Essays and working notes on typography, printing and slow reading, from a typesetter in Belfast. Free every second Thursday; members get the whole archive.https://versal.example/en-gbhttps://versal.example/posts/the-measure-decides-everything/https://versal.example/posts/the-measure-decides-everything/Pick the line length first. The typeface, the size, the leading and the margins are all downstream of it, and most bad pages started somewhere else.Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTtypographyscreenshttps://versal.example/posts/ink/https://versal.example/posts/ink/The one material in printing that nobody photographs, and what it does to a press day.Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTprintingscreenshttps://versal.example/posts/eleventh-year/https://versal.example/posts/eleventh-year/I reread one novel every January. What eleven passes have actually changed, and why the book is now an instrument rather than a story.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTreadinghabitshttps://versal.example/posts/widows-orphans-and-the-honest-fix/https://versal.example/posts/widows-orphans-and-the-honest-fix/Three ways to get rid of a stranded line, two of which lie to the reader, and what happens to the problem once there are no pages at all. (Members)Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTtypographycrafthttps://versal.example/posts/what-a-proof-is-for/https://versal.example/posts/what-a-proof-is-for/A proof is not a preview. It is the only place certain mistakes are visible at all, and the second one matters more than the first.Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTprintingcraftscreenshttps://versal.example/posts/old-style-figures/https://versal.example/posts/old-style-figures/Text figures sit down inside a line of prose. Lining figures stand up like capitals. Most pages use the wrong one in at least one place.Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtypographyhttps://versal.example/posts/a-drawer-of-wood-type/https://versal.example/posts/a-drawer-of-wood-type/What was in the fourth cabinet, why the incomplete fonts are the interesting ones, and the split W I will not repair. (Members)Thu, 11 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTprintingcrafthttps://versal.example/posts/notes-on-rereading-in-winter/https://versal.example/posts/notes-on-rereading-in-winter/Why the reading changes when the light does, and the small ritual I keep on the first Sunday in January.Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTreadinghabitshttps://versal.example/posts/six-years-of-a-paper-notebook/https://versal.example/posts/six-years-of-a-paper-notebook/What survives in a paper notebook that does not survive in a file, and why the thing I most value about it is that it cannot be searched.Thu, 13 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThabitstoolshttps://versal.example/posts/the-margin-is-not-empty/https://versal.example/posts/the-margin-is-not-empty/Why the outer margin is wider than the inner, why the bottom is the biggest of all, and what happens when a page is designed by someone counting paper.Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTtypographycraft