you can click on most of the thumbnails for a full-size image!

In 1908 the Gefle Post printers in Sweden published a hard-cover type catalogue, stuffed full of delightful fonts and ornaments; they were only a provincial printing house, but the catalogue shows nearly 400 different founts, the great majority decorative - just think of the job it was for the apprentices to put everything back after a job was finished! Then there's a page of silhouettes, two pages of corner vignettes and two coloured title pages - and page after page of delightful ornaments and borders - most of it in the most elegant Art Nouveau style: enough to keep a keen font-maker busy for a very long time!

Here's a first taste as a video clip, showing how I reconstructed the original pattern from the various elements, then, one stage at a time, added greys, colours and embossing ...

Watch for LOTS more!

Warmest thanks to antiquarian book-seller Olof Salmonsson for the stimulus!