THE OLD SCHOOL PRESS

Moments in the making of Oxford's Ornaments

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Setting the Synopsis

This is where the fun starts. The ornaments were cast on a pivotal caster - so much so usual. But the moulds used were not for type to the 'modern' point-system sizes, especially in the larger sizes. These types were traditionally cast on bodies such as English (about 14pt), Great Primer (about 18pt), and Double Pica (about 24pt) ... but those 'abouts' can be very about. So setting a number of odd-sized sorts in the same line using point-system spacing is a nightmare and this setting of over fifty different units took a considerable amount of time.

In the final fold-out, each ornament had a number beneath it - this was done as a separate print-run with the figures set in Van Dijck.

You may know that type has a 'nick' in the side, to help the compositor be sure they have the type the right way up. But nicks were also used to distinguish different castings from the same matrix. It would be a serious offence to mix type with different nicks in the same case. Click on the thumbnail to see the different nicks on the different ornaments.