William Wheatley: a Retrospective

Rochester Institute of Technology RIT Scholar Works Theses 5-1-1999 William Wheatley: A Retrospective Melissa K. Kaup Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.rit.edu/theses Recommended Citation Kaup, Melissa K., "William Wheatley: A Retrospective" (1999). Thesis. Rochester Institute of Technology. Accessed from This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by RIT Scholar Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of RIT Scholar Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. `W R000b31fl?m School of Printing Management and Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, New York Certificate of Approval Master s Thesis This is to certify that the Master s Thesis of Melissa K. Kaup With a Major in Graphic Arts Publishing has been approved by the Thesis Committee as satisfactory for the thesis requirement for the Master of Science degree at the convocation of May 1999 Thesis Committee: ^7/la^ iuJLu^. Graduate Program Coordinator G.4n.dQ. Melissa K. Kaup, May 1999 William Wheatley: A Retrospective by Melissa K. Kaup A thesis project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the School of Printing Management and Sciences in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences of the Rochester Institute of Technology May 1999 Thesis Advisor: Professor Archibald Provan Permission to Reproduce Thesis William Wheatley: A Retrospective I, Melissa K. Kaup, hereby grant permission to the Wallace Memorial Library of Rochester Institute of Technology to reproduce my thesis in whole or in part as long as any reproduction will not be for commercial use or profit. May, 1999 ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY This volume is the property of the Institute, but the literary rights of the author must be respected. Please refer to permission statement in this volume for denial or permission, by author, to reproduce. In addition, if the reader obtains any assistance from this volume, he must give proper credit in his own work. This thesis has been used by the following persons, whose signatures attest to their acceptance of the above restrictions. Name Address Date COPYRIGHT REV. 10/93 William Wheatley: A Retrospective Acknowledgments I have many individuals who I wish to acknowledge and thank for their unselfish participation in the process of this thesis projecL First, I would like to thank Mr. William Wheadey for dedicating his time and effort in recollecting his memoirs from such a tumultuous time. Second, to my the sis advisor Professor Archie Provan, for his constant guidance and direc tion. Thirdly, to those who offered their first-hand knowledge and advice on an era that has not been well recorded, specifically Professor Frank Romano and Professor Alexander Lawson. Finally, I would also like to mention the generous support of Monotype Corporation for funding my travel expenses to Charlotte, North Caroli na to obtain Mr. Wheatley's recollections of mechanical typesetting. Ill William Wheatley: A Retrospective Table of Contents List of Figures V Abstract vm Chapter i: Introduction i.i Chapter 2: Background Significance 2.1 Chapter 3: Literature Review 3.1 Chapter 4: Statement of the Problem and Goals of the Project 4.1 Chapter 5: Methodology 5.1 Chapter 6: Varityper Corporation, US 6.1 Chapter 7: Varityper Corporation, Europe 7.1 Chapter 8: Compugraphic Corporation 8.1 Chapter 9: Itek Corporation 9.1 Chapter 10: Consulting 10.1 Chapter 11: Summary and Conclusions 11.1 Chapter 12: Bibliography 12.1 Appendix A: Figures a.i Appendix B: Varityper History and Specifications b.i Index c.i IV William Wheatley: A Retrospective List of Figures Figure 2.1 Linotype Machine a. 3 Figure 6.1 Resume of William Wheatley A.4 Figure 6.2 Varityper 720 a.6 Figure 6.3 Headliner 880 a.6 Figure 6.4 Example of Varityper machine s differential letter spacing A.7 Figure 6.5 Bendy Raak designing type for the Varityper A.7 Figure 6.6 Commercial model of the 1881 Hammond typewriter a.8 Figure 6.7 Example of Mimeographing A.9 Figure 6.8 Sections of the WWII Japanese surrender document prepared by the Varityper on the USS Missouri a.io Figure 6.9 Sample of Varityper type designs made for psychological warfare a.ii Figure 6.10 Example of a Varityper machine font and placement A.12 Figure 6.11 IBM Selectric and the golf ball A.13 Figure 6.12 Varityper phototypesetting models A.14 Figure of a plastic 6.13 Example disc for phototypesetting A.15 Figure 6.14 A sample sheet showing ruling characters on the first AM 725 discs A.16 Figure 6.15 A white print used by Photon and AM as a lettercard to shoot a disc A.17 Figure 6.16 A Japanese sample cut out of rubylith A.18 Figure 500 6.17 Comp/Set A.19 Figure 6.18 A drawing of the design limitations during the Photon era A.20 William Wheatley: A Retrospective Figure 6.19 Univers designed by Fruitiger A.21 Figure 6.20 Process for making glass discs at Photon A.22 Figure 6.21 Photon paper tape A.23 Figure 6.22 Specialty font product applications A.24 Figure 6.23 Example of character numbering system A.25 Figure 7.1 Original Helvetica design by Max Miedinger A.26 Figure 7.2 A listing of the variations of Helvetica A.26 Figure 7.3 Decisions to be made at the edges of the character for defining shape A.27 Figure 7.4 Example of Bendy Raak's calculations for the Megaron typeface design A.28 Figure 7.5 Example of language specific hyphenation rules .... A.29 Figure 7.6 Examples of different keyboard layouts A.30 Figure 7.7 Example of a Diatype machine A.31 Figure 7.8 A sample of Arabic designed by the AM designers in Europe A.32 Figure 8.1 Sample of the typeface listings for Compugraphic A.33 Figure 8.2 Compugraphic introduction for Garth Graphic A.34 Figure 8.3 Introduction from Itek for Matt Antique A.35 Figure 8.4 Bill Wheatley s article about Matt Antique A.36 Figure 8.5 Example of Compugraphic EditWriter 7500 A.37 Figure 8.6 Examples of Cynthia Hollingsworth's typefaces A.38 Figure 8.7 A listing of the languages that HTS serviced A.39 Figure 9.1 William Wheadey with Hermann Zapf at the DRUPA Calligraphy exhibit A.40 VI William Wheatley: A Retrospective Figure 9.2 Cover to the Pacesetter disc closeout A.41 Figure 9.3 Photograph of Ronald Mcintosh and Peter Purdy A.41 Figure 9.4 A leaflet about Spiral Type A.42 Figure 9.5 Example of the Quadritek A.43 Figure 9.6 RitaScript designed by John Schappler A.43 Figure 10.1 John Warnock and Charles Geschke from Adobe A.44 Davis' Figure 10.2 An example of Whedon typeface and picture A.44 Williams' Figure 10.3 An example of Adrian typeface Raleigh A.45 Figure 11.1 Photograph of Lawrence Wallis A.46 VII William Wheatley: A Retrospective Abstract "turbulent" William F. Wheadey was an active participant during the typesetting years. His first years in the typographic field were spent working beside Bendy Raak atVarityper Corporation. They worked with "cold-type" character designs for the Varityper and the Headliner line of machines and moved into collaborating with Photon, Inc. for photo typesetting machines. As the necessity for typographic experience increased for foreign lan guages, Mr. Wheatley was transferred to Varityper s European division. In the daily effort of obtaining typefaces and designing proper character sets, he became associated with many of the European type foundries and companies. Mr. Wheatley's experience in the field also includes the Compugraphic Corporation in Europe and the Itek Corporation in the U.S., which has led to multiple typographic consulting assignments. VIII William Wheatley: A Retrospective Chapter i: Introduction The of the throughout the history printed word has taken many turns past 500 years. Unfortunately many important pieces of this puzzle have been lost or loosely recorded. It is rare that we have the opportunity to interview a person who was actively involved in the later stages of the typesetting industry. For over 35 years, William F. Wheadey had been one such active participant in the typographic field. He was an employee for three corporations that engaged in the technological growth of printing in the mid-twentieth century: Addressograph-Multigraph Corporation, Compugraphic Corporation, and Itek Corporation. An interview with Mr. Wheatley is the capture of a moment in history that will benefit the future generations in the printing field. Having an interest in typographical design, an opportunity to interview a participant in the area of mechanical typesetting and thus explore a portion of the history of type design was appealing. What was found, "simple" was a world of complexities in a creation of an alphabet. Today it is a relatively simple task to select a typeface from the software font menu. It is as simple as a pushing button and it is as easily overlooked. When a process appears easy to the user, it tends to overshadow the tech nological complexities. The calculations and attention to detail needed in the formation of a group of characters is astounding, as this interview will begin to unveil. Introduction 1a William Wheatley: A Retrospective Chapter 2: Background Significance The printing industry developed very slowly in the four centuries following Johann Gutenburg's discovery of moveable metal type. With the introduc tion of the Mergenthaler Linotype machine in 1886, [See figure 2.1, page A.2J the scene changed.

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