The Art of Founding Type

By John Downer

This text was first published in 1995 on the back of a poster introducing the Not Caslon typeface.

Caslon types have been in existence now for about half as long as the art of typefounding has been practiced in the western world. The first Latin types produced by William Caslon in England around 270 years ago were made the way virtually all movable types had been made up to that time: they were cast one character at a time, each by hand. But typefounding has never been just a simple matter of molding hot metal. In fact, the production process that was used in Caslon's time was painstakingly intricate and included no fewer than four distinct tasks, each involving a separate set of skills.

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