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.

Issue 3 offers the transcription of Der Schriftgiesser [The Typefounder] in the original German, presented with an English translation.

Der Schriftgiesser (The Typefounder) is a description of the casting of typefaces included in Werkstäte der heutigen Künste oder die neue Kunsthistorie, a kind of encyclopaedia of trades, originally published in Leipzig between 1761 and 1779. The author, Johann Samuel Halle (1727-1810), was a Prussian academic and official. His description of the type production process is often considered the first detailed text on the subject written in German by an author who was neither a printer nor an entrepreneur in the industry.

In 1922, the Wilhelm Woellmer type foundry in Berlin republished the text of Der Schriftgiesser as a souvenir for the annual meeting of German type foundries. Thanks to Dr. Dan Reynolds, design historian, Cast It presents, for the first time, an English translation of Halle’s text. The piece is accompanied by a preface in English that is the only commentary yet published in any language about this important piece of printing and typographic history.

With a foreword and translation by Dan Reynolds

Edited by Massimo Gonzato and Riccardo Olocco

Designed by Tipiblu

Published by Lazy Dog and CAST, 2019

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

ISSN: 2531-765