Harrington - new type element for Blick

I was looking for a type face which will be interesting, ornamental and easy to read. And possible to implement on Blick. Harrington caught my eye but initial attempts to print it were unsuccessful. Mostly due to letters breaking during layer detach and eroding. Especially delicate serifs. And this typeface is all about serifs!

The typeface is balanced and proportional so very suitable for Blick.
To reinforce it - while not making it bold - I used the same concept as used on traditional, metal slugs: I reinforced serifs with separate extrusions, formed with chamfers to not interfere with imprint.

It took a while to adjust the model but seemed to be worth it. I printed the cylinder over the night. I chose no anti-aliasing - to keep delicate details intact.

I still use my home-made ink, while waiting for delivery of oil-based stamp ink, so inking is very rudimentary but first test type is looking promising!

I type on very thin paper, without any backing sheet, on stone-hard platen. This is to clearly see if alignment is correct. And it’s not - capitals are only partially printed, small letters are darker at the bottom.

My platen is at its closest position (cylinder adjustment) so no way to move it closer and imprint suggests that. So there will be next iteration, with type face shifted a millimeter or so, to match the platen. I don’t want to change other adjustments on the machine - she is adjusted for original type element and needs to stay like that.

So the story continues…