John Baskerville News Today

From calfskin to cut-and-paste, a tribute to the graft and craft that goes into books

Searching for the 18th-century character in the Library's rare books and music collections.

For some readers this book will have the charm of the Antiques Roadshow. Adam Smyth, professor of English Literature and the History of the Book at Balliol College, Oxford, presents with caressing attention to technical detail an array of illustrious book people. They may be unfamiliar names to those who don’t know a colophon from

A Monotype study aims to answer “questions about the cultural differences in perceiving meaning and emotion in type.” Chinese signmakers use infinity mirrors to create cool LED signage. A road sign in Canada wishes monarch butterflies a safe migration. “The golden age of ballooning” led to the first aerial maps. AR-based windows for tour buses. Auto-focusing eyeglasses! The graphene-based “Everything Proof Pants & Shirt.” 3D-printed compostable shoes. Torn from the headlines: is it s...

A Sgt. Pepper-esque tribute to the celebrities who passed away in 2023. Behind some book cover redesigns from hardcover to paperback. A Minneapolis store where you can buy vintage, discarded channel letters. A fun 1824 primer on punctuation. A coffee table that is also a touchscreen display. “What was life like before the Internet?” A start-up is developing an app that lets a smartphone evaluate air quality. Graphene-based batteries now for pre-sale! The economics of time travel. Protesting ...

This gem in Haverhill has the world’s largest collection of typographic technology and ephemera.

These type families are super versatile.

Download these elegant free serif fonts to give your designs a touch of class.

Lean into the best italic fonts with this selection of free and premium choices for type designers.

Typography is a familiar sight on the streets, but it has also succumbed to fashions and the passage of time. Rescuing urban signage helps to preserve this part of our collective heritage.