Category: Type

Pied Type Weight

In a print shop, when metal gets jumbled, it’s been “pied.” Usually that happens when a form (type that’s been assembled for printing) comes apart and the pieces of metal fall over into a mess. It’s a pain to clean up and set right again, as Benjamin Franklin describes:

“But so determin’d I was to continue doing a sheet a day of the folio, that one night, when, having impos’d my forms, I thought my day’s work over, one of them by accident was broken, and two pages reduced to pi, I immediately distributed and compos’d it over again before I went to bed.”

Pied Type WeightRecently I discovered these little 2-1/2″ wide weights made from discarded metal type. They look like pies and are made by Carolee Campbell (Ninja Press). Type bodies can be seen emerging from the surface and to add to their perfection they are type high (.918 inches or the height of a piece of metal type). Gerald Lange is selling them. I bought one as a gift for a bookbinding friend who loves all things type.