The Wonderful, Awful Graduation from Apprenticeship
The end of an apprenticeship in printing marked a shift in status, duties, and pay. But it came with an inky humiliation.
New Publishing Ecommerce Site and 10% Discount
10% discount on all Aperiodical Publishing items through a special coupon, celebrating the launch of the new ecommerce site.
Mister Plimsoll Says Ahoy
Batten down the hatches, we’re heading in for a storm of projects, apps, and sites! Hee-yarrr!
Survey Says: Planograph!
A flat typesetting method in 1919? And it was real! Where did it go? Actual scans of the composition in action.
We Should Improve Society with a Book
That One Matt Bors Comic launches on Kickstarter today! It’s a book about becoming an accidental meme, invading internet discourse, neoliberalism, and much more, in comics and words.
A Man, a Plan, a Planograph
Hello! Welcome to this month’s premium newsletter! Thanks for helping to support my ongoing research and writing! In updating my research on a wildcat labor...
Cancel This, But Not Me
Catch up on my recent work, join us for the May Day Eve Cancel Party, and discover my new books that might put a dent in your Wallet (pun intended).
Alphabet Soup
Welcome to this month's installment of True to Glenn's Type! Thanks to everyone who backed Flong Time, No See. I already uncovered some new flong ground even...
Last Day for Special Subscriber Discount for Flong Time, No See
Hello, hello! There are 24 hours left before the end of the crowdfunding campaign for Flong Time, No See, a book about labor, printing, type, and language,...
Bam! Pow! Smack! The Missing Comic Books in How Comics Were Made
Thanks again for becoming a premium subscriber to this list! Here’s this month’s issue. And a reminder that Flong Time, No See is still in its crowdfunding...
Flong Time, Good Deal
Hello, fine people! Today I launched the Kickstarter campaign for Flong Time, No See, a collection of reported work and essays that you might find partly...
The Mythical Type Lice (Don’t Look Too Closely)
To become a printer, from the origins of the trade up through fairly modern times, you had to go through an apprenticeship. As late as the turn of the 20th...
Take a Gander at the Archives
Peruse an index of articles and essays added to the premium subscriber archive here.
You’re as Cold as Type
Phototypesetting is an often-neglected bridge between the centuries of metal and the digital age.
Arthur Brisbane’s Cartoon Accompaniment and the Big Red T: Oh, Fudge?
While sorting 1930s newspapers, I spotted mysterious red ink on a single letter—and traced it to an obscure printing technique.
Bogus! When Typesetters Were Paid To Set Copy That Was Thrown Away
For over a century, newspaper typesetters had a remarkable union-protected practice: resetting advertising copy that arrived pre-composed, then immediately melting it down.
Aligning a Rocky Road: The History of Baselines
A baseline seems like the starting point for setting type. In the days of metal type, it took a long time to reach, however.
Dash-Dash It All! Turning Hyphens into Em And En Dashes
What’s the difference among several horizontal lines?
Adding the Archives
Hello, and thanks again for paying for this premium edition of the newsletter! I’ve started posted older articles in the archives here at Buttondown....
A Look into Lorem Ipsum
Lorem ipsum is a bunch of Latin nonsense. Unlike AI hallucinations that have led to non-exsistent terms showing up in academic papers, the scrambled eggs of this text comes from dry-transfer type!
