The extension range – booklet, Cooper & Beatty, Jim Donoahue, c1962

Unlike photo-lettering, which was largely visual and allowed for tight spacing and expressive distortion, Extension Range settings were still mechanical and retained the formal structure of traditional typesetting. In many ways, it was a transitional technology, bridging the gap between hot metal and phototype.

The Monotype Corporation had earlier developed a system they called the Super Caster – a manually operated machine designed to cast large display sizes, typically up to 72 point, of their most popular typefaces. To distinguish their services, large type shops often rebranded these standard systems under proprietary names. At Cooper & Beatty, type cast on the Super Caster became known as the Extension Range.

Each setting was carefully proofed – printed on either smooth-finish paper or positive film – to ensure photographic resizing with minimal loss of detail – an essential step in preserving the image quality of large display type. Throughout much of the 20th century, typesetters often had to develop, and sometimes improvise, methods and systems to address challenges that are now almost unimaginable.

Although the Cooper & Beatty fonds list this booklet as a 1963 production, the design, type choices, and credited personnel suggest that it was more likely produced in 1962, or possibly even 1961.
– Rod McDonald

Artifact Text

A stimulating experiment in the testing and use of fresh and modern letter forms

The addition of the extension range to a versatile library of standard type faces

Univers and Melior and Time-Script and Ideal Script and Baskerville and Smaragd and Augustea and Emerson and Walbaum and Fry’s Ornamented and Firmin Didot and Egizio and Consort and Diethelm and Thorowgood and Gill Sans and Tea Chest and Imprint and Bell and Spectrum and Standard and City and Maxime and all from the Extension Range of Cooper & Beatty, Limited