The cover shows letters from Italian calligraphy masters.

Writing is undoubtedly a leading factor in the development of human civilization. In Italy, the task of promoting the culture of “beautiful writing” is carried out by the Associazione Calligrafica Italiana through workshops, specialized courses, and various initiatives. After years of neglect this discipline is back to being more alive than ever, especially among young people. In response to this growing interest, the Association’s master calligraphers have prepared this new and precious tool.

A manual that introduces the fundamental rules of calligraphy and examines eleven styles of writing, from classical to contemporary. Each model is edited by a teacher of the Association who is expert in the respective style. Finally, the last part presents some examples of practical application, made both by members of the ACI and by internationally renowned foreign colleagues and collaborators. The manual is recommended for students, professionals, calligraphy enthusiasts and anyone looking for the beauty of handwritten letters.

Published by Lazy Dog Press, the manual is currently available in Italian language only.

Basic calligraphy principles are explored in depth.

Examples of calligraphy compositions made by Italian masters (shown above is Luca Barcellona’s work).

Instructions for writing in Textura style.

The cover provides a table of contents, with an outlined letter a from each of the 16 featured typefaces.

CAST Foundry loves to spread the typographic word. This is why we have partnered with the independent Italian publishing house Lazy Dog Press to produce Cast It, a periodical publication that discusses the history and culture of type together with CAST’s digital fonts. Half magazine, half specimen.

Cast It #3, “Der Schriftgiesser” (“The typefounder”, by Johann Samuel Halle) is a description of typefounding included in Werkstäte der heutigen Künste oder die neue Kunsthistorie – a virtually encyclopedic series concerning crafts originally published in Leipzig between 1761 and 1779.

Thanks to Dan Reynolds, we now have Halle’s text for the first time in English. His translation comes with a foreword (also by Reynolds) which is also the only commentary on its contents ever published in any language.

The fonts used for the title page are, from top to bottom: Macho Modular, Rialto dF (“An Essay”), Voland Italic, Sempione Grotesk (“Typefounding”), Capraia Italic, Sole Sans, Saffran (“Werkstäte …”), Dic Sans, Valnera Italic (“Werkstäte”), Neon Nbl, Arzachel Italic, Voland (“Dan Reynolds”), Valnera Italic, Macho Moustache, and Rialto dF.

The opening page of the essay is set in Valnera Monster and a type weight gradient from Arkit.

Spread with Zenon, Gramma (left), and various styles from Neon Nbl (right).

Spread with cross-page text set in Macho Moustache.

Detail.

Sempione Grotesk and Sempione Modern.

English translation with two-column text set in Capraia, Gramma, Rialto dF, Divenire, Fulmar, and Arkit.

Italian Burger cover

Italian Burger is a franchise of Italian restaurants that aims to transform the street food par excellence into a gourmet food.

Tipiblu designed the book in which Italian Burger reveals its recipes and secrets. It was an opportunity to add lettering and microtypography to the excellent photos by Matteo Consolini. Zenon is paired with Macho Modular and an untitled contrasted sans serif. The logo uses Eagle in all caps.

The book, written by Chiara Caprettini and published by Nomos Edizioni is available only in Italian language for now.

Index detail.

Double spread.

Flyleaf detail.

Double spread.

Typographic detail.

Double spread.

Lascia il segno. Il piacere di scrivere a mano per sé e per gli altri (“Leaving a mark. The pleasure of writing by hand for oneself and for others”) “is a book that invites to experience handwriting in a new way, highlighting from the outset the deep bond between the sign and the body that performs it.” — Monica Dengo

The typeface used for headlines and text is Macho Modular, designed by Luciano Perondi and released by the CAST foundry. The cursive font used for smaller handwriting letters shown inline is Italica, developed by Monica Dengo and Riccardo Oloccco together with Daniele Capo.