Printing Films

Monotype: Type Faces in the Making

If you ever wondered how a typeface went from a designer’s drawing to a finished, cast piece of type from the Monotype; this is the film for you. Starting with an original drawing, this film goes through the painstaking and multi-step process of creating a single typeface in a single style in a single size for the Monotype composition caster. It shows the entire process of type design and creation at Monotype including tracing using custom-made projectors, making a technical drawing (showcasing the drawing office with many women workers), making a pattern plate using a pantograph, creating a brass pattern, using a pantograph to engrave a punch, punching the brass to make matrices for the full matrix case, and finally casting the letters in type metal using a composition caster. Ca. 1955