Bigelow & Holmes Blog

This continues the "dig" of digital type archaeology from the Seybold Report. Viewed now, more than 33 years later, these texts and illustrations not only offer a view of the state of knowledge of digital typography at the time of publication but also indicate what Bigelow and Holmes were studying as the concept of what became the Lucida font family began to take form in our studio, two and a half years before the first release of Lucida in September, 1984. This installment is from The Seybold Report of February 8, 1982. As for the previous articles, Chuck Bigelow wrote the...

Big News: Women on the Money! The U.S. Treasury has just announced that a portrait of a woman will appear on the $10 bill. Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew will make the choice by the end of the year.   http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/18/us/portrait-of-a-woman-to-share-space-on-the-dollar-10-bill-with-hamiltons.html Support the woman nominee of your choice, and keep those cards and letters pouring in to the Treasury!  A woman on the ten dollar bill would be a great milestone, but we ought to run the numbers to see how much the Treasury really values that woman. First, the woman will have to share the $10 with Alexander Hamilton:...

WOMEN’S LITERATION (Part 1) The year 2020 is the 100th anniversary of the 19th constitutional amendment, which granted women the right to vote. The amendment was proposed by Congress on June 4th, 1919 and ratified by the states in August, 1920.  In Britain, the year 2020 is the 150th anniversary of the Elementary Education act of 1870, which instituted primary schooling for girls as well as boys, beginning a new era in literacy.  Although separated by fifty years, an ocean, and a common language, these events are connected by women’s literation.  A Woman on the $20 To commemorate ratification of...

This concludes the 1982 Seybold Report articles on the Principles of Digital Type. This final section discusses and illustrates three categories of digital fonts: (1) “correspondence quality” fonts derived from typewriter faces and rendered by various digital techniques; (2) sophisticated lower and higher resolution fonts in a popular sans-serif style; (3) original faces designed for digital rendering in various media. Some of the typeface designers whose original work is briefly illustrated in these articles have since passed away, including Howard Kettler, Ladislas Mandel, Richard Southall, and Hermann Zapf. They are honored more fully in other publications and memorials, but the glimpses...

In August 1983, Scientific American magazine published the article "Digital Typography" by Charles Bigelow and Donald Day, with letterform illustrations by Kris Holmes. The article outlined the background and evolution of analog handwriting and typography and discussed the technology, problems, and promises of digital typography, from the perspective of 1983. Its most important question was this: "The transition to digital typography therefore presents a subtle question with far-reaching implications: How is it possible to take the fullest advantage of digital technology and still ensure that digital letterforms retain the quality of the traditional letters, whose beauty and legibility have contributed profoundly to...