When I am working on identifying a typeface with the slug markings “R” or “AR”, or if the markings are not provided, I will make my first lookup in the “1928 RaRo A-B” catalog, which contains the typeface offerings of the Alfred Ransmayer & Albert Rodrian foundry as of 1928. These typefaces show up very often on European machines, and fairly often on American makes, and could be special ordered by dealers as well as by factories. It’s an excellent place to start.
There’s lots of other very useful information in this catalog as well – a tour of the foundry, typeslug identification, parts of the typeface, etc. It is in German, but a translation by Richard Polt is provided at the end.
This PDF was scanned and released by a group of international Typospherians back in 2014, and PDF copies of it are available in the Typewriter Database’s File Library and probably several other places, if you should want it in that format. This blog post is meant to make the reference easily available to search engines and social media posts, which if my NOMDA Typeface posts are any indication, is a much more accessible way to make the information spread. (:
I believe this is the longest Ted Munk post yet! Great work. I have a pdf of this from Dr. Shorzi (Sommeregger’s Sammelelsurium) when I started collecting H3k Machines. It is a great resource for European made typewriters, especially Hermes.