Making of Printing Types
type: NewsArticle
description: The article describes the author's extensive research project to create a digital edition of Daniel Updike's seminal two-volume work *Printing Types*, first published in 1922. The author recounts discovering a first-edition set of the books at a previous job and explains that Updike's work is a foundational historical analysis of typeface development from the 15th to the 20th century. The project required tracking down over 1,200 books spanning more than 450 years to faithfully reproduce the work's crucial visual examples.
date published: 2025-09-20T08:00:36+00:00
date modified: 2026-05-24T00:05:49+00:00
language: en
is accessible for free: true
article body: # Making of Printing Types By Nicholas Rougeux, posted on September 20, 2025 in [Web](/blog?cat=12) Researching is like treasure hunting—following clue after clue in the hopes of finding something amazing. When I set out to create a digital edition of Daniel Updike’s Printing Types, I had no idea that I was going to spend months hunting down more than 1,200 books spanning more than 450 years but I’m glad I did. This project involved more research than I’ve ever done. I’ve always had an affinity for typography, even before I knew what it was. When I was young, I enjoyed playing with fonts, endlessly scrolling through those that came with CorelDRAW installed on the family computer. As I grew up, I became interested in design and naturally, so did my appreciation for good typography when I got into designing websites. I was fortunate enough to have a boss who started out as a typographer to instill in me a deeper appreciation for the art. During the waning days of my previous job, old books in the office were being cleared out due to various business decisions, and one set of books caught my eye with its unassuming brown cover and gilded edges. They were the two volumes of a first edition printing of Daniel Updike’s Printing Types from 1922 and I’m a little ashamed I hadn’t heard of them until then, given my penchant for the topics they covered. I didn’t pay them much attention beyond a cursory glance and just when they were about to be discarded with other unwanted materials, I felt an unexplained need to save them for myself. I took them home, glanced at them occasionally, and put them on a shelf where they sat for years. As I started making more digital editions, their presence nagged at me and I couldn’t help but think that I could do *something* interesting with them but could never figure out what until this past summer when inspiration finally struck. ## Printing Types: Their History, Forms & Use [Daniel Berkeley Updike](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Berk…
publisher: Web Pulse
keywords: research
mentions: Daniel Updike
mentions: Printing Types
mentions: CorelDRAW
citation: CreativeWork