John Easson's History of Printing
Many Society members will be familiar with at least some of the many broadsheets that John Easson has printed over the years. The first of these broadsheets appeared some 40 years ago as bundle items with the Society's magazine, Small Printer. The early broadsheets were printed using traditional letterpress techniques, and covered many subjects related to the history and practice of printing. While John still produces letterpress-printed broadsheets, in more recent times he has also produced a series of electronically-set broadsheets. He has now kindly given the Society permission to place a large selection of these files on to the web site.
These sheets cover all aspects of printing including: the history of printing from the times of Gutenberg and Caxton onwards, theory and practice of printing as well as aspects of typography and design. The broadsheets are listed below. The files can be downloaded by clicking on the relevant images. Please note that the broadsheets were designed for print at A3 size, so you may have to use the zoom facility to read some of the text, especially if using a computer with a small or low resolution monitor.
Gutenberg & Caxton
Two important early printers
Printer's Terms
Some of the descriptive words used by printers
Measurements
Terms of measurements used by printers
Type Casting
Hand Casting & Foundry Type
Monotype Casting System
Machine Casting of type
Casting - Slugs & Snails
The Linotype & Ludlow Casting Machines
Hand Type Setting
Setting up the type
The Lay of the Case
How the type is distributed in the case
Imposition
Making up the forme
Stereotyping and Electrotyping
Making copies of the forme for high speed multiple printing
Ink Making and Rollers
Two vital printers' materials
Ephemera
Everyday throwaway printing
Hand Paper-making
Traditional paper-making techniques
Machine Paper-making
Modern paper-making techniques
Bookbinding
Putting the pages together
Print Finishing
A vital part of the printing process
The Common Press
A description of the early printing press
The Iron Press
Nineteenth century press developments
The Rotary Press
The alternative to the platen
Later Platen Presses
Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Developments
Woodcuts
Early and artistic print illustration
Wood Engraving
Developments and refinements in print illustration
Photo Engraving
Mechanical print illustration
Halftone and Four Colour Work
Photographic print illustration
Other Printing Processes - 1
Processes other than relief printing
Other Printing Processes - 2
More print processes
Lithography
The difficult to explain explained
The Alphabet
How the letters we print came into being
Type Design
How and why typefaces look like they do
Typefaces
How we classify type
Typography
Making words and sentences function
The History of Typography
The history development of styles
William Caslon
The story of the man and his type
Working in the Past in Printing
A brief description of the tasks carried out by printer in days gone by
