loujon/outsider fonts

[Jason]

Does anybody (Bill?) here know what font was used to print the cover titling on THE OUTSIDER? My usual sources have turned up nothing. I'm hoping to find a digital version, but a high res scan of the full font would work too...

 

[hank solo]

This font?

 

[hank solo]

Slightly similar:

http://www.fontspace.com/rafael-dinner/reverb
http://www.fontspace.com/rafael-dinner/diamond

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/castletype/shango-chiseled/chiseled/
http://www.fonts.com/FindFonts/Detail.htm?pid=4650063

No so similar:

http://www.fontspace.com/david-rakowski/tejaratchi
http://www.fontspace.com/allen-r-walden/beveled

 

[Jason]

Thanks, yes, that's the font. Those samples are close, but not quite there... It's probably not a cast titling font, so I wonder if they didn't use something like letraset to print it photo-offset...

 

[mjp]

All the Outsider covers (and some of the insides) look like Letraset to me.

 

[bospress.net]

The font at the bottom of the poster (where is says "The kiva" was a handset font called "lilith". It was an imported one. I have never been able to locate any lead type of this.

The other font is certainly a decorative font, but I am not sure where to find it. I do know that it was probably never cast in lead.

Have you tried identafont?

Bill

 

[Jason]

Thanks Bill. Yes, you're right it does look like they used Lilith on the poster. A search on Myfonts turns up a digital version called "Annabelle Matinee NF", though it looks like some of the serifs and letter shapes have been changed slightly. On the title page for The Outsider 4/5, it looks like there was an 'engraved' version of the font as well.

On the titling, yes, I checked identifont and left a copy of the scan from hank solo on Myfont's 'WhatTheFont' forum to see if anybody recognized it.

 

[mjp]

It is Letraset, it's called Stack. Looking for a good sample...

---

Eh, close, but not really:

 

[chronic]

The thick and thin lines on the poster and book have sharp junctures, which is to say the thick lines don't narrow down where they meet the thin lines... they just end, giving the typeface a faceted look that's missing in Stack. It probably is from one of the old Letraset type sheets.

I have an old Letraset specimen book / catalogue around here, but it's apparently packed away somewhere. If it turns up I'll see if this is in it.

 

[bospress.net]

Thanks Bill. Yes, you're right it does look like they used Lilith on the poster. A search on Myfonts turns up a digital version called "Annabelle Matinee NF", though it looks like some of the serifs and letter shapes have been changed slightly. On the title page for The Outsider 4/5, it looks like there was an 'engraved' version of the font as well.

On the titling, yes, I checked identifont and left a copy of the scan from hank solo on Myfont's 'WhatTheFont' forum to see if anybody recognized it.

Annabelle Matinee NF was the typeface that I used for the cover of Bottle #5. I gave up on finding Lilith in lead and had plates made.

Bill

 

[hank solo]

Stack is about the same as the free font Reverb that I linked to above. Its the closest I could find right now, but its not that close.

 

[mjp]

Yeah, I saw it from a distance and it looked right, but when I found the example I could see it wasn't the font.

 

[Rekrab]

The Webbs used Letraset? I'm shocked. I thought they were strictly lead type printers. So does that mean they took the cover paste ups to a shop and had them run offset?

 

[mjp]

Yeah, the covers are definitely offset. Halftone photos (the ones made up of dots) are next to impossible to print letterpress, even with magnesium or polymer letterpress plates. For that reason, I suspect that some of the inside pages of the Outsiders may have also been offset. But the covers for sure.

Bill runs essentially the same press that they did. Ask him how easy it is to get even black coverage over large areas. ;)

On the little 5x7 press I had you had to double ink the type to get a good black impression of large typefaces. If you do that to a halftone the pits between the dots fill up with ink and the image is ruined.



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[bospress.net]

yeah, the cover is offset, no doubt. You can print halftones letterpress and I know that they did some that way as the plates were used in the project "Two for Jon".

Printing a large areas of solid color with the press that the Webbs had (and I have) would be near impossible. For that you need a Vandercook, which prints amazing but very slow.

Bill

 

[Gerard K H Love]

Yeah,...............................

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....and this from that: (No personal checks! I don't trust you! No one does!)

:D

 

[mjp]

Hey, you have to be firm with those types.