Certayne Lavves (Blast From the Past #35)

No, my spell check isn't broken. And yes - I'm quite behind on reporting all my fun adventures - but for now I'm going to do a bit of "slight of hand" to distract you.

Certayne Lavves is another way of saying Certain Laws – the laws of printing that is. In the mid-16th century printers were graphic designers and artists all wrapped into one neat package. So think of this list as a Murphy's Law for Printers and Graphic Designers of todays world. And all the "Lavves" ring true to this very day.

Ws were printed using two Vs. J and I were kind of interchangeable. Ss looked a lot like F. Spelling was a bit, well – optional shall we say. It wasn't till the advent of Mr. Webster that words officially became misspelled. I'm a horrible speller. Spell check is definitely a close friend of mine. I dream about a time and place where spelling didn't matter and then I remember, oh yeah they had the plague too. Poor spelling or the plague? Hmmm. Decisions, decisions. I think I'll take door number one Bob.

(double click for larger view)

Credit where credit is due: This piece was printed by Ian Robertson at The Slow Loris Press in 1985