Today in pulp I look back at the simple idea that launched a thousand fanzines: Letraset! Launched in 1959 by Dai Davies and Fred Mackenzie it heralded a graphic design revolution that brought funky fonts to the masses...
Today in pulp I look back at the simple idea that launched a thousand fanzines: Letraset! Launched in 1959 by Dai Davies and Fred Mackenzie it heralded a graphic design revolution that brought funky fonts to the masses...
Letraset started life as a wet transfer system: you placed the letter into water, carefully slid off the transfer and tried to apply it to the paper without creasing it. Whilst fiddly it was still quicker than hand-painting your letters.
In 1961 Letraset adopted the dry transfer process: letters screenprinted onto a polythene sheet were sprayed over with adhesive. You placed the sheet over the paper and used a pencil to rub over the letter, which detached from the carrier sheet and stuck to the paper.By the time I got into technical writing, dekstop publishing was already in its infancy. However, there was still a place for Letraset, as I found when I had to use it to produce headings and titles for my first manual. I never did use it for fanzine (I published a science fiction fanzine in the early 1990s.) as by that time I was able to use Ventura Publisher on a PC and laser print my pages.
You young kids don't know how easy you have it. You'll never know the exquisite pain of using your last 18 point Futura letter E and realizing that you need one more, and it's 7 o'clock in the evening on the night before a deadline and the printing shop closed at 6:00.
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