Section 02
Type & Case
The case, the stick, and the order of the boxes. Five entries on the metal: how the case is ordered, how a line is built, and what happens when a box runs empty.
Plate 01. Not alphabetical: the compartments are laid out by how often the hand goes to them.
Photo: Magda Ehlers / PexelsEntries in Type & Case
Numbered as filed-
01
The case and its order
The compartments are not alphabetical. They are ordered by frequency, and the wear pattern on an old case is a frequency table.
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02
The composing stick
Set upside down and backwards, three lines at a time, with the measure fixed before the first letter.
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03
Spacing and justification
The line must fill exactly. Spaces are metal, and the last one is chosen with tweezers.
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04
Sorts run out
A case holds a finite number of each letter. What a class does when the e box empties mid-sentence.
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05
Distribution
Putting the type back is half the work and all of the discipline.