Editor: Sebastian Carter

‘Carter’s book examines the careers of a number of type designers working in this century, against the background of the enormous changes in the methods of creating and setting type, from metal characters composed by hand to the computerised technology of today. The introduction in America, a hundred years ago, of three machines, the Linotype and Monotype hot-metal composing machines, and the Benton pantographic punch-cutter, revolutionised the manufacture of type, and the Benton machine in particular caused a flood of new faces by designers most of whom could not cut a punch by hand. More recently, filmsetting and digital typesetting have brought new opportunities as well as new disciplines.’