“Editing Room Floor” Captions

Here’s a behind-the-scenes peek into the making of a Rigney Graphics Lunch Meat™. We couldn’t resist including some alternate ideas for the Johnson feature above that didn’t make the cut.

• Dr. Johnson’s diagnosis: Rigneygraphitus!
• Dr. Johnson reveals his cure for designer’s block!
• Dr. Johnson has discovered the single source of all creativity!
• Dr. Johnson says it’s nothing a little Rigney Graphics won’t handle.
• Thanks to the miracles of modern technology, Dr. Johnson can see the Rigney Graphics inside everyone.
• Dr. Johnson warns against the irresponsible use of Rigney Graphics.
• Looks like those Rigney Boys are hitting people with the “Rigney Graphics” baseball bat again.
• Dr. Johnson discovered that Rigney Graphics’ bubblegum doesn’t dissolve.
• Dr. Johnson says, “There’s a Rigney Graphics logo in his head.”
• Dr. Johnson’s advice, “Stop slamming your head on the Rigney Graphics!”

Got Font?

Ever wanted to have a font just like dear ol’ dad? Or one like that pesky competitor? Well now you can, using the WhatTheFont font recognition system. Upload a scanned image of the desired font from a publication, site, or ad campaign and they’ll show you the closest matches in their database!

WhatTheFont.com

(The Gosh, that’s Handy! column is not paid advertising, the features are simply useful tips and tools we’d like to share with you.)

Was Movable Type “Lifted?”

Gutenberg invented the printing press. Well, maybe not. There is reason to believe that movable type was actually invented by a Dutchman named Laurens Janszoon Koster (or Coster) and that Gutenberg — about whom we know precious little — learned of the process only when one of Koster’s apprentices ran off to Mainz in Germany with some of Koster’s blocks, and the two struck up a friendship—the rest is what we laughingly call history!

Picas and Points

A pica is a unit of measurement used in graphic arts and type. There are very close to 6 picas to an inch

A point is equal to 1/12 of a pica. So: 12 points to a pica and just about 72 points to an inch.

According to the dictionary, pica in Medieval Latin meant “a list of church services.” So, you can see the early connection between text and this unit of measure, which would become a standard as typography evolved; and the measurement and calculation of the lengths of text columns became an integral part of typesetting.

These days you see points represented on computers in nearly all software as “type size” settings. When you’ve selected type size 12, it’s 12 points that you’ve chosen.