Cast It is an annual journal typeset in fonts by CAST (the Cooperativa Anonima Servizi Tipografici), an independent digital type foundry based in Bolzano, Italy. The publication serves as both a typeface specimen and a site for scholarly exchange about printing and type design history.

Issue 5 presents The Processes of Type-making, an excerpt from the first chapter of Plain Printing Types, a book written by the American scholar-printer Theodore Low De Vinne and included in his four-volume treatise The Practice of Typography (1900-1904).

The excerpt focuses on De Vinne’s summaries of electrotypes, stereotypes, printing presses and especially his analysis of typeface wear.

As pointed out by designer, calligrapher, and design historian Paul Shaw in his preface: “De Vinne’s account of typography, typesetting and printing is that of a large-scale commercial printer... His language is lucid and easily understood by a modern reader in contrast to that of Moxon, Fournier, or even Mackellar.”

Edited by Andrea Amato, James Clough, Massimo Gonzato, and Riccardo Olocco

Designed by +fortuna

Published by Lazy Dog and CAST, 2021

Softcover, 48 pages, saddle-stitch binding, 1-color printing, 6.5 × 9.5 inches

ISSN: 2531-765