Schriftenkartei

By a stroke of luck, an extraordinary object came into the hands of Michael Wörgötter, Professor of Typography in Augsburg – the Schriftenkartei. It included not just any, but the typefaces of all existing type foundries in West Germany at that time—Bauersche Gießerei, H. Berthold AG, Genzsch & Heyse, Ludwig & Mayer, D. Stempel AG, Johannes Wagner GmbH, and C. E. Weber—a treasure chest of more than 600 specimen cards. It was created between 1958 and 1970, in the very last phase of lead typesetting. A box with A5-sized cards, 638 fonts, set and printed in a largely uniform design.

For Wörgötter it was clear that something like this was worth preserving. In fact, only four copies of the card index can be found in German archives and museums, making it a small treasure. He scanned all the cards at 1200 dpi and produced a publication to go with them. Two volumes, almost 1400 pages, with an explanatory supplement—3.3 kg of type history! The bilingual supplement describes the background and development of the card index and contains extensive indexes. The books are produced in a small edition, waiting to find interested colleagues who would like to work with them.

The Letterform Archive in San Francisco, in particular Stephen Coles, took up Wörgötter’s cause. The physical card index is now housed there and the high-resolution scans are hosted by the archive, making them available for free use. Take a look at the scans here.

Schriftenkartei
By Michael Wörgötter

Schriftenkartei – Typeface Index
Two Volumes plus a supplementary guide
German and English
Volume: Around 1.400 pages
Price: € 170,–

The books are available for purchase directly from Michael Wörgötter.
Read more about it here.