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Typography Journal:

Pictures from the East-German type foundry Typoart

By Ralf Herrmann
  • Typoart was the state-owned type foundry of the German Democratic Republic, which existed between 1948 and 1989. The following images show how type was made at Typoart between the 1970s and 1980s.
· 24,956 views · 2 comments

typoart0014.jpg

Making zinc sheet stencils

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Engraver at work

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Transferring the letter shape from the finished stencil

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Making a punch

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Punchcutter at work

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Making matrices for type casting

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Type casting machines

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Close-up of a type casting machine at work

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In-house printing with foundry type

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In-house press

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Making matrices for hot metal typesetting

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Checking the matrices

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Making phototypesetting fonts

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Digital font production at the end of the 1980s

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Photographic reproduction to test the design in smaller sizes

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    Riccardo Sartori

    Standard Member

    Interesting.

    One curiosity: what’s the origin of the pictures?

    Ralf Herrmann

    Admin

    Kapr, Albert/Fischer, Hans: typoart typenkunst, Leipzig 1973
    Kapr, Albert/Schäfer, Detlef: Fotosatzschriften, Itzehoe 1989

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