Pages of Linotype lines and their proof

Prior to the invention of mechanical typesetting (around 1890), every letter on every page of a book or newspaper was picked out of a typecase by hand and composed into words and lines. The Linotype machine and its contemporaries changed all this, allowing a skilled compositor to typeset about five times the volume per hour.

Now the Linotype is not much used for newspapers, but at MMOP it is used for the occasional book. A book printer could learn to use it, and use it safely, but usually the MMOP Curator does the job for a printer requiring typeset book pages.

Such was the case recently when a printer (with his own presses) was commissioned to print a book with letterpress and approached MMOP for the typesetting.

This picture shows part of three pages of Linotype "slugs" (solid lines o' type) and the galley proof of those pages. Can you pick the typeface?

By the way, what were the contemporaries of the Linotype? You'll find them all at the MMOP and all can be used.