Linokey
Linokey (1995)
Lambda Print
50 x 70 cm
1 image photographic piece.
The Linotype is remembered, by the observers of its operation, for the layout of its keyboard, which has letters arranged in decreasing order of frequency in everyday English. The first two vertical rows of keys are ETAOIN and SHRDLU, and if Linotype operators should make a mistake in composing, they will sometimes run their fingers down these two rows, thus filling out the line with nonsense; example: etaoinshrdluetaoinshr. This is known as a run down. It is often quicker to cast a bad slug than to hand-correct the line within the assembling mechanism. The slug with the run down is removed once ejected, or during the printing form setup by another individual. If not there, it will be caught by the proofreading department. Run downs are occasionally used to quickly fill out a line, should that line have only a few words or characters in its beginning. In this case, only the run down will be trimmed from the top of the slug, with the remaining slug still intact.
The Linotype keyboard has the same alphabet arrangement given twice, once for lower-case letters, the keys in black, on the left side of the keyboard, and once for upper-case letters, the keys in white, located on the right side of the keyboard. The blue keys in the middle are punctuation, numbers, and solid spaces. In proper keyboard operation, the experienced operator’s left hand operates the spaceband key, and the left vertical row of keys only. The operator’s right hand strokes the remaining keys on the entire keyboard.
