I’m getting ready to cast some 18-point Swing Bold (Monotype #217) for someone and I’ve found that my test casts don’t match the samples I received for alignment matching.
Each group of 3 letters shows the alignment sample between two of the letters I cast. The bottom shows my casting (in green) and the alignment sample (in red) superimposed with transparency on the other.
My vertical alignment does not match the samples, but more importantly, the letter shapes and sizes don’t match. The S is clearly different, and the differences in the C and T are more subtle but still there. Mine are generally wider than the samples, which explains why the set-size of the samples seemed too small for the sizes marked on my mats.
From the birthmarks on the type I can tell that the alignment samples were cast on a Monotype caster using an English mould, but beyond that, and in particular regarding the provenance of the matrices used for the casting, I have no information that would explain the variation.
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