Last week I spend an enjoyable day with Mike, Treasurer of the British Printing Society and his two cats. He is my letterpress mentor and very kindly offered to teach me the rudiments of typesetting, using one of his Adana 8x5 printers.I'd already read "Type and Typesetting", published by Adana, but like many people I find it much easier to learn something while actually doing it. It was useful to have grasped the basics of Ems & Ens etc in advance though especially since maths was never my strong point.
Although I'm going to be using my Adana for very simple words and phrases in my card designs, I think it's important to be shown how to print the correct way. Using a composing stick for the first time was interesting and I'm certainly not going to break any records for speed, but it was immensely satisfying to see something I'd typeset being printed.
I realise now that I should have taken a series of instructional photos for this blog, but hey ho, you'll just have to watch this fabulous 1950s video I found instead. Pay attention because there are questions at the end. Answers on a postcard please....
