Glenn Fleishman’s Kickstarter for ‘Six Centuries of Type & Printing’

Glenn Fleishman:

The book Six Centuries of Type & Printing briskly tells the story of the evolution of type and printing, starting with early documented efforts and surviving artifacts from China and Korea, and introducing Gutenberg and his innovations. It then takes you through each generation of increasing sophistication in metal and relief printing until the abrupt 20th century shift into flat offset printing, which was made possible through photographic and digital improvements, and phototypesetting and digital composition.

I’ve got the first edition of this book, which was included with Fleishman’s rather preposterously elaborate Tiny Type Museum and Time Capsule five years ago. It is a self-exemplifying achievement: a handsomely designed printed object about how it came to be possible to create and produce handsomely designed printed objects.

That first edition from five years ago, however, was printed letterpress, and was a very limited edition. This new edition, while still exquisite, will be printed offset and is very much affordable. The print/e-book bundle is just $32.

The Kickstarter campaign is 92% of the way to its goal, with, as I type this, 28 hours to go. If you even vaguely suspect you’ll enjoy this book, I bet you’ll love it. Fleishman is such a good writer and he so clearly both knows and loves the subject matter. There’s no better combination. I just took my copy down to flip through before posting this, and I got sucked in to a re-read.

★ Wednesday, 16 April 2025