Dan Solo and Dover Bring Eccentric Old Type to the Masses

You can also pick up a sourcebook of over 4,000 Solotype alphabets for a mere $18.95. Who knows what untapped gems lurk in that hefty tome.

this book isn't bad, but don't overestimate what's in it - there are some interesting specimens, but for the most part it's only a word or two of each, and there is an awful lot of stretching and squeezing masquerading as "different" typefaces. also, there's a good reason why a lot of these "gems" have remained untapped - they're too specific to a certain time and place to look anything but hideously retro these days.

anyway, if you want to see a lot of weird photo faces, you can't beat the specimen books from PhotoLettering (especially the 50s-70s stuff - ed benguiat's heyday). the parts of the Solo book i find most interesting are the samples of how they can distort lines of type (or other artwork) into all kinds of bizarre shapes, using some crazy machine he invented, and all of the woodtype that he reshot as photo masters. his archive of this stuff is amazing.

> untapped gems

Yeah. Cubic Zirconias.

hhp

I've got "24 Script and Cursive Display Fonts" and, though I have not had reason to use any of them thus far, they appear to of fair quality. The character sets are fairly complete (although with a few instances of non-standard coding). I'd give them a B+. A good value for the price ($14.95 for 24 fonts).

A few oddities here and there: I noticed some of the characters appear slightly bolder than the rest. I opened one of them in Fontographer and found, as I suspected, that the path was going the wrong direction. Not a lot of kerning pairs, mostly apostrophes and right double-quotes, but these are scripts, after all.

>they're too specific to a certain time and place to look anything but hideously retro these days.

I don't agree with Christian.
I've almost all the Dan Solo selections from Solotype (from Dover in pre-digitization days).
These books have been my initial inspiration in drawing typefaces, alongside with Letraset catalogues, and although I agree the specimens are of varying quailty (and with no credits) they offer many, not just a few, gems.

I've only one book in the Dover digital series and it seems the digitization is of varying quality. Some are good, some not.

Anyway it's curious to see how Solo finally ended up using the computer, since his 1980s manifest adversion you can read about in the catalogue you mentioned.

Btw, Christian, what you have decided about that thing you're working on? Drop me a line bacause I will have soon some news.

I don't agree with Christian on the "hideously retro" remark either. It's a matter of taste, what one finds hideous or otherwise, but hideously retro is an awful line to take when a lot of his own work is informed reworkings or revivals of old designs. I have all these Dan Solo books, and yes, there's a lot of sub-standard filler, but he was doing this "archival" work a long time before any of us thought it might be good to open a book of historical type specimens.

Hey, has anyone met Mr. Solo? I talked to him on the telephone back in the 90s for about half an hour. He was very kind. Yet he spent most of the time lamenting the fact that he was a dinosaur and knew nothing about digital type.

You would hardly guess that he had a successful thing going with Dover.

Based on the conversation and his apparent disdain for the computer, I can guess that he is not the person digitizing the type.

I met Solo in about 1970. He was the first type guy I met when I returned to Oakland from Kansas City. It was Solo who introduced Roger Black and I. Solo's parents owned the Oakland Rubber Stamp Company in Downtown Oakland, so he grew up in a type and printing atmosphere. He dabbled in many diverse occupations before starting Solotype. He has a wonderful deep voice so it is no surprise that he was an announcer, or actor, in radio. He had bit parts in several movies. "Scalplock" is a horrible Dale Robertson western. Solo appears momentarily as the town mayor. I think it was Scalplock. I tried watching it on tv a few nights ago to look for him, but the movie was so bad that I couldn't hang in there. He was also a magician for awhile. I have a poster and a tear-sheet of a newspaper ad. "See the Amazing Dr. Solo Hypnotise 100 People at Once!" "See the Amazing Siberian Water Torture!" etc. Once he started Solotype, he would take one month off each year to go on a type search. First to small country print shops around the U.S. and later, to Europe. He amassed a large collection of wood type and some metal. Later, he committed it to film for the Typositor and donated the wood and metal to some university. A very interesting man.

Solo is a fascinating person, indeed. A sort of odd "missing link" between historical and digital typography (I always hated photosetting). I loved his Dover selections long before even remotely considering to work in graphic design (I've a diploma in telecommunications): later on they were the only alternative to the sad early Mac/Laserwriter core fonts of the beginning.

I would like to ask if anyone knows whether Solotype Typographers still exists? I tried calling the number given in that Catalog published by Dover and it was disconnected. I can find no other active listings for it. Web searches turn up the books for sale, but nothing current about Dan X. Solo or Solotype. Castcraft claims that they have acquired the "entire Solotype Alphabet Collection" and can digitize any typeface for a 'reasonable price', but the page appears to be 8 years old.

I specialize in Font Identification and frequently have been asked about typefaces that I have found only in the Solotype Catalog, but can't recommend anywhere to locate the fonts, unless I know of a digitization under another name. I would also love to be able to see more complete samples of many of the typefaces that have not been shown in the many Dover Books. Does a more complete Solotype Catalog exist anywhere?

I used to work with Dan when I lived in Oakland in the 90's and have been wondering where he's been. An old designer friend of mine is looking for a specific font that I can't seem to locate. "Antikva Margaret" . Any suggestions?

Hope all is well.

Larry Anderson

I've had the solotype catalog since college—i was facinated by it then and still am. I've used the Dover books many times, always scanning the type myself.

I dont blame him at all for selling digital fonts of these typefaces. So many people (like house industries) have already taken these faces right out of the dover books and digitized them. It seems unfair that others should profit from typefaces that Solo unearthed.

Yeah, it's pretty easy to see where Adobe, Hoefler et al. get their inspiration.

As awesome as Solo's stuff is, I think I like Rob Roy Kelly's stuff a bit more.

David, John -- Do you think the history of type is recorded solely in Dover Books? Give Adobe, House and especially Jonathan Hoefler a little more credit. I'm guessing their sources of inspiration range a little wider than the Solotype catalog.

Absolutely. I didn't mean to slam those guys. Only, when you're looking through these cheap old books and run into what HAS to be Rosewood, it definitely makes an impact.

I had a long telephone conversation with Mr. Solo quite a few years ago. Quite a facinating fellow, indeed. As I recall, he was preparing for his yearly October month-long typographic search. Has anyone heard from him lately?

anyone know how to contact mister Dan X. Solo? if so please drop me a line! I'm actually trying to digitise one of the faces from his catalog and need more/better source materials. thanks for your help in advance!

I fear if you, in the US, are unable to locate Solo, it will be hard for us in Europe to know his current whereabouts.

I have just to say it's not just *idiot* (sorry!), but also anachronistic to compare Adobe (and even House Industries) with what Dan Solo did with Solotype.
Besides, all House Industries typefaces are original designs. Only amateurs scanned Solotype catalogs in the heyday of Postscript and produced disgusting shareware and freeware fonts.

I vomit each time I see something set in that crap-digitized version of a face which was named Dragonwick in the Solotype books. The freeware crappyfont was named Drago. Any info on Dragonwick (or Zinco) is appreciated as well.

> all House Industries typefaces are original designs.

I think this statement is too broad.

hhp

>I think this statement is too broad.

I just meant they are not scanned and traced. I do not consider "original" their work, save for two or three single faces.

The amazing Mr. Solo has recently released a handful of his enormous type collection through MyFonts, and Laurence Penney was kind enough to introduce us. I had a wonderfully entertaining phone conversation with him recently - what a charming gentleman! He has agreed to speak at TypeCon2004 this July, so anyone interested in meeting with him should try to get to San Francisco for the conference. I have a feeling he's going to put on quite a show. I wonder if we could persuade him to include a bit of his mind-reading act in his presentation...

Have a look at Vanden Houten/Dutch Treat. What a look for a typeface designed in 1904.
Thank you so much, Tamye, for posting the wonderful news. I'm so glad Dan Solo is back!
Now I formally require a digitization of Zinco (I don't know the original name and designer, I have it in one of the Solotype Dover books).

Having Dan Solo at TypeCon this summer will be a treat for all of us. His elocutionary skills alone will be worth the price of admission. Don't miss his program.

powers

>>Now I formally require a digitization of Zinco

Claudio, you can find a decent digital version of Zinco at MyFonts.com here http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/spiecegraphics/zinc-italian-sg/ to be exact. that's the only one I know of... now if anyone knows of a digital version of Nympyic, i can abandon that project! unless one of you knows how i can find some high quality print samples i can get my hands on then i can finish digitizing that one!

The Zinco is from Jim Spiece, who has done a number of great digitizations - quality is pretty decent, and he usually includes whatever alternates he can find in the specimens he works from.

I too was one of those lucky people to have spoken to Mr. Solo about type. I have been fascinated with type since I was a child, and used to ride my bike to the office supply store to spend my allowance on rub-off type. I worked in phototype in the 80s and then with digital type on the Mac shortly after leaving the job setting type with the Addresograph Multigraph Varityper. One day I saw a brochure with the most beautiful, the most illustrious, the most grand font I had ever seen. I called the company who had produced the thing for which the flyer had been created (no memory of what that thing is now), but no one could tell me the name of the font. I had to have it. I had to know what it was! I turned to my vast Solotype catalog but failed to identify it from the thousands of fonts there; in desperationg I called the number at the back and lo and behold! Dan himself answered the phone, asked me to fax my type sample, and within minutes the answer came back: Bernhard Modern. What a guy! It's still my favorite font, even though I have over 40,000 of them now.