Facsimile of the first issue The Times, January 1, 1788.
Facsimile of the first issue The Times, January 1, 1788.
Detail map of London, England, United Kingdom Overview map of London, England, United Kingdom

A: London, England, United Kingdom

John Walter Publishes his First Newspaper from Logographic Type

1785
Upper half of the first page of the first issue of The Universal Daily Register, predecessor of the The Times of London.  This is a reproduction of a facsimile edition.
Upper half of the first page of the first issue of The Universal Daily Register, predecessor of the The Times of London.  This is a reproduction of a facsimile edition.
Note the reference to the paper being printed "Logographically" in the masthead. 

In 1785 printer John Walter began publishing The Daily Universal Register in London. Walter had the typesetting of his newspaper done logographically. In 1784 Walker had purchased this patented system of typesetting in which speed and therefore cost of manual typesetting was intended to be enhanced by using a typefont that included complete words or parts of words rather than individual letters.

After publishing 939 issues of The Daily Universal Register, on January 1, 1788 Walter renamed this news the The TimesThe first issue of The Times was numbered 940, following the 939th issue of The Daily Universal Register. In the first masthead of The Times Walter called it The Times or Daily Universal Register, and Walter stated under the masthead that this paper was also "Printed Logographically."

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