The Tiny Typecast

Oct 04 2022 22 ep. 51 mins 40

The Tiny Typecast Podcast artwork

We have conversations about the history of printing and type paired with how this gives insight to people today. What does the past still have to teach us? And what are we learning fresh today about things that happened 20, 50, 500 years ago? Each episode, new guests. Hosted by Glenn Fleishman.

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Dennis Duncan and Paula Clarke Bain on Indexing

Feb 22 2022 52 mins

We talk about indexes with the author of the book “Index, a History of the,” Dennis Duncan, and its indexer, Paula Clarke Bain. Modern indexes date back eight centuries, and Dennis’s book takes us from the beginning to the present. Paula has worked for over 15 years as a professional indexer and produced nearly 900 indexes. She explains her working methods and the value of an

A 19th Century 3D Printer: an Audiobook Chapter

Nov 09 2021 10 mins

Electrotyping was the 3D printing of its day. An electro-chemical process that deposited dissolved copper or other metals onto a prepared object, it effectively allowed creating exact duplicates of a page of type to create a durable printing plate, or to produce a mold (a “matrix”) from type punches or existing pieces of type. This allowed foundries to expand typeface productio

Phil Abel & Nick Gill, Two UK Printers Across an Era

Jul 26 2021 71 mins

Phil Abel is a letterpress printer in London, who started his Hand and Eye Press in 1985 with a modest array of printing gear on the road towards his current set up with Heidelberg presses, and the ability to use both metal and wood type and produce modern photopolymer plates in house. He produces limited-edition fine-art books and we’ll talk about the album business. Nick Gill

Daniel Schneider, Industrial Archeologist

Jul 12 2021 55 mins

Daniel Schneider (Instagram: rustedrebar) is a letterpress printer with an undergraduate degree in journalism and a master’s in industrial archeology, a field I am dying to talk to him about. His research has centered on the transformation of nineteenth century artisanal skills within the context of industrialization. He is the Headquarters Manager for the Society for Industrial

Grendl Löfkvist, a Blackletter Aficionado and Printer

Jul 01 2021 62 mins

Grendl Löfkvist is a calligrapher, letterpress printer, and former offset press operator, and the education director at Letterform Archive in San Francisco, California. She teaches extensively, including at the City College of San Francisco, at the San Francisco Center for the Book, in the Type West postgraduate certificate program, and at typographic events all over. Her areas of

Amelia Hugill-Fontanel, Associate Curator in the Cary Collection at RIT, Historian, and Letterpress Printer

Jun 14 2021 49 mins

Amelia Hugill-Fontanel, the Associate Curator in the Cary Collection at the Rochester Institute of Technology, discusses the history of the collection, the nature of preserving the past, and the rapid development of printing—especially how quickly reproduction sped up—across the early part of the 19th century. She’s held her position at RIT since 2009, and her time working w

Alix Christie, Author of Gutenberg’s Apprentice, Reporter, and Letterpress Printer

May 31 2021 58 mins

Alix Christie wrote the book on Gutenberg. Her novel, Gutenberg’s Apprentice, puts us squarely in the milieu in which Gutenberg formed his studio, told through the eyes of his apprentice Peter Schöffer, also a historical figure. Alix’s non-fiction work includes reporting across decades as a domestic and foreign correspondent for a host of publications, including the Washington

Steve Finan, Memories of the Last Days of Metal Printing

May 17 2021 53 mins

Steve Finan is journalist who writes regularly about language and the misunderstandings that result every time we open our mouths. His column “Oh My Word” appears in The Courier of Dundee, Scotland, and other DC Thomson publications, where he is the heritage unit editor. He's the author of several books about football—that's proper football not the American kind—including L

Toshi Omagari, Type Designer and Video Game Font Historian

May 03 2021 52 mins

Toshi Omagari studied Visual Communication Design at Musashino Art University, Japan, and then got his master's in Typeface Design at the University of Reading in England. From 2012 to 2020, he worked at Monotype, one of the leading digital type foundries, with roots that date back well over a century. During that time, he created his own faces and revivals, including a major rewor

David Shields, Wood Type Historian (Tiny Typecast)

Apr 19 2021 69 mins

David Shields is the preeminent expert on the history of wood type, and currently the chair of the Department of Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, where he teaches design. David previously taught at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was the Design Custodian of the Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection. David has engaged in extensive stu