Typesetting 101 A dying art

Before the advent of digital media, the printing press single-handily revolutionized the way that information was spread around the world. No longer was intelligence about what you could remember, intelligence was now something that could be shared with the masses.

Type setters used a variety of tools to create the effects that we have become so familiar with today. Each letter, each punctuation mark, each accent, each flare.... everything had to be manually set.

Any mistakes required a reprint, so proofreading was essential. Up until the 1950s, letterpresses were the way of producing both newsletters and books.

Pictures, like this, are static and help break up the flow of information on a paper. These real world examples highlight what is required.

Most people don't realize that type setting was one of the first desegregated industries in the United States.

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