Scrunch!

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Comments

  • Mark SimonsonMark Simonson Posts: 1,652
    The power-user kit.
    Wow! That's amazing. Had no idea such a thing existed.
  • Ray LarabieRay Larabie Posts: 1,376
    I suspect that for a whole generation of us, making missing letters out of others on a Letraset sheet was the gateway to becoming interested in type design itself.
    Or the caveats of using free fonts.
  • Kent Lew said:
    I suspect that for a whole generation of us, making missing letters out of others on a Letraset sheet was the gateway to becoming interested in type design itself.
    For me it was missing writing systems on my computer.
  • Jacob CasalJacob Casal Posts: 99
    @Nick Shinn If the broad end was for the general transferring and the ball intended for making sure finer details stuck, then what was the spoonbill brandisher for?
  • Kent LewKent Lew Posts: 905
    The spoonbill covered a range, sort of in-between. It was more all-purpose, in my experience. Used in one orientation, you got a moderately broad surface; turned over, you could use the tip for more directed pressure.
  • Nick ShinnNick Shinn Posts: 2,131
    edited May 2019
    The tip of the spoonbill is smooth but more pointed than the ball, so you can manipulate it with great precision—when carefully rubbing down the “v” part of a “y” while leaving the tail on the backing sheet!
  • Adam LaddAdam Ladd Posts: 250
    As one who was not practicing in this era, I'm curious if those of you who were, miss it? (i.e. using your hands and tools more to craft a design)
  • Cory MaylettCory Maylett Posts: 245
    I miss the tools and all the processes involved. But all the little scars on my fingers remind me that I don't miss the X-Acto knives. I'm also surprised that most of us survived the chemicals: fixer, fixative, Crystal Clear, rubber cement thinner, etc.

    I think people with budgets that made Letraset attractive were among the first to embrace desktop publishing. Those with budgets that afforded them access to type houses were not so quick to make the switch.
    In some cases, I think it was the other way around. I remember the first Macintosh I used on a regular basis for real work. It was Macintosh II that, counting the software, laser printer and scanner we bought, cost the company around $13,000. Taking inflation into consideration, it would have been twice that figure today.

    Anyway, there were no imagesetters at the time, and it was all a matter of printing things out on a 300dpi B&W laser printer. We even tried making color separations that way, then transferring the paper output to film to be stripped. 
  • Mark SimonsonMark Simonson Posts: 1,652
    I'm sure that was true for some. For me, I got by with my original 128k Mac (upgraded gradually to a Mac Plus) and a nearby Kinko's for the first few years. :smile:

  • (Duly switching to old fart mode...)
    I remember the first time I had my first outline font (made on an Amiga 500, with a floppy drive and no hard disk) output on an imagesetter, in 1987. It was a place called Fontographics (of all things) at the NE corner of Olympic and Robertson...
  • Nick ShinnNick Shinn Posts: 2,131
    edited May 2019
    As one who was not practicing in this era, I'm curious if those of you who were, miss it? (i.e. using your hands and tools more to craft a design)
    I started out on Macs with a mouse, but switched to a tablet almost immediately (c.1990)—there was a big scare about carpal tunnel syndrome at the time. So I’ve been crafting graphics and type by hand, with a pen, all along. I still sketch with ink on paper, but not finished art.
  • Kent Lew said:
    ...
    I suspect that for a whole generation of us, making missing letters out of others on a Letraset sheet was the gateway to becoming interested in type design itself.
    Oh yeah. There was that. 
  • The ball burnisher always did the trick for me.

    The best way to get Letraset to stick to itself was to hit the already-set letters with a shot of fixative (McDonald Photo Products Matte Fixative was my go-to brand). The fixative bonded the already-pressed letters to the page and added a bit of tooth for the subsequent letters to grab onto.

    And 1/8" white cellophane tape was a paste-up artist's best friend.
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