A snout-fair is a “good-looking person,” a throttlebottom is an “inept public official,” and ejectamenta is “material spewed from a volcano.” Each month, members of a Facebook group for calligraphy enthusiasts receive a list of around 30 such words...
Poet and teacher Frances Klein reports that a friend refers to the “overemphasized voice people use to read poems” as spoken Garamond. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Declamatory Font” I saw a tweet I really liked from poet and...
Mudlark: In Search of London’s Past Along the River Thames (Bookshop| Amazon) relates the amazing tale, told many places, of Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson, a bookbinder who developed the famous Doves Type. To prevent the moveable type from falling...
You walk into a used bookstore, or pull down an old volume at the library, and there it is: The smell of old books. If you detect notes of vanilla in that intoxicating scent, there’s a reason. Also, why some people think the word awesome is...
Proofreading is a skill to be learned, but you can start with tricks like printing out the text, reading aloud, or moving down the page with a ruler, one line at a time. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Proofreading Tricks” Hello...
Why does everyone hate the Comic Sans? Well, maybe not everyone, but a lot of people dislike it. In fact, graphic designer David Cadavy gave a whole Ignite Chicago talk on the topic. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Comic Sans”...
