Since starting in letterpress we’ve planned on printing small, limited edition books. We’ve just purchased an Intertype C-4 linecasting machine (in Portland, Maine) to add to our capabilities and should have it in our shop sometime around the middle of December. This will give us some ‘hot metal’ capabilities along with the ability to set text for books. So, if you are near Newark, Delaware and have any experience with Intertype we are interested in becoming friends. We need to be getting some old printers in our studio.

Above is the Intertype C4 we are getting. Serial number is 26,476 (originally shipped in late 1956). In the back left you can see some of the magazines holding typeface mats that are part of the collection. At the bottom of this post is a listing of the typefaces we’ll have.

Above is the keyboard for the Intertype. The keys are arranged based on how frequently they appear in the English language. On the right you can see that the capital letters have their own set of keys. It will be interesting to see how confusing our lives now get having this keyboard and our computer keyboards.

At the bottom of the image above you can see the lines of type as they stack up. If you make a mistake typing a line you have to retype the whole line.

When you hit a key it allows a mat of the particular letter to drop out of the magazine. Above you can see the mats aligned in a magazine that has a clear cover on it. As you type the molds from the previous line are recycled back into the magazine for reuse. With the C4 you can have as many as four magazines of type at the same time available to you. The image below shows the mat for a 24-point G.

The machine is an amazing thing to watch. What appears to be thousands of parts, cams moving various pieces so they can contribute their part to the process, molten lead being injected, and final type stacking up. If you get the chance to come by and see it you should. We will probably tend to use this in spurts so you might drop us an email to see when we will be running it.

Following is a list of the type we are getting with the Intertype. A listing like “Baskerville / Bold” means you have both the regular and the bold versions available in the same set of mats.

Aldus — 12 point
Baskerville / Bold — 10 point
Baskerville / Italic — 8, 9, 11, 12 point
Baskerville / Italic (SPLIT) — 14 point S
Baskerville Bold / Italic — 8, 10, 12, 14 point
Bernhard Fashion w/ Park Avenue — 12, 14 point
Bodoni Bold / Italic — 12 point
Bodoni Bold Cond / Franklin Gothic — 18 point
Bodoni Book / Italic — 10 point
Bodoni Poster / Italic — 12, 14 point
Caslon / Italic — 10, 12, 24 point
Caslon 236 Old Face — 10, 12 point
Century / Bold — 10, 14 point
Century Bold / Italic — 14 point
Century Expanded — 14 point
Century Expanded / Bold — 8, 10 point
Century Medium / Bold — 5.5 point
Cheltenham / ? — 18 point
Copperplate Lining Gothic / Roman — 6 point
Egmont Medium / Italic — 14 point
Egmont Medium Italic Only — 18 point
Fairfield — 9 point
Futura Book / Demi Bold — 6, 8, 10 point
Garamond #2 Reg / Italic — 14 point
Garamond #3 Bold / Italic — 6, 8, 10 point
Garamond #3 Reg / Italic — 8, 9, 10, 12 point
Garamond Bold — 14, 18 point
Gothic Alt 1 / Palisade — 18 point
Gothic Alt 1 / Palisade — 24 point
Gothic Extra Bold / Memphic Extra Bold — 14 point
Goudy / Italic — 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 point
Kenntonian / Italic — 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 point
Lydian Bold / Italic — 10, 14 point
Melior / ital — 6, 8, 9, 10 point
Melior / semi-bold — 9, 10, 12 point
Memphis Extra Bold Condensed — 18 point
Metro Lite / Bold — 8 point
News Gothic / Bold — 6, 8, 10, 10, 12 point
No. 2 / Condensed Title — 10 point
Palatino / Italic — 6, 8, 10, 12 point
Scotch — 11 point
Spartan / Bold — 10 point
Times Roman / italic — 9, 10, 11, 12, 14 point
Vogue Bold Condensed / Extra Bold — 14 point
Vogue Extra Bold (CAPS ONLY) — 18 point
Vogue Extra Bold / Bold — 18 point
Vogue Extra Bold / Oblique — 12, 14 point
Vogue Lite / Bold — 8, 10, 12, 14, 18 point

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