Sponsor: Type and Printing History Told in a Letterpress Volume by Tech Journalist Glenn Fleishman ⇥ glog.glennf.com

Glenn Fleishman here! I’m sponsoring Pixel Envy because Nick’s writing reminds me of the heyday of blogs: surfacing interesting fresh events with a personal and opinionated spin—sometimes just a link, sometimes an essay. As I’ve rediscovered RSS in the wake of Twitter’s implosion, Nick’s posts rise to the top.

I wanted to support Nick in his efforts by sponsoring, and I know that you fellow readers also would likely be interested in something I made a few years ago that tickles the typophile and technology bones: Six Centuries of Type & Printing, my letterpress-printed romp through the history of printing and type told through technological innovations.

If you only know Gutenberg’s but aren’t sure what his inventions were, and have heard that movable type printing—printing with letters and other characters that can be reused again and again—was invented in Asia, this book will fill you in. Gutenberg’s creation of a workable system in Mainz, Germany, around 1450 appears to be a separate discovery that grew out of a lifelong acquaintance with goldsmiths (and possibly training in the art itself), and a mechanical bent that led him to experiment over decades.

My book starts in Asia, shifts to Germany, and then spans 600 years of development in creating type, improving printing presses, and moving toward digital production. The book was printed by letterpress in London from type set in hot metal in North Yorkshire, England. It was bound in Germany, with a hardcover luxuriously wrapped in a foil-stamped green cloth. The book comes in a slipcase of the same material. I had an edition of just over 400 made.

For readers of this blog, use coupon code PIXELENVY for $10 off the $150 price of the letterpress/ebook bundle. (Price includes shipping within the U.S.)