Typography
€ 20,00Alfabeti Modernisti Type Specimens illustrates twenty-five digital revivals based on wooden and lead typefaces produced in Italy in the 1930s and 1940s, documenting a research and enhancement project that intertwines memory and design and gives new voice to a little-explored chapter of Italian graphic design.
Very popular at the time but now forgotten, the typefaces have been recovered by Luca Lattuga over a period of more than ten years. Reissued by the CAST type foundry, available for purchase at c-a-s-t.com and also available on Adobe Fonts, these geometric, sometimes vernacular, floral, highly expressive, often rationalist-inspired typefaces recount a crucial period in 20th-century Italian typography.
Their digital revival—the result of a selection from Lattuga’s complete collection published in the volume Alfabeti Modernisti Italiani to coincide with the release of this sample book—gives graphic designers and type designers full access to a unique and precious typographic heritage.
Typefaces
CASTBook Design
CAST23,5 × 28,5 cm
64 pages
Softcover with flaps
EnglishIsbn 9788898030910
Available from November 2025
€ 70,00The first print run of 1,000 copies contains an eight-page insert, hand-set in lead type and printed by Editore Tallone on high-quality paper.
For at least a dozen years, Luca Lattuga has been collecting and cataloguing metal and wooden movable type produced in Italy between the 1920s and 1940s. During his research, he rediscovered a recurring and consistent style, hitherto little considered, that characterized that period. Although widespread at the time, this style, which originated in the printing workshops, remained in the shadows for decades.
These lesser-known typefaces coexisted alongside the famous types from historic foundries, such as Nebiolo and Reggiani, surviving thanks to their versatility and affordability and enjoying spontaneous and widespread popularity even in the most isolated provinces. They remained in use until the 1960s or 1970s, effectively lasting until the end of the era of movable type printing. They were widely used in advertising, flyers, posters, book covers, and magazine headlines. They followed European trends toward more modern forms and represented a fascinating vernacular expression, entirely Italian, of the international taste of the time.
The book contains over one hundred specimens, divided and grouped into categories and subcategories. It is accompanied by a testimony from the book’s editors, Veronica Bassini and Luca Lattuga, a historical analysis by Carlo Vinti, and a technical study by Luciano Perondi. The work is completed by in-depth profiles of some of the key figures of that era: Guido Modiano, Ruggero Zuliani, Francesco and Antonio Tocchio, and a gem by Enrico Tallone.
Texts
Veronica Bassini, Luca Lattuga
Luciano Perondi, Carlo VintiForeward
Riccardo OloccoBook Design
Luca Lattuga23,5 x 28,5 cm
336 pages
Hardcover
English/ItalianIsbn 978-88-98030-90-3
Available from November 2025
€ 29,50The Antologia di cultura grafica series is dedicated to the history of visual communication. Curated by Alessandro Colizzi and Silvia Sfligiotti, with the collaboration of guest editors, each volume focuses on a specific theme or era. The series presents a rich anthology of texts—articles, essays, chapters, excerpts, and manifestos—translated into Italian and introduced by an essay from the curators.
How is a typeface designed? What shapes the form of letters? What relationship exists between the elements of an alphabet? How decisive is technology in determining the appearance of text? And ultimately, what is a font?
Starting from these fundamental questions, Il disegno del carattere delves into the fascinating world of type design. This third volume examines the concepts and technologies that have shaped type creation, from the early days of printing in the 15th century to the digital revolution of the 20th century.
The book offers a comprehensive selection of documents, highlighting key moments in Western typographic history with an approach that balances historical significance and contemporary relevance. Through original texts by engravers, designers, and computer scientists, Il disegno del carattere guides readers in understanding the creative and technological foundations that have shaped the evolution of typographic aesthetics.
Authors in this volume: Felice Feliciano, Geoffroy Tory, Jacques Grévin, Giovanni Francesco Cresci, Joseph Moxon, Pierre-Simon Fournier, Rudolf von Larisch, Paul Koch, Harry Carter, William Addison Dwiggins, Edward Johnston, Edward M. Catich, Gerard Unger, Donald Knuth, Walter Tracy, Sumner Stone.
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Antologia di cultura grafica 3
Edited by Alessandro Colizzi & Riccardo Olocco
Book design Bunker e Alessandro Colizzi13.5 × 21.5 cm
360 pages
Softcover with flaps
ItalianIsbn 978-88-98030-74-3
First edition March 2025
€ 36,00For purchases in the USA and Canada, we recommend contacting Oak Knoll.
This book is about the roman type used in Venice by Nicolas Jenson, one of the most successful 15th-century printers. Jenson was well-known among his contemporaries because of his success as a printer/publisher and because of the quality of his type.
His editions featured several rotundas, and notably, a roman which can safely be considered as the prototype of virtually all roman types up to the present. Jenson’s roman has been highly praised in the past and was used as a model for several type revivals by early 20th-century private-press printers. However, the importance of this type in the development of our typographic letters has not yet been sufficiently recognised.
The volume aims to draw attention to this important type and to its maker with fresh bibliographical information and photographic analysis of the letterforms. The type is thoroughly analysed, the career of Jenson is sketched, and discussions on type-making techniques and the origin and development of its letterforms are presented.
Finally the influence of Jenson’s design is illustrated. This will show how his specific design choices were picked up by such punchcutters as Francesco Griffo and Claude Garamont, and became the standard for roman lowercase up to our times.
Images will play a pivotal role in this richly illustrated book. These visualisations allow readers the opportunity to explore the data and examine both the broader context and finer details, and systematically follow the discussion while verifying the reliability of the analysis results.
Text, photographs and book design by Riccardo Olocco
Preface by Lotte Hellinga21 × 28 cm
120 pages
Hardcover
English
Isbn 978-88-98030-68-2
First edition October 2024
Out of Stock€ 45,00Proceedings of the International symposium / Turin, 16–17 September 2021
The Nebiolo company of Turin was Italy’s greatest type foundry on both national and international levels for most of the 20th century until its closure in 1978. Originating from a small type foundry established in 1852 and bought by Giovanni Nebiolo in 1878, Nebiolo was officially set up in 1880. By the turn of the century the company experienced a rapid commercial expansion that would lead it to successfully develop the production of printing presses, a sector in which it would dominate the Italian market until the 1970s.
Nebiolo is especially remembered for its contributions in the field of typeface design. Its Studio Artistico – headed successively by Giulio Da Milano, Alessandro Butti and Aldo Novarese – released influential typefaces that had a strong impact on the history of 20th-century printing and graphic design in Italy and elsewhere. Due to the dispersion of the company archives, a critical evaluation of Nebiolo’s heritage has been lacking until now. With this first international symposium, and the publication of its proceedings, the Nebiolo History Project offers at last an overview of the latest research on hitherto underinvestigated aspects concerning Nebiolo and its role in the history of industry and the graphic arts in Italy.
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Edited by Nebiolo History Project: Alessandro Colizzi, Riccardo Olocco, James Clough, Riccardo De Franceschi, Marta Bernstein, Massimo Gonzato
Texts by various authors19 × 27 cm
376 pages
Paperback
Original language edition (italian/english)
Isbn 978-88-98030-89-7
First published July 2023
€ 22,50For purchases in the USA and Canada, we recommend contacting Oak Knoll.
Many typefaces created today are related to types of the past, and interest in older letterforms is stimulated by the great number of visual resources available. We are surrounded by digital fonts based in one way or another on historical models, but it is clear that we cannot consider all of them as revivals. So, how to distinguish a type revival from a typeface that is loosely based on historical forms? More reflection on this subject is necessary, both to help navigate the landscape of contemporary typefaces, and to give greater clarity to discussions on the history of type. This 104 pages pamphlet provides tools for researching and designing revival types. A concise publication that will show a practical perspective and fresh content, fuelling the conversation among and between designers and scholars.
The content is organised into four parts. The authors begin by defining the theoretical ground, including a definition of revivals, and a discussion on the boundaries of a revival project. The second part introduces the framework of analysis developed for recording the relevant design features of the type used as a model. In the third part, Olocco and Patané apply the framework to the roman type cut by Francesco Griffo for the De Aetna (1496). Based on this analysis, the fourth part showcases the process of reviving this historical type.
Although the authors are focusing on defining a procedure to design a type revival, those suggestions can be adopted beyond the scope of a revival project. Their approach will ensure a strong connection with the original source and a substantial help towards understanding how to employ historical models in a contemporary context.
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Texts by Riccardo Olocco and Michele Patanè
Preface by Gerry Leonidas
Book design by Riccardo Olocco and Michele Patanè12.5 × 21 cm
112 pages
Paperback
English
Isbn 978-88-98030-48-4
First published May 2022
Cast it #5 EN
€ 13,00“Cast it” is a publication that uses CAST fonts and deals with the history and culture of type. Issue 5 presents The Processes of Type-making, an excerpt from the first chapter of Plain Printing Types, a book written by the American scholar-printer Theodore Low De Vinne and included in his four-volume treatise The Practice of Typography (1900-1904).
The excerpt focuses on De Vinne’s summaries of electrotypes, stereotypes, printing presses and especially his analyses of typeface wear. As pointed out by Paul Shaw in his preface: “De Vinne’s account of typography, typesetting and printing is that of a large-scale commercial printer” […] “His language is lucid and easily understood by a modern reader in contrast to that of Moxon, Fournier, or even Mackellar.”
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Co-produced with CAST Cooperativa Anonima Servizi Tipografici
Type designers: Erasmo Ciufo, Alessandro Colizzi, Beatrice D’Agostino, Riccardo De Franceschi, Giovanni De Faccio & Lui Karner, Rafael Dietzsch, Alessio D’Ellena, Giulio Galli, Radek Lukasiewicz, Riccardo Olocco, Luciano Perondi, Leo Philp, Gianluca Sandrone, Tipiblu
Preface by Paul Shaw
Editing by Andrea Amato, James Clough, Massimo Gonzato, Riccardo Olocco
Book design by +fortuna16.5 × 24 cm
48 pages
English
Issn 2531-765
Isbn 978-88-98030-44-6
First published December 2021
Out of Stock€ 130,00Special edition limited to 50 copies for collectors
60×40 cm dust jacket/poster with alphabet by Luca Barcellona
Canvas slipcase with hot foil stamping.Claudio Rocha and Tony de Marco founded “Tupigrafia” magazine at the beginning of the millennium in São Paulo and have been working on it ever since. They are editorial designers and have always been a reference point for visual artists, communicators, researchers, teachers, calligraphers, street writers and typographers in Brazil. They created “Tupigrafia” because they wanted to have fun with letterforms and stay in touch with like-minded readers, exchanging ideas and experiences on the typographic scene. Their surprising and unconventional magazine has always reflected the state of typographic arts and lettering in Brazil and around the world.
Now, after more than 20 years and 13 issues only available in Portuguese and almost all out of print, the masters of “Tupigrafia”, Rocha and De Marco, launch the first English-language anthology of the original magazine. A powerful and colourful 208-page volume presenting the vibrant content of “Tupigrafia” for an international audience of lettering and typeface enthusiasts.
This unpredictable and unmissable anthology will feature some of ‘Tupigrafia’s most inventive and innovative subjects such as, among others, the sign painters known as “abridores de letras”, who work on boats in the Amazon; the Dutch postage stamps created by Gerrit Noordzij, Wim Crouwel, Joost Swarte and others; Fefê Talavera’s wall paintings for the ‘concrete jungle’ of São Paulo; the bizarre wooden typefaces of the Tipoteca Italiana and even the hidden typography of a pencil collection.
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Design and curatorship by Claudio Rocha and Tony de Marco
Cover title by Luca Barcellona15.5 × 22.5 cm
208 pages with letterpress insert
Hardback
Isbn 978-88-98030-41-5
First published September 2021
Cast it #4 EN
€ 13,00“Cast it” is a publication typeset in CAST characters. Issue 4 presents Fournier’s preface to Modéles de caracteres de l’imprimerie (1742) followed by Harry Carter’s English version (1930) commented by James Mosley (1995). The preface is by Sébastien Morlighem.
In 1736, the French engraver and typefounder Fournier le jeune (1712-1768) began producing new typefaces in his foundry in Paris. Six years later, he published the type specimen book Modéles de caracteres including a “Notice to lovers of printing” that we are happy to republish. In this text, Fournier traces a history of typography by talking about his most famous colleagues who preceded him. He describes his aesthetic choices, explains his system of point measurement of typefaces and reasoning on the need to produce them in new bodies. He concludes by pledging to improve his typefaces and the quality of French printing.
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Co-produced with CAST Cooperativa Anonima Servizi Tipografici
Type designers: Erasmo Ciufo, Alessandro Colizzi, Giovanni De Faccio & Lui Karner, Alessio D’Ellena, Rafael Dietzsch, Giulio Galli, Riccardo Olocco, Luciano Perondi, Leo Philp, Tipiblu
Preface by Sébastien Morlinghem
Translation by Harry Carter (commented by James Mosley)
Editing by James Clough, Massimo Gonzato, Riccardo Olocco
Book design by Esterson Associates16.5 × 24 cm
48 pages
English edition (original text in French)
Issn 2531-765
Isbn 978-88-98030-36-1
First published November 2020
Il tratto IT
€ 19,50Il tratto (The stroke) constitutes the fundamental element of the written word, whether handwritten or printed. The qualities of voids and solids are explained in this fundamental text by typographer Gerrit Noordzij.
First published in Dutch in 1982, in English in 1985 and in a later updated edition in Italian in 2007, Il tratto presents a careful and organic synthesis of his theory of writing. The method of line drawing developed here stems from the author’s innovative contribution during his teaching period at the Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, where fundamental concepts such as expansion and contrast took shape. They made it possible, on the one hand, to revolutionise the teaching of writing and its history and, on the other hand, to approach the Dutch typographic tradition in a concrete way. With extraordinary precision, Noordzij analyses the morphology of writing in a happy interweaving of diachronic and synchronic dimensions, while at the same time restoring its proper prominence, certainly in the field of calligraphy but also in typography and design.
A not-to-be-missed text, now available in a new edition, to delve deeper into a figure who is still not sufficiently known in Italy, but also very influential in the international typographic panorama.
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Text and illustrations by Gerrit Noordzij
Translation by Alessandro Colizzi12.5 × 19 cm
88 pages
Paperback
Italian
Isbn 978-88-98030-29-3
First published July 2020
Cast it #3 EN
€ 13,00“Cast it” is a periodical publication composed in CAST characters. Issue 3 offers the transcription of Der Schriftgiesser together with its English translation.
Der Schriftgiesser (The typefounder) is a description of the casting of typefaces included in Werkstäte der heutigen Künste oder die neue Kunsthistorie, a kind of encyclopaedia of trades, originally published in Leipzig between 1761 and 1779. The author, Johann Samuel Halle (1727-1810), was a Prussian academic and official. His description of the type production process is probably the first detailed text on the subject written in German by an author who was neither a printer nor an entrepreneur in the industry.
In 1922, the Wilhelm Woellmer type foundry in Berlin republished the text of ‘Der Schriftgiesser’ as a souvenir of the annual meeting of German type foundries. Thanks to Dan Reynolds, we now have for the first time an English translation of Halle’s text. The piece is accompanied by a preface that is also the only commentary on its contents ever published so far.
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Co-produced with CAST Cooperativa Anonima Servizi Tipografici
Type designers: Alessandro Colizzi, Erasmo Ciufo, Alessio D’Ellena, Giovanni de Faccio and Lui Karner, Riccardo De Franceschi, Rafael Dietzsch, Giulio Galli, Riccardo Olocco, Luciano Perondi, Leo Philp, Tipiblu
Preface and translation by Dan Reynolds
Editing by Massimo Gonzato, Riccardo Olocco
Graphic design by Tipiblu16.5 × 24 cm
48 pages
English Edition (original text in German)
Issn 2531-765
Isbn 978-88-98030-27-9
First published December 2019
€ 18,00A good layout can certainly catch the eye, but when the details are not taken care of, reading requires too much effort and the pleasure quickly ends. In this nimble little book, Jost Hochuli, one of Switzerland’s best-known and most appreciated graphic designers, explains how to ensure the best possible experience for readers. To do so, he introduces us to the world of typographic detail or micro-typography and analyses its constituent elements one by one: letter, space between letters, word, line, line spacing and text column. These are all aspects that are often overlooked by graphic designers because they are outside the creative sphere, but on which the readability of the text depends. By means of examples and case studies, Hochuli points out problems and indicates solutions, stimulates acumen and critical sense and then invites every graphic designer to take responsibility for making decisions with consistency, common sense and sensitivity whenever the profession requires it.
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Texts by Jost Hochuli
Editing by Massimo Gonzato
Book design by Jost Hochuli
Adapted Italian edition by Bunker12.5 × 21 cm
68 pages
Paperback
Italian
Isbn 978-88-98030-20-0
First published May 2018
Cast it #2 EN
€ 13,00“Cast it” is a publication typeset in CAST fonts. Number 2 publishes, as a sample text, the first two chapters of The printer’s grammar, a manual for typesetters written and published by John Smith in London in 1755.
As James Mosley notes in his preface, Smith often refers to Moxxon and his Mechanick exercises (1683-1684), but unlike most manuals of the time he does not rely on it. From several passages in The printer’s grammar (some of which can be found in these excerpts), it is evident that Smith had learnt his trade as a typographer in Germany and was also familiar with French and Dutch practices. In short, he was an entrepreneur and European citizen ante litteram.
CAST is a digital type foundry that shares Smith’s entrepreneurial and cosmopolitan spirit by promoting international debate on typographic issues. In addition to “Cast it”, CAST publishes articles on the science, history and culture of type on its website.
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Co-produced with CAST Cooperativa Anonima Servizi Tipografici
Type designers: Andrea Amato, Erasmo Ciufo, Alessio D’Ellena, Giovanni de Faccio, Riccardo De Franceschi, Rafael Dietzsch, Riccardo Olocco, Luciano Perondi
Preface by James Mosley
Book design by Riccardo Olocco
Editing by Massimo Gonzato, Riccardo Olocco16.5 × 24 cm
48 pages
English
Issn 2531-765
Isbn 978-88-98030-10-1
First published December 2017
-25% OffFear IT/EN
Original price was: € 40,00.€ 30,00Current price is: € 30,00.The idea behind the Letterpress Workers project, the now customary international meeting of typographical designers held every year in Milan, is that graphic design should play an active role within society and thus also speak of the drives that run through it. In the 2016 edition, the concept of fear was addressed.
The book, through a choral visual narrative, brings together the works resulting from this association and explores its socio-cultural implications, starting with the graphic design, freely inspired by the work of Dutch designer Willem Sandberg, whose human and professional example embodied the very spirit of this edition of the conference.
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Texts by Simona Borzacchiello, Claudio Madella, Fabrizio Radaelli
Art direction by Claudio Madella
Book design by Fabrizio Radaelli, Giacomo Silva19 × 22 cm
90 pages
33 images (16 artworks)
Bodoni-style hardback
Italian/English
Isbn 978-88-98030-22-4
First published June 2017
Out of Stock€ 49,90Whimsical and intuitive, original, humorous, improvised, elegant: Italian signs are a mirror of Italian society. What distinguishes the most interesting Italian signs and inscriptions is the variety of original letterforms.
Before typefaces and fonts dominated the scene, there was no standardization in Italy of letterforms for commercial signs and there were no printed manuals for signwriters. This freedom and detachment from standard models of letters as well as the craftsmanship and creativity of the signmakers and designers are what make Italian signs so extraordinary.
In this book, the Italian-based British designer, teacher and writer, James Clough, examines Italian signs within a historical perspective and from many standpoints. From the ornate Tuscan style of the 19th century to the eccentric letters of Art Nouveau, from the grandiose architectural lettering of the 1930s to the exquisite surviving examples of the old signwriters, from fascist ghost signs to lettering on manhole covers, Clough points out the highs and lows of this artistic expression as he takes readers on a fascinating lettering tour of Italy.
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Text and illustrations by James Clough
Cover design by Luca Barcellona
Book design by Bunker12 × 8½”
248 pages
Over 300 photographs
Hardcover
English edition
Isbn 978-88-98030-08-8
First edition September 2015
Out of StockCast it #1 IT/EN
€ 12,50Writing, letterforms and typefaces are part of Lazy Dog’s DNA, the name of the publishing house is there to suggest it. This is why we took up the invitation of the Cooperativa Anonima Servizi Tipografici to create “Cast it”, the annual publication that responds to two needs: to promote the history and culture of typeface together with foundry typefaces.
“Cast it” issue 1 uses the entry ‘Foundry typeface’ from the Dictionary of Arts and Crafts as a sample text to showcase CAST typefaces. This 1769 text is – as James Clough notes in the preface – the first contribution on the subject ever published in Italian.
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Co-produced with CAST Cooperativa Anonima Servizi Tipografici
Type designers: Erasmo Ciufo, Alessio D’Ellena, Giovanni De Faccio, Rafael Dietzsch, Riccardo Olocco, Luciano Perondi
Preface by James Clough
Book design by Alessio D’Ellena
Editing by Massimo Gonzato, Riccardo Olocco16.5 × 24 cm
48 pages
English (original text in Italian)
Issn 2531-765
Isbn 978-88-98030-05-7
First published December 2016
