Dry Transfer Lettering
The basic idea behind this page is to highlight what may be called a "nearly forgotten" product. Back in the 1970's when I owned my own small printing business Dry Transfer Lettering was used on a daily basis to produce various artwork.Whether it was Mecanorma, Letraset, Chartpak or any other manufacturer is irrelevant, the fact is that most printers (large or small) carried a stock of Rub Down Transfer Letters. I can recall with some horror that I once produced the artwork and typesetting for a local restaurant's menu solely using Mecanorma ! I couldn't afford a typesetting machine or a typesetter at that time and computers were in their infancy ! But even so we did get the job done.
Recently I happened to sell some Mecanorma MasterType to a Typography student at Lincoln University in the UK.When I asked him what he would be using the Dry Transfer Sheets for I was particularly suprised at what he told me.He said : "Of course wecan produce artwork with a computer but it's far too easy these days.As a student I feel that I need to be aware of all aspects of the craft, and as far as I'm concerned that means "handson" so I will use the Rub Down Transfer Letters within my projects. I replied "I wish that computers had been available to me back in the '70s !
Brief History of Dry Transfer Lettering
Transfer lettering was originally marketed in 1961 creating entirely new opportunities for Graphic Artists to design with far greater freedom than ever before.Prior to Rub Down Transfer Lettering,in fact for a number of centuries,we had wooden and metal type with all the restrictions that go with it.The flexibility of having type in Transfer Lettering Sheet form was a complete revolution and the ease of use of this medium released an explosion of creativity.TRANSFER LETTERING IN THE ART WORLD
Even artists began to use Transfer Lettering within their paintings. David Hockney was probably among the first to use Dry Transfer Lettering in a painting in 1961 called "The Fourth Love Painting".Francis Bacon also made use of Rub Down Lettering on three of his works completed in 1970 which were shown at Paris and Dusseldorf.
VERY EARLY DAYS
When I first entered the Printing and Allied trade Transfer Lettering was not even invented. In 1958 I was employed by a small General Printer and the type used was mainly metal (we did have some very old wooden type which was used for posters and the like).The metal type was set or "composed" by hand in a "Composing Stick" then transferred to either a "Galley" or sometimes straight in to the form.All the type was stored in a specially designed cabinet called a "case".In the bottom drawers were the small letters - hence "lower case" and in the top were the CAPITALS - hence "Upper Case".Composing was a highly
skilled job and the "Compositor" a well respected tradesman.
TYPE-SETTING FOR THE LAYMAN
Unfortunately for the "Compositor" the advent of Dry Transfer Lettering made it possible for anyone using a degree of care and aquired skill to set type which could be used to produce artwork for the making of Plates for printing.
http://new.myfonts.com/foundry/Mecanorma/
Mecanorma
Along with Letraset, the French company Mecanorma was one of the major vendors of instant lettering. Along with licensing typefaces from other vendors, Mecanorma commissioned original typeface designs. In that time, their decorative materials, including their instant lettering were manufactured by a Dutch company Trip Productions.
From 1989 until 1994, Mecanorma worked with another Dutch company Visualogik to create digital versions of their typefaces. These typefaces were released in Type 1 format, bearing a “MN” suffix. In addition, Monotype licensed and digitized some of Mecanorma’s typefaces. In 1995, Mecanorma stepped back from the professional graphics market and entered into other areas such as home decoration.
1999, Trip Productions purchased the Mecanorma brand and what was left of the company. In 2004,International TypeFounders licensed the typefaces from Trip Productions and released them as theMecanorma Collection. This helps to preserve one of the finest font libraries of display typefaces around, combining real arts and crafts into the tools of today.
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