So, today marks the beginning of a most likely pretty weird 366 day journey! After bringing the world into the information age as the first machine to successfully automate the hand typesetting process for letterpress printing, the Linotype truly ushered in a whole new printing and information revolution at the turn of the last century. That era finally ran its course in the late 1970’s as newspapers switched to photo and then digital composition, and offset lithography replaced most large scale letterpress operations. In our shop, DWRI Letterpress, we cast type on our two Linotypes and Ludlow mainly for poster work, foil stamping slugs for pencils, type for artists and writers projects, and smaller amounts of type for notecards, etc, but the bulk of the fine and commercial printing work we do is from polymer and magnesium plates. However, finding a “new” use for the Linotype has been an ongoing, but elusive, goal. Perhaps the use of these machines meant to quickly spread information - and their (now) slower, and more meticulous approach - can help us decipher the barrage of information we have to sort through every day. And either way, the machines run better if they are being used a lot, so why not?

Curious about what a Linotype is? See some images of the process for making the first card in the series, as well as the film below, graciously hosted at PrintingFilms.com.