#ceefax

50 Years of Teletext Subtitles by Thomas Boevith

Initiate the ritual! 📺🎶

bonus version which has just the character images

// subtitles 888

Recreated the Ceefax homepage in Illustrator using Teletext typefaces and pixel precision.

This was how I first accessed subtitles—Page 888—launched in 1974, two years before I was born. But I didn’t start using them until age 4, after my deafness was diagnosed.

Sometimes I wonder: if I’d had captions sooner, would the wiring of my brain be different? Would the delay in auditory processing still be there?

This screen isn’t nostalgia.

It’s an interface.

Back before the internet was widely used and available, Ceefax aka Teletext was an important source for up to date information.

The latest news and sports scores would be updated in real time, and I’d spend ages flicking through the pages.

The league tables, latest scores and transfer gossip was all available via this pixelated service.

I get nostalgic for really random things, and Teletext/Ceefax is one of them.  It’s hard to believe that now with all the information in the world at your fingertips, this was once the pinnacle of technology.