type-o-file – Cooper & Beatty, Allan Fleming, 1957

The colour-coded booklets, one for each of the six major typeface classifications then used by Cooper & Beatty, helped designers quickly find the typeface they needed. Although it was free to clients and potential buyers of typesetting Type-o-file proved so popular that Cooper & Beatty found themselves selling them to designers and art directors outside Toronto, and even outside the country.

Fleming’s basic Type-o-file concept was retained in the 1964 Cooper & Beatty corporate redesign by Tony Mann. The white ‘alphabets’ booklet, shown in the photo, is from the 1964 redesign. It is an index containing one-line showings of all the typefaces in the Type-o-file.

The typeface showings were comprehensive enough to allow most art directors to make an informed decision about which typeface they would use for a job. The only drawback to the Type-o-file was its lack of full showings of all the characters in a font, but seasoned art directors would have had large collections of full alphabet showings of typefaces which they used for tracing when rendering layouts.

Notes

In 1957, after 30 years of use, Cooper & Beatty finally replaced their original 1927 type specimen book with the innovative type-o-file. Designed by Allan Fleming, type-o-file was a flip-top cardboard box containing six easy to hold booklets. At a time when type books were often too heavy to even hold comfortably type-o-file was small enough to fit on a desk without taking up any more space than a telephone. The type-o-file soon became a favourite with all buyers of typesetting, who appreciated its convenience, practicality, and aesthetic appeal.

Other major Toronto typesetters came out with their own variations of the type-o-file. Mono Lino produced a wooden box that held eight three-ring vinyl binders and Howarth & Smith brought out the Graphic-Pak, a metal box containing individual specimens of all their typefaces. However, both solutions were still larger and heavier than the type-o-file. – Rod McDonald

Category
Advertising and Promotion
Title
Type-o-file, Cooper & Beatty
Date
1957
Client
Cooper & Beatty, Limited
Credits
Design: Allan R. Fleming (1927–1977)
Principal Typefaces
Display: Clarendon, various
Text: Clarendon, various
Description
Hinged box containing six type specimen booklets
Size: 10 × 5.75 × 2.75 inches
Region
Ontario
Languages
English
Number of images
3
Holding
Canadian Typography Archives

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type-o-file – Cooper & Beatty, Allan Fleming, 1957

Notes

Artifact Data