11/27/2023 0 Comments Custom typewriter typeface![]() The bold weight was created by manually holding the cylinder (the piece that holds the paper) in place which stopped the paper from moving, allowing me to type the same glyph one on top of the other, in turn fattening the letter and clotting the counters.Ī lot more experimenting had to be done when creating the light weight. This was due to the fact that the machines only came with a regular weight with an option of changing the colour of the ink. My index fingers went sore and were stained black for some days, while the sound of the keys being typed made a rhythm that broke the silence of the store.īesides finding the best machine for each language to typeset on, I had to come up with a technique to create the light and bold weight alongside the standard regular weight. I kept on visiting Najjar Continental and typesetting samples from different machines until I selected the best sample to create the fonts from. ![]() A sample of the typesetting trial papers i did during my visits to Najjar Continental in Hamra. Mostly Optima and Continental Brands with languages ranging from Arabic, Persian, English and French. They took me to their storage area and it was like a treasure cave full of old typewriters. After several visits to their shop and a brief introduction to their history, I discovered that they were the main developers and distributors in Lebanon and the Middle East from the 1950s till the 80s, before the computer technology took over the market. Some were 60 year-old machines while others dated a few decades back. I found their small shop in Hamra street with some typewriters displayed. Original type-specimen that is found inside the typewriter box.Īfter several investigations and inquiries, I ended up finding the source of typewriters in Lebanon Najjar Continental. I typeset several samples and took plenty of photos in each location and documented the names of the machines along with the date and place. In Damascus, I started in Souq al Hamadiya and then visited shops where employees still type documents on typewriters, slightly outside the city-centre of Damascus. In Beirut, I started with the Sunday Market, then the antique shops in Beirut’s souqs, Byblos, Tripoli, and ended with the Basta region. The hunt started in Beirut and ended in Damascus. The story of Makina started a few years back when I went on a hunt for a traditional Arabic typewriter while working on a project with a designer colleague of mine. Technical drawing of the Optima typewriter found in its original catalogue. The type-family contains 3 weights (Light, Regular & Bold) with each containing ligatures, stylistic sets and contextual alternates. “Makina” in Arabic means ‘machine’, which is inspired from the translation of a typewriter from English to Arabic. 29LT Makina is a revival of an Arabic, Persian and Latin typewriter.
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