printing (he was born in 1919 and was a WWII vet). I wondered if there was a change in teaching methods/philosophy about how to teach handwriting in 1920s and 19330s, when my Dad and others of his generation were learning to write.

[ELB]

For some reason, I started printing everything except my signature when I go into high school. Maybe because my brother and my father both printed. Drafting class reinforced this, and I never went back to cursive. I am not sure I could use cursive now.

When I was working as an elections clerk, I had a chance to go through the old voting books in our county, dating back to pre-1900. Everything was in beautiful (usually) cursive writing, although it was sometimes a bit difficult to decipher. Then right at WWII , it all changed -- everyone started using squarish printed/block/capital letters. It looked amazingly like my Dad's handwriting -- or more accurately, hand-printing (he was born in 1919 and was a WWII vet). I wondered if there was a change in teaching methods/philosophy about how to teach handwriting in 1920s and 19330s, when my Dad and others of his generation were learning to write.