Theo Rehak is a
typefounder and the author of ''Practical Typecasting'' (), ''The Fall of ATF; a Serio-Comedic Tragedy'' and co-author of ''The Music and Life of Theodore "Fats" Navarro"'' (). He is one of the few remaining craftsmen in the field of metal
typefounding
Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuation ...
. Rehak was the last person trained at
American Type Founders
American Type Founders (ATF) Co. was a business trust created in 1892 by the merger of 23 type foundries, representing about 85% of all type manufactured in the United States. De Vinne, Theodore Low, ''The Practice of Typography,'' Century Comp ...
before their 1993 bankruptcy.
He formed The Dale Guild Type Foundry in 1994, purchasing a significant portion of ATF equipment at the firm's liquidation auction. He is also an historian and has assisted museums, including
The Smithsonian
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
, around the world in creating exhibits and demonstrating printing technologies.
The Dale Guild Type Foundry, located in
Howell
Howell may refer to:
Places
In the United Kingdom
*Howell, Lincolnshire, England
In the United States
*Howell, Georgia
* Howell, Evansville, a neighborhood of Evansville, Indiana
*Howell, Michigan
* Howell, Missouri
*Howell, Utah
* Howell C ...
,
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, is one of the last type foundries in the United States to cast hard foundry type. Rehak has several Barth casters, a
Benton engraving machine, and a collection of original type matrices. This equipment has enabled Rehak to continue casting functional type of historical importance.
In 1999, The Dale Guild were asked to produce a new, facsimile cutting of
Johannes Gutenberg
Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (; – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and Artisan, craftsman who introduced letterpress printing to Europe with his movable type, movable-type printing press. Though not the first of its ki ...
's
Biblia Latina types. Rehak, and Alan Waring, the Dale Guild's "Art Department" spent 5 months making drawings, cutting matrices and casting type. This became known as Dale Guild B-42. Because of its numerous alternate characters and ligatures this typeface has about 240 distinct characters.
He also served as President of
The Typophiles from 1995 to 2005.
References
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*
*
American typographers and type designers
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
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