ABRRSE SCHOOL LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Class THE PRACTICE OF TYPOGRAPHY THE PRACTICE OF TYPOGRAPHY A TREATISE ON THE PROCESSES OF TYPE-MAKING, THE POINT SYSTEM, THE NAMES, SIZES STYLES AND PRICES OF PLAIN PRINTING TYPES BY THEODORE LOW DE VINNE, A.M.* SECOND EDITION NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1902 Copyright, 1899, by THEODORE LOW DE VINNE. { UNIVERSITY | OF NGitrroruibr PREFACE HIS treatise is a summary of detached notes collected by the writer since 1860. A desire to make it complete and exact has prevented its earlier publication. As an aid to this result each chapter has been revised recently by experts in different branches of printing. In its present cor- rected form it is believed that it will be found of use to all who seek for information about types which cannot be compressed within the ordinary manual of printing, or be gleaned quickly from the specimen books of many type-founders. The scope of the book has to be limited to plain types. Re- marks concerning newspaper types, typographic decorations, and recent fashions in book-work, have to be postponed. The composition of title- pages may be the subject of another treatise. In making the numerous corrections demanded by changes of fashion and new methods of manu- facture, I have not considered it judicious to change the earlier and best-known name of any type- 5 175608 6 Preface foundry which has introduced a new face of type. Many of them are now branches of the American Type Founders Company. To accredit each face of type to a great company which has branches in many widely separated cities would not properly specify the maker or the place of manufacture. Acknowledgments for valuable information in the preparation of this matter are due, and are here gratefully made, to the late David Bruce, Jr., the late James Lindsay, and their successor Mr. V. B. Munson, of the New York Type Foundry; to Mr. J. W. Phinney of Boston, Mr. L. S. Benton of New York, and Mr. Henry Barth of Cincinnati, of the American Type Founders Company ; to Mr. Charles T. Jacobi of the Chiswick Press, and Mr. T. W. Smith of H. W. Caslon & Company, London; to the late William Morris of London, and Messrs. Claude Motteroz of Paris, Theodor Goebel of Stuttgart, Venancio Deslandes of the Imprensa Nacional of Lisbon, and William E. Loy of San Francisco. CONTENTS CHAPTER I The Processes of Type-making 11 The Names of the Leading Sizes of Tynes 11 The Point System 1v A Font of Type . CE Le Ge v Faces or Styles of Type. Old-style Roman vi Modern Faces of Roman Letter . vit Condensed Roman Types vii Italie Types . ‘i 1x Fat-face or Title-types . x Black-letter . XI Gothic X XII Antique Types, Ronis, Celtic, and ln x11 The Classes and Prices of Printing-types . xiv Large Types. Wood Types. The Panto- graph. Benton’s Punch-cutting Machine XV Recent Quaint Styles of Plain Type PAGE 9 53 123 165 182 209 255 269 281 291 315 323 336 345 359 PLAIN PRINTING-TYPES I The Processes of Type-making § RINTING-TYPES are made from an ) alloy of melted lead, tin, antimony, @) and sometimes copper, that fills the mould exactly and shrinks but little (es in cooling. The utility of typogra- phy depends upon the accuracy of each pypesmust type, and the consequent squareness of a be founded thousand or a hundred thousand types in ™™"48 any combination. This accuracy is most certainly secured by founding each type singly in a mould. Experiments in cutting or swaging them from cold metal have hitherto been unsuccessful. Nor is there any practical substitute for type-metal : brass. and copper melt at a great heat that soon wears out the mould; lead and tin are too soft for the service required; glass is too brittle, and will 2 9 10 Departments of Type-making not entirely fill the matrix; gutta-percha and cel- luloid cost more and have disadvantages that out- weigh their merits. Large types for posting-bills Large types are made from close-grained wood like made from that of the box, maple, or pear tree: for hard woods ¢1)is hranch of printing, types of wood are preferred, as lighter and cheaper than those made from metal. Types of wood are seldom smaller as to height of face than one inch. They can be made smaller, but small pieces of wood warp after heat or swell after moisture and are unfit for practical work. As now practised, type-making has six distinct departments: (1) Punch-cutting, or the art of de- Six depart. Signing and engraving the model char- mentsin acters from which types are made; (2) type-making pitting-up, or the art of adjusting the matrices to the moulds; (3) Electrotyping, or the art of making matrices by electrolysis; (4) Mould- making, or the art of constructing the moulds in which types are cast, and the exact tools by which their accuracy is tested; (5) Type-casting, or the art of founding types in moulds; (6) Type-dress- ing, or the art of finishing the incomplete work of the type-caster. The breaking-off of surplus metal from the cast types, the rubbing-down of the feather edge made in casting, the kerning or adjusting of overhanging letters, and the final in- spection of each finished type are additional oper- ations. Every large foundry has a few workmen Punch-cutting the First Process i who are expert in two or three of these depart- ments, but the ordinary workman has knowledge and practice in one department only. Punch-cutting is the first process, which must be preceded by a careful drawing of the characters. No operation in typography requires punon-cut. more skill than this, and in none is tingis the error more disastrous.! The modern frst process punch-cutter is not fettered by arbitrary rules: he does not conform to the models devised by Albert Diirer, nor those subsequently made by French theorists in type-founding. He is at liberty to design characters that may be taller or broader, thicker or thinner, than any heretofore made, but he is required to make all the characters of a full font uniform as to style, so as to show perfect correlation. The characters must seem Thos Hse uniform as to height, line, stroke, serif, be drawn accurately curve, and angle; they should be in proper relative proportion as to size, and as to nearness and distance in all combinations. The beauty of text-types isin their precision. That free- dom of drawing which 1 Type-founding is mot like other arts, in which imperfect workmanship may find a use proportionate to its relative value. Printing should toler- ate nothing that is bad, nor even that which is mediocre, since it costs as much to found and print bad types as it does to found and print perfect ones. is permitted, and some-, If the punch-cutter has not the requisite ability for the work, the founder, who gives metal, and the printer, who gives paper, cannot retrieve his er- rors. They are obliged to per- petuate these evidences of his mean ability, and to dishonor ty- pography. Fournier, ‘‘ Manuel Typographique,” vol. i, p. 3. 12 Methods in Designing of Letters times approved, in the letters of a good penman, or in engraving, or in the types of job printers, is not tolerated in the text-types of books, which must be precise. The assortment of characters known to printers as a font of roman book-type requires the en- graving of 150 punches: 29 large capitals, including &, A, and (E ; 29 small capitals, including &, 2, and @& ; 33 lower-case characters, including fi, fl, ff, ffi, ffi, ee, and ce; 19 figures and fractions ; 22 points, refer- ences, and signs; 18 other characters. Accents and the special signs required for some books are not furnished in the regular assortment. These characters are divided into six classes of irregular heights of face: (1) Full-bodied letters, like Q and j—that occupy the entire body of the 1 Diirer’s rules and diagrams for the formation of letters, in his ‘“Unterweysung der Mes- sung” of 1524, are reprinted in ‘Die Initialen der Renais- sance,” by Camillo Sitte and Josef Salb (folio, Vienna, 1882). Geoffrey Tory of Paris, in his “ Champfleury ” of 1529; Yecair of Saragossa, in his ‘ Ortho- graphia Practica” of 1548; and Paccioli of Venice, in his ¢ De Divina Proportione” of 1509, have also devised geometrical formulas for letters. Moxon’s scheme for the plotting out of each letter in little squares 42 wide and 42 high is illustrated in the text (p. 13), and detailed ex- planations of it are given in his “Regule Trium Ordinum Lit- erarum Typographicarum” of 1676. The extreme of scientific precision was attempted by a commission of the ‘‘ Académie des Sciences ” of Paris, appoint- ed in 1694, of which M. Jaugeon was the chief. He recommended the projection of every roman capital on a framework of 2304 little squares, and on a congeries of squares and rhomboids and curves for lower-case and italic letters. These rules and dia- grams no doubt are of some use to designers of letters, but they have never been fully adopted by any punch-cutter. Types Must be Made by Rule 13 type; (2) Ascending letters, like A, b, h, d, that occupy the upper three-fourths of the body; (3) Descending letters, like p, y, g, q, that preguiar occupy the lower three-fourths of the heights of body; (4) Short letters like a, o, that acter occupy about one-half of the body in the middle part; (5) Small capitals, that are sometimes in height more than one-half of the body, but not as high as the ascending letters; (6) Irregular characters, like the * that have no arbitrary height, but do have a definite position. . A Scale of 42 Parts Viz. the Body: Jot Vga Tl 3 9 Moxon’s method of designing letters. The punch-cutter begins his work of practical design by drawing a geometrical framework, on which he determines the proper position |... of every line and the height of each first drawn character. A small margin is left at °"PaPer top and bottom of the face to prevent the touch- ing of a descending letter against an ascending letter in the next line, as well as to prevent the wear of exposed lines cut flush to the edge of the body. 14 Rules Not to be Used Servilely The relative heights of the short and long letters vary greatly: in some styles the short letters are but one-third of the body; in other styles, nearly two-thirds, and the ascending and descending let- ters are correspondingly taller or shorter. Measuring instruments of precision are needed, but they cannot be used servilely or thoughtlessly. Garis ge. TO give the type the needed appearance lusions are Of uniformity, some of the lines must be bumored 15id down in directions that transgress the rules. Some types have to be drawn longer than their fellows. Optical delusions must be humored, as will be more clearly shown in the curved letters of the following illustration. AOS If a straight-edge be laid against the foot of this line, one can see that the letters which curve at the foot fall below the line. If they did not project they would seem too short. The angles of capital letters like A Y M N Z have to be varied for each letter. These are conspicuous examples, but there are many more; a large proportion of the characters for every font of roman or italic contain lines that are departures from the rules Departures from Rules often Made 15 which must be observed in their mated charac- ters. Deviations have to be made occasionally, not only to deceive the eye, but to make each letter pleasing and generally acceptable in any combi- nation with other letters. The effect of letters in combination must be studied. These irregularities cannot be formulated in a system ; they vary with every new style of face, and to some extent with every new size of body. The knowledge of what is needed in the forms of types can be acquired only by long practice, and by a careful study of the combinations of different letters. American type-founders say that there are not a dozen men in the United States who can make acceptable drawings for a symmetrical font of roman and italic types. When the proportions of the letters have been determined, the punch-cutter begins his work by making a counter-punch of steel. The , . inter illustration adjoining shows the form punch the of a counter-punch for the letter H of st Work : the size of double english. Itisan engraving » in high relief of the counter or hollow part of the type, that is, of that part which ap- pears white in the printed letter. These counter- punches have little resemblance to the letters for which they are intended. When approved, the counter-punch is impressed, to a proper depth, into the end of a short bar of soft steel. The depth is necessarily shallow for small types and 16 Cutting the Punch deeper for large types! Properly impressed or struck, this counter-punch finishes, at one stroke, the interior part of the model letter, and does it more quickly and neatly than it could be done with cutting tools. This bar of soft steel is known as the punch. When it has received the impress of Cutting The counter-punch, the engraver ofthe cuts away the outer edges until punch the letter is adjudged perfect. The punch is the model type—the pat- tern from which it is intended that thousands of printing-types shall be made. To make this model letter on the punch faultlessly, all the measure- ments of the drawing on paper are repeated on the steel, gauges are fre- quently used, and trial proofs are taken while the work is in progress. To get these trial proofs the cutter puts the punch into the flame of a flaring gas- burner until its face is covered with soot. Then, after breathing repeatedly on a bit of paper until J its surface is softened by moisture, he firmly presses the punch on the paper. In this way he Punch of letter H. 1 Fournier, in his ‘ Manuel Typographique” (vol. i, p. 12), recommends one-fourth of a geometric line, or about the forty-eighth of an inch, as the proper depth for small type. This makes the counter too shallow, and sufficiently justi- fies the objection of Fertel, an early French printer, who said that the counters of small French types filled up with ink too quickly, and thus prevented good presswork. Making the Matrix 17 gets a sharper proof of his work than can be had from any impression made from black mixed with oil or upon paper sodden with water. When the engraver has finished the cutting of the punch, its soft steel is hardened until it has strength to penetrate copper. it is then punched in a flat, narrow bar of cold-rolled copper, which makes a reversed This done, Striking of the matrix duplicate of the letter on the punch. In this state the copper bar is known as a drive, a strike, or w L I \ Hil Jif Maine of letter H. The letters 2 ® are private marks of the founder which cannot ap- pear on the type. an unjustified matrix. It is only when the drive has been made per- ect that it is known as the matrix. This matrix is really the mould for the face of the letter. The drive is a shapeless bit of copper, which must be accurately fitted to the mould. During the op- eration of casting, it must pin, move freely to and from the of the mould, and yet be snugly fitted eroto. Its outer surface must be in exact parallel with the face of the sunken letter below. Not only this matrix, but all matri- ces of the same font, must be of the same depth from the surface to the sunken face; each must be accu- rately square on the sides, and all must have the sunken letters relatively in the same position. If 3 18 Electrotyping of Matrices this is badly done, the founded types will not stand trueinlineorhave true spaces onthesides. Thepro- cess of converting a drive into an available matrix, known among type-founders as fitting-up, or justi- fying, is one of the nicest of operations. When per- fected the matrix is stamped at the foot with letters or figures which enable the caster to identify it. Matrices are also made by processes of electro- typing,! for which the punch of steel and the operation of striking are not required. The model letters are cut on type-metal, and, after preparation, are suspended in a poreelain-lined jar containing a solution of suplhate of copper in connection with a voltaic battery. The chemical action created in the bat- tery cells causes an electric current that liberates Electrotyp- ing of the matrices 1 Joseph A. Adams of New York was the first American to experiment in electrotypes for printing cuts. In 1839 he was engraving the woodcuts for Harper's ‘‘ Pictorial Bible,” at that date the most elabo- rately illustrated book that had been planned in this country. In overseeing the printing of this work he had practical evi- dence both of the weakness of the woodcut and the imperfec- tion of stereotype, which sug- gested to him the value of a better process. In 1841 he fur- nished to ‘“Mapes’s Magazine ” an electrotype of one of his en- gravings, which was success- fully printed. In 1840 Profes- sor Jacobi of St. Petersburg, Thomas Spencer of Liverpool, and J. C. Jordan of London, who seem to have been making experiments without any know- ledge of one another’s attempts, succeeded in making electro- type plates. The first electro- type matrix for types was made by Edwin Starr of Philadelphia in 1845, and used in the foundry of James Conner of New York. This innovation was not then received with favor, for the new matrices were inferior. The ob- jections made against the first electrotyped matrices do not ap- ply to all that are made now, because they are used for large types in all type-foundries. Fitting of Matrices to Moulds 19 atoms of copper from the solution, which adhere to the suspended model letters. When the desired deposit is obtained the letters are taken from the solution and their thick shells of copper removed. These shells are reinforced by brass and are con- verted by the fitter-up into movable matrices. Matrices can be made by the electrotype process from models in type-metal or from cast type as readily as from punches of steel. Every character in the ordinary font of roman and italic has its own matrix, but all these mat- rices are adjusted to one mould. This i fvaivices mould must not only be true for its are fitted to own work, so that every type cast from ©°nemould. it will rerdily combine with its mates, but must be true in all points to the standard mould, and all other moulds for that body. A printer requires of the founder that types cast to-day shall be of exactly the same body as types cast twenty years ago, regardless of the wear of the mould during this long interval. If types were as uniform in width as they are in height, the task would not be so difficult; but letters vary irregularly in width from the 1 to the W, and the spaces vary regularly from the hair-space | to the three-em [Jl quad- rat. It follows that the mould must be made ad- justable, and that nearly every change of matrix will compel a readjustment of the mould. The type-mould is of two pieces, apparently a right and a left counterpart. The matrix pro- 20 Construction of the Mould vided for the face is regarded as an attachment. Each piece consists of a number of firmly screwed bits of polished steel. When the two counterparts are properly brought to- gether their interior sides are in exact parallel at a fixed and unalterable distance. The upper end of the mould is provided with a seat for the matrix; the lower end is open for the inflow of melted type-metal. Between these ends is the hollow to be filled with the melted metal that makes the type. Although the mould when joined is immovable in the direction that deter- mines the body of the type, it has great liberty of motion and ease of adjustment in the direction that determines the thickness or the width of the type. The counterparts, when properly adjusted, slide to and fro on broad and solid bearings that prevent their getting out of square.! Moulds are now made to be attached to type- casting machines, for casting by hand exclusively Construction as not been done in any American of the type-cast- foundry since 1845. At the base of ingmachine the machine is a small furnace, the heat of which keeps fluid the metal in the pot above. Suspended over this pot is a flat-faced The construc- tion of the type-mould 1 The type-mould now in use does not materially differ from that shown by Fournier, in his ¢ Manuel Typographique” of 1764, or by Moxon in his ‘Me- chanick Exercises” of 1683, who does not write of it as a recent invention. Its more important features are as old as the inven- tion of typography. Moxon's moulds were of iron; those of the early founders were of brass. Construction of the Mould 21 Type-mould without matrix, and with a type of the letter H in the mould. The other half of the mould. 22 Operation of Casting Machine piston, or plunger. Every revolution of the erank gives to this plunger a sudden thrust which in- jects through an unseen aperture enough of the melted metal to instantly fill the mould and the matrix, the matrix being held in place by a lever. As soon as the mould receives the metal it opens at an obtuse angle, as a door upon hinges. At the same instant the pressure on the lever that binds the matrix close to the mould is released, and then the matrix springs backward. The type is held in the upper half of the mould by a blunt pin, and when it raises, by the assistance of a rod which is connected with the apron, the stool hits the face end at the back and releases the type. As soon as the type is dislodged the mould closes automatically, and the plunger injects a new sup- ply of metal, which is thrown out as before in the shape of a type. Although types are cast singly they can be made rapidly; the rate of one hundred in a minute Types 1S NOt an uncommon production of the rapidly smaller sizes. The large types, which cool made gJowly, are cast slowly. The degree of heat required varies with the size of the body and the hardness of the metal. As a rule the smaller sizes are cast of harder metal and require greater heat. Efforts have frequently been made to cast many types at one operation from a multiple mould. The most successful effort in this direction was Xx made by Henri Didot of Paris, who in 1819 in- The Bruce Type-casting Machine — 23 le The Bruce type-casting machine. 24 Impressions of Cast Type vented a “ polymatype” mould for casting a font of extremely small type ; 1 but this mould, although occasionally used by his successors for very small bodies, has not been adopted by other founders. The types thrown out of the mould are for the greater part perfect as to face, but unfinished as to body, for an unformed strip of metal called the jet, which cools outside of the mould, is attached to the lower end of each type. The bodies of the types have on their corners burs,? or sharp edges of metal. These and other imperfections have to be removed by the rubber and dresser, or finisher.? The jets are broken off, and the burs rubbed off on a grindstone, or dressing machine. Types with projections, like the f or J, are known as kerned letters, and are smoothed on the sides with a file, or by a machine in which a rapidly revolving wheel cuts away the superfluous metal without touching the projecting face. The types are then set up in a long row, and firmly fastened, face down, in a grooved channel Imperfect as thrown from mould 1 British Patent No. 4826 to Louis John Pouchée. See the ¢“ Abridgement of Specifications relating to Printing,” printed by order of the Commission- ers of Patents, London, 1859, p- 165. 2 The bur is produced by a slight and unavoidable leakage of metal at the angles of the mould. If the mould were set so tight that air could not escape from the corners, the types cast therefrom would be porous with air bubbles. Provision must be made for escape of air when the mould is suddenly filled with a spurt of hot metal. ! 3 In 1838 and 1868 two patents were granted to David Bruce, Jr., for mechanisms which auto- matically broke the jet and re- moved the bur, but they were not adopted by type-founders. Dressing and Hand-casting 25 called the dressing rod, so that a plane, working in carefully adjusted side bearings, can cut away the irregular fracture made by the broken jet. This operation leaves the types with a shallow groove between the feet, which allows each body 1,..ine or to rest on its feet, thereby securing uni- finishing formity as to height. The dresser then °F tres reverses the position of the row, bringing the faces upward, and scrapes or files the front and back of the types, deftly changing them from one rod to another, so that front and back may be exposed in succession. This operation ends the smoothing of the types; their sides having been rubbed before they were set in the dressing rod. The line or rod of types is then critically examined under a mag- nifying glass, and every type that shows an im- perfection is thrown out and destroyed. This in- spection completes the work. The perfect types are then packed in paper convenient for handling. This method of making types hasbeen themethod of all type-founders before the year 1850. Since 1890 new machines have been invented qe eartiest which do some of the work automati- method of cally. It is mainly in the department “casting of casting the type that the greatest improvement has been developed. All types were formerly cast by hand. The caster took in his left hand the mould, which was imbedded in wood and shielded to protect him from being burned with hot metal. Then, taking a 4 26 Process of Hand - casting spoon in his right hand, he poured the fluid metal into the mouthpiece of the mould.! At the same instant, with a sudden and violent jerk, he threw up his left hand to aid the melted metal in mak- ing a forcible splash against the matrix. If the mould was not thrown upward quickly, the metal would not penetrate the matrix. Hand-casting was hard and slow work: Fournier says that the production of a French hand-caster was from two to three thousand types a day; Moxon says the English caster cast four thousand. Type-founding in some of its processes is but one of the many forms of printing. The counter- punch impresses the punch; the punch impresses the matrix; the matrix impresses the fluid metal. 11n 1811, Archibald Binny of Philadelphia devised the first improvement in hand-casting. He attached a spring lever to the mould, giving it a quick return movement, which en- abled the type-caster to double the old production. In 1828, William Johnson of Long Isl and invented a type-casting machine which received the ac- tive support of Elihu White of New York; but the types made by it were too porous, and the mechanism, after fair trial, was abandoned. About 1834, David Bruce, Jr., of New York invented a hand force- pump attachment to the mould, for the purpose of obtaining a more perfect face to ornamen- tal type than was possible with the regular mould. This attach- ment was known as the squirt machine. Large ornamental types owe their popularity to this simple contrivance. In 1838, the. same founder invented a type-casting machine, which was successfully used for many years in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. In 1843 he added other improvements of recog- nized value. Most of the type- casting machines in Europe and America are modifications and adaptations of Mr. Bruce's in- vention. The Barth Type-casting Machine 27 For more than forty years the Bruce type-cast- ing machine or some modification of it maintained its popularity, and furnished nearly all the type made during this period. Improvements of real value were gradually added to it in different found- ries, but the changes did not materially increase its productiveness. Yet it has never been regarded as a perfect machine. Its great defect is its in- ability to make the types perfect. To break the jet off, to rub down the feather-edges, and to plough out the feet, manual labor has to be em- ployed, as in the days of hand-casting. At differ- ent times Johnson & Atkinson of England, Foucher Freres of France, Hepburn of England, and Kiis- termann of Germany, invented new forms of type- casting machines that were intended to produce perfect types, but these machines have not been found entirely satisfactory by the type-founders of the United States. They have been most efficient in making spaces and quadrats. : The nearest approach to success has been made by Henry Barth, who was granted a patent Jan- uary 24, 1888, for a complete type- ete casting machine. He claims that this machine of machine produces one half more than Henry Barth the older machines; that it does its work with more accuracy, and that it permits the use of a harder quality of metal. Its construction and its processes differ radically from those of the Bruce machine. One half of the mould and the matrix x 28 The Barth Type-casting Machine The Barth complete type-casting machine. are fixed upright and made immovable; the other half of the mould rapidly slides to and fro on broad bearings, releasing the type that has been founded and closing again before the hot metal is injected for a new type. It breaks off the jet, ploughs a groove between the feet, rubs down the feather-edges at the angles, and delivers the types on the channel in lines ready for inspection. Features of a Type 29 View of body inclined Letter H, from a type Face of the letter to show the face. of canon body. on the body. 1 counter. 6 shoulder. 2 hair-line. 7 pin-mark. 3 serif. 8 mick. 4 stem, or body-mark. 9 groove. 5 neck, or beard. 10 feet. Spaces of Pica Lob oho u HE Hair. Five Four Three En Two-em Three-em to to to quad- ava quadrat. quadrat. em. em. em. rat. rat. Dimensions of Bodies Non- Min- Bre- Bour- Long- Small- Pica. pareil. ion. vier. geois. primer. pica. 30 Features of a Type The face is the letter or character on the upper end of the type which receives impression. As Features 10S most notable feature, the word face is ofatype also used to distinguish one style of type from another, as broad-face or bold-face. The beard, or neck, is the slope between the outer edge of the face and the shoulder. The shoulder is the flat top of the small rec- tangle at the upper extremity of the body, which upholds the neck and face of the type. The counter is the depression between the lines of the face. When the lines are in high relief, the counter is said to be deep; when low, the counter is shallow. The body-mark, or stem, is the thick line of the face which most clearly indicates the character and the height of the letter. It is better known among printers as the thick-stroke. The serif is the short eross-line put as a finish at the ends of unconnected lines. Its form varies with the style of face: in old-style lower-case let- ters it is a blunt spur or a stubby triangle; in the French styles it is a weak and delicate hair-line ; in modern Scotch-faces it is curved or bracketed on the inner side, where it meets the main line. The hair-line is the thin line of the face —as is shown noticeably in the C, H, and M — that con- nects or prolongs body-marks. The kern is that part of the face which, on a few letters, projects beyond the body. The end, Features of a Type 31 or beak of the lower-case f and j and many italic letters have kerns, and are known as kerned letters. Kerns are also made on the descending letters of some forms of bastard faces. The pin-mark is the small indentation on the upper part of the body made by the pin which is of service in dislodging the type from the mould. The body is that part of the type which is be- tween the shoulder and the feet. Early founders and printers called it the shank. The word body is also used to define sizes or thicknesses of types, rules, leads, or furniture : Pica body means a thick- ness of about one-sixth of an inch. The sizes or bodies of type are now more accurately defined by numerical points. : The feet of the type are the two slight projec- tions upon which the body rests. It is between these feet that the jet of the type-caster is made. The groove is the hollow left between the feet by the planing tool that removes every trace of the broken jet. The nicks are the shallow grooves across the lower part of the body. In American, English, and German types the nicks are on the front of the body; in French types on the back. Nicks are needed as plain guides to the position in which the types should be composed, and to prevent the mix- ing of different faces of the same body. Roman types of the same foundry and of the same body, but of different faces, usually have different nicks. 32 Constituents of Type-metal A font of type is a complete assortment of all the characters that will be required in the compo- sition of an ordinary text. Sorts is the name given to a partial collection of one or more of the characters of a font. Itis most frequently applied to the types that are deficient. Type-metal is an alloy of lead, antimony, and tin, and sometimes of copper and of other metals. Constituents Livery type-founder has his own for- of typemetal mula which he keeps secret. Ordi- nary type-metal consists of one hundred pounds of lead, forty pounds of antimony, and twenty pounds of tin.! The metal for small type is harder than that used for large type; leads, spaces, and stereo- type plates are always softer; the backing of elec- trotype plates is nearly all lead. Soft metal is also used to prevent the breaking of kerned letters. Ornamental types, which face or fill the matrices with difficulty, are also cast of a soft metal. Lead is always the chief constituent of type- metal. Its specific gravity is 11.352; it melts at 617° Fahrenheit. Its density, ductility, and low fusibility make it easy-working, but types of pure lead are too soft for service. 1 Fournier says his hard type- In Germany the formula for metal contained one-fifth of anti- cheap metal is seventy pounds mony to four-fifths of lead; his of lead, twenty-eight pounds of soft type-metal had one-eighth antimony, and two pounds of of antimony to seven-eighths tin; the formula for good metal of lead. He does not name tin. is fifty pounds of lead, forty ‘Manuel Typographique,” vol. pounds of antimony, and ten i. p. 111. pounds of tin. Additions to Type-metal 33 Antimony, a brittle and fibrous metal that can be crushed to fine powder, is used to supply the hardness. Its specific gravity is 6.715; it melts at 806° Fahrenheit. Type-founders use the form of the metal known in commerce as the regulus of antimony, or standard antimony. Tin is a crystalline but malleable metal, which has a specific gravity of 7.293, and melts at 4420 Fahrenheit. It is used to give toughness to type- metal. It serves as a solder between metals fus- ing at varying temperatures. It oxidizes slowly, and prevents oxidization in its alloys. Copper is used in small quantity to give still greater tenacity. Its specific gravity varies from 8.8 t0 8.95; its melting point is estimated at 19960 Fahrenheit. A very small amount of copper in type-metal will give it a yellowish pink tint. Moxon says that iron was an ingredient of the type-metal made in his time. Although melted with lead and antimony, its most efficient service was its extraction of the sulphur found in crude antimony ; as then melted, it did not in any appre- ciable quantity mix with the other metals.l the sooner. To make the Iron Run, they mingle an equal 1The Mettal Founders make Printing Letters of, is Lead hardend with Iron: Thus they chuse stub-Nails for the best Iron to Melt, as well because they are assured stub-Nails are made of good soft and tough Iron, as because (they being in small pieces of Iron) will Melt 5 weight of Antimony beaten in an Iron-Morter into small pieces and stub-Nails together 5 . they put for every three Pound of Iron about five and twenty pounds of Lead. ‘ Me- chanick Exercises,” pp. 164, 167. 34 Peculiarities of Type-metal Zine and some of the newly discovered metals have been tried as ingredients of type-metal, but Zine cannot 11 NNO case With success. Zine is espec- be added to ially objectionable to type-founders. It theally hag been found that an addition of one per cent. will make the alloy so refractory and so stringy that the metal cannot be founded. The most remarkable peculiarity of type-metal is that it shrinks so little after being cast, a prop- Typemetal erty not found to so great a degree in shrinks very any other useful alloy. Harder metals, Sligutly which must be melted at more intense heat, must necessarily shrink in a corresponding ratio, and this shrinking is injurious to accuracy. Nor do the harder metals so truly fill the mould, or make perfect casts. The density of type-metal is a real advantage. Although melted at a comparatively low heat, it fills the mould and matrix with remarkable solid- ity, and reproduces the finer lines of the matrix with great exactness. Another great merit in type-metal is its ability to resist oxidization. It takes much usage to dim its brightness; it does not rust like iron or steel, nor show corrosion like copper and brass. Types are necessarily exposed to the action of air, water, heat, lye, oils, inks, and alkaline solutions, but none of these agents works any serious injury. 1A European type-founder ad- old metal that contain any ad- vertises that he will not only mixture of zine, but will prose- refuse types brought to him as cute the seller for damages. Durability of Types 35 These useful properties are gained only at the expense of durability. The hardest types soon wear out. When morning NeWSPAPers mypes lack of large circulation were printed direct durability from the type, it was often found necessary to renew the fonts after a few months of service. To Jobbing type the damage by wear is even greater : the beauty of script and hair-line types is some- times destroyed by one month of service. Ever since types were invented, founders have studied to make them harder and more durable. Great improvement has been effected, but a point seems to have been reached beyond which additional hardness is no longer an advantage. Every good founder could make his type harder, but only at vastly increased expense. A harder alloy would require greater heat to melt it; the metals used would be more expensive; the moulds and ma- chines would wear out rapidly; the speed would be slower, and the type not so accurate. Difficulties preventing the use of hard types 1 French type-metal as made at the beginning of this century had 50 kilogrammes of lead and 18 kilogrammes of regulus of antimony. Firmin-Didot experimentally made use of a mixture for stereotyping purposes of 20 kilogrammes of copper, 30 kilo- grammes of tin, and 50 kilo- grammes of regulus of anti- mony. Types made from this mixture were hard enough to penetrate the plates of lead which were then made to serve for the stereotype moulds. For printing-types this mixture was materially ‘‘modified.” In 1840, M. Colson of Paris added iron and tin as ingre- dients of type-metal. (‘‘I/Tm- primerie, ete. Rapport du XVIIe jury,” by M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot, Paris, 1854.) None of these mixtures is now in use in France or elsewhere. 36 The Wear of Types The durability of types is materially affected by size and cut of face. With kind usage a font tay of pica may receive a million impres- depends sions before it will be condemned ; with onthesize the same treatment a font of pearl may ofthe face pe worn out with less than a hundred thousand impressions. Yet the pearl is always of a harder metal. The difference in durability is caused by the difference in face. In the size of pica, the counters are broad and deep; the hair- line and body-mark will wear down and flatten out to a great degree before the face will show muddiness or illegibility: in the smaller size of pearl, the counters are necessarily shallow; the hair-lines and body-marks are thinner and closer together. It requires more impression to print the pearl properly; this impression, meeting with less resistance, soon wears down the thinner lines. The amount of wear that types may receive can- not be stated in figures. One printer will con- The wear Sider them worn out when another will oftypes think them capable of further service. Brevier and minion have sometimes received two millions of readable impressions upon newspaper work, but the thick press-work from types worn by more than one million of impressions would be accepted only by a newspaper publisher. Many book publishers would reject small types that had received but three hundred thousand impressions. For the finest letter-press work, the limit would be Wear made by Machines 37 put very low. Typography with characters en- tirely faultless can be had only from new type. For type-founder’s specimens and for sumptuous books new types are always provided. They are never reset, but are condemned to the melting- kettle after their first use. The repeated handling of types is as injurious as the impression of the machine. One million of acceptable impressions may be obtained go catea from small types skilfully made-ready if handling these impressions are taken from one Uo form; but if the types are repeatedly distributed and reset for many different forms they will not furnish one-fifth of that number. The wear of types in the composing-room is much greater than is commonly supposed. They are bruised and battered in distribution and in composition, in making-up, and especially by planing-down and correction. The moulding process of stereo- typing is remarkably injurious. Proving with a brush, or moulding by the papier-maché method, is more destructive, in most cases, than any kind of printing machine. Nor can a more destructive agent be found than the stiff serubbing-brush which is used, often by unskilful hands, to clean the forms from ink after they have left the press. Cylinder presses and type-revolving machines have been adjudged as very injurious to types. The noticeable wear of types on these presses is due more to the omission of making-ready — which 38 Causes of Wear in the case of a morning newspaper is unavoid- able—than to any inherent defect in the machine. Wear caused Cylindrical pressure need not, yet with by neglectin careless hands it often does, grind off presswork serif and hair-line much quicker than pressure of platens. But types well worn can be used under cylinders longer than under platens. Letters that have been rounded on the edges to such an extent that vertical pressure cannot give a readable impression are made fairly legible when they are printed on a rotary or a type-revolving Rapid wear machine. This wear on types is often avoidable gyoidable. A careful compositor and a skilful pressman can make types do twice the service they give under the hands of careless work- men. The modern style of making-ready, which dispenses with the thick woolen blankets that scrape and grind off the edges of the types, is of as great advantage to them as it is to the appear- ance of the printed work. On fine work a press- man is now required to make, by overlays and underlays, the types practically parallel with the impression surface, so, that the printed sheet shall show on the back only faint marks of impression. Yet careful making-ready is but a feeble safeguard if paper has not been well selected and prepared. Rough-faced hand-made linen papers, half-beaten straw or wood papers, and all papers that are laid, uncalendered, or of rough or ribbed surface, are, when printed dry, especially destructive to types. Advantages of Stereotyping 39 The durability of types is also affected by their uncleanliness and the want of care they may re- ceive. If they are not thoroughly 5, .puity cleansed immediately after taking promoted by proof or on leaving press, if dust and ¢eariness paper fibers are allowed to settle in the counters and harden with the drying ink, and if the sedi- ment of the lye and turpentine used for cleansing is allowed to collect—a thick, tenacious deposit will soon be formed which cannot be removed without nearly destroying the type. The count- ers of a font of type so neglectfully treated will soon become filled up, and this may happen be- fore the stems or the serifs have been appreciably thickened by the impression of the press. The art of stereotyping is used as much to save needless wear of types as to save the expense of repeated composition. It adds nothing to the du- rability of the types, but it withdraws them from use, and furnishes a cheaper and more gtereotyping serviceable substitute. A mould in saves wear plaster or prepared paper is taken from a page of composed type, and this mould, when dry and hard, serves as the matrix for making the stereotype. The mould is then filled with melted type-metal, which, when hard, is a proper duplicate of the face of the composed type. The plate is thinner than the types, and costs much less, both for metal and for labor. It answers every purpose as well, and thus saves the types from needless wear. 40 Benefits of Stereotyping A large octavo page of long-primer type weighs about ten pounds and its types are worth about three dollars. The stereotype or electrotype plate taken from it weighs about twenty ounces, and costs about forty cents, but the metal therein has some permanent value. As stereotyping not only saves the type from needless wear, but also saves the expense of recomposition, it is freely made use of by all publishers in America. Its advan- tages are not confined to book printers; it is of decided economy in the printing of morning news- papers, when duplicated forms have to be put on two or more presses. Large editions of those pub- lications could not be printed at all without the aid of stereotyping. Electrotyping, another pro- cess for securing the same result, has practically supplanted the stereotyping of book work. If the type used in printing a book is distrib- uted before stereotyping, of course the composi- Benefits of tion 1s not available for even one more stereotyping edition; but if the forms have been stereotyped, the labor of composition is saved for any number of editions, because the plates used on the first edition may be used on twenty successive editions without repeating the expense of the orig- inal composition. After stereotyping, the types may be distributed and rearranged in many other combinations. The plates are unalterable. The advantages of stereotyping or electrotyping are equally beneficial to both printer and publisher, Process of Copper-facing 41 saving the type of one and lessening the expenses of the other. In the United States all books that may be reprinted are electrotyped. The process invented in 1851 by Dr. Newton of New York, which is known as copper-facing, is of value in making types more process of durable. The faces of the types to copper-facing be treated are immersed in a solution of copper. Under the influence of a galvanic current atoms of copper are deposited on them, covering every part with a thin film. This deposition continues from three to twelve hours, according to the strength of the battery and the nature of the work. When taken from the bath the types so exposed are ready for use. Types that have been copper-faced are made more durable, not by the superior hardness of the copper, for the coating is too thin to offer any great resistance to im- pression, but by its superior tenacity. The stems and delicate serifs may be flattened under pres- sure almost as readily as before the operation of copper-facing, but they cannot be broken or gapped as easily. The process of copper-facing differs from that of electrotyping in a very important point. In the electrotype, the atoms of copper Coppi taning attach themselves to, and duplicate, differs from the smooth face of the mould, and this ©'ectrotvping smooth-faced duplicate becomes the printing sur- face. But in copper-facing these atoms attach 6 42 Hardness of Type-metal themselves to the smooth surface of the types, and adhere to it, leaving the rough, crystallized upper side of the deposit as the printing surface. This rough surface is often objectionable. The earliest impressions from copper-faced type are never as perfect as those from the uncoppered type. There is always more or less thickness and unevenness of face, which can be removed only by continued use. For newspapers copper-facing is of great value; for the finest work it is not to be so highly commended. The expense of copper- facing a font of roman types is about one-sixth of the type-founder’s charge for the type. Hardness of metal is usually considered as of great importance in types. The quality of the The test of Metal is roughly, but not always accu- nardnessin rately, tested by breaking a type. If this typemetal 167) ds very much before breaking, show- ing a ragged fracture, or if it, when whittled, curls up in unbroken rings, the metal is soft. If it breaks off short, after much resistance, showing a close, crystalline fracture, the metal is hard; but if it, when whittled, crumbles at a slight touch the metal may be hard but is deficient in tenacity. Great hardness, without tenacity, is as serious a fault as too much softness. Types that easily break when dropped upon the floor, or that have their serifs and hair-lines gapped by planing-down or by rubbing with a brush, betray an excess of antimony and a deficiency of tin or copper. 43 Solidity is equally important. It is a material fault if the broken types reveal minute bubbles or porousness, either in the face or the sonaity body. This defect was common to all types of type made by the early casting machines which were imperfect, but it is now exceptional. As all the characters of a font of type are usually cast in but one mould, which is tested daily and oftener, there is not much liability to inaccuracy in the body of a font so cast.! But when a large font of types is cast in haste from two or more matched moulds there is an increased liability to error. Sorts, or additions to a font, made at any time after the first casting, may be slightly inac- curate. Types may be cast thinner at the foot than at the shoulder, and this fault may be in- creased in rubbing down, or finishing ; but bottled types, as these are called, are now unusual. Every letter in a font should present the appear- ance of standing even in line with all its fellows. The maintaining of this evenness of Even lining of line, apparently so simple, is one of importance the nice parts of a type-founder’s work. One rea- son, but not the only one, why the Latin text, Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, was used so Even Lining of Types 1At the International Exhi- bition of 1851, a prominent type- founder of London exhibited a form of pearl types containing 220,000 characters. For twenty- one weeks this form was kept in a chase in horizontal position, upheld by supports one at each corner of the chase, so that each type was exposed to the air on both face and feet. The casting was 80 true that no type fell out. 44 Uneven Lining of Types frequently by type-founders in their specimens, was that Latin, as compared with English, had an excess of small and a deficiency of ascending and descending letters. Types composed in Latin had a more symmetrical look and an evener line than could be produced from an English text. Modern founders, confident of their superior abil- ity, do not hesitate to show their types in English. These types show an uneven lining in the letters n and e; the n too high, the e too low. The deviation in lining here shown is enough to destroy the appearance of the font. Uneven lining will be most frequently noticed in sorts, or the new letters that are cast to supple- ment a deficient old font. The new letters may be made out of line by the founders, but this rarely happens when lining letters are AAA sent. The uneven line is more frequently Aa) caused by accretions to the body of the old , A A type, which have been made through want AAA of cleansing from dust and ink. Before AAA new types are mixed with old, they should AAA : . : . A AA be tested by setting them in vertical lines, bet $ oI type, on shown In this. 223 between rows of old type, as shown in this A Ap illustration. Bad Fitting of Matrices 45 The fitting-up of type, which is the founder's term for adjusting the face upon the body, is of highest importance. The set of the mould is al- tered with almost every change of the matrix, and In these lines the e has too much space at the left, the a too much at the right; the t 1s too close at the right, the h too close at the left. if this alteration is not intelligently done, some types will be too wide, and others too narrow. A font of type so fitted-up will exhibit ungainly gaps between some letters, and a confusing proximity between others, as is shown in illustration above. Bad fitting is sometimes shown in letters the stems or thick-strokes of which lean slightly from a vertical line, either to the right or to the left. In these lines the letter t leans to the right, and the letter e leans to the left. This fault is exceptional in roman, but is not at all infrequent in some of the older fonts of italic. 46 Unequal Height of Types A bad fitting-up of matrices to the mould is occasionally shown in the unequal heights in line of the different characters of the same font. This irregularity is seldom noticeable in the types of an entirely new font, but it may and often does occur in the sorts or additions cast subsequently. In these lines the letter o is too high; the letter t is too low; the letter h is tilted out of perpendicular on one side. Unequal height is a more frequent fault since a recent change in the height to paper of type-bodies Differences Lrom .9166 to .918 inch. The difference in height of but one five-hundredth of an inch may oftypes fe almost imperceptible when types of these heights are printed together on damp paper against an elastic impression surface, but it is a fatal fault when these types are printed on dry paper against a hard surface. To bring up the low types the over-high types will be crushed. A new font which contains characters of unequal heights to paper will show from the beginning many of the blemishes of a worn-out font. Unequal heights to paper should be watched for in all types cast from old electrotyped matrices that have been un- equally worn. The process of copper-facing tends Good Mechanical Finish 47 to make types of unequal heights by an occa- sional uneven deposit of copper. An improper fitting of the face on the body is a very serious fault. For its legibility each character needs a fair relief of white space outside its stems. The distance between the stems of all the types in a word should be reasonably uniform. As a rule this distance is most satisfactory when the space between the stems of meeting letters is about the same as that between the stems of the letter m. This is not always practicable, for letters are irregu- lar as to shape, and a nice discretion must be ex- ercised by the fitter-up, who has to consider the combinations of these irregular shapes. As arule condensed type and small type need close fitting; fat and expanded type a wider fitting. The types of this column are close-fitted, but they are as read- able in solid as in leaded com- position. Noris the appearance of the composition damaged by close or thin spacing. Each let- teris distinet, although somelet- ters nearly touch their fellows at extreme points. The types of this column are wide-fitted. Each letter is separated from its fellows, but the composition has an uninviting appearance. It is not easier to read. It cannot be thin spaced nor set solid to advantage, nor is it improved in any way by wide leading. The mechanical finish should be of the highest order. Good types should be so carefully rubbed and dressed that there will be no burs good finish is or roughness on the edges to cut the important fingers of the compositor. The shoulders should be low enough on the body to prevent their being blackened by the inking roller, and to allow the { Lidily 2 OF , Waa “CALIFOR! : ERR AR =) VF os 1 TN INIVERSITY 1 48 Choice of Face kerned letters to lap over without interference. The kerns should be well supported so that they will not break under proper treatment. The nicks should be clearly defined, and different either in , number or in position from: those of other faces or styles of the same body. The hair-lines and serifs should have a sloping base, to give them a proper support. The counters should be deep enough to prevent their quick filling-up with ink and paper dust. Italic type needs special examination: blemishes in fitting-up are more frequent in italic than in Italic must the roman of which it is the mate. A mate with font of italic should not only be in line the roman with the roman, but should show all its features as far as the change of face will permit. In the early practice of type-making, one face of italic was often made to serve for two or more faces of roman. This practice has not been en- tirely discontinued. A light-faced italic is some- times mated with a heavy-faced roman, a condensed italic with a round-faced roman, making a plain change of shade or of shape on the printed page where they are used together. The choice of the face is usually decided by its appearance on the specimen sheet, but some re- The choice gard should be paid to its mechanical : of the face adaptation to the work for which it is designed. The appearance of a face will vary with methods of presswork. That which is just Types that Withstand Wear 49 bold enough in the carefully printed specimen of the type-founder will be too bold in the news- paper when printed with soft ink and upon coarse and moist paper; and one that seems light enough on damp paper is altogether too light and weak when printed on dry paper. ; Whatever face may be selected, it should be mechanically well cut: the angles should be true; the serifs of uniform length ; the body- Types mst marks of uniform width; and a visible be pleasing harmony should pervade the font, A I» #mass perfect font of types should produce a pleasing general effect in any combination of characters. This face wears This endures It is not enough that each character seems pleas- ing when examined apart from its mates; it must also be pleasing in composition. This cannot be if all the difficulties of combination and fitting have not been foreseen and provided for. Rudely cut or badly fitted type will mar the effect of the best composition and presswork. The durability of type is affected by the press on which it is printed. Types with long ascenders 7 50 Bold-faced and Light-faced Types and descenders, and with very long and sharp hair-lines and serifs, are not well suited for cylin- ders or for type-revolving machines, because all the force of the impression is at regular intervals spent A face with long and feeble seritfs on the serifs and edges of these projecting letters. To secure the highest durability on eylinder ma- chines, types with short ascenders and descenders, broad faces, and stubby serifs should be selected. Bold, black-faced types are not, for general use, as durable or even as readable as those that have A bold-face with hair-lines and serifs too weak lighter stems, firmer serifs, and a more open ap- pearance. The common opinion that all light-faced types are necessarily fragile is derived from an experience obtained when letter-cutting was not as Why Light-faces wear Well 51 skilfully done as it is now. The light-faced types of thirty years ago were made with hair-lines and serifs that were long, sharp, and feebly poa-taced supported, that gapped with slight abra- and light- sion, and that broke off altogether under ed tyves an uneven impression. Approved modern light- faced types are radically different: the hair-lines are supported by broad bases, and the serifs are strengthened with bracket-like curves where they join the stems or body-marks. These hair-lines will thicken very little with continual wear, and are not liable to gap or to break down. A light-face that has both firm hair-lines and bracketed serifs In deciding upon the comparative durability of a light-faced and a heavy-faced type, two points must be considered: the force neces- Light-faced sary to secure a perfect impression, and types may the resistance opposed by the type to Pe durable that force. They necessarily increase and decrease in inverse ratio. A solid tint-block presents a greater resistance and requires more impression than the same surface of type; a page of antique type cannot be faced with the same impression 52 Why Light-faces wear Well that will fairly print a page of seript. The denser or broader the face, the greater is the resistance, and the stronger must be the impression. Upon a page of bold roman type this impression must be felt equally on the hair-lines and body-marks. When an elastic blanket is forced by impression into the counters and around the edges of each face, the hair-lines will be gapped, the serifs will be gradually broken down, and the surface of the body-marks will be rounded off. The resistance of light-faced type is less; so less force is required in A bold-face with short serifs that soon show wear impression, and it is more equally divided between hair-lines and body-marks. Alight-faced type prop- erly cut will lose its sharpness sooner, but it will wear down with more evenness, and will present a clear outline when the hair-line of a bold-faced letter has been worn out, and the character can be identified only by its stem or body-mark. J] NYS KP 2 EE 0 © \ 9) XT 2 ; Cots | 11 The Names of the Leading Sizes of Types letter, one or two words described the size, or body, and another word defined the face. The multiplica- tion of faces now compels founders to make names longer and more descriptive. The features are usually given in this order: (1) The body or size of the type, as “Pica.” (2) The style or face of the type, as “Pica gothic.” (3) The ornament or fashion of the type, as “ Pica gothic ornamented.” ! (4) The shape of the type, as “ Pica gothic orna- mented condensed.” The names of the more important bodies or sizes of types are given in the following tables: 1 See a following chapter for remarks on different styles. 53 24 New Name 60-point .... 48-point .... 44-point .... 40-point .... 36-point . ... 32-point 24-point .... 22-point .... 20-point .... 18-point .... 16-point .... 14-point .... 12-point .... 11-point .... 10-point .... 9-point .... 8-point .... 7-point .... 6%-point .... 6-point .... 53-point .... 5-point .... 4}-point .... 4-point .... 33-point .... 3-point .... American, and English Names American ——— English Old Name Five-line pica ...... Five-line pica Canon, or four-line.. Canon, or four-line Meridian ........ .. Two-line double pica Double paragon Double great-primer Two-line great-primer ... Four-line brevier 30-point .... 28-point .... Five-line nonpareil Double english .... Two-line english Double pies ......... Two-line pica Double small-pica .. Double pica Paragon .-......... Paragon Great-primer ....... Great-primer Columbian ......... Two-line brevier English ........... English Pleat caine, Pica Small-pieca ......... Small-pica Long-primer ....... Long-primer Bourgeoly ......... Bourgeois Bravier 0.0.0 v0 Brevier Minfon............» Minion Minionette ......... Emerald Nonpareil ......... Nonpareil Agater 0. 0k Ruby Pearl oni. Pearl DPismond -....... .., Diamond Brilliant. ......... Brilliant Excelsior. ........... Minikin French, and German Names 55 — French — German New Name Old Name Old Name Corps 72 .... Triple-canon .... Kleine Sabon Cornz 60... ... ec Grobe Missal Corps 56 . Double-canon Corps BO olin at Missal Corps 48... co na Kleine Missal Corps 44 .... Gros-canon Corps 22... a Grobe Canon Corps 36 .... Trismégiste ...... Canon Comper B82 ©. «hn oon Kleine Canon Corps 25 .... Petit-canon ...... Doppel Mittel Corps 24 .... Palestine |... .. Doppel-Cicero Corps 22 .... Gros-parangon Corps 20 .... Petit-parangon ... Text Corps 18 .... Gros-romain Corps 16 .... Gros-texte ....... Tertia Corps 14 .... Saint augustin ... Mittel Corns 12 .... Cicero......... Cicero Corps 11 .... Philosophie ...... Brevier Corps 10 .... Petit-romain ..... Corpus, or Garmond Corps 9. ... Gaillarde.....Y... Borgis, or Bourgeois Corps 8 . Petit-texte ....... Petit Corps 7... Mignone ......... Colonel Corps 61 .... Corps 8 .... Nompareille. ..... Nonpareille, or Nonpareil Corps 53 .... Corps 5 .... Parisienme........ Perl Corps 4% .... Diamant Corp 4... a Diamant Corps 3 . Semi-nompareille In France the old names have been out of use for many years, but it seems necessary to repeat them here, for they are to be found in all the early books of typography, and even in some comparatively modern specimen books of French type-founders. In Germany the use of numeri- cal names is limited. 56 Italian, Spanish, and Dutch Names Italian Spanish Dutch Imperiale Reale ........ ... Cinco Lectura Duecale........ .. Cuatro Lectura Corale no. Comon: Lv Parys Kanon Canone.......7.. Doble Parangona . Groote Kanon Sopracanoncino . Doble Texto ..... Kanon Canoneino ...... Doble Atanasia .. Dubbelde Augustijn Palestina ....... Doble Lectura ... Dubbelde Mediaan Ascendonica .... Doble Lecturita .. Assendonica Parangone ...... Parangona ...... Paragon Mesto... Wextoru Jo... Tekst Soprasilvio ...... San Agustin Siivie:. 1...» Atomasia ......... Augustijn Lettura ......... Leetura 00. 0 Mediaan Filosofia, .:...... Leecturita ........ Dessendiaan Garamone ...... Entredos ......... Garmond Garamonecino .... Medio Texto ..... Burgeois, or Galjar Testing 0... =... Breviario ........ Brevier Mignone ........ Mifnona, or Glosilla Collonel Nompariglia .... Nomparell........ Nonpareil Parmigianina ... Perla ............ Parel, or Joly Diamante ....... Diamante ........ Diamant, or Robijn Occhio di mosea . Brillante In Italy, Spain, and Holland the numerical names of types on the point system have been par- tially adopted, but they are not yet so fully established as to put all old names out of use. These Italian names have been collected from the ‘‘Manuale Tipografico ” of Bodoni (Parma, 1818); the Spanish and Dutch names have been gathered from specimen books, and from in- formation given to the author by Spanish compositors. Bastard Types 57 In the preceding tables an attempt has been made to arrange the names given to types by each nation in line with those given to similar variations sizes by other nations; but a similarity of in bodies name, or position on the same line, does not mean that types so named or placed are of exactly the same body. Large allowances must be made for variations. In making a comparison of types or sizes from various countries, the differencein bodies below pica is too slight to be noticed by an in- expert, but in those larger than pica the differ- ence may be marked, and the similarity of names may be seriously misleading. Types have been made and named everywhere without system. The exceptions are few. Paragon and nonpareil have virtually the same name in the foundries of all nations cited; canon, pearl, and diamond are almost as widely known. The list given comprises all the bodies known by simple names. All sizes above canon are called by their multiples of pica, as five-line, nine-line, ete., names which indicate that the bodies so defined are five or nine times the height of a pica body. Bastard types are those with faces too large or too small for the body: a minion face upon a non- pareil body, or a brevier face upon a bour- gpastara geois body, is a bastard size. A small face types is sometimes cast on a large body to give the open appearance of leaded type, and a large face is some- times cast on a small body to make the print more 8 58 Regular and Irregular Bodies compact. The bastard types are not highly es- teemed, and are now made only to order. These Nonpareil on Agate. The types of this paragraph are upon agate body, but the face is a very large nonpareil. The tails of the descending letters, g, j, p, q, v, have been shortened. Notice the narrowness of the white space be- tween all the lines. This type was made for a directory with an intent to get the largest possible face of type within the smallest space. Agate on Nonpareil. The types of this paragraph are of the ordinary agate size, but the space between the lines is less than the thickness of any practicable lead, and shows the body of nonpareil. The object sought in putting agate upon nonpareil is to give it the effect of leaded type without the use of leads, and to make the print more readable. methods of putting a large face on a small body, or a small face on a large body, make it difficult even for an expert to identify the body of any type so treated. There is no accepted standard of height for the short or round letters of any face, but it may be assumed, as a general rule, that long ascenders and descenders belong to a face which is small for the body, and that short ascenders and descenders belong to a face which is large for the body. A distinction is made by type-founders between regular and irregular bodies. The regular bodies Regularana ~~ r¢ pearl, nonpareil, brevier, long- irregular bod- primer, pica, great-primer, and all (lesoftype multiples of pica. They are called regular because they are the bodies that have been preferred and have been most in use. The irregu- lar bodies are diamond, agate, minion, bourgeois, small-pica, english, and all their multiples. They are called irregular because most of them were unknown to Moxon and the early English printers. Two-line Types and Double Types 59 The distinction is more fanciful than real ; in some printing offices the irregular sizes are in greater use. Display and ornamental types are usually cast only on the regular bodies, and for this rea- son it is of advantage to give them a preference. American type-founders give separate names to two-line types and double-bodied types. A two- line pica and a double pica have the same body. The face of the two-line typesana type occupies nearly the whole of the 9°uPle tres body ; the capital of a double-bodied type is much shorter, and terminates on a broad shoulder. The Hardy il Two-line Double great-primer Two-line great-primer capital capital and lower-case. with two lines of great-primer. double-bodied letter is usually accompanied with lower-case, for the descending letters of which this broad shoulder is provided. The two-line letter is usually of capitals only, and is or should be so put on its body that as an initial letter it will line with the second line of the small text- type of which it is the duplicate. In England this distinction is not so well observed. The double pica of English type-founders appears to be the equivalent of our double small-pica; and what they call two-line pica is our double english. 60 The Practice of Typography. Brilliant. ABCDEFCHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV WXYZ Diamond. ABCDEFGHUUKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Pearl. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Agate. ABCDEFG HIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Nonpareil. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Minion. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Brevier. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Bourgeois. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ B Long-primer. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVW ® smilies. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTU\ Ji] Pica. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPORS | English. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP | arrive: ABCDEFGHIJKLMN CJ 5. ABCDEFGHIJK LH = ABCDEFGHIJE B = ABCDEFGH a ~.. ABCDEF (J a A B C D I _ ABCLj The black squares show the em, or square of the body. op] — The Practice of Typography. Brilliant. abodefghijklmnopgrstuvwxys Diamond. abedefghijklmnopgrstuywxyz Pearl. abcdefghijklmnopgrstuvwxyz Agate. abedefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Nonpareil. = abcdefghijklmnopgrstuvwxyz Minion. abcdefghijklmnopqgrstuvwxyz Brevier. abcedefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Bourgeois. abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Long-primer. abcdefghijklmnopgrstuvwxyz smallpica. abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Pica. abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz main. abcdefghijklmnopgrstuvwx [i ceapine abcdefghijklmnopqrstuv [i] tis. abedefghijklmnopqr [il 2 abedefghijklmnop [i] =x abcdefghiklm i] Bo abcdetg hi 6 -. abcdefg [IR - abcdet i The black squares show the em, or square of the body. 62 Canon to Double Pica The alphabets on pages 60 and 61 show the sizes of standard types and their relative proportions. Canon, or 48-point, is four times the height and sixteen times the area of the standard size of pica. Cis It was so called from its early employment in the leading lines or paragraphs of the printed canons of the Church, as is also indicated by its German name of missal. The canon of the English type-founders is usually a face of about three lines of pica cast on a four-line pica body. The face of full height on four-line pica body is called four-line. Meridian (four heights of small-pica), or 44-point, is a body rarely selected for letters, and has but a limited use for combination borders. Double paragon (four heights of long-primer), or 40-point, was a favorite for ecclesiastical printing. The larger types of the famous “ Psalter of 1457” are on this body. Double great-primer (four heights of bourgeois), or 36-point, is a body largely used for ornamental types. Four-line brevier, or 32-point, is never used for text-types; only for borders or ornamental faces. Double english, or 28-point, is a body, seldom selected for text-types, but largely used for seript and ornamental letters. Double pica, or 24-point, is a favored body for all faces. English type-founders describe it as two-line pica. Double Small-pica to Great-primer 63 Double small-pica, or 22-point, is a body in fre- quent request, but most preferred for ornamental faces. It is known in England as double pica. Paragon (double long-primer), or 20-point, is a body seldom selected by any American or English founder, yet it has distinction as a size favored by William Caxton as well as by the printer of the “ Bible of 42 lines.” The name of paragon is now out of use in Germany, but 20- point type is there known and much used under the name of text. Great-primer (double bourgeois), or 18-point, is a favorite body for the text-types of large quartos and folios, as well as for ornamental faces. Great. Its size, one-half more than that of pica, primer or 12-point, permits it to be freely used with pica and nonpareil in combination borders. The name is of doubtful origin, but it is probably derived from use of the type on a large leaf. Rowe Mores says that great-primer was a favorite size with early English printers, and the size preferred for some large primer of the English Church.! Paragon 1 Tt was also known as Bible- text from its frequent use in Bibles. Henry vir allowed his subjects to use an English Form of Public Prayer, and ordered one to be printed for their use, entitled the “Primer,” which contained, besides the prayers, several psalms, lessons, and an- thems. ‘‘Primers” of the Eng- lish Church before the Refor- mation were printed at Paris as early as 1490, and in Eng- land in 1537. (Reed, ‘‘ English Founders,” p. 37, note.) Reed suggests that Primer may be from the Latin premere, to print, and naturalized in England un- der the name of ‘imprimery.” Great-primer may be the great print letter. In Holland, Italy, and Spain it was called text. 64 Columbian to Pica Columbian (double brevier), or 16-point, is a neglected body, first made in text-type by George Bruce of New York to supply a size that seemed to be needed between english and great-primer. It is not a regular body for book-type. English (double minion), or 14-point, is one of the oldest of bodies, the one selected for the “ Let- ters of Indulgence of 1453,” by some un- known printer at Mentz, and also by an early printer in the Netherlands. It has the name english because it was so extensively used by early English printers for their law books, acts of Par- liament, and exclusively English work. Germans call it mittel because it is the middle or inter- mediate of the seven sizes of type in greatest use. It has been a body of marked irregularity; before the adoption of the system of points in France and Germany it varied from 15 to 13 points. Pica (double nonpareil), or 12-point, is a favorite body for important works in octavo. The pica body has been, and still is, the standard unit for determining sizes. All the larger sizes of type above four-line, and all the more impor- tant widths of furniture, are made to bodies that are regular multiples of pica; all thicknesses of leads, and sometimes of brass rules, are graduated to divisions of pica, and are called by the divi- sors, as four, six, eight, or ten to pica. Like great- primer, it takes its name from its early use as a text-letter. “The Pie” (of which the word Pica English Pica Small-pica and Long-primer 65 is the Latin name), writes Mores, “ was a table showing the course of the services of the Church in the times of darkness. It was called the Pie because it was written in letters of black and red, as the Friars de Pica were so named from their parti-coloured raiment black and white, the plu- mage of a magpie.” Small-pieca (double agate), or 11-point, is one of the so-called irregular bodies which an early writer on printing thought unworthy of a place in any printing office; but type- founders now find that it is in greater request in book-printing offices than the regular body of pica. Long-primer (double pearl), or 10-point, is an- other body which takes its name from its early use in ecclesiastical books.2 The name was prob- ably given first to the size of the leaf, the long duodecimo, on which the services of the Church were printed without abbreviation, and secondly, Small-pica 1 Mores gives this quotation from a Breviary of Sarum, as printed in 1555: {[ Incipit ordo breviarij feu portiforij fecundum morem & confuetudinem ecclefie Sarum Anglicane : vna cum ordinalifuo quod vifitato vocabolo dicitur Pica five directorium facerdo- tum in tempore pafchali.— Pars Hyemalis. (Rowe Mores, ‘‘ Eng- lish Founders,” p. 23.) He also gives on p. 24 the title of the Directorium sacerdotum quem [librum] Pica Sarum vulgo vocitat 9 clerus, as a book frequently re- printed by the English printers. Caxton advertised the ‘‘Pyes of Salisbury use.” Reed suggests that Pica may refer to the black- and-white appearance of a print- ed page. 2Rowe Mores quotes the title ‘A Prymer of Salisbury use set out a long by Robert Valentine at Rouen, in the year 1555,” as explaining its origin. But the type of this book is pica, and not long-primer. (“English Foun- ders and Founderies,” p. 26.) 66 Bourgeois to Minionette to the smaller type, which was more serviceable for a leaf of this shape. It continues to be the body preferred for duodecimos. Bourgeois (double diamond), or 9-point, possibly gets its name, as Reed suggests, from the French city of Bourges. Bourgeois was not first made there, for it is the body of the text- letter of the “Compilatio Decretalium” of Pope Gregory IX, printed by Torresani, at Venice, in the year 1498. The name may be derived from the frequent selection of this body for the small and cheap books made for the bourgeoisie. Brevier (double brilliant), or 8-point, carries a name that suggests its early employment in the printing of breviaries.! The notes of the Decretals referred to in the previous para- - graph are in types of brevier body. Minion, or 7-point, is one of the irregular sizes, and is now in small request, except for newspaper work. Its name indicates the esteem in which it was once held, not only by English, but by French and Italian typographers, as a small and valued darling of a type. Minionette, or 64 point, is a body largely used in France for combination borders. The adoption of the borders in the United States compelled the Bourgeois Brevier 1 Reed says that most of the Many of the cheap and more breviaries are in types of larger populareditions must have been size, but this remark can apply worn out by long usage; some only to the finely printed ones of these editions must be un- which have been preserved. known to bibliographers. Nonpareil to Diamond 67 adoption of the same body, but it is now passing out of use. It seems to be the equivalent of the English emerald, which is used as a text-type. Nonpareil, or 6-point (the half of pica), is the most used of the small bodies. It seems to have been made for the first time in 1490 by John Froben of Basle, for a black-letter octavo edition of the Bible. It first appeared with a fine roman face in a beautiful manual of services of the Roman Catholic Church printed at Venice in 1501. It was probably adjudged a mar- vel of skill in letter-cutting, for it has preserved its name in all countries. Agate, or 53-point (the half of small-pica), is a favorite size for newspaper advertisements, and for all kinds of printing in which great compact- ness is desired. It is known in England as ruby. Pearl, or 5-point (the half of long-primer), finds employment in pocket editions of the Bible, prayer- books, and small manuals, as well as for side and cut-in notes and references. The celebrated printer Jannon made it famous by selecting it in 1627 as the text-type of his so-called “ Diamond” editions, printed by him at Sedan. Diamond, or 44 point (the half of bourgeois), seems to have been made for the first time by Vos- kens of Amsterdam, who cut a full font of it about the year 1700. Van Dijk, the type- founder for Daniel Elzevir, had shown in 1681 a y = size smaller than pearl, but it was not so small as Nonpareil Diamond 68 Brilliant to Non-plus-ultra Voskens’s diamond. Pickering of London selected this body for his miniature editions of the classies. Brilliant, or 4-point (the half of brevier), is a size of this century. One square inch of ordinary composition in brilliant contains about 1200 pieces of metal: of the lower-case i, 3456 are needed to make one pound in weight; of the thinnest space, nearly twice as many. Excelsior, or 3-point (the half of nonpareil), is a body used in America for musie, piece-fractions, and borders only. It seems to be the same body as the English “minikin.” Yet there is a text-type still smaller. In 1827 Henri Didot of Paris, then sixty-six years old, cut with his own hands a font of type on the body of 23 points by the Didot system, which he called “microscopique.” Twenty-five lines of this type apparently fill the space of one American inch. The founder Gronau of Berlin shows three text- types (roman, italie, fractur) cut for a 3-point body but cast for convenience on that of a 4-point. The Enschedé Foundry of Haarlem has cut a still smaller face, a “non-plus-ultra,” on a 2-point body, but it is cast on a 4-point body. These types are wonderful as evidences of skill ; but they are of slight value in the practice of printing. The general effect of the sizes most used in ordi- nary composition is shown in the following illus- trations. Oldest verified print is of date 1423 ‘I'he old- est type ~ Printing has writ- ten date of 14543 Four-line pica, or 48-point 71 I'he earliest types are of English and Double pica bodies: they were tound- ed in moulds ¥ I'he earliest book bearing a printed date 1s the famous Psalter (1457) published by John Fustand his son-in-law P. Scheefter = The types of the PSALTER made In 1457 were cast on the bodies of double paragon and double great primer, and the book was decor- ated with red ink and large initials. 74 Double english, or 28-point 2 A Bible in types of paragon body, 42 lines to a page, has a certificate that ws il- lumination was done at Mentz, A.D.1456. Another Bible, of 36 lines, from types of double pica body, 1s believed to have been printed between the years 1450 and 14509, at the same old city. Double pica, or 24-point 75 & Certain books known to have been printed at or near Mentz and beforethe year 1460, and in different sizes of type from double paragon down to english, show that the methods of type-making and printing were In regular use. The imprint of the Psalter of 1457 says that book was made by the “masterly invention of printing and also of type-making.” ws 76 Double small-pica, or 22-point, solid What was this invention of type-making ? Ulric Zell, writing In 1499, says that this masterly and subtile in- vention was ‘‘the art as it 1s now used.” Trithemius, In 1514, declared that this invention was ‘‘the method of founding the forms of all the letters which they called matrices, from which they cast the metal types.” Peter Schoefler, in the “Gram- matica” printed by him at Mentz, says metaphorically of the book, “I [this book] am cast at Mentz.”ecx@@seo Double small-pica, or 22-point, leaded 77 Bernard Cennini of Florence, writing in 1 47 1, declares that the characters of his books were first cut and then cast. Nicholas Jenson of Venice, in a book dated 14835, says that the types of his book were cut and cast by a di- vine art. An account book of the Ripoli Press at Flor- ence, 1474 —1483, specifies the metals and the materials now used in type-foundries. The art then practised was ‘the art as it 1s now used.” 78 Grreat-primer, or 18-point, solid Ulric Zell says that John Guten- berg, a citizen of Mentz, was the inventor of printing. Trithemi- us says “the admirable and till then unheard-of art of printing books by types was planned and invented by John Guten- berg.” John Scheeffer, the son of Peter, in 1505 declared that the admirable art of typography was invented in the year 1450 by the ingenious John Guten- berg. A tablet near his tomb, put up soon after his death, is inscribed to John Genszfleisch [Gutenberg], inventor of the art of printing. A second tablet, 1508, 1s to John Gutenberg of Mentz, who, first of all, invent- ed printing letters in metal. cao. Great-primer, or 18-point, leaded 79 Many writings of the fifteenth century testify that John Guten- berg was then regarded as the inventor of typography. In the Catholicon of 1460, a book at- tributed to Gutenberg, is the statement that the merit of the new art 1s shown in the “admi- rable proportion, harmony and connection of the punches and matrices.” The key to the in- vention of typography was the discovery of the only proper art of making the types, “the art as it 1s now used,” for there is no other. The legends of a Dutch invention by Koster in 1440 did not appear in print before 1546. 80 Columbian, or 16-point, solid Punches and matrices were fre- quently sold at the close of the fifteenth century. In the year 1476 John Peter from Mentz was selling matrices to some print- ers of Florence. The goldsmiths of Florence and Venice were cut- ting punches for printers. Aldus Manutius of Venice complained that Francis of Bologna, who cut the punches for his new italic, had also cut duplicates for the Giunta. When he began to print at Alost in 1474 John of West- phalia announced that he had the genuine Venetian characters. The types of Jenson of Venice were copied in books printed in France. Caxton of London and Mansion of Bruges used a similar face of type. So did Leeu and Bellaert, and Machlinia and Vel- dener, of the Netherlands. sesese Columbian, or 16-point, leaded 81 € All early type-founding was without system. The printer who directed his punch-cutter to copy the letters in a manuscript had no perception of the beauty of a series of uniform faces and grad- uated bodies. Gutenberg used pointed gothic and round gothic faces. Jenson made roman and round gothic. Other printers had cut for them mongrel faces which are now entirely disused. Type- casting was always done by the printers, who had a simple form of mould in which they cast sev- eral bodies of types, as is shown in the two bodies of english made by Gutenberg and the four bodies of english made by the unknown printer of the Netherlands. @en. 11 82 English, or 14-point, solid All the early printed books were cop- ies, more or less faithful, of the manu- script model. They were fair copies of its form of letter, of its size of page and width of margin, and its arrange- ment of text and notes. Large blanks were left for initial letters that should grace the beginning of every chap- ter or other important division, and for the decorative border that should enclose the text. After the printing of the text-type had been entirely done, the initials and borders were added by a professional illuminator who some- times closed the work of which he was justly proud with a written state- ment to which he added his name as the decorator. The most direct proof that the Bible of 42 lines was printed before 1456 is the certificate, in one copy, of Albech, the illuminator. 7%e Psalter of 1457 contains great initials which had been engraved on nested blocks for printing in two colors. The blocks were separated, inked, and then joined and printed by one impression. LEinglish, or 14-point, leaded 83 Other printers of that age found it less troublesome to leave these spaces for borders and initials blank, to be filled in by the buyer of the book. But few of these book-buyers had the time or the ability to do this work. Only the wealthy could pay the prices asked by illuminators. Consequently not one book in a hundred had its unsightly blanks filled with the decorations in- tended. Then book-buyers began to question the utility of the white gaps and the broad margins; they began to ask for more print and less paper, for books that were perfect when sold by ~ the printers. To meet this demand, the printers of Augsburg at an early date undertook to furnish small orna- mental initials, but Ratdolt of Venice seems to have been the first, in 1477, to make the true decorative initials, or the literee floventes, as he called them. 84 Pica, or 12-point, solid Ratdolt’s initials were probably cut in high relief on metal, for it was not then econom- ical, perhaps not even practicable, to found large ornamental letters in a mould. Much of the so-called engraving on wood of this period, especially of engravings noticeable for their fine or delicate lines, was really engraving on brass, copper, or type-metal. Jean Dupré of Paris says, in a devotional book (entirely typographic) printed by him in 1488, that his engravings of Bible stories and pictures were ‘printed upon copper.” The largest text-types, on a body of about 4% picas, were founded for John Sensen- schmidt, and printed by him in the Bam- berg Missal of 1481. Stock of Nuremberg, and some unknown printer in Spain, made types nearly as large, but most buyers of books preferred smaller types and volumes. The printers tried to adapt the old fashions of decorating the books to the new art by engraving full-page borders, and initials de- signed to show white letters upon a gray groundwork. It was then expected that the book-buyer would illuminate the page by painting red the letters in white. This fashion of making white letters has been continued to this time, although the sup- posed necessity for them does not now exist. Pica, or 12-point, leaded 85 Typography received its most valuable improvements from the printers of Italy, in which country the three text-letters of great- est usefulness were first made: (1) Roman, first founded by Sweinheym and Pannartz in 1465, and afterward perfected by Jenson at Venice in 1471; (2) Ztalic and (3) Small Capitals, introduced together by Aldus Ma- nutius at Venice in 1501. The first volume entirely in Greek was printed at Milan in 1476; the first book entirely in Hebrew, at Soncino in 1488. The forms then adopted have not been seriously changed; modern taste is now drifting back to a closer adher- ence to the models first made by the more skilful of the early Italian founders. Title- pages, copperplate maps and illustrations, engraved initials and borders, smoother and thinner papers, smaller types and simpler ar- rangements of types on the page, narrower margins, handiersizes of books, and inexpen- sive forms of binding—all these, and most of the minor improvements which make books more attractive, were first introduced or were most skilfully executed in Italy. 86 Small-pica, or 11-point, solid In the art of making books attractive, France soon became the superior of Italy. For books of devotion and for the literature of romance, early French printers preferred the black-letter char- acter, which they had cast for them in many ad- mirable forms. Not content with beauty in types, Verard, Pigouchet, Kerver, Vostre,and other emi- nent publishers and printers,secured the codpera- tion of many able designers, who provided initials and borders of marked merit which are still re- garded as masterpieces of typographical decora- tion. Geoffrey Tory, one of the ablest of early French designers, in his book of ‘“ Champfleury ” tried to bring into more general use the roman form of letter, which was even then preferred by French scholars, and which ultimately became the accepted text-letter of the nation. Claude Garamond, one of his pupils, seems to have de- voted himself entirely to designing and casting types for the printing trade. He carried out in a practical manner many of the reforms in typog- raphy which had been proposed by his master. His roman characters, based upon the models of Jenson, and his italics, which he improved by inclining the capital letters, were much admired and eagerly bought by printers in foreign coun- tries. They earned for him the distinction he has had ever since as the “father of letter-founders.” Type-founding was made a distinct art in France before it was in any other country. At Paris, Lyons, and Rouen were founders who supplied printers of all countries with punches, matrices, Small-pica, or 11-point, leaded 87 or fonts of type. Guillaume Le Bé (1525-1598) succeeded Garamond as the leading type-founder at Paris, cutting many forms of orientals for the Royal Printing House, for printers of Venice, and Christopher Plantin of Antwerp. During three generations his descendants maintained the high reputation of French type-founding. After the death of the last Le Bé in 1707, the foundry was bought and ably sustained by Fournier the elder. The house of Sanlecque, almost as famous, was founded by Jacques de Sanlecque, a pupil of Le Bé. He was celebrated for his music types and for the oriental types he made for Le Jay’s Poly- glot Bible. Pierre Moreau, who began his work in 1640, Jean Cot, who began in 1670, and Pierre Esclassant, who began in 1666, were other notable founders of Paris, but they were dwarfed by the reputation and fast growth of the Royal Printing House, which was then making fashions for types. In 1704, M. Jaugeon of the Royal Academy of Sciences, working under a commission from the king (Louis XIV.) to make a truly “royal” type, introduced the fashion of extended and almost conjoined hair-line serifs. This feminine fashion added nothing to the beauty of types, but it did largely diminish their legibility and durability. Nine sizes of characters were made in this style. 88 Long-primer, or 10-point, solid Louis Luce, the punch-cutter of the Royal Printing House between the years 1740 and 1771, further disfigured the roman character by putting flat, extended serifs upon the tops of some lower-case letters, and by adding a needless side-spur to the lower-case d as is here shown. During all the changes of government and of name (for it has been called Royal, Imperial, and National), this printing house of the French government has steadily maintained a high reputation for the wealth of its material and the general beauty of its produc- tions. It hasbeen made richer in many ways. Napo- leon, exercising the arrogated right of a conqueror, in 1799 robbed the printing office of the Propaganda at Rome, and in 1808 that of the Medicis at Florence, of their valuable collections of punches and matrices. In 1815 the new government of France ordered them to be restored, which was partially done. It afterward enlisted the services of the ablest punch-cutters of all nations in cutting characters for all languages that have a written literature. The official history of this office, published in 1861, states that it then owned 367,000 punches and matrices. Among them are the Greek characters of Garamond made under the direction of Robert Stephens, and the romans modeled after the designs of Jenson. The punches of Grandjean, Alex- andre of 1693, and Luce ; the borders of Fagnon, the ornaments of Papillon, and some of the work of Four- nier the elder; the collection of orientals cut in Con- stantinople under the direction of Savary de Bréves — these and others are all to be found in the punch closets of this National Printing House. Firmin-Didot added new styles of roman in 1811; Jacquemin in 1818, and Marcellin Legrand between 1825 and 1847, designed new and peculiar faces. The work of other. punch-cutters of high reputation — among them Leger- Didot, Delafond, Dresler and Rost-Fingerlin of Frank- Long-primer, or 10-point, leaded 89 fort, Bodoni of Parma, and Vibert and Bopp of Berlin — is exhibited at length in the large specimen book of 1861. In 1848 it had distinct characters for fifty-two different languages, many of them on different bodies. Although the National Printing House at Paris has a deservedly high reputation, many important improve- ments in French types and typography were made by founders and printers who were never in its service. At Lyons the type-foundry of Lacolonge, which passed from father to son for many generations, had an envi- able reputation for three hundred years. Its earliest and ablest punch-cutter, Robert Granjon, showed more boldness and originality than any other designer of his time. Some connoisseurs in typography hold that an early form of light-faced roman capitals, first shown at Lyons in the xvith century, presumably by Granjon, is really superior in design to the roman of Jenson, or of Garamond, or any of their successors. The type-foun- dry of Pierre Simon Fournier (or, as he is better known, Fournier the younger) began its work at Paris in 1736. In his “ Manuel Typographique” he shows one hun- dred alphabets, ancient and modern, of great merit, a large part of which was made by his own hands. His greatest service to typography was his invention of the point system of type-bodies, which is more fully de- scribed in another chapter. Jacques Charles Derriey (1808-1877), whose specimen album of 1868 is one of the masterpieces of typography, is deservedly honored as one of the most skilful of modern type-founders. He gave his best attention to borders and ornaments. 12 90 Bourgeois, or 9-point, solid Italian typography began to show signs of its decadence early in the XVIth century. After the death of the earlier printers and designers the types of Venice did not sustain their reputation. But one Venetian type-foundry of the xviith century, that of the Deucheni, had any celebrity for its productions. The most notable Italian foundry was the one established in 1578 by the order of Pope Gregory XIII, which, with its printing house, has been called the ‘Apostolic Printing Establishment,” the ‘‘ Printing House of the Vatican,” and the ‘‘Press of the Propaganda de Fide.” Its first punch-cutter was the Frenchman Robert Granjon, invited there from Lyons, who began the series of orientals which, continued by other hands, has made the house famous. Its specimen book of 1628 showed the largest collection of foreign characters. The press of the Propaganda still does a limited quantity of valuable work, but it is much surpassed by the national printing houses at Paris and Vienna. Type-foundries did not flourish in Italy; in 1742 there was but one in Turin, under the man- agement of the Royal Printing House, and but one in 1719 at Milan, under the direction of the printer Bella- gata. All the large Italian cities now have type-foundries, yet they have done but little for the improvement of the national printing. Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813) is the only Italian founder and printer of modern times who has fairly earned the highest honors. As the superintendent of the Press of the Propaganda he showed the ability which caused him to be invited to reconstruct and manage the Ducal Printing House at Parma. Assuming this position in 1766 he soon made the Ducal Printing House the first in Europe. His ¢“ Manuale Tipografico,” in two quarto volumes, begun by him but completed by his widow in 1818, contains 279 pages of specimens which are good evidences of his skill and industry. These specimens in- ‘ clude the alphabets of about thirty foreign languages, some of them in two or more sizes. He is most celebrated for his peculiar styles of roman and italic, which were cut on a new system and with great clearness and delicacy. His styles are now out of fashion, but the stimulus he gave to the founders of all other countries still endures. Bourgeois, or 9-point, leaded ol Type-founding did not improve in Germany as it did in France and in the Netherlands. The able printers of classic texts at Strasburg, and in other cities, supported as they were by the authority of Albert Diirer, could not induce German readers to accept the roman character. They preferred pointed letters, but were not agreed, even at the beginning of the XVIth century, as to the superior merit of any one of the many styles made by the type- founders. The bible-text of Gutenberg, which is the basis of modern black-letter; the profusely ornamented and flourished letters of the ¢‘Theuerdanck,” which is the model of modern ‘‘ german-text”; the round-gothic, or the semi-gothic, of Scheeffer, a hybrid of roman and black- letter ; the schwabacher and the fractur—all these had admirers. The fractur was at last accepted as the stand- ard form of text-type, but it has never found favor with the Latin races or with English-speaking peoples. This adherence of Germans to pointed letters has prevented interchanges of matrices, which has damaged German type-founding by limiting the sale of its types and books. Before 1700 little was known abroad of German type- foundries, though they were more numerous than those of any other part of Europe. That of John Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf of Leipsic, which was established in 1719, and celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1869, was the first to obtain a wide reputation. © The brothers Walbaum of Weimar demand notice as reformers of the German char- acter. The Imperial Printing House of Vienna is cele- brated for its large collection of foreign types. Woellmer at Berlin, Schelten and Giesecke at Leipsic, Meyer and Schleicher, and” Poppelbaum at Vienna, are eminent as founders. The house of W. Drugulin (Johs. Baensch) of Leipsic is noted for its admirable printing. 92 DBrevier, or 8-point, solid Type-founding in the Netherlands during the latter half of the xvth century exhibits the best and the worst of workmanship. Blades believes that there were two schools or two methods : one casting its types in moulds of sand, and the other in moulds of metal; one, the method of an experimenter, or a badly taught pupil; the other, our method, or the “art as it is now used.” The type-founding of the alleged Koster and of his school is bad ; that of the printer of the “ Book of the Golden Thrones’ (Haar- lem, 1484) is excellent. The types of Thierry Martens of Alost,. and of some of his rivals and followers, are equal to any from France or Italy. Some of the punches and matrices must have been bought in France or Italy, but more must have been made at home by able engravers who are now entirely unknown. Christopher Plantin of Antwerp had many of his newer styles made by Frangois Guyot and his son (educated at Paris, but residents of Antwerp). Laurent Van Everbroeck, Jacques Sor- bon, Aimé Tavernier, and Gerard d’Embden were type-founders at Antwerp who worked for the Plantin establishment. Plantin was also supplied with punches and matrices by Le Bé¢, Gara- mond, Haultin of Paris, Bomberghe of Cologne, and Robert Gran- jon of Lyons. Of all these designers he seems to have preferred Granjon. Plantin’s Flemish characters were made by Henry van den Keere of Gand, who, with his successor Thomas de Vechter, did much work for his house beween 1567 and 1589. The most notable of the earlier Dutch founders was Christoffel Van Dijk of Amsterdam, of whom little is known except that he cut punches for the Elzevirs. His types, of which his succes- sor Athias of the « Jewish Foundry” issued a specimen of about twenty faces (including Greek, Hebrew, Italic, Roman, Black, and Music), have been warmly praised by Moxon and Willems. Athias (1633) was succeeded by Schipper, Clyberg (1705), and Roman (1767). Dirck Voskens of Amsterdam was equally prom- inent in 1677 as a type-founder. He and his descendants largely supplied English printers with types that were highly commended by Luckombe in his book on printing. In 1780 the name of the house was Voskens & Clerk, afterward A. G. Mappa of Rotterdam. The Wetsteins (R. & H. F.) were German founders who began in Amsterdam before 1740, and who for many years maintained a good reputation for their small types. The firm of Enschedé, formed by Isaac Enschedé in 1703, bought out the Wetsteins and made the beginning of the celebrated Haarlem type-foundry, which from time to time ab- sorbed the foundries of Dirck Voskens, J. Blaew, Hendrick de Bruyn, Van den Putte, Van der Velde, and Ploos von Amstel. It is still the largest type-foundry in Holland, and is celebrated for the merit of its oriental characters. Drevier, or 8-point, leaded 93 Caxton, the first English printer, began his work with types that show Flemish mannerisms. They were probably made at Bruges, for they closely resemble the curious characters of Colard Mansion and those of John Brito of that city. Garrulous enough in other matters, Caxton is very reticent concerning the opera- tions of typography. In none of his many books does he say anything about the origin of the eight different fonts he used. It is probable that he, like the other printers of his time, bought the punches and matrices where he could, and cast the types in his own printing office. The lower-case letters of one of his later types are exact copies of those made by Fust and Scheeffer, and are equally well executed; but the capitals for this lower-case retain the peculiarities of the Flemish grvsse bdtarde, or secretary. Wynkyn de Worde, pupil and successor of Caxton, used many of his master’s types, but the styles he adopted later, and those of his fellow-pupil and business rival, Richard Pynson, were cut by French artists who modified or suppressed all of the Flemish mannerisms. The form of black-letter preferred by these early English printers is still accepted as the best. It has suffered no transforming change which conceals its derivation. The old english black-letter of our day adheres more closely to the models of the first printers than does the Flemish black or the German fractur. The introduction of the Roman form of letter by Richard Pynson in 1518 did not suppress the black- letter, which remained the favorite letter of the people for more than a century afterward. Reed says: ¢ The Black being employed in England to a late date, not only for Bibles, but for law books, and royal proclamations, and acts of parliament, has never wholly fallen in disuse among us. The most beautiful typography of which we as a nation can boast during the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries, is to be found in the black- letter impressions of our printers.” For many years after the introduction of printing England seems to have been dependent on France. Caxton and his successors had books printed at Paris and Rouen. De Worde, Pynson, Faques, Berthelet, and Copeland got many of their punches and types from Rouen. 94 Minion, or T-point, solid John Day of London (born 1522, died 1584) was the first English type-founder of marked ability. He was not a founder to the trade: he made types only for the needs of his own printing office, which was patronized by Archbishop Parker. For that dignitary he made the first distinctively English type, a full font of Saxon, which was intended for Alfric’s Saxon Homily and the Saxon Gospels. Reed says that ‘“ the accuracy and regularity with which this fount was cut was highly creditable to Day’s excellence as a founder.’ About 1572 he cut a font of double pica italic and roman, which was fully equal to any then in use on the Continent. Archbishop Parker, in a letter to Lord Burleigh, dated December 13, 1572, writes: ‘“ To the better accomplishment of this worke and other that shall followe, I have spoken to Daie the printer to cast a new Italian letter, which he is doinge, and it will cost him x1 marks; and loth he and other printers be to printe any Lattin booke, because they will not heare be uttered, and for that Bookes printed in Englande be in suspition abroad.” Another writer adds that ““ our Black English letter was not proper for the printing of a Latin book.” These fonts of roman and italic were made to line with each other, a nicety too often dis- regarded by other printers. Day's services to typography were many : he improved the shapes of the Greek letter of his day; he made types for music, ‘‘ lozenge -shaped and hollow ”; he cut types on wood for Hebrew when they were needed in his texts ; he made signs, mathematical and other, not before cast in type; while his works abound with handsome woodcut initials, vignettes and por- traits, besides a considerable variety of metal ‘ flowers ”’ or border ornaments. Some of the woodcuts he had made for his books, of exceptional merit, have never received the consideration they de- serve. His most noticeable work was Fox's ‘* Book of Martyrs,” or as it was then called,** Acts and Monuments,” of which he printed many editions. His device was a pun on his name — a sleeping man aroused by his friend and by the rising sun — with the words, ‘“ Arise, for it is Day.” Day seems to have been one of the few prosperous early printers. Strype, in his life of Archbishop Parker, has this notice: ‘“And with the Archbishop's engravers we may join his printer Day, who printed ¢ British Antiquities’ and divers other books by his order . . . for whom the Archbishop had a par- ticular kindness. . . . Day was more ingenious and industrious in his art, and probably richer too, than the rest, and so became envied by the rest of his fraternity, who hindered what they could the sale of his books; and he had, in the year 1572, upon his hands, to the value of two or three thousand pounds worth, a great sum in those days. His friends procured [for] him from the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's a lease of a little shop in St. Paul's Churchyard.” The tablet to his memory has a long inscription from which these lines are selected: | Two wyves he had, pertakers of his payne, | Each wyfe twelve babes, and each of them one more. | Day published about 250 works. Dibdin says, * (if we except Grafton) Day seems indeed the Plantin of old English typographers, while his character and reputation scarcely suffer diminution from a comparison with those of his illustrious contemporary.” Minion, or T-point, leaded 95 English typography entered upon a period of distinct decadence after the death of John Day. Christopher Barker, who was queen's printer in 1582, made this report upon the condition of the trade. ‘In King Edward the Sixt his Dayes, Printers and printing began greatly to increase ; but the provision of letter, and of many other thinges belonging to printing was so exceeding chargeable that most of those printers were Dryven throughe necessitie, to com- pounde before with the booksellers at so low value, as the printers themselves were most tymes small gayners and often loosers. The Booksellers now keep no printing house, neither beare any charge of letter, or other furniture, but onlie pay for the workmanship. . . so that the artificer printer, growing every Daye more and more unable to provide letter and other furniture . . . will in time be an occasion of great discredit to the professours of the arte.” Barker says there were in 1582 ‘‘ twenty-two printing howses in London, where eight or ten at the most would suffice for all England, yea, and Scotland too.” The first English type-founder to the trade seems to have been Benjamin Sympson of London, who in 1597 was enjoined by the Stationers’ Company ‘‘ not to cast any types or to deliver them without advertising the master and wardens in writing, with the names of the parties for whom they were intended.” This is the only record concerning Sympson. In the decree of Star Chamber made July 11, 1637, these four type-founders are named, John Gris- mand, Thomas Wright, Arthur Nichols, Alexander Fifield, who have recently been known as the Star Chamber founders. Of Wright and Fifield nothing more is known. In 1649 John Grismand entered into a bond of £300 with two sureties not to print seditious work. In the same year Arthur Nichols, writing to the Archbishop of Can- terbury, complained that ‘‘ of so small benefitt hath his Art bine, that for four years worke and practice he hath not taken above forty- eight pounds, and had it not bine for other imploymente he might have perisht.” It is supposed, but not certainly known, that these four founders contributed the types for the London Polyglot of 1657, the fourth great Bible of the world, and the best specimen of English typography in the seventeenth century. They are consequently now known as the Polyglot founders. Nicholas Nichols, son of the Arthur Nichols previously mentioned, in 1665 petitioned to be ap- pointed ‘‘ Letter Founder to your Majesties Presses.” The petition was granted, but there is no evidence that he was a skilled founder. 96 Nonpareil, or 6-point, solid Joseph Moxon, a type-founder of London from 1659, to 1683, has distinction as the first English writer on the practice of typography. He had been a maker of mathematical instruments, and by reason of his skill and scientific attainments was appointed hydrographer to the king. In 1676 he published his first book: ‘Regul Trium Ordinum Literarum Typographicarum, or the Rules of the Three Orders of Print Letters, viz: the Roman, Italick, English, — Capitals and Small; showing how they are compounded of Geometrick Figures and mostly made by Rule and Compass.” In 1683 he published ‘“ Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works, applied to the Art of Printing.” These volumes are thoroughly illustrated expositions of every branch of typography from punch-cutting to presswork. Moxon says that letter-cutting had been *‘ kept so concealed among the Artificers of it, that I cannot learne anyone hath taught it any other, but every one that has used it Learnt it of his own Genuine Inclination.” This leads his reader to infer that he was entirely self-taught. His early rude types, and his models for types as laid down in his first book, strengthen this inference; but the careful en- gravings of the tools of the punch-cutter and his explanations of all the pro- cesses of type-founding, contained in his second book, show that he was then thoroughly instructed in every branch of typography and had right to speak with authority. He was deeply impressed with the great beauty of the Van Dijk types, and makes use of them as models to enforce his theories of the value of geometrical rules in designing letters. No type-founder of his time, or afterward, accepted his geometrical formulas, which all founders say are impracticable, but the information he gives about the practice of other branches can be read now with pleasure and profit. It does not appear that he made any reformation in English typography. The printers of London continued to prefer the types of Dutch founders. Robert Andrews succeeded Moxon, after 1683, and continued the business of type-founding to 1733. His foundry was probably the richest in matrices of all in England, but he was not regarded a good workman. A font of Saxon cut by him for the University Press at Ox- ford was found unsatisfactory and put away. Most of the types of learned languages for which the University foundry was famous were cast in matrices made abroad. Their romans and italics were largely of Dutch manufacture, and they depended on French founders for Greek, Hebrew, and Oriental types. In 1700, when the University of Cambridge wished to buy in Paris a font of the Greek types known as the King’s Greek, the French Academy made it a condition of purchase that all books printed therefrom should bear an imprint setting forth that the types were from the French king’s royal printing house — a condition which was refused by the University. The Oxford University had a press of its own as early as 1478, but this press did little work of value before 1585. Dr. John Fell, the vice-chancellor, presented it with a complete type- foundry in 1667. Ten years after Mr. Francis Junius enriched the University Press with a valuable collection of punches and matrices. Most of them are now obsolete, but Reed says that under able management the foundry is in active operation, and that the University Press possesses the largest collection of polyglot matrices of any foundry in the kingdom. The only notable founder at Oxford during the seventeenth century was Peter Walpergen, a Hollander. He was succeeded by Sylvester Andrews (before 1714), who was the son of Robert Andrews, the London founder. James Grover, who began business about 1675, and Thomas Grover, his son, were successors to one of the old polyglot founders. They were the first English founders who made the size diamond. They introduced ¢ Scriptorials,” ‘‘Cursives,” *Court-Hand,” and several forms of ornamental letters. In 1728 Thomas Grover's daughters, who were his heirs, tried unsuccessfully to sell the foundry in bulk. William Caslon’s offer for it was refused as too small. For thirty years the foundry was neglected, and locked up in the house of Nutt the printer, who seems to have made use of it for his own benefit. After the death of the last of Grover’s daughters, the foundry was sold to John James. Nonpareil, or 6-point, leaded 97 Thomas James, one of the apprentices of Robert Andrews, began business in London as a type-founder about the year 1710. There is no evidence that he had any skill as a punch-cutter. It was, probably, a conviction of his own inability, and of corresponding inability on the part of the few punch-cutters then in London, that induced him to go to Holland to buy the punches and matrices he needed to equip his foundry. Rowe Mores, in his ‘¢ Dissertation on English Founders,” has reprinted some of the curious letters then written from Holland by Thomas to his brother John who was to be his associate in the busi- ness. From these letters it appears that the Dutch founders, willing to sell types, were not so ready to sell matrices, and proposed to part only with those they esteemed the least. Voskens, with whom James tried to deal, saw in him a future competitor and gave him scant civility. Cupi and Rolij, two punch- cutters for Dutch founders, were the men from whom he bought most of his materials. The price paid for those he got are not stated, but James seems to have been well satisfied with his purchases, which were effected only after a deal of suspicion and higgling on both sides. With these matrices the brothers commenced and for many years maintained a successful business in London. Thomas James earned an unenviable prominence as the first antagonist to stereotyping. In 1729 William Ged of Edinburgh, who had invented a use- ful process of stereotyping, was induced to associate with him Thomas James as a partner. James played false from the beginning, and supplied him with worn types to bring the invention into discredit. By his connivance the com- positors made errors, and the pressmen bruised the plates. After three years of hopeless struggle with these covert enemies Ged abandoned his work in London and returned to Edinburgh, where he printed from stereotype plates an edition of Sallust before his death in 1749. In 1781 Dr. Tilloch of Edin- burgh, with Foulis, then printer to the University at Glasgow, reinvented a new process of stereotype with which they printed several books. Van der May in 1705, and Firmin-Didot, in 1795, also made practicable plates, but the art of stereotype was not really successful until it was perfected by Stanhope in 1800. The business of James declined before his death in 1736. His son John continued the policy of his father in buying matrices from other small foundries, but with a steadily diminishing hold on English printers. Nearly all of the types of this foundry were out of fashion. At his death in 1772 all the material passed by purchase into the hands of the antiquary, Rowe Mores, who did not choose to continue the business and who found it difficult to sell the matrices. Mores says that the “waste and pye” of this foundry contained upwards of six thousand matrices, the assorting of which gave him great trouble, but that he was gratified to find in the rubbish of punches some orig- inals of Wynkyn de Worde. “They are truly wetustate formdque et squalore venerabiles.” At the auction sale in 1782 the contents of the foundry were dispersed, Dr. Fry buying the matrices of the curious characters. ¢¢ With this sale,” says Reed, “disappeared the last of the old English foundries.” 13 98 Agate, or 5-point, solid William Caslon of London (born 1692, died 1766), the ablest type-founder of the eighteenth century, was one of many eminent punch-cutters who never served a regular apprenticeship to the trade. In his boyhood he had been taught the art of a general engraver on metal, and was employed for most of his time at engraving gun locks and barrels, and letters and ornaments for bookbinders’ stamps. About the year 1719, when he was twenty-seven years of age, his marked ability in making letters attracted the attention of the printers John Watts and William Bowyer, who advised him to devote himself to making punches for types. His first commission was the cutting of punches for a font of Arabic, which was so well done that Bowyer, Watts, and Bettenham, another printer, lent him £500 to establish him in business as a type-founder. His next task was the cutting of a font of Coptic, which he did with equal ability. A full font of pica with its mated italic perfected by him, and issued to the trade about the year 1721, was so much better than any then in use, either English or Dutch, that his superior abilities as a founder were admitted without question by all printers and publishers. How he organized his foundry, how he secured proper workmen, and obtained a full knowledge of the technicalities of this jealously guarded trade, has never been fully told, but the work was well done. In 1734 he issued a sheet of specimens showing twelve faces of roman and italic, seven faces of two-lines, seven faces of flowers, and seventeen faces of foreign letters -— all of which, with three exceptions, were cut by his own hands in fourteen years. Man of the roman and italic faces are now in use under the name of Old-style. Nichols wisely says : “ For clearness and uniformity, for the use of the reader and the student, it is doubtful whether it [the Caslon fashion of letter] has been excelled by any modern production.” In 1742 Caslon’s eldest son Will- iam (known in the trade as Caslon 11) was admitted to partnership, and continued the business until his death in 1778. The son was a good founder and fully maintained the reputation of the house, but he showed an ungen- erous depreciation of the work of his father’s old apprentice, Joseph Jack- son. The quality of its productions is fairly shown in the ‘‘ Specimen of Printing Types, by W. Caslon & Sons, letter-founders in London,” which is in- serted in Luckombe’s * Concise History of the Origin and Progress of Print- ing,” of 1770. No other foundry of that period, nor for a long time after, showed a series of faces so symmetrical. William Caslon 1m succeeded to the management of the business, but in 1792 he sold his share in it to his mother and his brother Henry’s widow, and bought the foundry of the deceased Joseph Jackson. Under his management the Jackson foundry was much enlarged and improved. About the year 1803 the fourth William Caslon was admitted to partnership, and the name of the firm became W. Caslon & Son. In 1807 the senior partner retired, dying in 1833. His son William Cas- lon 1v added to the stock and extended the business of the foundry, but to some extent damaged his reputation as an intelligent founder by an unsue- cessful attempt at making short, wedge-shaped types, intended to be fitted and fastened on the periphery of a cylindrical printing machine. In 1819 he sold his foundry to Blake, Garnett & Co., who removed the material to Shef- field, where its work was afterward done under the name of Stephenson, Blake & Co. The older Caslon foundry continued to be managed by Mrs. William Caslon, mother to Caslon 1. She was an active member oi SE ble” (p. 507), which gives the gp yy ‘996 o ..168 x..46 following figures as the propor- g72 ¢ ..280 b ..158 z..22 tionate use of lower-case letters: mn ..670 m..272 |=] English Method Union Method 121 letters so ascertained in one line is multiplied by the number of solid lines in the length of the mat- ter composed. This method is as elastic The French as it is correct. The compositor gaing method nothing by thick and loses nothing by thin letters. As the entire lower-case alphabet is made the basis of count, no unfairness can be practised with any unduly thickened letter. The English unit for measuring composed mat- ter is the en quadrat. The number of ens in the line to be measured is multiplied by The English the number of solid lines. The unit is method different, but the method of measurement is the same as that of the United States. One thousand ens English equal five hundred ems American. The International Typographical Union of North America recently formulated a new method for determining the correlative widths of New rules lower-case types, and as a proper basis for width for the measurement of composition. The lower- case alphabet must be divided in two equal parts, with thirteen letters in each part. The part that contains the letters ec, d, e,i,8, m,n, h, 0, u, a, t, z, must be of the same length as the part containing the other thirteen letters. This new regulation, which seems to have been made as a safeguard to prevent the capricious thickening of the width of any one type to the disadvantage of the piece com- positor, is of doubtful general utility. Since the introduction in composing-rooms of the Linotype 122 The Set of Type-founders and Lanston, and of other type-casting machines, there has been a marked decline in the practice of piece composition. All the new type-making and type-setting machines are constructed to favor the production of types on a wider set. The nominal or measurable production of these machines is largely increased by greater fatness in the types, which are rarely less than ten per cent. (and are sometimes twenty per cent.) fatter than types made after the old standards of good form. Set is the word used by type-founders to define the set or adjustment of the mould, which deter- mines the width of each type. An en quadrat ison the en set ; a three-to-em space is on the three-to-em set; the period is usually on the five-to-em set. When a printer wishes a character cast to a pre- scribed width, he should define its proposed width by the word set. 4S The Point System XWNE of the defects of the old system w : 2 { of naming types was this—the old names did not define the iq names bodies. Small-pica wasin- did not de- : tended for a body half-way ™"¢Podics between pica and long-primer, but in one foundry it might be of nearer approach to long-primer, and in another but little smaller than pica. There was no agreement among founders as to the exact dimensions of small-pica, long-primer, or any other body. Hansard says: “In one office I knew of eight fonts of pica which bore the following pro- portions to a foot measure: 71%, 71%, 703, 71%, 71, 71%, 71%, 711.71 To the novice these irregularities seem trifling. The variation between a pica 71 lines to the foot 1 “Typographia,” p. 385. 123 124 The Irregularities of Bodies and another pica 71% lines to the foot is not a three-hundredth part of an inch —a variation that Irregularity CNNOt be seen and that can scarcely of bodiesisa be felt. If two bodies like these could serious fault a]ways be kept apart, each body being used in detached lines or in distinet work, this variation might be trifling. But an entire sepa- ration of the different bodies in the same office is practically impossible. Types of different bodies sometimes have to be used in the same work—to be made up, side by side, in pages of fifty lines or in columns of two hundred lines. They often have to be used together in the same line. If the type- body of one page of fifty lines is one three-hun- dredth part of an inch shorter than that of another page, then the first page will be one-sixth of an inch shorter than its mate. In a column of two hundred lines, the difference will be two-thirds of an inch. If the two diserepant bodies be put in the same line, as they have to be in the displayed words of a catalogue or a dictionary, the differ- ence in bodies which is unnoticed in the first line makes a serious crookedness in the tenth line, and this crookedness will keep increasing with every succeeding line. In all offices the rule prevails that there must be no mixing of types from different foundries, even if they are apparently of the same face and body. To disobey this rule is to create disorder; to mix the types of two fonts spoils both fonts. Accuracy Maintained with Difficulty 125 The contrasting, side by side, of a composition of twenty or more lines of two fonts that seem alike will prove that they are seriously unlike. This dissimilarity may be noticeable not only in the bodies of different founders, but even in bodies that have been made by the same founder at dif- ferent times. It is of the first importance that types should be accurate, yet it is difficult to make them of un- varying accuracy. The mould of steel ppm. 0 will swell and wear; the matrix of cop- make type per is extremely liable to imperceptible accurate displacements. Changes in the composition of the metal, and in the degrees of heat, produce corre- sponding changes in the dimensions of founded types. A little more or a little less pressure in rubbing the type will make corresponding differ- ences in the size of the body. In all reputable type- foundries these tendencies to irregularity are kept under control, and seldom lead to faults serious enough to justify complaint. A printer can order sorts to-day to supplement a font cast twenty-five years ago, with confidence that the new and the old can be safely used together. But this rigid accuracy is maintained only by testing the types as they are cast with instruments of precision that were not used by type-founders a hundred years ago. The accuracy of the exactest founder who cast type under old systems was only of partial benefit to the printing trade. As a rule, his sizes 126 Irregularities an Inherited Evil differed, and in some instances purposely differed, from those of other founders. The printer who had to buy from all foundries could not use the types of two or more founders in the same line or even on facing pages; he could not safely mix the spaces and quadrats of different fonts; he could not even determine an exact measurement by the count of ems. There was no standard. These irregularities are the inherited misfor- tunes of printing. They can be seen in the types Beginning of Of the first printers, who were their irregularity own founders, who cast their types in in bodies a rude adjustable mould (now entirely out of use), which could be made larger or smaller so as to cast two or more bodies. For the sake of its cheapness the early printer preferred the mould which made many bodies to that which made one body only. In the continued readjust- ments of this mould for different castings, the inexpert founder made unintended deviations and irregularities of body which he and his successors were obliged to perpetuate. Moxon,! writing in 1683, named ten bodies as those most used in England. He admits that the standards Dutch had several other bodies, but he of Moxon did not think them worth naming, as they differed but little from the English bodies. “Yet we have one Body more which is sometimes used in England: that is the Small-Pica, but I 1¢ Mechanick Exercises,” pp. 13, 14. : Early English Standards 127 account it no discretion in a Master Printer to use it because it differs so little from the Pica.” He gives us this table, “ wherein is set down the num- ber of each Body that is contained in one Foot.” Pearl... =... .. "| 13¢ Enolish............. 66 Nomparel ......... 150 Great-Primmer ...... 50 Breviep.: vio 112 Double-Piea ...... .. 38 Long-Primmer. . . .. 92 Two-Lin’d English... 33 Plea. oni 75 Great-Cannon ....... 1714 Luckombe,! writing in 1770, gives another table of the proper dimensions of bodies (probably those of the first Caslon), which shows that the bodies then made deviated largely from the standards that had been laid down by Moxon: French Canon... ... eran 18 and a Great Primer Two Lines Double Pica.... 20 and 34 Two Lines Great Primer... 25 and ann Two Lines English. ........ 32 Two Lines Pica ..... ae 35 and 34 Double Dien. .......00. 00 41 and an n Paragon... 0h, 44 and an n Great Primer... ......... 51 and an r Pagliale,. 0... a .. 64 Plo nis tobe, Sats 71 and an n SwialliPlea 0... 0.0. 0 83 Long Primer.......... .... 89 Burjols....... ........... 102 and a space Brovier ci. i. 112 and an n Minow... is. mii... 128 Nonpareil .......co00 1... .. 143 Penxl: .... . 0. 178 1 “History of Printing,” p. 222. 128 Later English Standards From this it appears that six new sizes had been introduced which Luckombe declared were not really needed. He says: “How much less value, therefore, would Mr. Moxon have set upon Minion, Burjois, and Paragon had he ever seen them.”! The old Caslon foundry, from which Luckombe probably obtained his measurements, was justly considered the first in England, but its inability to be true to its own standards is shown by Hansard’s? comparison of the Caslon bodies of 1770 with those made in 1824. In 1825 he published in his “Typographia” a care- fully engraved diagram of the sizes most used, printed on dry paper to prevent shrinkage; this showed decided variations from the standards of 1770. In 1842 Savage, for his “Dictionary of Printing,” procured from the same foundry the Standards of Caslon and others 1 Luckombe intimates that all theso-called irregular bodies are but accidents; that when a new face had been cut too large for the body for which it was in- tended, and too small for an- other, this new face was put on an intermediate body. It is evi- dent that the early founders made types to suit themselves, with no regard for the needs of printers. Luckombe describes the “saving way ” of a ¢‘ Mr. Jal- leson, who was a letter-founder from Germany, and lived herein the Old Bailey,” who with three sets of punches offered to make brevier and long-primer from one set, pica and english from another, and great-primer and double pica from the third set. ‘‘ History of Printing,” p. 225. 2 Hansard, while admitting that the irregularities of type originated in the want of some generally understood standard, puts the greater blame on those printers, who ‘from a love of singularity and a desire to avoid the inconvenience of lending sorts . . . still order their fonts to be cast on an irregular body.” ‘“Typographia,” p. 384. This lending was also avoided in an- other way by printers who had their types made low to paper. Savage's Comparison of Standards 129 measurements of the bodies as then made, which did not exactly agree with those that had been given by Hansard in 1825. Savage also gave the following table of the measurements of the bodies made by the leading founders of Great Britain. Lines of Different Sized Type in One Foot.! Thorow-| Alex. ) V.& J. | good & | Wilson Bodies. Moxon, | Caslon, |Figgins,| Besley, |& Sons, 1683. 1841. 1841. 1841. 1841. Diamond ~....... pr 204 205 210 204 Pearl. 0 0 184 178 180 184 178 Roby... 0... 5 = 166 165 163 166 Nonpareil ......... 150 144 144 144 144 Emerald .......... aks £3550 128 in 128 Minion.-.......... ool 122 122 122 122 Brevier........... 112 111 107 112 111 Bourgeois ......... oe 102 10115 103 102 Long Primer. ..... 92 89 90 92 89 Small Plea. ....... i 83 82 82 83 Plea... 0 75 72 72% 72 72 Pnglish........... 66 64 64 64%; 64 Great Primer ..... 50 51 51 52 51 Paragew .......... a 44151 4414 ... 4414 Double Pica ...... 38 4115 4114 41 4114 Two-line Pica. .... i 36 36 36 36 Two-line English..| 33 32 32 32% 33 Two-line Gt.Primer| ... 25151 2514 26 2515 Two-line Dbl. Pica| ... 20341 2034] 2015 2034 Trafalgar. ........ rl 20 20 wi 20 Canon... .... 1714 18 18 18 18 1 Savage's ‘‘ Dictionary of Printing,” p. 802. 17 130 Recent American Standards The deviations of leading type-founders in the United States in the year 1856 were as serious, as will be seen in the following table. From these fig- ures it does not appear that any American founder had copied the standards of any British founder. Comparative Scale of Ems in the Linear Foot.! | A Bruce's A A A Bodies. | London |[NewYork| Phila. [NewYork| Boston | foundry. foundry. | foundry. | foundry. | foundry. Diamond ........ 205 201.58 1204.50] ..... Yi Pearl... 0. 178 179.59 1179 ff ..... st Agate .......... I ..... 160 163 Les Nonpareil ....... 143 142.54 1145 |... ..... Minion .......... 122 126.99 | 119 128 124.50 Brevier ...... = 112.50 | 113.13 | 109 112 115.66 Bourgeois ........ 102.50 | 100.79 | 103.25 | 102.50 | 104.50 Long Primer. .... 89 89.79 | 90 90.50 | 90 Small Plea ...... 83 80 83 86.25 | 84.50 Pies. ........... 71.50 71.27 73 72 72 English ......... 64 63.401 ..... ceil Columbian ...... 80.25 BOB a Grent Primer... 1 31.25 50.391 ..... /..... | ..... Parvagon......... 44507 44.801... | ..... he Dbl. Small Pica..| 41.50 | 40 ate lh Te Lo Dbl, Plea. ....... 85.73: 33.63... ..... | Se Dbl. English.:...| 32 BLT ae he DLL Columbian. |} 2] 28:98... fn hay Dbl. Gt. Primer..| 25.62 | 25.19! ..... | ..... | ----. Obl. Paragon... ..] ....o 0 2244 |... Lf... .... Meridian ........ OTB 20 aera, Conon... =. 18.33 | 17.81 Lee a | ia 1 ¢“Printer’s Miscellany,” New York, July, 1857. Variations in Height 131 Variations in the height of types have not been as marked as variations in body. English and American founders came to a practical variations agreement at the beginning of this cen- in height tury that the standard of height should be eleven- twelfths of an English inch. George Bruce of New York made the only exception; his standard was a little higher. In France the height of type had been fixed by law at ten and a half geometric lines, a fraction less than eighty-eight one-hun- dredths of the old French inch. Modern French types are higher than American types; the two heights cannot be used together. German types were still higher, but are now made to the French standard.! The types of Russia and Poland, once more than one inch in height, are now made to conform to the Berthold system. Attempts have been made to reduce the height, but a mass of types much shorter than those now in use could not be made secure in a chase. While it does not appear that any founder's sizes of types were based upon a generally recognized measure, there was some understanding that the bodies from mnonpareil to small-pica, inclusive, should be limited to six. Tt was found that these six bodies were enough to make all the gradations 1 This reform was made by vatory. He modelled and had Heinrich Berthold, a prominent constructed several standards type-founder of Berlin, under of steel and sent one gratui- the guidance of professors of tously to every German type- the Berlin Astronomical Obser- founder. 132 Plan Proposed by Fergusson in size demanded by printer, publisher, or reader. There also seems to have been an understanding six bodies that all larger and smaller bodies should serve for be made by halving or doubling the six standards oon dard sizes. Pica was the double of nonpareil, and english the double of minion. Pearl was the half of long-primer, and diamond the half of bourgeois. The English names of double pica, double english, and double great-primer show that these dimensions were or should have been deter- mined by the three smaller bodies. But these three small bodies were often inexact, or out of pro- portion with each other, and the doubling and redoubling of their bodies exaggerated the fault. If the small-pica had been made but little larger than long-primer, then the double small-pica would be but little larger than paragon. There would be a wide gap between the double small-pica and the double pica, and this gap would be still more con- spicuous in the redoubled size of meridian when contrasted with canon. A simple plan for securing uniformity in bodies was proposed in 1824 by James Fergusson of Scot- land, in the following words: Plain and Accurate Rules for obtaining Permanent Uni- formity in the Sizes of the Bodies of Types, and in their Height to Paper. 1. Let the fount called Nonpareil be made the fun- damental standard, and make 12 lines of Nonpareil measure exactly one inch. Fournier's System of Points 133 2. Let 14 lines of Nonpareil be the common measure for all other founts; this measure to take in 5 lines of Great Primer, 6 of English, 7 of Pica, 8 of Small Pica, 9 of Long Primer, 10 of Bourgeois, 11 of Brevier, and 12 of Minion. 3. Let 11 lines of Nonpareil be the standard of height to paper. A conformity with these rules would evidently prove of great benefit to Printers and might ultimately not be less so to Letter-founders. If adopted, the bodies of English, Pica and Small Pica will be a little enlarged ; Long Primer and Brevier a little diminished.l Fergusson’s plan was never adopted. In 1841 Bower, a type-founder of Sheffield, proposed the establishment of a graduated scale of sizes based upon pica as the common standard, but his pro- posal was never accepted by the trade. The first practical attempt at uniformity was made in France by the type-founder Pierre Simon Fournier, about the year 1737. In his “ Manuel Typographique” of 1764 he gives this explanation of his system of Typographic Points: 2 This subject needs special explanation because it is new and unknown. I place it here to show the new pro- portions which I have given to the bodies of type by means of the fixed measures that I call Typographic Points. The last regulation of the Library, made in 1723, fixed the height-to-paper at ten and a half geometrical Lines. This rule is as easy to give as to practise ; but it 1 Hansard, ‘“ Typographia,” p. 389, 2 Vol. i, p. 125. 134 Fowrnier’s System of Points was quite another matter when this regulation under- took to establish laws that should govern the dimensions of the bodies. When this regulation was made, no one, apparently, had been found who was competent to give correct information concerning this matter. A proper person was much needed, for he could have corrected abuses, and could have created order and precision where there never had been any. In the absence of better knowledge on this subject, a master printer gave for a standard, with all their imperfections, such types as he found in his own printing office. The regulation based on this standard, not being founded on any proper basis, has not been complied with. This is the reason why the bodies of types have never had fixed and ac- curate dimensions, and why the irregularity is just as great now as it was before the regulation. In article nix of this regulation, it is stated that, to be of proper dimensions, Petit-canon [about double english] should be equal to two bodies of Saint-augustin [english]; that Gros-parangon [double small-pica] should be equal to one Cicéro [pica] and one Petit-romain [long-primer], ete.; but the dimensions which the Saint- augustin, the Cieéro, and the Petit-romain should have, in order to make, by combination, the Petit-canon or the Gros-parangon, are not given. Consequently, any one has opportunity to evade the regulation, and it is done at pleasure, without liability to penalty. One may make a Saint-augustin body smaller than another, and may contract the Petit-canon to double this thickness, but he will comply with the regulation. Another may make this Saint-augustin body more or less too large, and from two of these bodies he may make his Petit-canon ; but in this case also the letter of the regulation will be complied with, although it is a clear violation of Fournier's System of Points 135 the intention. In this way confusion is perpetuated to such an extent that it is sometimes difficult to per- ceive the distinction between two bodies of type of which the larger size is below the standard, and the smaller size is above it. Then, again, it sometimes happens that in two fonts of the same name the bodies vary more or less, and when they are found in the same printing house, the workmen mix together the quadrats and spaces to the ruin of both fonts. It may be said that the regulation has provided for this fault, by the rule which obliges founders to receive a certain number of types of each body, to the dimen- sions of which they are required to conform, under penalty. But these model types, which were only pro- posed in theory, and which have never been given, would not have remedied the evil that should have been avoided; for bodies so given would have been of undetermined dimensions, without correct proportion, without exact relation, and, in fine, without scientific basis. These pretentious regulations, instead of pro- ducing accuracy and order, on the contrary have in- creased the confusion by multiplying types for which there was no need. Thus we have, according to the reg- ulation, bodies like Petit-canon, Gros-parangon, Gros- romain, Cicéro, Philosophie, Gaillarde, and Mignone, _ without double bodies for the two-line letters, all of which are virtually unauthorized. Here there are seven or eight bodies [of two-line letters only] without names, useless for every other purpose, and a needless expense to the printing office. Moreover, these combinations of bodies — of a Cicéro and a Petit-romain to make a Gros- parangon ; of a Petit-romain and a Petit-texte to make a Gros-romain ; of a Petit-texte and a Nompareille to make a Saint-augustin —indicate but slender experience 136 Fournier's System of Points ~ and capacity in those who proposed them. Why divide these bodies in unequal parts, which lead to nothing, and for which there can be no explanation? This part of the regulation has never been executed. The defects of existing usages have been perceived, but no one has tried to find the remedy. The printers, who are the only parties who have been consulted on this subject, have not been sufficiently educated as typographers to discuss the question critically, or to make rules for a branch of the art which they do not practise, and of which they often know but little more than the name. To clear this chaos, and to give this branch of typog- raphy an order which never before reigned there, is the subject that has engaged my attention. By the inven- tion of the Typographic Points, I think that I have had the pleasure to be successful, with an accuracy and pre- cision that leave nothing to be desired. This invention is nothing more than the separation of the bodies of types by equal and determinate degrees, which I call Points. By this method, the degrees of separation and the degrees of proximity in the bodies of types may be comprehended with exactness. Types may be combined like arithmetical figures, as, for example, two and two make four; add two, and there will be six ; double this, and there will be twelve, ete. In like manner, a Nom- pareille, which has six points, when added to another Nompareille will make a Cicéro, which has a dozen points; to this add another Nompareille, and there will be eighteen points, or a Gros-romain; double all this, which will make thirty-six points, and there will be a Trismégiste, which has thisnumber. Similar results may be had from all the other bodies, as may be seen in the table of proportions annexed. Fournier's System of Points 137 To combine the bodies, it is enough to know only the number of typographic points of which they are com- posed. For this purpose it is of the first importance that these points, or given units, should be invariable, so that they may serve as rules or measures in the printing office, just as the foot [pied-du-roi], the inch, and the line serve in geometry. With this object in view, I have fixed these points of the exact sizes they should have, in the scale which is at the head of the table of proportions; and to make unvaryingly exact the casting of the types, I have devised an instrument which I call a prototype, of which an illustration and description will be given on another page. At the head of this table is a fixed and standard scale. I have divided it in 2 inches; the inch in 12 lines, and the line in 6 of these typographic points; making altogether 144 points. The first minute divisions are of two points, which is the distance between the body of a Petit-texte and of a Petit-romain, or from this latter size to the body of a Ciecéro. The number of points which I allot to each of the bodies should be taken by measure on this scale. If the measures are accurately and specially taken for each body, and are verified upon the prototype, they will establish a sys- tematic gradation of sizes for all bodies of types, as will be demonstrated by the following combinations. The invention of these points in 1737 is the first ser- vice that I rendered to typography. Compelled then to begin a tedious, painful, and laborious task, in the engraving of all the punches needed for the estab- lishment of my foundry, I found no standard rule that could guide me in determining the bodies of the types I had to make. I was thus obliged to make a system 18 A 138 The Defect of Fournier's System for my own use. That I have done this will be apparent by the following table. This scale contains in its entirety twelve bodies of Cicéro. After printing and publishing this table in 1737, I noticed that the paper in drying had shrunk a little below the proper dimensions of the scale. In this print I have prevented this error, by making a proper provision for the shrinkage of the paper. The table appended to Fournier’s diagram shows his allotment of typographic points to the bodies then in greatest use. In similar manner the table proceeds through all sizes to eight-line, or Gros- nompareille of 96 points. Each of the larger sizes is not only an exact double of a smaller size, but is the sum of two or more snialler sizes. Every body is an exact multiple of the point; all bodies can consequently be combined with facility and without justification. After this statement of the evils of irregularity, and of the need of precise standards, the reader The point was PrOPerly expects to see a careful print notbasedon from a copperplate of this standard legal measure g.qle of 144 points, and a statement that the two inches of this scale are inches of a legal standard French measure. Instead of this he is referred to a roughly constructed diagram, undeniably made of bits of rule, badly jointed, and put together so clumsily as to provoke a suspicion of its accuracy. This suspicion is not allayed by the statement of Fournier that he had The Fixed Scale of Fournier ~~ 139 TABLE GENERALE DE LA PROPORTION des différens Corps de Carallires. Es ECHELLE FIXE de 144 points Typographiques. bonne . A EE EE Noms | ‘Corps. [poins: 1 Parisienne. eo 8iiviis mini sites 5 2 Nowrazmnze, .. ..... 1 6 3 NMeowonn, . oii iiaies 7 4) Pemiverexrn......... 8 $b Gamnanpe. . 00) 9 6] Perit-romain. — 2 Parifiennes, | 10 71 Pmvosorme. = 1 Parl, 1 Nom-|11 pareille, 8] Cickro, — 2 Nomp. = 1 Pan-|12 fienne , 1 Mignone. 9] Samvt-Avcustiv. — 2 Mignones.| 1 4 =1 Nompareille, 1 Petit-texte, | | .-. L ‘‘ Manuel Typographique,” facsimile of p. 125, vol. i. 140 The Prototype of Fournier “made provision” (by conjecture?) for a possible alteration in the scale from the shrinkage of wet paper. It is still more astonishing to learn that this rude scale and the prototype (a larger mea- sure of 240 points) are the only standards offered The height-gauge and its type-support. t ¥ = The measuring rod of 240 points. The prototype of 240 points, in reduced facsimile. for the determination of the bodies. In another part! of his book Fournier illustrates his proto- type and its measuring rod, his height-gauge and its type-support. He does not minutely describe the use of these tools. We have to infer that accuracy was proved, or inaccuracy detected, by 1 ¢ Manuel Typographique,” vol. i, p. 303; vol. ii, plate VIII. Advantages of the Points 141 feeling with the fingers the types in the prototype, or the height-gauge. In no part of his book does he allude to a micrometer, or to any similar in- strument of precision. It is certain that these 240 points were not an even fraction of the standard French foot. They approach more nearly to Eng- lish measures, but Fournier does not refer to any standard measure for the verification of the accu- racy of his scale or prototype. The only standard of appeal is a diagram printed from brass rules, purposely made over large to compensate for the shrinkage of wet paper.! ; Imperfect as it was, Fournier's system promised advantages of real value to printers and founders. The subdivisions made by him permit- 1, oo ted the readjustment of the sizes then promised in use without any serious departure 2dvantages from established bodies. It required but little contraction or expansion of any body to bring it within the bounds of his typographic points. So the system of points was welcomed by printers as a valuable improvement in typography; and in due time it was adopted by all the French type-founders. Fournier states that his object was to separate the bodies of types at equal and fixed distances, 11t is probable that Fournier so that it would not seriously found some insuperable obstacle alter the dimensions of existing in trying to make his point a sizes, hoping that for this reason regular fraction of the French it would be accepted by printers foot ; and that he fixed the point and founders. 142 Didot’s System of Points but it should be noticed that the types themselves, although at equal degrees of distance, are in un- equal degrees of proportion as to body. Body 5 is one-fourth larger than body 4; body 6 is one-fifth larger than body 5; and this decrease continues with advancing sizes: body 11 is but one-tenth larger than body 10. Not long after the death of Fournier, Francois- Ambroise Didot, the celebrated type-founder of The point Faris, undertook to improve the system system of of typographic points. His first step to F.A.Didot t}is end was to base the points upon an authorized lineal measure. For this purpose he selected the royal foot of France (pied-du-roi), which is equal to 12.7892 American inches. He preserved intact the subdivisions used by Four- nier: the foot contained 12 inches; the inch, 12 lines; the line, 6 typographic points; making, as before, 72 points to the inch. In the readjustment of bodies made necessary by this alteration the smaller faces of type presented Competed Pub little difficulty. The parisienne and important nompareille of Fournier could be respec- changes tively adjusted on bodies of five and six points of slightly increased dimensions without impropriety. As to the middle sizes, like gaillarde, petit-texte, and mignone, the expansion of the new points was too much. The faces previously made for these sizes were found too large for one body and too small for another. In some instances they Two Systems Used Together 143 were crowded on smaller bodies; in others they were put on larger bodies; and in still other cases in which the faces could not be transferred, new fractional sizes, like 64, 73, and 8%, had to be made. One alteration was especially unfortunate. The cicéro, which in Fournier's system was on a body of 12 points, in Didot’s system was put on a body of 11 points. The difference was more in name than in fact, nine-sixtieths of a point—an inap- preciable difference on a single body; but it was quite enough to destroy the value of the old body of cieéro, or pica, as the established standard for determining the thickness of leads and furniture. That each body might be identified with pre- cision, Didot rejected the old names, and gave to each size a numerical name: parisienne was called corps 5; nompareille, corps 6; mignone, corps 7; cicéro, corps 11, ete. The name defined the body and showed its relations to other bodies. The simplicity of this numerical classification, the real need of a better standard for bodies than Fournier's prototype, and, more than Concent all, the authority of such an eminent use of the typographer as Didot, were sufficient tWO systems to constrain many French type-founders to adopt the new system. It was not, however, sufficiently meritorious to overcome every objection. Many printers, some in Paris, but more in the provinces, adhered to the system of Fournier. To the great injury of master printers the two systems were for 144 Their Relation to Each Other a long time in concurrent use. A recent French writer on typography states that they were so confounded in 1867 that it was almost impossi- ble in a Parisian office to make an exact measure from a calculation by points. Fournier’s system is also known in France as the System Eleven, or the Bastard System, or the Indivisible System. The allotment by Didot of eleven points to the old standard size of cicéro or pica has been wrongly attributed to Fournier, and is supposed to have some mysterious value, for eleven is practically an indivisible number.? Fournier. Didot. Fournier. Didot. Parigilenme... 5 .. 5 Petit-romain .. 10 .. 9 Nompareille . 6 6 Philosophie.... 11 .. 10 Mignone. .... 7 7 Cledro. 2.0... 2... 1 Petit-texte .. 8 715 Saint-augustin. 14 .. 12 Gaillarde .... 9 8 Gros-texte. . . .. 16 .. 14 This table, published by a type-founder? at Brus- sels, for the purpose of illustrating his ability to furnish bodies of types made by both systems, will 1 “Sous influence de la con- fusion déplorable qui, en per- mettant aux deux systémes de g'introduire concurremment a T'insu des maitres imprimeurs, a jeté une véritable perturba- tion dans le matériel de presque toutes les imprimeries, en sorte qu’ il y est devenu a peu présim- possible de rien établir de juste en calculant par points.” Le- chap, ‘‘ L'Imprimerie,” No. 44. 2The rival claims made for Fournier and Didot as inven- tors of the point system have been carefully examined by M. Cusset of Paris, and published by him in the ‘‘Procés-verbaux de la Société fraternelle des Protes des Imprimeries de Paris.” Reprinted in ‘ L’Im- primerie,” No. 108, 1873. 3 “Specimen Book of M. T. Vanderborght,” Brussels, 1861. Defect in the Didot System 145 serve also to show the relations that the bodies of the two systems bear to each other. It is a misfortune that these scientific systems should have been perfected before the introduction of the French metrical system. Four- pp, cctoms nier’s is imperfect in its want of basis prematurely on an established measure. Didot’s is ™mtroduced imperfect in its selection of a disused measure for a basis. Neither of them has any direct relation to the metrical system. That of Didot is at com- plete variance with the metre in every part.! The accident that 100 points of Fournier accord with 35 millimetres has led to no practical result in France: a standard of 35 millimetres has not been used by the French founders as a scale or mea- sure for subdivision. Before Fournier and Didot had introduced their systems, eicéro (or pica) served for a unitary stan- dard, as it continues to serve in England , ete in and America. Its dimensions were va- the Didot riable, yet it was a convenient unit for SVSte™ calculation. Leads, reglets, furniture, brass rules, cuts, large wood and metal types, were made on 1 This defect in the Didot sys- much smaller than the one now tem has been the occasion of in use — smaller eyen than that many attempts to bring Didot’s points in accord with the met- rical system of France. One of these attempts was that of Charles Verneuil, who proposed that the unitary point should be made equal to two millimetres. This would make the point 19 of Fournier or of the American system. This is a practical con- fession that the Didot point is too large, and that the distance between the bodies is too great. It is not probable that this new plan. will be accepted. ‘ L’Im- primerie,” No. 161. 146 Bruce's System of Progression bodies that were the multiples or divisors of pica. By Fournier's method, pica or cicéro was made of twelve points, which was a divisible number. When Didot accommodated this pica to an even division of the royal foot, and put it on body 11 of his system of points, he made it virtually an in- divisible unit. It is not practicable to make leads or brass to the fractions of eleven. Intelligent Parisian typographers admit that this is a real fault, and do not hesitate to avow their preference for the system of Fournier! as the more natural and more advantageous of the two, inasmuch as it graduates the bodies of type in infinitesimal proportions more available than those of Didot. The first practical attempt in America at the “establishment of correct proportions between the 1 On the contrary, M. Labou- laye, in his ¢ Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures,” objects to any change in the Didot point. He makes these observations in the article on Fonderie en Car- actéres, § 8: ‘ Attempts have been recently made to return to the Fournier point by making it in accord with the new mea- sures. The base declared is that 100 points Fournier make ex- actly 35 millimetres, or that the point be equal to about 0== 35. Now would it be wise or advan- tageous, when the greater part of printing houses have been fully equipped, often at great cost, with types on the Didot point, to reduce the size of the type bodies? What is the point Didot in millimetres? ‘I’An- nuaire’ of the Bureau of Longi- tudes makes the line of the pied- du-roi 0== 2,256, of which one- sixthis 0==376. Should this great revolution in sizes be made be- cause the point should be 0== 35 instead of 0==376? The first decimal division is not better than the second. An exact milli- metric division should be estab- lished on another basis, on one which would not upset all the materials now in use, and do it for so little benefit.” These ob- servations are given at length to show that the point system of Didot is not, even in Paris, accepted as a perfect system. Bruce's System of Progression 147 proximate bodies of types was made by the late George Bruce of New York in 1822. It does not appear that he meant to establish a new 1. grace series of sizes. His object was to make system of all types properly correlated with as Progression little disturbance as possible to the bodies then in regular use. As the most used bodies of brevier, long-primer, and pica were, in most foundries, very nearly cor- rect in their relations to each other, these bodies were taken as the ones which should be least dis- turbed, and to which the others should be made to conform; but the intermediate and so-called irreg- ular sizes were adjusted to the regular sizes with- out regard to old usage. Bruce began his change by determining the exact size of the six standard bodies from pica to minion. This done, the dimen- sions of larger or smaller bodies were determined by the multiplication or division of the six standard bodies. Conformity was obtained by making the bodies increase by the rule of geometrical progres- sion. Small-pica was made as much larger than long-primer as bourgeois was made larger than brevier. Each body was made a certain percent- age larger than its proximate smaller body. This percentage expressed in figures is the decimal 122462, which, when increased six times in a series of expanding bodies, doubles on the seventh pro- gression the size of the body first selected. The Bruce system provides for uniformity of increase 148 Bruce's System of Progression The Relation of Different Bodies of Type to each other and to standard linear measures by the Bruce System of Geometrical Progression. Size Bony Ia ge: Ems and Ems and in deci- 5 decimals decimals Tofios. mals of [rereping of an em | of an em a linear 2 in a linear | in a square inch. ~ 3 of 2 foot. foot. inearinch. Diamond -...... .0595+ 201.587+| 40,637.46+ Pearl i......... .0668+ | .0072+ | 179.593+ 32,253.97+ Agate: 0h 075 .0081+ | 160. 25,600. Nonpareil ...... 0841+ | .0091+ | 142.543+| 20,318.73+ Minion. ........ 0994+ | .0103+ | 126.992+| 16,126.98+ Brevier ........ 1060+ | .0115+ | 113.137+| 12,800. Bourgeois ...... 1190+ | .0129+ | 100.793+| 10,159.36+ Long-primer ...| .1336+ | .0145+ 89.796+| 8,063.49+ Small-pica ..... 15 .0163+ 80. 6,400. Picea ........:.: 1683+ | .0183+ 71.271+| 5,079.68+ English........ .1889+ | .0206+ 63.496+ 4,031.74+ Columbian ..... 2121+ | .0231+ 56.568+ 3,200. Great-primer ...| .2381+ | .0259+ | 50.396+ 2,539.84+ Paragon ....... 2672+ | .0291+ 44.898+ 2,015.87+ Double sm.-pica| .3 .0327+ | 40. 1,600. Double pica ....| .3367+| .0367+ 35.635+ 1,269.92+ Double english .| .3779+ | .0412+ 31.748+| 1,007.93+ Double columb. | .4242+ | .0462+ 28.284 + 800. Doub. gt.-primer| .4762+ | .0519+ | 25.198+ 634.96+ Double paragon | .5345+ | .0583+ 22.449+ 503.96+ Meridian... .... .6 0654+ | 20. 400. Canon... 6734+ | 0734+ 17.817+ 317.48+ From the Bruce Specimen Book of 1882. The American Point System 149 of bodies; it brings under the rule of geometrical progression not only the bodies but the distances between the bodies. It is ingenious and scientific, but has not been adopted by any other American type-foundry. For sizes larger than canon it is not so well adapted. All American and English founders, as well as all the manufacturers of wood types, make their larger bodies multiples of pica. Printers prefer this system for large types, not for its superior facility of combination, but for its nicer division of sizes. For the smaller types the rule of geometrical progression brings bodies too near together. After a fire, which destroyed their materials, Marder, Luse & Co., type-founders at Chicago, planned a system of bodies based on rhe American six picas to the American inch. Be- point system fore they had made types by the new plan, they perceived that its adoption would compel the mak- ing not only of new bodies, but of new faces which would disagree with the types of all other foun- dries. Abandoning the system of six picas to the inch, they took for their standard the pica of the MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Co. as the one which would be preferred by the greater number of printers and founders. Upon this basis they regraded all smaller and larger sizes after the methods of Fournier. In 1878 they put on sale types made by this system, which they called .the American System of Interchangeable Type Bodies. 150 The American Point System At a meeting of the United States Type Foun- ders’ Association, held at Niagara in 1886, a com- AdeoAny mittee was appointed to examine into United States and to report upon the new system. Type Founders’ Several founders objected to its basis Association . ow upon a pica capriciously selected, and not a regular division of the foot or metre, but the result of the examination was the adoption of its leading features by a majority of founders. It was found that the pica which had been selected could be put in accord with the metric system, although in an irregular manner. Kighty-three picas were equal to thirty-five centimetres. By dividing the pica into twelve equal parts, and ac- cepting one of these parts as the unit, a base was made for the determination of every body. This twelfth part of a pica was called a point. All bodies of types were placed on multiples of this point and called by numerical names: pica was 12-point ; double-pica, 24-point; four-line pica, 48- point. The numerical names defined the bodies and the relation that each body had to the rest. This American system follows the methods of Fournier and Didot, differing from them only in its selection of another body of pica as its basis. The following table gives the sizes, as near as they can be expressed in decimals of the American inch and the French metre, of the American point system of type-bodies, as they were adopted by the United States Type Founders’ Association. The American Point System 151 : Size in | Size in cen-| No. of ems No. of ems Bodies inches. | timetres. per foot. per metre. 1-point....... 0.0138 0.0351 867.4699 2845.7143 1%-point. .... .0207 .0527 578.3132 1897.1428 2-point........ .0277 .0703 433.7349 1422.8572 2%-point..... .0346 .0878 346.9880 1138.2856 3-point....... .0415 .1054 289.1566 948.5714 3%-point. .. .. .0484 .1230 247.8486 813.0612 4-point....... .0553 .1406 216.8675 711.4286 4l%-point. . . .. .0622 .1581 192.7711 632.3810 B-point....... .0692 1757 173.4940 569.1428 51-point..... .0761 .1933 157.7218 517.4026 G-point....... .083 .2108 144.5783 474.2857 7-point....... .0968 .2460 123.9243 406.5306 S-point....... 1107 2811 108.4337 355.7142 O-point....... .1245 .3163 96.3855 316.1905 10-point....... .1383 .3514 86.7470 284.5714 1l-point....... .1522 .3865 78.8609 258.7013 12-point....... .166 4217 72.2892 237.1429 14-point....... .1937 .4920 61.9621 203.2653 135-point....... .2075 5271 57.8313 189.7143 16-point....... 2213 .5622 54.2170 177.8571 18-point....... .249 .6325 48.1928 158.0952 20-point....... 2767 .7028 43.3735 142.2857 22-point....... .3044 7730 39.4304 129.3506 24-point....... .332 .8434 36.1446 118.5714 2%-point....... 3874 .9840 30.9810 101.6326 30-point....... 415 1.0542 28.9157 94.8571 32-point....... .4426 1.1244 27.1085 88.9280 36-point....... .498 1.2651 24.0964 79.0476 40-point....... | .5534 1.4056 21.6867 71.1428 42-point....... .581 1.4759 20.6540 67.7551 44-point....... .6088 1.5460 19.7152 64.6753 48-point....... .664 1.6867 18.0723 59.2857 54-point....... 747 1.8975 16.0642 52.6984 60-point....... .83 2.1084 14.4578 47.4285 72-point....... .996 2.5301 12.0482 39.5238 152 Basis of the American System The methods agreed upon by the United States Type Founders’ Association for the purpose of securing uniformity under the new system seem to be practically satisfactory. A graduated mea- suring rod of steel, 35 centimetres or 83 picas in length, is made a common measure for all bodies of type. It does not appear, however, that every type-founder who has adopted this system has ready access to an official metre, on which the measure of 35 centimetres depends. Some of them I A gauge for type-bodies. pica, 36 bodies of brevier, and 48 bodies of nonpareil. Of the inter- This gauge or smaller measure consists of three bars of steel accurately fitted and firmly con- nected as is shown in the illus- tration. The space between the short side bars is exactly 288 points, which admits 24 bodies of smaller measure. mediate sizes, it takes 26 bodies and 2 points of small-pica; 28 bodies, 8 points of long-primer; 32 bodies, 8 points of bourgeois; 492 bodies, 1 point of minion. It has been claimed that there is no reason why an official metre should be used, as the fixed and unalterable length of the metre can be determined by mathematical calculation. 1The metre is the ten-mil- lionth part of the arc of a me- ridian between the pole and the equator, or 3.2808992 feet. t Proposed Change of Height 153 The measuring rod of 35 centimetres was also suggested as a good standard for determining the height-to-paper of type. By this plan Popout fifteen type-heights were made equal to change of 35 centimetres. This is a serious devi- fyPeheight ation from the old standard of eleven-twelfths, or 9166 of an inch. One-fifteenth of 35 centimetres 15.9186 of an inch. The difference of 12% or <1, part of an inch may seem very trivial, but it is enough to prevent the use of the different heights in the same line. Some founders claim to have adhered to the old standard of height; others have adopted the new. Those who have adopted the new bodies without a special refitting of all their old matrices are giving to printers a greater annoyance than was A gauge for height-to-paper. Types canbe tested by printers for height-to-paper by this sim- ple instrument of steel, recently invented by Henry Barth, of the Cincinnati Type Foundry. The line A C is very slightly out of parallel with the line B D. A type of proper height will pass freely in the channel toward the mark E, in which channel it is 20 held straight and square by the movable brass H that slides in a slot. The type that stops in the channel before it reaches the slot is too high; the type that passes the slot or the mark E is too low. Type-founders make use of a more complicated instrument which will show a deviation of less than 44; inch. 154 The French Point too Large ever received from irregular bodies. Soon after the new point system was adopted, complaints Changes. EYE heard from press-rooms that some in height types were high-to-paper. The fault was injurious 1) oticeable in lines in which were sorts of newly cast types. Compositors were blamed for a bad planing-down of forms, and electrotypers for their bad moulding, and the office for permit- ting a mixture of old type with new sorts; but a testing of the unworn type of the first casting with those that were newly cast plainly showed that the real fault was in the altered standard of height. It would be a great benefit if the types of France, Germany, and America were uniform as to body, Didot point SO that types bought in one country is too large could be used in another. The United States Type Founders’ Association considered this question, but they were obliged to reject the French system : the Didot point was too large; it made the distance between bodies too great. To adopt the Didot point would have compelled the retirement not only of the greater part of the moulds and matrices now in use, but also the re- cutting of new punches for many sizes. It would have been a forsaking of the better for the worse; a rejection of a system of convenient divisions for one of larger divisions that were not as con- venient. The point adopted by the United States Type Founders’ Association is .0351 + centimetre. This deviates but little from the point devised in Origin of the American Point 155 1737 by Fournier, the true inventor of the point system. The point substituted by Ambroise Firmin- Didot is .0376 + centimetre, eleven points of which are almost as large as tw elve American points.! The explanatory diagram which follows this page is from the foundry of t he MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Co. It may be accepted as an official rep- resentation of the bodies 1In the Fournier system 1000 points make 35 centimetres; in the American system 996 points make 35 centimetres. It is prob- able that the American system, based on the pica of the Maec- Kellar, Smiths & Jordan Co., was unwittingly derived from Fournier. Thomas says, in his ‘‘ History of Printing in Amer- ica” (vol. i, p. 29, second edi- tion), that Benjamin Franklin purchased of P. 8S. Fournier ‘‘the materials of an old foun- _ dry,” and had his grandson, B. F. Bache, instructed in the art by Fournier, with intent to establish an extensive foundry in Philadelphia. The foundry so established did not thrive; it was neglected and abandoned by Bache, but after Franklin’s death the type-founding tools became the property of his rela- tive Duane, who kindly offered to lend them all to Binny & Ronaldson, then the only foun- ders of importance in that city. Ronaldson was struck with their superiority, and fearing that Duane might change his mind, Or 7 INIVERS HE 1k OF of the American system. at once got a wheelbarrow and trundled them to his own foun- dry. Binny acknowledged that he received many valuable sug- gestions from these tools. With this testimony as to the value of the tools, added to our know- ledge of Franklin’s interest in scientific instruments of every kind, it may be assumed that Fournier sold not old but new tools, and that he had provided everything needed to establish his point system in America, in the equipment which he fur- nished to Bache. There can be no doubt that Binny & Ronald- son had, and made use of, the Fournier mould for pica, and that the standard they fixed for this body was accepted by their successors, Li. Johnson & Co. and the MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Co. The slight devia- tion from the Fournier stan- dard of four points in one thou- sand may be accepted as the consequence of unintended and graduallyimperceptible changes which would occur after a long use of moulds in early days. Nn N SIT ) hy SALIFORN) {NA 5 36 POINT. 48 POINT. 22 POINT. 24 POINT. 28 POINT. No J 30 POINT. 32 POINT. 10 POINT. 11 PoINT. (B] H 12 PoINT. BJ 14 POINT. 5 16 POINT. \ 18 POINT. W 20 POINT. 7 | 3 POINT. 3%, POINT. 4 POINT. 41, POINT. 5 POINT. | 51 POINT. 6 POINT. 7 POINT. V] or 8 POINT. 9 POINT. 9¢1 SAPO UOJ UDIUUIULT Three Scientific Systems Contrasted 157 Number of Ems to Linear Foot. American system. | Bruce system. Didot system. Spot. 28060 .. ... | Body 3... 270.23 Blspoint247.84 Body 31;..231.62 4-point...216.86 Diamond... 201.58 | Body 4. ...202.67 4l5-point. 192.77 Pear]... ... 179.59 | Body 415..180.14 5-point. ..173.49 Body 5....162.13 B1g-point. 157.72 Agate. ...... 160. 142.54 | Body 515. .147.38 6-point. . 144.57 | Nonpareil. . . 7-point. ..123.92 | Minion... .. .. 126.99 ey Sp dnp 124.72 8-point...108.43 | Brevier . ...113.13 oe iy i 0 A 4 B-paint. .. 00.58 Bourgeois . ..100.79 y i‘ 10-point. .. 86.74 Body 7%5..108.09 11-point... 7896|LonEprimer B08 oo 0 nm 12-point... 72,28 | Small-piea .. 80. |p.409 90.07 14-point... 61.96 (Pilea ........ 71.27 Body 10... 81.06 15-point... 57.83 | English ..... 63.49 Body 11... 73.69 16-point. .. 54.21 Columbian .. 56.56 ‘Body 12... 67.55 12-paint. -- 48.10 Great-primer 50.39 Body 13... 62.36 20:polut... 43.37 Paragon .... 44.89 Body 14... 57.90 22-point... 39.43 Body 1 50.66 34-polnt 36.14 | PPL. sm.-pica 40. | Day 16... 90; .-- 36. ‘Body 18... 45.03 28-point. .. 30.98 Double pica. 35.63 | Sha 30-point... 28.91 Dbl. english. 31.74 Naa 32-point... 7.10| pt, golumb, 28.28 | S03 22... 36.84 Boh 0 DL hi. B10] My 40-point. .. 21.68 ody 26... 31.18 42-point. .. 20.65 | DP paragon 22.44 | Body 32...25.33 44-point... 19.71 Meridian... 20. | Body 40... 20.26 48-point... 18.07 | Canon .....» - 17.81 | Body 48... 16.89 158 Proportions of English Types The bodies of English types have been changed “since they were reported in Savage’s Dictionary.! English Sizes : Ems to the linear foot.? Miller |Stept Cs Sizes. and son and | Figgins.| Caslon. | Reed’s Richard.| Blake. Sons. Pleg ............ 15 72 72 72 72 Small-piea ...... 83 83 83 83.2 83 Long-primer ....| 89 89 90 89-5 ol Bourgeois .. ...... 102%5| 10215) 102 102 102 Brevier ......... 111 111 108%) 111-8] 111 Minion... .. cattle 129 123 122 1224 | 122 Emerald ........ 138 129 128 1285 | 128 Nonpareil . ...... 143 144 144 144 144 Ruby-nonpareil..| 160 161 160 | ... 160 Ruby ........... 166 166 166 a 166 Pearl. Loa 178 179 183 178-6 | 181 Diamond. ....... 207 204 203 204 Gem’ Loan 222 Brilliant... ....... 237 as Semi-nonpareil ..| 286 288 | If the point of the American system had been based on the plan of six picas to the inch, it is possible that English and American bodies could have been brought to agreement, and that a sys- tem of points on this basis would not have met with any determined opposition in England. 1See p. 128 of this work. figures given in this table were 2 0ldfield, ‘* Manual of Typog- verified for its own type by each raphy,” p. 98. He says that the foundry named therein. The American Point System 159 This American point system has been adopted by many founders, and in time will probably sup- plant all other systems in America. nd Although it is of great advantage t0 gystem does the printing trade to get more uni- not insure formity, too much has been expected poser from this point system. It reduces but does not en- tirely prevent irregularities. That it will ever be so perfect that types of the same body from different founders can unhesitatingly be mixed and used together is not probable. System alone is not enough. Perfection in theory will not make skill in manufacture a matter of secondary importance. Under the new system good type-founding will ex- act as much watchfulness as ever. The irregular- ities that are caused by overheated metal, sprung or untested moulds, or careless rubbing, are as possible now as they ever were. The founder who has been careless under the old system will probably be equally careless under the new. The advantages that may accrue from uniform bodies will be more than nullified if general uni- formity in height is not secured. If some type- founders continue to adhere to the old standard of height, while others attempt to introduce the new, without a careful refitting of special matrices to the new moulds, the printing trade will be more damaged than benefited by the change. Printers can test their types, chiefly as to body, “but also as to height-to-paper, by means of the 160 The Use of the Type-gauge type-gauge, of which an illustration is here given. The two jaws or graduated faces are very slightly out of parallel, at an angle so slender as to be un- perceived until they are held against the light. The thumb- piece allows the un- der jaw to be ad- justed on the slide to fit any body. When set to the proper gauge, a type too small will pass in it beyond How types the gauge line; a type are tested too large will not reach to the gauge line. Type-founders usu- ally test the distrusted bodies by put- ting four of the type-bodies between the jaws, first at the shoulder and then at the foot of the types. An ex- ceedingly slight inaccuracy that may escape notice on one body will be de- tected when four bodies are together. One of the advantages claimed for all systems of typographic points is their helpfulness in justifying. But this advantage is much overrated. Quite as much special justification Type-gauge. seems to be done in French as in American offices. Unless the leads, brass rules, and other material of composition are true frac- Points applied to Spaces 161 tions of the point, this facility in justification is defeated.! Those who have experience in compo- sition, and who know how the bodies of , types types, leads, and rules are bent and thick- dificult ened by usage, by dust, rust, and imper- © JUStfy fect cleaning, and how much allowance must be made, both in the width and length of a column or page, for the “spring” of types or their contrac- tion in the process of locking-up, will acknowledge that types do not combine in practice as easily as in theory. In the composition of algebraic work, the point system is helpful. A twelve-to-pica lead will make justification between proximate bodies yy wstom of ordinary size. It is not enough to is helpful secure exact justification in the compo- ™ #8°Pra sition of good book and job work ; where two sizes have to be used together exact lining is required, but this is rarely accomplished by the use of the twelve-to-pica lead. For the justification of the proximate sizes smaller than nonpareil, a twenty- four-to-pica is required, for which thickness there are no leads. The compositor will have to justify these bodies, as he did before, with strips of paper and cardboard. The point system, or a modification of it, has been applied to the set or width of types. The inventors of various forms of type-writing ma- 1The “Scale of Prices” of the and 1878 contains many articles Parisian compositors for 1868 that price special justification. 2 162 “ Self-spacing” Types chines had previously discovered the importance of types that were of one width. The first practi- Points ap. Cal attempt at systematic uniformity in plied to the the set of printing types was made in _ setortype 1883, by Benton, Waldo & Co., type- founders at Milwaukee, who introduced the system as that of “self-spacing” types. Their plan was to put every type, on all the bodies from agate to pica inclusive, on some set which was an even di- vision of the standard pica em. These divisions varied according to size of body, from an eighth to a thirteenth of the pica em. The object sought was the quickening of composition by providing better facilities for spacing. As a composed line of types and spaces made on this system is but a combination of the regular divisions of pica, it was claimed that the types so composed must end evenly on every line, and thereby prevent much of the trouble of spacing. In placing the characters of the font on even divisions of the pica, many difficulties were met. _ Detectsot The form of one character might be too the system parrow for one set but the next might be too wide. The alternatives were to give this character a too broad or a too narrow set, or to recut the punch so as to keep the character on the prescribed set. The result of the earlier experi- ments was not satisfactory: the general effect of the composed types was that of neglected fitting. Later efforts at improvement have removed many Spaces on Point Sets 163 of the earlier infelicities, but the publishers and printers who are critical do not accept the “ self- spacing” types as proper models of form. More improvement is needed, but there is every reason to believe that this improvement can be made. The advantages of “self-spacing” types to com- positors are beyond question; the new method largely reduces the labor of spacing. The Point System applied to Spaces.! Six- Five- | Four- | Three- | Patent En Em Bodies. to-em | to-em | to-em | to-em | space. | quad- | quad- space. | space. | space. | space. [Yzofem. rats. rats. HS=-point..{ .... 1 ¥1le | #2 caine 5 Slo-point| .... |*1 |*1ly |*2 |*2l, |*3 51g 6-point..| 1 Gola bf 8 feo og 6 7-point. .| *1 *115 | *2 *21g | *3 31g 7 S8-point..|*1 |*115| 2 |*21, |*3 4 8 Dpoint..| 1p |*2 fro, ] 8 Jem, | m1,( 9 10-point. .[ *115 | 2 21g | *3 *4 5 10 1l-pojnt .|*3 [=01, [#3 |e31, feat, | m0, (11 12-point..| 2 *21p | 3 4 *5 6 14-point..| *2 *3 *4 *5 *6 7 14 18-point .| *2 *3 *4 6 9 1s The Central Type Foundry of St. Louis have proposed to apply the point system to spaces only, by putting every space of every body on gpaces on the set of one point or on the multiples point sets of the point. As the point is but about +5 and the 1 “Pricelist of Central Type Foundry,” p. 5. 164 Spaces on Point Sets half point about 47 of an inch, the divisions are sufficiently minute. Rigid adherence to this sys- tem will compel the making of some new widths of spaces, and possibly in some fonts the making of figures on new sets, but spaces on point sets will be a valuable aid to justification, especially in the narrow columns of table-work. The changes from the old sets now in use are marked in the table with a *. The patent space is intended to be the interme- diate between a three-to-em space and an en quad- rat— or about five-twelfths of the em body. It has been in use for years in some large book offices. The only en quadrat changed is that of the 53- point, which is made a trifle thicker. This should compel the putting of figures on a set of the same thickness or the retention of the en quadrat of the old form. Iv A Font of Type FONT of type is a complete collec- tion, with a proper apportionment to each character, of the mated types required for an ordinary text. The SoA 1 letters are in unequal request: & and e appear repeatedly in long sentences; Z and ( may not be found in a page. The type-founder tries to supply each character in proportion to its frequency of use, so that the printer shall have enough of every and not too much of any character. The written or printed summary of the proper quantity of types for each character is known in the United States as a scheme, and in A scheme Great Britain as a bill, of type. Forlarge of tyre metal types, or for wood types that are used only for single lines of display, the scheme is made by a count of the characters, as may be seen in the 165 A Scheme for Wood Type 166 122 104 Letters. | Letters. 5-4 5-a Capitals. Lower-case. - ENHMHI dE RIO YORE CRU OREETQWS WON HDD HH DODO WORD LO WHR UTS TTRO WO OT OTH OO hO WW UT HS LOW Oy HH 0 Ot ed fd fd fd ed ped ft DD GO BD CO CO HR OT OT OT RD GO OT OTH UTR DO OTH CO WO OH Hx WO Ot BRERHREB INAH Ids cnr T OBE F< = FR 0 Ae TO A and & are seldom provided. annexed scheme for a 5-A and 5-a font of wood type: Figures are not provided for all fonts of large type. When provided, they are furnished for a 5-a font in the proportion of two types each of characters 2, 3,4,5,6,7, 8,9, %$; three types for figure 1; five types for fig- ure 0. Fonts of 3-A are some- times made for very large types, but for ordinary types the 5-A font is the smallest. The font of 5-A, with figures, has two hundred and fifty char- acters, but it seldom happens that more than fifty of them can be used at one time. If these fifty letters contain six of E and five of A, no more lines can be set that call for A or E. But the provision in the scheme for two hundred other characters is necessary; some of them or all of them will be needed on other work or at another time. In fonts of metal type of large sizes, and in all fonts of dis- play letter, the schemes do not include spaces or quadrats. Scheme for a Job Font Wood types are sold at a fixed price for every letter ; metal types at a fixed price by the pound. For larger fonts of wood type or jobbing letter, different apportionments are made, as is shown in the annexed scheme for a 36-A and 70-a font. In the United States the ap- portionment of each character in fonts intended for book or newspaper work is made by weight. In Great Britain the apportionment is made, nom- inally at least, by a count of characters. The apportionment of char- acters is necessarily varied for Characters different languages. areused The English printer unequally who buys a French font of type soon discovers its deficiency of k and Ww, and its excess of and’. The French printer who bought an Eng- lish font would object to the excess of the kK and w, and the deficiency of the and ’. Ital- ian calls for a larger supply of 167 70-a. | 36-4. a 70 A 36 b 28 B 15 ce BT Q.24 d 492 D 19 e 92 E 43 £f 28 P17 g 24 GG 17 h 47 H 19 i 70 I 36 J 1217 9 k 14 X 9 1. 47 Y, 24 m 37 M 19 n 70 N 36 o 70 0 36 p B|P 1 q 10 6 rr 70 R 36 s 70 S 36 tt: 70 T 36 un 37 U 19 v 14 Y- 9 w 28 WwW 15 x 10 x 6 y 2'¥ 9s z 10 Z 6 B® 5 & 6 ® 5 ZK 3 fi 8 E 3 ff 8 1. 16 fA 5 8 12 fi 5 3 12 Hl 5 4 12 lars 3p ; b|.6% 12 : 5 v.12 5 37 8 12 - 8 9 19 * "1510 1% ! 5 ? 8 $ 10 £ 3 | 168 Object of the Scheme ¢ and Z; Spanish, for more of d, t, and all the vowels; Latin, for more of ¢, Mm, Nn, U, and (. For any language but English the scheme of the American or English type-founder is unsuitable. The scheme is not, and cannot be, nicely adapted to every kind of literary composition in English. For poetry there must be a large excess of quad- rats; for the personal narrative, an excess of I; for tables or statistics, an excess of figures; for dictionaries and catalogues, an excess of capitals, signs, and points. Even in plain descriptive mat- ter, apparently free from any peculiarity, the com- positor will note that a latinized style will use an excess of one kind of sorts, and a colloquial style an excess of other sorts. For peculiar work the printer must select and order an excess of the characters that are most needed. The object of the scheme is so to apportion each character that all the types in the font may be set Object of Out of case, leaving no surplus. This ob- ascheme ject is never attained. When a compositor reports that a new font of text-type has been set out, as a rule about one-third of the weight of the font remains unused in case. The purchase and use of more of the deficient characters may reduce the surplus to one-fourth — perhaps one-fifth—but it is not probable that it can ever be made any less. There will always be a large surplus. It follows that the printer must provide from one-fourth to one- half more type than he can put to use at one time. General Agreement of Schemes 169 Schemes are not exactly alike in all foundries, but they are in substantial agreement: the propor- tion of capitals to lower-case, and the supply of figures, italic, and quadrats do not seriously differ. A so-called complete font of roman and italic type is supposed to have these characters: Boman... .. cc... atozande ec fifffiflfi..... 33 Roman points... ....... .,j2=200¢0 0. ci... a... 10 Roman figures and money signs, 1234567890% £ 12 Spaces and quadrats... [JIN H ED... 8 References. ............ INSEE. 7 Braces... ...... v6... ISN Am AA 5 Dashes, oo. 0 mr) er mee 4 Tieaders................ len lend Sr Se A 4 Practions........... UBB %...... 9 Roman capitals ...... AtoZand BA &.. ........ 29 Roman small capitals ..Atozand B® & ............ 29 Italic lower-case ....... atozandeae fi fliflA.... 33 Italic capitals .......... dtoZand ZB & ....0..... 29 Ttallepoints........ ....; nlP ei e 5 Accents, 434448 6666 {1111 6060 Lu til ¢AN N dadid éé6¢ i145 6006 dadii gh N.. 2 Other marks. .......... DBM 5 Spanish marks......... OP RY hl. nt 6 Number of eharacters.s........... . ........... J. 253 The actual weight of the so-called one-thousand- pound font is in excess of one thousand pounds; but it is made so purposely by the addition of sorts that can be omitted if the purchaser desires. The supply of italic, quadrats, spaces, or any other sort can also be increased. 22 170 A Thousand-pound Font Scheme for one thousand pounds of roman and italic as made by George Bruce's Son & Co. Roman Roman lower-case. capitals. lbs. oz Ibs. oz. x... 37 A... D th. 10 B .. 312 eT Q.. 312 d.. 25 D... 3 iS ee... 37 B..5 f 11 4 Bn... 3.12 g.. 114 G52 h..32 8 H .. 312 1: 25 Lin oR us 1. 114 J 114 ko 312 RK... 114 Lo... 12 8 1. . 312 m.. 25 M:-.32 n-. 37 N..312 0... 37 9... 312 p14 2... 312 q- 4 Q . 11d rr... 2 RR... .312 gs... 30 S 312 t..31 " .. 5 nt... 18 4 0..2 8 i 7 8 YY. 114 w.. 15 8 wW.-312 Xx 114 xX 10 y oo. 1 4 Y 2 § 7 ol Z 10 ® .. 10 x. . 6 ®@.. 10 B.. 6 fi... 312 & 10d ®-. 2.8 fi. 2.8 f.. 114 Quadrats. f.. id 9 ni... 20 mo... 13 2m.. 44 8 | 3m.. 4 8 N= Nl a see — eo Figures. HOTWWWWWWWHR OD pd pd pd LODO BO DO BOO DOS theh © ©0010 VTE Oh — [= Spaces. 3m..60 4m. .15 Sm.. 8° 4 | hair. 114 Ttalic lower-case. 1bs. oz. a... 5 p14 aE 96 d.. 3 92 ¢ .- 6-4 F...114 g 1d kh..46 $a Bg J 7 bs 10 { ...1 14 wm ..3 2 n...D 0 .. 4 6 p..114 gr... 10 Po 312 god 4 t .. 4:4 %. 2.00 pir gd Wig 8 x. 7 yy .. 1d 2a 7 rr 4 ® 4 Ho 14 1 14 7. 14 fo. 10 n.. 10 A Thousand-pound Font 171 Scheme for one thousand pounds of roman and italic as made by George Bruce's Son & Co. Italic Small Roman Ttali capitals. References. capitals. accents. aie OZ. 1bs. oz. OZ. 0Z. 0Z. oe gel ma 7x ass a0 dd. 4 Dio 7 img fade tad Oo.od4 0 3 Tle. 14 | § dtd 14 Decode ls Folin oo qd tg ad ge od LE. 18:1 ¢& Fi goasagen de neldal dic a od odd 74pm oo 14: 08090 [6.0 4 G.. 14 | =F 14 hag von [Fa 19 6.4 I. Id Woode sec 4 EL. 0d 7. 10 Braces. 1. 100d 71%... 4 J ee doclog apie at td nh =, dogo pide od 2 4 Lod ~~ 4 Lo.. 04 td. 4 P .. 4 Mood 2m. Py ge 0s 4 N14 3m. 1 4 lwy 4d... 46. 4 ag..14 Oi. dd 16 dg 4 P14 Dashes. r. 14s oto. 4 Qn alin Ble + TI 0el0 did. 4 Ro ad tm 08 op dN cd yd S04 1%m.. 02 8g "ih 30 4.. 4 ZL. 18 | 3m... 2 8S. pw ds dh. i Gd, 4 U.. 10 Ua 210 s 4 con. 4 oil Testers | Boo AD LE 0 2.4 W.. HW {2, +1ldlg ui NN. lH. 4 X 4m. D8 40%. . 407. . 4 Y .w)|2m.3 Yo lbs ae aoe 7. 418m. 7 84. a.6 10/4. ...¢ Zr Fractions. > ; 4 5 3 14 ; fro 8 " 14 TEE Spanish Italic 1 14 Commer- marks. points. 3 7 cial marks. g .. 10 goatee 7 @.. 205. 10 Siva Bed db 7 D..201 9D .. 20 fon eR 7 B..20 |B .. 20 Zu. 4.008 7 0.10 LY... 20 C.. 4. % 7 LLM e120 172 Accents Not Always Provided The full font of roman text-type as provided by the founder is always accompanied with italic, Characters Which should be of the same face or style deficient as the roman. The apportionment for nitalic italic does not give as many characters as for the roman. Small capitals for italic are made only to order. Figures, fractions, references, and some of the points of the roman serve for the italic. Italic figures are furnished to some fonts by some foundries, but only on special order. All the characters specified are furnished by the larger foundries with every entire font of roman Characters 1rom agate to pica. In english and sizes deficient above, many of the minor sorts and all mroman the accents are omitted. For sizes above great-primer, small capitals are not provided. Bril- liant has no small capitals, or fractions, or accents, and few of the minor sorts. Although rated as complete, the regular font of roman has no accents for roman capitals or small capitals, and none for italic capitals, which are furnished only to order, in small quantities of one or two ounces to each character. The list includes all the characters needed for ordinary work, but for foreign languages, or for Accents are Scientific books, other characters must not always be used. All educational works require provided 5 Jarge list of long and short vowels; dictionaries, a large number of diacritical marks, most of which have to be designed and cut to Accents and Fractions 173 order; Portuguese, Danish and other languages have peculiar marks which must also be made to order. As a rule, even the ordinary accents are to be had only in the larger foundries. The number of characters in this scheme is 253, but if characters were furnished for all the accents of foreign languages, for the signs and, ents ana marks used in dictionaries, and books signs of but about mathematics, chemistry, bibliog- ited use raphy, astronomy, ete., the number might exceed five hundred. No type-founder pretends to keep these peculiar characters for every font; probably no printer has a complete assortment of all of them for any one font. For the sizes between and including pica and nonpareil small separate fonts of accents, for the French and Spanish languages only, are kept in stock by the leading type-foundries. It should be noted that these fonts are for lower-case only, and do not include the long and short vowel accents. Few founders have accents for agate or smaller bodies or for english and larger bodies. Fractions on the en-body are usually furnished with roman fonts from pearl to pica, inclusive. They are rarely provided for larger and gepeme of smaller bodies of type. Fractions on the fractions em body, mostly used in newspapers, are usually made of the smaller sizes only, by this scheme: % 9 %ol BU 3 9 U 250. 50 40 23 25 25 20 20 20 174 Space Occupied by Type Piece fractions, or split fractions in two pieces, or on two bodies, are not proper parts of the font, and are sold in separate fonts at higher rates. Superiors of figures or of letters, like ! or 2, are furnished only to order. These also are not con- superior sidered as proper parts of the font. The characters first figures or letters of these superiors are furnished in great excess because they are most used. Superiors and piece fractions are made only for the larger sizes. When a font of new type has been put in case, it should be set up until one sort is exhausted. If after composition there be left in case a large sur- plus, a list of the characters most needed should be ordered from the founder to make the assortment even. But after a repeated re-sorting of the cases it will always be found that a large surplus is unavoidably left. One pound of metal type, as packed and sold by type-founders, covers a space of about three and space ocen- SiX-tenths square inches. To find the vied by type weight of one page of type! composed in high spaces, divide its number of square inches by the figures 3.6. To find the weight of a font required to compose a given number of pages, provision must be made for a large surplusage of 1 Example. This page is set up with high spaces and leads: it contains 15 square inches, which divided by 3.6 shows a weight of 4.27 pounds. If it were composed with low spaces and leads, the weight would be a trifle less. Changes in sizes of type make but little difference in the weight per square inch. How Weights are Calculated 175 types. The proportion of this surplus is variable. For a small font, the type-founder’s rule is to add one-half to the computed weight of the A surpius composed types. For a font of two thou- Is needed sand pounds or more, this surplus need not be relatively as great; an addition of one-fourth to the weight of the composed matter may be enough. All calculations of this kind are but guesses. No printer or type-founder can exactly foresee how unequally copy yet to be written will exhaust sorts. For all work that has to be done in haste, for newspapers and magazines that have to keep in type postponed articles or alternated py eignts advertisements, a font of twice the of fonts are weight of the composed matter will Ccalewlated not be enough. Morning newspapers that fre- quently issue supplements of four or more pages, and that keep in type large quantities of matter, determine the size of the fonts by the number of their compositors, allowing three, six, and some- times ten days’ supply of type to each compositor. Quadrats are the sorts most frequently deficient in the ordinary font when it is applied to general book-work. Next in liability to excessive demand are figures, which are soon exhausted by a series of tables. Every large book or newspaper office doubles, and sometimes quadruples, the amount apportioned to some characters of the scheme. A large and well-sorted font is always ‘economi- cal as to service. It enables a master printer to com- 176 Capacity of Different Fonts plete work quickly without delays or stoppages for sorts. It wears better. One font of one thousand pounds will give more service than two fonts of five hundred pounds bought and used successively. The following table gives the probable capacity of fonts of different weights when used for plain descriptive matter that does not call for an extra supply of peculiar sorts: The number of solid pages that may be composed with fonts of different weights. Square Allow inches | Page of | Page of | Page of | Page of | Page of for sur- Weight/of com-| 40 30 25 20 15 plus in| of posi- | square | square | square | square | square cases. | font. | tion. | inches. | inches. | inches. | inches. | inches. 40 | 100 | 216 | 5.40 7.20 | 8.64 | 10.80 | 14.44 7 200 | 468 | 11.70 | 15.60 | 18.72 | 23.40 | 31.20 100 | 300 | 720 | 18.00 | 24.00 | 28.80 | 36.00 | 48.00 133 | 400 | 861 | 21.52 | 28.70 | 34.40 | 43.04 | 57.40 160 | 500 | 1164 | 29.10 | 38.80 | 46.40 | 58.20 | 77.60 180 | 600 | 1512 | 37.80 | 50.40 | 60.48 | 75.60 [100.80 225 | 750 | 1890 | 47.25 | 63.00 | 75.60 | 94.50 [126.00 300 | 1000 | 2520 | 63.00 | 84.00 [100.80 {126.00 |168.00 375 | 1500 | 4050 102.25 [135.00 [162.00 [204.50 | 270.00 500 | 2000 | 5400 | 135.00 | 180.00 | 216.00 [270.00 |360.00 | Favored by suitable copy, one may compose more pages than are specified in these calcula- tions, but it is unsafe to plan on the probability of a greater production. For copy that has appar- Composition Extended by Leads 177 ently but a slight excess of figures, small capitals, italic, or quadrats, the fonts will not compose the number of pages specified in the foregoing table. One pound of type composed solid contains in ems : Pica, or 12-point....... 131 Nonpareil, or 6-point... 524 Small-piea, or 11-point. 155 Agate, or 515-point..... 620 Long-primer, or 10-point 188 Pearl, or S-point........ 752 Bourgeois, or 9-point... 233 Diamond, or 4%4-point.. 932 Brevier, or 8-point ..... 294 Brilliant, or 4-point ....1176 Minion, or 7-point...... 384 The capacity of a font is largely extended by the use of leads. One pound of low leads, standing upright as they do in composed mat- Composition ter, occupies a space of about 4 square extended by inches; one pound of stereotype or high se of leads leads oceupies a space of not less than 3% square inches. To find the weight of leads required to fill a defined vacant space, divide the square inches of that space by the figure 4 for low leads, and 33% for high leads. The thickness of the leads for this purpose must be determined by a count of the composed lines. The addition of a six-to-pica lead in a composition of pica increases the amount of composed matter one-sixth; in a composition of nonpareil, one-third; in any composition from in- termediate sizes of type, the increase is by inter- mediate fractions. The weight of six-to-pica leads needed for one thousand ems that have already been composed 23 178 The Weight of Leads solid in the copy to be reprinted will vary with different sizes of type, as is specified in the follow- ing table. The weights given are in ounces: Plealo. aio. 19 Small-piea .......... 16% Long-primer ........ 1514 Bourgeois........... 1314 Brevier ............. 13 Minion.............. 1115 Nonpareil........... 91g Acate............... 815 Penyl 0.0... 7% Dinmond.............. 615 The weights of the six-to-pica leads in one thou- sand ems of leaded composition are, in ounces: PleaZ...o a, 1615 Small-piea .......... 14 Long-primer ........ 1214 Bourgeols.......--.. 11 Brevier ... ........- 1015 Minion............... 9 = Nonpareil: ....... ... 814 Agate... 5.0.0 7 Pearl. ..i oan 6 The lead most used is of the thickness six-to- pica. For the larger sizes of long-primer, small- Theleadsin pica, and pica, two of these leads are greatest use often used when it is desired to produce the appearance of greater clearness or elegance. For bourgeois, brevier, minion, and nonpareil, the eight-to-pica lead is more freely used. For sizes 1To find the weight of six-to- pica leads required for 20 pages of solid pica of 1200 ems each : 20 pages % 1200 ems =24,000 ems X 19=456 ounces, or 28% pounds. Theaddition ofleadsexpandsthe composition one-sixth: making 23%, or practically 24 pages. 2 To find the weight of leads required for 100 pages of pica, each page containing 800 ems: 800 ems are four-fifths of 1000 ems, and four-fifths of 16% ounces or 13% ounces, which mul- tiplied by 100 pages makes 1320 ounces, or 822 pounds. Square Inches Covered by Ems 179 below nonpareil, ten-to-pica leads are thick enough to make the desired relief. Space occupied by 1000 ems solid, in square inches : English, or 14-point .. 38.48 Pica, or 12-point.... ... 27.55 Small-piea, or 1 1-point 23.16 Long-primer, or 10-pt. 19.12 Bourgeois, or 9-point.. 15.50 Brevier, or 8-point.... 12.25 Minion, or 7-point.... 9.37 Nonpareil, or 6-point.. 6.89 Agate, or 515-point ... 5.79 Pearl, or 5-point. ... .. 4.78 Diamond, or 413-point. 3.87 Brilliant, or 4-point... 3.06 This table will be found of value in determining the size of type that must be selected to make a definite amount of matter fill a prescribed space. The relations which one thousand solid ems of any body bear to all other bodies are given in the table on the next page. 1 1Inexperts in the calculations of space required for a reprint in any change of size of type should carefully study the rela- tions of the bodies as they are shown in these tables. It is a common error to assume, be- cause the bodies of the point system are put apart at fixed and regular distances, that the increase of ems in every change from a larger to a smaller body will be in a similar form of even and exact progression. On the contrary, the progression is un- even and inexact. In the space of 27.55 square inches occupied by 1000 ems of pica can be put 1190 ems of small-pica. This is an increase of 19 per cent. In the 9.37 square inches occupied by 1000 ems of minion can be put 1361 ems of nonpareil. This is an increase of 36 per cent. A comparison of bodies on half- points, as between 5%- and 5- point, will show a similar irreg- ularity. Itisnot possible, in the American point system, to name one factor which will show the increase or decrease between proximate bodies. Every body is increased or diminished in un- even proportion. The system of points, which seems so regular and exact in its progression by lines, is quite as irregular as any of the old methods when it attempts progression by ems or squares. 08T The relation that one body bears to other bodies in a composition of 1000 ems solid: showing the gain of ems tn a prescribed space by a change from a larger to a smaller body, and the loss of ems by a change from a smaller to a larger body. Calculations made for bodies on the American point system. way 10] 9 8 7 6 (oul 5 [4] ea | 3s 3 1000 ems. |point | point | point | point | point | point | point | point | point | point | point | point | point Pica. | Small-pica. |Long-primer| Bourgeois. | Brevier. | Minion. | Nonpareil. | Agate. Pearl. Diamond. | Brilliant. Excelsior. 12-point rie 1000 | 1190 | 1440 | 1778 | 2250 | 2939 | 4000 | 4760 | 5760 | 7111 | 9000 [11755 (16000 11-point smapiea| 840 | 1000 | 1210 | 1494 | 1891 | 2469 | 3361 | 4000 | 4840 | 5975 | 7563 | 9878 [13444 10-point *¥%...| 694 | 826 | 1000 | 1235 | 1563 | 2041 | 2778 | 3306 | 4000 | 4938 | 6250 | 8163 [11111 9-point sowsess| 563 | 669 | 810 | 1000 | 1266 | 1653 | 2250 | 2678 | 3240 | 4000 | 5063 | 6612 | 9000 8-point seve | 444 | 529 | 640 | 790 | 1000 | 1306 | 1778 | 2116 | 2560 | 3160 | 4000 | 5224 | 7133 7-point inion 340 | 405 | 490 | 605 | 766 | 1000 | 1361 | 1620 | 1960 | 2420 | 3063 | 4000 | 5444 6-point semper] 250 | 298 | 360 | 444 | 563 | 735 | 1000 1190 | 1440 | 1778 | 2250 | 2939 | 4000 5%-point ase | 211 | 250 | 303 | 373 | 473 | 618 | 840 | 1000 | 1210 | 1494 | 1891 | 2469 | 3361 5-point ren 174 | 207 | 250 | 309 | 391 | 511 | 694 | 826 | 1000 | 1235 | 1563 | 2041 | 2778 44-point puma] 141 | 167 | 203 | 250 | 316 | 414 | 563 | 669 | 810 | 1000 | 1266 | 1653 | 2250 4-point mama | 111 | 132 | 160 | 198 | 250 | 327 | 444 | 529 | 640 | 790 | 1000 | 1306 | 1778 34-point 8 | 101 | 123 ( 151 | 191 | 250 | 340 | 405 | 490 | 605 | 766 | 1000 | 1361 3-point sxcetsior 63 74 90 | 111 | 141 | 184 | 250 | 298 | 360 | 444 ; 563 | 735 | 1000 A Contrast of Systems 181 The irregular progression of bodies made on the system of points is shown by the diagram on the right side. The straight hair-line by the side of this column of em quadrats does not touch each quadrat on its corner, as it should. It diverges at an increasing angle, which proves an irregular progression of the smaller bodies. The hair-line by the side of the col- umn on the left side of this diagram touches every em quadrat at its cor- ner, and proves that each body has | been regularly increased or de- | | creased by geometrical rules. In an ascending scale Bruce's pica | 1s about 12% per cent. (.122462) larger than the small-pica. In a descending scale, small-pica is but 10% per cent. (.108723) smaller than the pica. These factors can be applied to all proximate bodies: 12% per cent. for the increase, and | 10% per cent. for decrease. See table on page 148. — Em quadrats of Em quadrats of American Bruce system point system v The Faces or Styles of Type Old-style Roman NDER the American system of points the bodies of type are clearly de- scribed by numerical names. Faces ho and styles have to be described by NY ——r/sex a ruder method, with long names of two, three, or four words. The first word always describes the body. If no other word The methods 15 added, this single word is always observed in understood as the name of a body naming faces ith roman face: pica is pica roman. The second word more plainly describes the face or style, as pica antique or pica gothie. The third word usually describes its form as to thickness or thinness: pica antique extended is a thick type, and pica antique condensed is a thin type. The fourth word is intended to describe its fash- ion of ornament, as pica antique condensed out- line; but all ornamental types, and indeed many 182 The Classification of Types 183 plain types, are named and classified in an unsat- isfactory manner. The names given to many of them are fanciful and not at all descriptive. When made by different founders, the same face may be labeled by each founder with a different name. The antique of the United States is the egyptian of Great Britain; the antiqua of Germany is the roman of England and the United States. Arbitrary or fanciful names are seldom given to roman types. Every distinctive face or style is labeled by the founder with a number arbitrarily selected. One type-foundry uses numbers for all faces, roman or ornamental. The type-founders of the United States, in their price-lists, arrange printing-types in three distinct classes. Roman and italic are put in mypes grouped the first class; plain faces of display in three classes type, like antique, gothic, and clarendon, are in the second class; ornamental types of every kind are in the third class. Greek and orientals, music and some faces of script, are properly put in an- other distinct class; but types of this fourth class, having but a limited sale, seldom appear in the ordinary price-list. Within the limits prescribed for this volume it is not practicable to illustrate or even enumerate all the faces that have been made for the first and second classes. All of them are based on the roman model, which is still accepted as the sim- plest and best for a readable text-type. 184 The Roman Face Preferred Script types are imitations of different styles of handwriting, but every one of them, even the most flourished, was modeled on some fashion of roman letter preferred or used by early copyists. Italic is but a simplified style of disconnected script. Its capitals differ from roman mostly in their inclination. Black-letter is a degenerate form of roman, in which angles are substituted for curves. Its eapi- tals are probably imitations of the hasty flourishes of an inexpert penman. Gothic, without serifs, the simplest and rudest of all styles, seems an imitation of roman capitals cut in stone. Italian is a roman in which the positions of hair- line and thick stroke have been transposed. Title, or fat-face, is a broad style of roman with over-thick body-marks. Antique is a roman in which the lines of all the characters are nearly uniform as to thickness, with square corners and of greatly increased boldness. Ornamentals of every style, and even the new- est varieties of eccentric types, show some con- formity to the roman model. The roman face is always in most request, for roman is the character preferred as a text-letter Roman faces Dy all English-speaking peoples and mostused gl] the Latin races. Its only serious rival in general literature is the fractur, or the popular face of German type; but even in Ger- Roman Made wm Three Series 185 many roman is largely used as the text-letter for scientific books, and for inscriptions on coins and medals. Not one of the many new faces intro- duced by the type-founders of this century has ever been considered an improvement on or ac- cepted as a substitute for roman. Every complete font of roman type between and including the most-used sizes of pearl and great- primer is provided with three series of wi tie characters : capitals, small capitals, and series of lower-case or small letters.! Small cap- Characters itals are not made for the smallest size of bril- lian, nor for the sizes above great-primer. Italie, although of a distinct face, is always made a part of every large font of roman type, and must be regarded as its inseparable mate, for the italic of every approved roman should have been cut to line with its accompanying roman and to illus- trate its peculiarity of style. With italic capitals and italic lower-case added, there are five series in every complete font of our selected text-letter. This is a peculiar yy. 5. ity not to be found in any other literary there are character. The older forms of orientals five series have one series only; the modern forms of Greek, German, and Russian have but two. The capitals of German are too complex to be used alone as 1 The phrase small letters is lorusesinstead the word minus- objectionable for its vagueness; cule, which is exactly descrip- lower-case is technical and not tive to bibliographers, but not generally understood. Dr. Tay- to the ordinary reader. 186 Derivation of the Roman Face a display letter for titles or headings. Emphasis or display in German is made in the text, either by hair-spacing the emphatic words, or by the use of an entirely different font of thick-faced letter. ~The poverty of all other alphabets in single or double series is in marked contrast with the afflu- ence of the five correlated series of the roman alphabet, which enable the writer or printer to make emphasis, display, or distinction without a change of size or the violation of typographical propriety. The judicious alternation of capitals, small capitals, italic, and lower-case makes printed matter readable and rememberable. The greatest merits of the roman letter are its simplicity and perspicuity : it has no useless or unmeaning lines. One has but to compare it with any other charac- ter, modern or ancient, to see how much simpler and more readable it is. Roman capitals, as now made by type-founders, are imitations of the lapidary letters used by the Dostvation Romans, Three characters only have of theroman been added: the J, to distinguish it character g.o1 the Latin I, and the U, to dis- “rguish it from the V. The W is a gothic ad- ion. The lower-case letters are imitations of e characters made by early French and Italian opyists, which characters are deseribed by Dr. aylor as the Caroline minuscule, in use in France as early as the ninth century.! 1 “The Alphabet,” vol. ii, pp. 164, 181. Small Capitals and Italic 187 The capital and lower-case letters were first made in type in the year 1465 by Sweinheim and Pannartz at Subiaco, near Rome, but the form made by Jenson of Venice in 1471 has ever since served as the model for all type-founders. Small capitals and italic were made in type for Aldus Manutius of Venice, and first shown by him in his octavo edition of Virgil, dated 1, 1i6xt use of 1501. The model selected was the small capitals handwriting of Petrarch. Following "dale his fashion the capital letters used for italic were not inclined: they were made but little larger than the round letters of the lower-case, and were separated from the text by a perceptible white space.! The italic of this Virgil had little inecli- nation, and seems free from kerned letters; but ligatures and double letters and different forms of the same letter were made. Aldus and his sons used italic as the text-letter for many books. ABD MND RTD Swash letters. The printers of France seriously altered the italic of Aldus; they gave the lower-case letters more in- clination, and made free use of kerns. Garamond made the capitals of full height, and filled up the gaps made by the inclination with little flourishes. The capitals so altered are known as swash letters. 1This fashion was not peculiar all Italian copyists of that time, to Petrarch. It was observed by nor is it yet obsolete in Italy. 188 Old-style and Modern-face The roman form of type is subdivided by print- ers and founders into the two classes of old-style Oldstyle ana and modern-face. Many varieties of modern-face each style are made; in some of them the distinctive peculiarities of the style are dis- cerned with difficulty. The points of difference may be seen in the contrasted forms of each let- ter as shown on the following page. The faces selected are “Caslon” old-style, from the type- foundry of the MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Co., and the No. 3 modern-face is from the foundry of George Bruce’s Son & Co. In the old-style the so-called hair-line is com- paratively thick and short; the stem is protracted Differences 10 great length before it tapers to the in line, stem, hair-line. In the modern-face the hair- and effect ine js sharp and quite long, and the stem is relatively short. Contrast the capital C and the lower-case Mm in the forms of each style. In the old-style the serif is short, angular, and stubby ; in the modern-face the serif is longer, lighter, and more gracefully curved or bracketed. The general effect of the old-style is that of angu- larity; smoothness in curves and gracefully taper- ing lines are not attempted. The general effect of the modern-face is that of roundness, precision, and symmetry. As a bit of drawing each letter of a well-made modern-face is exact, and carefully finished in all its details; but when any letter is seen with its mates in a mass of composed types, Old-style and Modern-face 189 AA BB C0 DD EE FF GG HH 11 73 K K LL, MM a a bb CC — TT te me Dre HB AO, i. SF ts is 05 mm 5 E E NN OO Pr QQ R R S's TT vu ‘A WW XX YY y/ nn 00 Pr gq rr SS tt uu vy XX yy Z 7 190 Merits of the Two Styles its high finish does not seem to be a merit. A letter of modern-cut is really not so distinet as the same letter in the old-style. The old punch- cutter and the modern punch-cutter worked to reach different ends. The old cutter put read- ability first; he would make his types graceful if he could, but he must first of all make them dis- + tinet and readable in a mass. His object was to aid the reader. The modern punch-cutter thinks it his first duty to make every letter of graceful shape, but his notion of grace is largely mechani- cal: the hair-line must be sharp and tend to its invisibility ; the curving stem must dwindle to its hair-line with a faultless taper; the slender serif must be neatly bracketed to the stem. Every curve and angle is painfully correct and precise, but the general effect of types so made, when put in a mass, is that of the extreme of delicacy, and of the corresponding weakness of an overwrought delicacy. To use a painter's phrase, the work is niggled, or overdone. Without intending to do so, the punch-cutter has been more intent on showing his own really admirable skill than he has been in helping the reader. His letters, undeniably grace- ful when viewed singly, are not so effective when seen in the combinations of a page or a column.! 1 The superior distinctness of body and thickness of stem, and the old-style can be proved by place them in a favorable light. this simple experiment. Select Then, moving away from them, equally well-printed pages of old- note how much sooner types of styleand modern-cut, of uniform modern-cut become indistinct. The Caslon Style 191 Roman letter has been an object of experiment with type-founders for nearly four centuries, but it is impossible to illustrate or even mention one- quarter of these experiments. Many forms once popular have gone out of use, and have been for- gotten. It is not at all important that these old fashions should be described. For the purpose of this work, it is enough to illustrate only the types that are now made and most used. It is a misfortune that the illustrations of the different cuts of modern-faces about to be shown have to be made in types of comparatively small size. Few roman faces of a decided character are made on bodies larger than great-primer; more of them are on bodies smaller than small-pica. A face on double-pica body would show the peculiarities of its style more clearly than the same face on pica body. In the larger sizes the mannerisms that produce a certain general effect are apparent at a glance; in the smaller sizes they are discerned only by study. The peculiarities of the Caslon style, as shown on pages 69 to 77, need little explanation. Note the greater breadth of the stems of each pecutiarities letter and their protraction before of Casion style they change to a hair-line or connect with another stem, as may be plainly seen in the arch of the Tl and nN, and the curve of the C, €, and O. The hair-lines are firmer, although shorter than in modern-cut ; the serifs at the foot are shorter and 192 The Modern-face stronger, but seldom bracketed; the serifs at the top, as in the }, d, Ps h, are angled and strongly bracketed. The defects of this style are: too long a beak to the { and 1; unnecessary narrowness in the S and a, and in some capitals; too great width of the C, O, and V. But these are trifles. In general effect the Caslon is bold, but not black; elear and open, but not weak or delicate. There are few noteworthy faults of lining or fitting-up. It was made to be read and to withstand wear. Some variations in style may be detected in a compari- son of different sizes of this cut, but it is fairly uniform as to general effect throughout the series. The modern-face is in strong contrast to the Caslon style. The stems are sometimes relatively peculiarities thicker, but in all curved lines they of modernface gaye shorter. The serifs are much longer; in many of the capitals they are strongly, and in all the lower-case but feebly, connected with the stems. The hair-lines are sharper, but of greater length and greater weakness. Lining and fitting-up are admirable; drawing and cut- ting, excellent. It is a remarkably graceful and beautiful face of type when entirely new, yet it is not a good type for reading, for the sharp hair- lines are readily seen only by readers of excellent eyesight. Nor is it a good form to withstand wear. The force of impression needed to print the thick stems soon gaps or crushes the unprotected hair- Modernized Old-style 193 lines. When the serifs have been thickened and the hair-lines gapped by wear, the beauty of the best cuts of modern-face soon disappears. The modernized old-style here shown is an at- tempt to accommodate the old fashion to newer notions of symmetry. The objection- pg. iures of able features in the letters a, g, W, §, the modern- O, C have been removed. The body- edcldstyle marks have been made slightly narrower and the hair-lines a little sharper, but, as some think, not to their improvement. The protracted stem, the short hair-line and serif, have been preserved. The greatest change has been made in shortening The Old-style of this modernized form was first made forMiller& Richard, Edinburgh, about the year 1852. Modernized old-style on double small-pica body, solid.1 George Bruce's Son & Co., New-York. ascenders and descenders, and in the consequent enlarging of the small or round letters. The 1 This modernized old-style & Richard by Phemister, then was designed and cut for Miller of Edinburgh, later of Boston. 25 194 Modernized Old-style modernized old-style pica seems larger than the pica of Caslon. It is a broader letter, yet it does not have a similar relief of white space between the lines. This feature is most noticeably shown in this specimen of double small-pica, which in a large page is much improved by leading. The general effect of the smaller sizes of this style (which is more fully illustrated on pages 82 Is restful to £0 97 of this work) is that of a pleas- the eye ing and a restful monotony. It does not irritate the eye with sharp contrasts of brist- ling angles and thick and thin lines; it does not challenge the reader’s attention to a study of its individual characters. For this reason it is pre- ferred by many authors for serious books, and by many publishers as the best form of colorless text- letter to put around engravings on wood that show strong contrasts of black and white. Other foundries have made new faces of the old-style character which show their notions of commendable improvements. Few of these new faces are firm or bold; in nearly all, the angular features are rounded or softened. Large faces with thin body-marks and hair-lines are preferred. There seems to be a real avoidance of the firm- ness of line which is the best feature of this char- acter. An old-style so treated is often a graceful character; it has, or may have, the contour of the best old model, but it does not produce the strong effect of the true old-style letter. The Franklin Face 195 One of the first, if not the first, of the mod- ernized old-styles produced in this country was de- signed and cut in 1863 by A. C. Phemister, to the order of Phelps & Dalton, who called the new let- ter the “ Franklin face.” It is a trifle wider as to BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was born in Boston, 17th of January, 1706, and died in Philadelphia, 17th of April, 1790. He began his apprentice- ship as printer in 1718, and worked as a jour- neyman in Philadelphia in 1724, and in London in 1725. He returned to Philadelphia in 1726, and there began as master printer in 1729. As editor and publisher he soon made himself a man of note. He invented the Franklin stove in 1742 ; he proved the identity of lightning and electricity in 1752; he was made clerk of the Assembly in 1736; postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737; deputy postmaster-general for the colo- nies in 1753 ; representative of Pennsylvania be- fore the council of England in 1757 and again in 1764 ; delegate to Congress in 1775 ; ambas- sador to France in 1776; commissioner to Eng- land in 1783; president of Pennsylvania from 1785 to 1787; delegate to the constitutional convention in 1787. RR RRR RVRRLRVRVRRYRYR Franklin old-style on long-primer body, solid. Phelps, Dalton & Co. form and larger as to face, and consequently more open and perhaps a little more inviting to the eye than his first attempt, as shown by Miller & Rich- ard. Some characters have been much improved ; 196 Large-faced Old-style they show an evident leaning to the forms that are most approved in modern-cut letter. THURLOW WEED was born in: Cairo, Greene County, New York, 15th November, 1797, and died in New York city 22d No- vember, 1882. He entered a printing office when but twelve years of age. In 1815 he was a journeyman in New York city, work- ing by the side of James Harper in the office of Paul & Thomas. In 1819 he established a weekly newspaper in Norwich, Chenango County, New York. In 1830 he established the “ Albany Evening Journal,” which soon became a power in politics. He never held any public office, yet he exerted a wonderful influence in the management of men and in the direction of public affairs. He did good service to the United States in defending na- tional interests abroad during the civil war. a Large-faced old-style on long-primer body, solid. Phelps, Dalton & Co. To supply a demand for a still larger face, the same foundry had cut for it by the same punch- cutter a large-faced old-style in a full series of book sizes. The specimen here presented is on long-primer body, but it seems quite as large as the small-pica shown upon page 86 of this work. This enlargement was made by shortening the descenders and ascenders, and pushing them to the verge of the body. It will be noted that long The Original Old-style 197 types in adjacent lines often touch and seem to connect. It is a well-cut and readable letter, but it is neither true old-style nor modern-cut. The Binny face and the Bradford face made by MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Co. are other merito- rious forms of modernized old-style. To meet a demand for a “real” old-style, a series of book sizes has been produced, either from re- furbished old punches, or from new punches in faithful imitation of the English or Duteh roman letter in general use during the first half of the WILLIAM JANSEN BLAEW, a diftinguithed printer of Holland, was born in 1571 and died at Amfterdam in 1638. He had been taught the trade of a joiner, at which work he made himfelf efficient as an affiftant to the aftronomer Tycho Brahe. After receiving inftruction from Brahe, he went to Amifterdam, and there diftinguithed himfelf by the publication of maps and the making of geographical globes. His frequent vifits to the printing office taught him fomething about printing, and led him to eftablifh an office for his own work. Diffatiffied with the old form of hand-prefs, he re- constructed it, and made many valuable improve- ments which were gradually accepted by printers everywhere. His ““ Theatrum Mundi,” in fourteen volumes folio, is one of the beft fpecimens of the printing and engraving of the {eventeenth century. Original old-style on long-primer body, solid. MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Co. 198 Basle, or Early-Italian, Old-style seventeenth century. It is a lean letter with a small face, and has many characters now regarded as uncouth. The él the long { with its train of doublets, and other obsolete forms are conspic- uous. For the reprints of many English books published in the eighteenth century this original old-style is the most appropriate, but its meagre- ness and quaintness have often prejudiced many readers against all forms of old-style. There are authors who are not content with the moderate rudeness of the “original” old-style, but want an earlier and cruder form. For this taste, types have been made in imitation of the roman used by printers in France, Italy, and Holland dur- ing the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Chiswick Press has an old-style which is a reproduction of a bold face once used by printers fhe Basle, or Of Basle and by some early Italian Early-Ttalian, printers. It was made about 1856 ex- a clusively for the books of the Chiswick Press, and has been employed by that house as a choice letter for works of merit. It is a bold and readable letter. Its most noticeable features are an upward slope of the cross-bar in the €, greater thickness of the stems, avoidance of hair- lines, stubbiness of serifs, obliqueness of the thick strokes in rounded letters like O, C, DP, (, large small-capitals, and an increased width of many of the large capitals. It is one of the modern old- styles that retains characteristic peculiarities. At Basle, or Early-Italian, Old-style 199 this date (1891), it has been made only on a small- pica body, and has as yet no appropriate italie.! @ CHARLES WHITTINGHAM, firft of the name in the annals of printing, was born in 1767, at Calledon, in the county of Warwick, England. About 1790 he began bufinefs at London as a mafter printer. In 1810 he removed to Chifwick, and there founded the CHISWICK PRESS, which ever [ince has maintained the higheft reputation for good book printing. He died in 1840. His nephew Charles (born in 1795), fucceeded to the bufinefs and to the friend- Jhip and confidence of the publifher, Pickering, for whom he made many admirable books. After his death in 1876, the bufine(s was con- tinued by his executors. VW The Basle old-style of the Chiswick Press. The seventeenth-century style, or, as it is often called in this country, the Elzevir? style, was re- 1 The peculiarities of this Basle style are more strikingly presented in some books printed at Venice at the close of the fifteenth century. 2 Thename Elzevirisunwisely chosen, for this face is unlike the Van Dijk face, largely used by the Elzevir family. Who then did make it ? Didot (‘“ Essai sur la Typographie,” p. 699) says that Garamond and Sanlecque made types for the Elzevirs. A recently published book, ‘‘ Tipo Italiano non Elzeviriano,” ap- punti di B. L. Centenari, Rome, 1879, intimates that the Elzevirs were providedwithItalian types. The author gives us no satisfac- * tory evidence in support of this intimation, and Willems ridi- cules it, but it must be admitted that this so-called Elzevir letter has features unlike those of any seventeenth-century face made in France or Holland. 200 Llzevir Old-style LOUIS ELZEVIR was a publisher at Leyden from 1583 to 1617. His sons Matthew, Louis, Josse, Gilles, and Bonaventure were also pub- lishers : Matthew at Leyden, Louis and Gilles at La Haye, Josse at Utrecht, Bonaventure, who also was a printer, at Leyden. . Abraham and Isaac, sons of Matthew, were printers and publishers at Leyden. Jacob, another son, was a publisher at LaHaye. . . . Daniel, ablest of the family (son of Bonaventure), was printer and publisher, first at Leyden, and afterward at Amsterdam, between the years 1652 and 1680. Seventeenth-century old-style on body 10, solid. Gustave Mayeur, Paris.1 vived in 1878 by Gustave Mayeur of Paris, who says that he selected for his model the types of a The Elzevir D0OK printed in 1634 by the Elzevirs of old-style Leyden. Itis a compressed letter, with a large open face, with very short ascenders and descenders, and thin stems, plainly made to with- stand wear, for the few hair-lines are of unusual thickness and all the serifs are short and stubby. 1 Mayeur founds this style in a complete book series, on all bodies from body 5 to body 14, including a specially cut and properly mated italic; and in the form of two-line capitals only on several bodies between body 10 and body 72. Farmer, Little & Co., of New York, who have drives from the original punches, found complete fonts of this face, with its italic on 6- 8- 10- and 12-point bodies. Sev- eral American foundries make some of these larger sizes with an appropriatelower-case. Three lines of a larger size can be seen on page 51. Llzevir Old-style 201 Although fitted with unusual closeness it is a read- able letter, and popular, not only with publishers and authors, but with job printers. Its full series of durable two-line letter makes it especially val- uable for book titles and open display. Phelps, Dalton & Co. of Boston make a varia- tion of this face which has the characteristics of the original in the features of firm hair-lines, close set, stubby serif, and ability to withstand wear, with the added feature of greater compression. SAMUEL NELSON DICKINSON was born in the town of Phelps, Ontario County, New York, 11th December, 1801. After learning the trade of a printer in the Palladium office, Geneva, N. Y., he worked as a compositor in New York city and Boston. In 1829 he began business as a master printer. Inability to get the types he needed led him to type-making, in which he soon acquired distinction, his styles being preferred by the printers of New England. He died in Rox- bury, Mass., on the 16th day of December, 1848. He was succeeded by Sewall Phelps, a proof- reader of education, and Michael Dalton, an ex- pert type-founder. After the death of Phelps in 1863, and of Dalton in 1879, new members were admitted, of whom now remain George J. Pierce, Alexander Phemister, A. C. Converse, and J. W. Phinney, trading under the firm-name of Phelps, Dalton & Cora ergorgogons% Elzevir old-style on long-primer body, solid. No. 19 of Phelps, Dalton & Co. 26 202 Ronaldson Old-style The ‘“Ronaldson old-style” was designed and made in 1884 by the MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Ronalason Co. In this face the squared or angled old-style shoulder of the m and n, and all other peculiarities of old-style, are strongly emphasized. Note the angled serifs of the lower-case, and the added angles given to many of the capitals. It | jamES RONALDSON was born in 1768; at Gorgie, near Edinburgh. In 1794 he went to Philadelphia and there followed the business of biscuit-baking. When the bakery was destroyed by fire, in 1796, he sought a new business, which he found in a partnership with ARCHIBALD BiNNY, a pradtical type- founder. Romnaldson contributed the money; Binny the tools and the prac- tical knowledge. ‘The partnership, which lasted for many years, was of mutual advantage. Ronaldson died in Philadelphia in 1842. QQ QV Ronaldson old-style, on pica body, solid. MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Co. is a remarkably clean-cut letter; the counters are deep, and each character has a notable sharpness and clearness. It is a very popular letter with job printers. French Old-style 203 The form of modernized old-style most used in France, Belgium, and Ttaly is rounder, fatter, and more open than the popular old-styles of England or America. Usually it is of light face, with firm and visible hair-lines. Its most pronounced pecu- liarities are the great width of the rounded capi- tals and an apparently fanciful rearrangement of stems and hair-lines. The small capitals are often weak and inconspicuous. Some French founders give their small capitals a wider set, so that they seem hair-spaced, but this treatment more plainly exhibits their meagreness. The quotation marks FRANCOIS DIDOT, the first of a long line of French typographers, was born in Paris in 1689. He served apprenticeship to ANDRE PRALARD, printer and publisher of that city. In 1713 he was established as a master printer, choosing for his sign and trade-mark the « Golden Bible.» He soon acquired a good reputation for the beauty of his typography, of which «’His- toire générale des voyages» in twenty quarto volumes is an excellent example. In middle age he was made syndic of the corporation of booksellers and printers. He died 2d November, 1759. —cccmss French old-style on body 11, solid. Fonderie Turlot, Paris. 204 Portuguese Old-style are more distinct and of better form than those used in the English language. For dictionaries and cataloguesin old-style face that have extended notes or explanations, French Condensed printers prefer a condensed form of old- old-style gtyle, with lower-case large and capital letters exceedingly small, in which the stem is but little thicker than the hairline. The capitals are often low of height to allow the addition of ac- cents. This condensed form of letter, known by the name poetic-face, is still preferred in France for poetry, Its thinness prevents the turning over of long lines. The Portuguese old-style on page 206 was cut about 1804 by Joaquim Carneiro Silva, then an engraver attached to the Typographia Regia de Lisboa, now known as the Imprensa Nacional de Lisboa. It has never been used out of this office, and is not for sale. Although a distinct old-style character, it betrays, in the mannerisms of some of the letters, traces of fashions then prevailing. Note the thinness of the E, the crossed bars of the W, and the greater width of the rounded cap- ital letters. The peculiarities of its cut may be discerned more plainly in the capitals that follow. ABCDEFRGHIIRL MN OPORSTUVVNXYZ French Poetic-face Os, ky Ne, XXXIV. 32 CICERO POETIQUE. Ux Général d’armée recevant de toutes parts des plates contre un Munitionnaire , le fit venir, & pour premier compliment le mena- ¢a de le faire pendre. Monfeigneur , répondit froidement le Munition- naire , on ne pend pas quelqu’un qui peut difpofer de cent mille écus; & la-deffus ils pafferent dans le ca- binet. Un inftant apres , Monfieur le Général en fortit perfuadé que c’étoit un fort honnéte-homme, Ceci nous apprend qu'on ne doit pas juger trop précipitamment de la conduite du prochain , ni le con- damner fans Uentendre. Il eft bien aifé de dire que certaines gens font des fripons , mais il faut le prouver. rT 3 N © ¢& i x re AY » From Fournier's ‘‘ Manuel Typographique.” 205 206 Portuguese Old-style £3 THOMAS BEWICK, the reviver of the art of engraving on wood, was born at Cherryburn, Eng- land, 12th August, 1753, and died at Gateshead,8th November, 1828. In 1775 he took the first prize for the best woodcut. In 1790 he published a “History of Quad- rupeds” with illustrations drawn and engraved by his own hand. In 1797 appeared the “British Birds,” which at once established his reputation as a great master in the art of engraving on wood. Portuguese old-style, on body 14, solid. From the Imprensa Nacional de Lisboa, by permission of the manager, Dr. V. Deslandes. ‘When William Morris determined to make a new style of roman type, he selected for his model the roman type on great-primer body of Nicolas Jen- son. Morris put his adaptation on english or 14- point body, but he made it very much bolder and blacker. The Golden type, for so Morris named it, approximates the thickened face known in BMHE Kelm- PH scott Press began work »/lat Hammer. op smithin Fe. CT bruary 1891. Thedesign. yl erof the type i Ce . d took as his model Nicholas Jenson’s Roman let. ter used in Venice in the 15th Cen tury, and which unites in the fullest degree the necessary qualities of pur. ity of line and legibility. Jenson gives usthehigh watermark ofthe Roman character: from his death onwards typography declined till it reached its lowest depth in the ugliness of Bo. doni. Since then the English typo. graphers followingmoreor lessin the footsteps of Caslon, have recovered much of the lost ground; but as their work is almost always adapted for machine printing it has a tendency toexaggeration of lightnessand thin. ness, which may well be corrected, in work printed by the hand. press, 207 208 Jenson Old-style America as antique, and in England as egyptian, more closely than it does any style now known by the name of roman. It first appeared in 1891, in ‘“ The Story of the Glittering Plain.” Bibliophiles welcomed the new style as a pleasing return te the simplicity of the early printers, and as a vindi- cation of the superior merit of old-fashioned mas- culine printing. Publishers did not entirely ap- prove; they acknowledged its merit, but said that the Golden type was too black and rude for the ordinary book. This seems to have been intended, for Morris made it in one size only, and refused to sell types or matrices, or give the right to repro- duce. Imitations have been made, but they are seldom used for texts, and mainly for the headings of newspaper articles, or for lines of display in ad- vertisements and pamphlets. The merit of the Golden type is not in its sturdy medievalism, but in its simplicity and legibility, and these are features which will be maintained in future imitations, but perhaps not so emphatically, when our effeminate style of roman shall have been discarded. The text of the illustration on page 207 was written by William Morris, and composed in the printing room of the Kelmscott Press in 1894. It was kindly sent as a contribution to this book. Ev " VI Modern Faces of Roman Letter OT one of the styles approved in England and France at the close of the last and the beginning of this century is now in favor. The forms of Jackson, Fry, and Baskerville are never imitated. Even in Italy and Changes in France the styles of Bodoni and Didot the fashion had but a brief popularity. The recently °F "re revived taste in Paris for the Didot faces is re- stricted to a few fine books, and promises to be but a passing fancy. The only style that lasted for many years was the fat-face of Robert Thorne, shown on the following page. This is the “fat-faced, preposterous dispropor- tion” stigmatized by Hansard. Between 1810 and 1840 it was a popular style, made in all sizes from pearl to canon. In many printing houses it sup- planted the better styles of Caslon, Baskerville, and Jackson. Its passport to favor was fe general 27 209 210 The Fat-face William Rittenhouse, a Hollander, establish- ed a Paper Mill near Philadelphia, PPa., and there made Paper for printing about 1690. Fat-face on paragon body, leaded. George Bruce’s Son & Co. belief that it was more readable and more durable than any of the older styles. This belief was not Faults of confirmed by experience. To get a clear the fat-face print from this face required more ink and more impression, but excess of ink on the small sizes filled the low counters and strong impression ruined the fine lines. When it had received but one-half the usual amount of wear each character was discerned mainly by its body-marks. It soon went out of fashion as a book-type, and is used by job printers now only in the larger sizes. Black- ness and boldness of stem are not enough to make a type readable and durable; width of counter, firmness of hair-line and serif, and proper relief of white, are really more important. Modern Bold-face 211 The face shown on this page is as bold a face of roman as will be found acceptable for a book-text. It is carefully drawn and well cut, is not Limitations over black, and has fair relief of white of bold-face space, with many other pleasing features which commend it to job printers for catalogues, law work, and documents; but publishers seldom select it for a standard book. Its strong contrast of long and sharp hair-lines with thick and black stems makes the print dazzling and somewhat irritating to the eye. It is not a restful type; it attracts at- tention, but proves wearisome when diligently read. WILLIAM BRADFORD, the first printer in New York, was born in Leicester, England, in 1658, and be- gan business as a master printer in Philadelphia in 1682. Many disa- greements with the ruling authorities compelled him to go to New York, where, in 1693, he published his first print. He printed in New York for over fifty years. In 1725 he published the “ New York Gazette.” In 1728 he had a paper mill in Elizabethtown, N.J. He died at New York in 1752. Modern bold-face on pica body, solid. George Bruce’s Son & Co. 7 The Scotch-face ISAIAH THOMAS was born in Boston, 19th January, 1749, and died in Worcester, 4th April, 1831. At six years of age he was apprenticed to Zachariah Fowles, printer, for eleven years. In 1770 he began the publication of the “ Massachu- setts Spy,” which he was soon after obliged to re- move to Worcester for fear of the destruction of his printing office by the Tories. He soon became eminent as a publisher; the “ Farmer’s Museum,” the “ Massachusetts Magazine,” a folio Bible, and most of the hymn books and school books of New England came from his presses. He was the first American printer who imported music types, and printed a text in Greek. He was the founder of the Antiquarian Society of Worcester, and the author of a valuable history of printing in two volumes. Scoteh-face on long-primer body, solid. Phelps, Dalton & Co. The plan or design for the peculiar style known as the Scotch-face was first originated in 1837 by Dickinson's S. N. Dickinson of Boston. Alexander Seoteh-face Wilson & Son cut the punches to his order and so made the first “Seotch-face” types. Matrices from these punches were imported by the designer, who cast from them in 1839 the first types made in his new foundry. The illustration on this page is a specimen of the types cast from these matrices. As first made the Scotch-face was a small, neat, round letter, with long ascenders, and not notice- ably condensed or compressed. A complete series The Scotch-face 213 of the Scotch-face seems to have been shown first in America by James Conner of New York. Print- ers acknowledged the superior grace of ne Conner this novel style, which gradually sup- Scoteh-face planted every other. After thirty years of popu- larity complaints of it were heard. N ewspaper publishers said that the first face was too small for the body; and the reprinters of cheap books de- clared the enlarged face to be too round, which pre- vented the frequent use of it in poetry. These objec- tions led to the making of a more condensed form. HORACE GREELEY was born in Amherst, New Hampshire, 3d February, 1811, and died in Pleasantville, Westchester County, New York, 29th November, 1872. His earliest training as a printer began in East Poultney, Vermont, in 1825. In 1831 he went to New York. In 1833 he began as a master printer; in 1834 he estab- lished the “New Yorker,” in 1840 the « Log Cabin,” and in 1841 the “ New York Tribune,” which, during his long term of editorship, be- came a journal of unprecedented influence in politics. He was a clear thinker, and a ready writer in a style of remarkable strength. A fearless opponent of slavery he made many ene- mies, but all hostilities ended with his death. By general consent he takes a rightful place in the annals of typography as our later Franklin.” Seotch-face on 10-point body, solid. James Conner’s Sons. 214 The Scotch-face The peculiarities of the condensed Scotch-face may more clearly be seen in this specimen of a size A condensed cut in 1854 by James Lindsay. Note Scoteh-face the extension and slenderness of hair- line in the arch of m, n, p, ¢, a, r; the length of the serifs, and the general elongation of all the characters after the fashion of French types. JOEL MUNSELL, a publisher and printer of eminence was born in Northfield, Mass., 14th April, 1808, and began as master printer in Al- bany, New York, about 1827. Mun- sell was an industrious collector of books on typography, the author or the compiler of several books on paper and printing, the publisher of books on American history, and a founder of the Albany Institute. He died in Albany 15th January, 1880. A condensed Scotch-face on english body, solid. George Bruce’s Son & Co. The condensed form of Scotch-face is now out of fashion, for its long serifs and short hair-lines and its feminine delicacy of cut are not pleasing when the letter has received ordinary wear. The ~ rounder faces of this style retain their popularity. Condensed French-face 215 FRANCOIS-AMBROISE DIDOT, son of Francois, was born in Paris, 7th January, 1730, and died 10th July, 1804. He gave much attention to the improvement of type- foundingand paper-making. His system of typographic points supplanted that of Four- nier. At his suggestion, and by his aid, the paper-maker Johannot first made the papier vélin or calendered paper. His most cele- brated works are the ‘Daven’ edition of the classics, in thirty-two volumes, 4to, and the <“Arrois” edition of sixty-four volumes, 18mo, which are highly prized by collectors. The condensed French-face on body 12, solid. Gustave Mayeur, Paris. This form but not this face of thin letter, which was probably the model for the condensed Scotch- face, was introduced to French printers qui. taces by Fournier in 1776 as a type “in the preferred Dutch style.” Frangois-Ambroise Didot ™ France preferred the rounder forms, but condensed faces have always been popular in France. The French old-style, the English-face and the Elzevir are often preferred by French publishers for books, but the thin form is still selected for newspapers, pamphlets, magazines, and all the ordinary forms of printing. Modern French taste inclines to a 216 Compressed-face greater lightness of stem, but the general form of the condensed style has not been seriously changed. One variety, having ascenders and descenders of great length, known as the poetic-face, had a great popularity when Lamartine, Hugo, and De Musset wrote in verse. The merit of the letter was in its delicacy and thinness, which enabled the printer to put on a narrow page twelve syllables in one line of large-faced type. Although not in fashion as it has been, it is still used in many French offices. The face shown on this page is an American adaptation of a prevailing French fashion. The lower-case letters are over high, necessarily mak- ALEXANDER ANDERSON, the father of wood engraving in America, was born in New York, 21st April, 1775. Although a qualified student and a licensed practitioner of medicine, he preferred the art of engraving, beginning his work when but twelve years of age on bits of copper and type-metal. He was entirely self- taught ; but he accepted the blocks of Bewick as his models of style. For eighty years he was a diligent worker. He made many blocks of more than ordinary merit. LANSING, MoR- GAN and HALL were his pupils. He died in Jersey City, 17th January, 1870.2 eee? Compressed-face on long-primer body, leaded. George Bruce’s Son & Co. Influence of Bodoni 217 ing short ascenders, dwarfing the capitals, and en- larging small capitals. The characters are closely fitted ; the serifs of contiguous stems often con- nect; the stems are thin, and the hair-lines are needlessly protracted. Although this style is pre- ferred in France and Spanish America, it is not a favorite in the United States. Yet it is a remark- ably readable letter, and were it not for the deli- cacy of its connecting serifs would be durable. The lower-case letters are large and clear even in their compressed form. To English and Ameri- can eyes its great defect is the reduced height of the capital letters. Its grayness of color makes it a good letter for contrast in texts that have wood-cut illustrations. No type-founder has changed the form and effect of roman letter more than Bodoni of Parma. His first specimen of 1771 shows that he New forms had carefully studied the best French of Bodoni types of that period, but it shows also the hand of an innovator. He made his new faces rounder and lighter, and of greater openness and delicacy. The round letters of the lower-case were unusu- ally short for the body, with ascenders and de- scenders so long that the composed types had the appearance of leaded matter. Excessive care was given to the correct drawing of curves and ovals. Serifs were long and flat; hair-lines had unusual length and sharpness. He delighted in little graces which struck every reader by their novelty. These 28 218 Eighteenth-century French-face mannerisms prevented other founders from faith- fully copying his forms, but all of them have been influenced by his style. He set the fashion for light-faces and round forms, and for that imitation of copperplate effects which has so seriously dam- aged the appearance of the books of this century. Firmin-Didot of Paris, equally able as printer and type-founder, undertook the difficult task of FIRMIN-DIDOT, the second son of Ambroise, and brother to Pierre, was born in Paris, 14th April, 1764, and died 24th April, 1836. Hewasan expert type-founder, and a skilled printer. The neat types of several of his father’s editions were cut by his hand. He did good work for thedevelopment of stereotyping and map-making. He was appointed printerto the King and tothe French Institute, and was decorated with the medal of the Legion of Honor. His portrait is in the gallery of the Louvre, and his bustis in the hall of the National Printing Office, Paris. Eighteenth-century French-face on body 12, solid. Gustave Mayeur, Paris. Engraver’s Hair-line-face 219 making a bolder type with the round form, sharp lines, and true curves of Bodoni. His first face was an obese letter of harsh contrasts, for it op- posed thick stems to feeble hair-lines and fragile serifs. After being out of fashion for sixty years, this Didot style was revived by Mayeur, who has faithfully reproduced its general effect. Other re- productions of the different styles proposed by Didot are made by several founders of Paris. JOSEPH ALEXANDER ADAMS, engraver on wood, was born at New Germantown, New Jersey, in 1808. He died about 1870. In his boyhood he was taught the trade of a printer in which he excelled ; but he preferred and followed the busi- ness of engraving on wood. About 1840 he ar- ranged with Harper & Brormers for publication by that firm of an edition of the Bible, he to furnish the engravings and control the printing. On this work he developed the method of overlaying and making-ready woodcuts that now prevails in the United States. For this work he invented the pro- cess of electrotyping woodcuts. Four- and six-roller Adams presses were first made at his suggestion. Engraver’s hair-line on long-primer body, solid. George Bruce's Son & Co. The engraver’s hair-line was often used in books about fifty years ago for quoted mottos in titles, for summaries of chapters, and for sub-headings in books and pamphlets intended to show a feminine elegance or refinement. Although a well-drawn 220 Round-faces and carefully cut letter, it has been supplanted by other forms of light-face much inferior in merit. Condensed forms of letter have always found most favor with publishers of small-margined and Decline of dOuble-columned octavos, with the re- thin and con- printers of standard books in shabby densed faces forms, and with inexperienced news- paper proprietors who mistakenly attempt to crowd too much matter into a given space. Their judgment has been overruled. Intelligent book- buyers resent this parsimony in type and margin, and call for the round and open faces which are now regarded as the more suitable for books of merit. The illustrations on these facing pages GEORGE CLYMER, inventor and manufacturer of the once celebrated Columbian printing press, was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1754. Clymer at a very early age had earned good repute as a scientific and skilful mechanic. In 1817 he in- troduced his Columbian press in Eng- land, where it was highly commended. He died in London in 1834. creer Round-face on pica body, leaded. George Bruce’s Son & Co. Round-faces 221 HORACE WELLS, the pioneer of type- founding in Cincinnati, was born at Hart- ford in 1797, and at the age of sixteen was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker. In 1820 he was selected to superintend the wood- working department of the foundry estab- lished in Cincinnati by Elihu White, and now known asthe Cincinnati Type Foundry, the first types in which were cast July 4 of that year. In this foundry he gradually ac- quired a practical knowledge of the details of type-making, and also attained some dis- tinction as a punch-cutter. He became the general manager, and ultimately the pro- prietor, of the foundry. He died in 1851. Round-face on long-primer body, leaded. Farmer, Little & Co. are fair exhibits of a prevailing fancy for round- faces. When new, carefully printed and judi- ciously used, the round-faces produce Round-taces a pleasing effect, but many of them of light lines are too frail for general use. Sharp and thin lines are not in so much favor as they were thirty years ago. The round-faces with sharp lines are effec- tive only when printed in the form of leaded or double-leaded composition with broad white mar- gins. When set solid and printed on ordinary paper with narrow margins they are unpleasing. 222 Light-faces The illustration on this page is of an extremely light face of decided merit, but which is too thin A skeleton and too light to be used as a text-type round-face for descriptive matter set solid. It shows to best advantage in leaded or double- leaded poetry, or in any work which has broad margins and large spaces of white. It finds fre- quent employment in the titles or descriptions of plates when these titles are printed, as is the fashion, on thin paper facing the plate, but in any place it is a strain on ordinary eyesight. ELIHU WHITE, who established the type- foundry now known as that of Farmer, Little & Co., was born at Bolton, Connecticut, 27th July, 1773. His first business was that of a bookseller and publisher. In association with a Mr. Wing he undertook to make type, with- out any knowledge whatever of the theory or practice of the art. In 1810 he took his un- developed type-making tools to New York, and soon after began a prosperous business. With William M. Johnson of Hempstead, he gave much time to the development of a type- casting machine. He established foundries in Buffalo and Cincinnati. He died in 1836. Light-face on small-pica body, leaded. Farmer, Little & Co. Broad Form of Light-face 223 RICHARD MARCH HOE was born in New York, 12th September, 1812, and died in Florence, Italy, 7th June, 1886. At the age of fifteen he began to work in his father’s printing-press manufac- tory; at twenty-one he was the head of the business. He made many improve- ments in printing machinery. His first notable invention was the Type- ; revolving Rotary-printing machine, patented in 184%. His latest achieve- ment was the Web-perfecting printing machine, which prints from an endless roll, cuts, folds, and delivers perfect pa- pers at rates of speed, varying with the size of the sheet, from fifteen to sixty thousand copies an hour. ~z~zsizsizslz Broad form of light-face on brevier body, double leaded. Farmer, Little & Co. The face on this page, which is as broad as it is light, is seldom used as a text-letter for stan- dard books. Its delicacy disqualifies it Broad form for general use, but it is an effective of light-face letter in fine pamphlets, catalogues, and orna- mental job-work, when the composed lines have been liberally widened with leads. The larger sizes are used for book titles, running head lines, and as a display letter. 224 French Light-face The prevailing fashion of light-face in France is entirely distinet from any used in Great Britain or America. French type-founders of the present time lean to English forms, but that they have not freed themselves entirely from the manner- isms of the old French masters may be seen in the square, trim, and compact appearance of the specimen subjoined. Note that the y, §, &, and I seem to be entirely new forms. AMBROISE FIRMIN-DIDOT, the son of Firmin, and a great-grandson of the foun- der of the house, was born at Paris, 20th December, 1790, and died 22d February, 1876. He was eminent as a printer and as the publisher of famous books; was a punch-cutter and type-founder, the presi- dent of several typographical societies, printer to the Institute, a diligent and in- telligent collector of books, a member of the Municipal Council of Paris, repeatedly juror at Universal Expositions, officer of the Legion of Honor, author and translator of many books and pamphlets of authority, and beyond question the most learned and ablest typographer of France. Modern French light-face on body 10, leaded. Gustave Mayeur, Paris. DBroad-faces 225 Publishers of newspapers have had unsatisfac- tory experience with every variety of condensed face. They testify, as do all book print- Why bond: ers, that condensed types wear out t00 faces were soon, and show their wear when but half introduced worn in muddy presswork and indistinct figures and characters. Fair trial has thoroughly dem- onstrated that the saving of space made by the selection of a lean letter is not a sufficient offset to bad presswork and needless wear. Publishers now go to the other extreme, and require faces of unusual breadth, which American type-foundries furnish in great variety. The specimen here shown is a fair example of a recent style. GEORGE P. GORDON, printer and inven- tor, was born in Salem, New Hampshire, 21st April, 1810, and died in Brooklyn, N.Y, 27th January, 1878. The needs of his busi- ness, as a master-printer of New York city, induced him to make improvements on the inefficient small printing machines then in general use. In August, 1851, he patented the first form of the machine now known as the Gordon Press, which ever since has been approved of in this country, and under other names in Europe. He was granted more than fifty patents for improvements in printing machinery. = & & @& @ & A broad-face on 10-point body, solid. James Conner’s Sons. 29 226 DBroad-faces Many broad-faces have short descenders and long serifs to fill the gaps made by widely sepa- Faults of rated stems. In some of them the ex- broad-face pansion of the letter is so great that there is no fair relief of white space between the lines. The impression required for all over-broad faces, with shortened ascenders and without due relief of white between lines, must be nearly as severe as that given to the old fat-faces. Book printers and publishers have always objected to over-broad faces as mechanically incorrect. The wide separation of stems required by this style makes more difficult the proper fitting of bodies. JAMES HARPER, the founder of the print- ing and publishing firm now known as that of HARPER & BROTHERS, was born in New- town, Long Island, N. Y., 13th April, 1795, and died in the city of New York, 27th March, 1869. For many years the business was managed by James and his three broth- ers : JOHN, who was born 22d January, 1797, and died 22d April, 1875 ; JOSEPH WESLEY, who was born 25th December, 1801, and died 14th February, 1870 ; FLETCHER, who was born 31st January, 1806, and died 29th May, 1877. James Harper was elected mayor of the city of New York in 1844. The business is now managed by their sons and grandsons. Broad-face on 10-point body, solid. MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Co. LEzxpanded-face 227 ISAAC ADAMS, inventor of the Adams power printing press, was born in Rochester, New Hampshire, in 18038, and died in Sandwich, New Hampshire, 19th July, 1883. His first press, with frame of wood, was made in 1828. It received many-im- provements in 1834, and was even then accepted as the best press for book printing. About 1836 he formed a partnership with his brother Seth (born in 180%, died in 1873) for the man- ufacture of the presses, which partnership ended in 1856. # % Expanded-face on brevier body, double leaded. George Bruce’s Son & Co. Although very broad or expanded faces are un- acceptable to publishers of books, they are really needed in any form of composition in which it seems necessary to fill the space as to width more than as to height. They give a clearness to print which is not to be had by the use of capitals or of any other form of letter, and they are entirely free from the appearance of bold or vulgar dis- play. Job printers use them to good advantage “in circulars, catalogues, and fine pamphlets. 228 Riverside-face Some publishers and many printers have tired of light-faces. Book critics have rightfully com- Weak types Plained of a deficiency in blackness of make weak ink in recent books. In much of this presswork ohjectionable presswork the fault is due more to weak types than to weak ink. Under the conditions that control ordinary presswork it is not possible to show vivid blackness on thin lines that will not hold the needed ink. Surrounded by an excess of white the thin lines must seem com- paratively gray. Printers have also objected to types with sharp hair-lines that are soon flawed or crushed. The desire of the proprietor of the River- side Press for a bolder-faced type which would re- ceive a proper amount of black, and yield a fair HENRY O. HOUGHTON, printer and publisher, was born in Sutton, Vermont, 30th April, 1823. He was taught printing in Burlington, but devoted his spare hours to study. In 1846 he graduated from the University of Vermont. After service as a reporter on a Boston newspaper he established, in 1852, the “ Riverside Press” at Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, under the name of Henry O. Houghton & Co. In 1872 he was elected mayor of Cambridge. In 1878 he acquired the ownership of the business of the old publishing house of Ticknor & Fields. The business is now carried on under the name of Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York. Riverside-face on long-primer body, solid. Phelps, Dalton & Co. Firm-face of Broad Form 229 measure of wear, led to the cutting of this River- side-face. His request for a complete series was refused by one type-foundry for the rea- tne river- son that it could not be sold. Another sidetace founder cut a full series for book-work which has been used with best results. In this series the stems of the letters are not only thicker but longer, and the hair-line has a visible thickness. These good features are shown more clearly in a new variety of firm-face of broad form, which is designed for hard usage on newspaper work. The hair-lines are unusually thick, the serifs are short, and will successfully resist the wear of the mould- ing-brush, the lye-brush, and the proof-planer. It will take ink readily, and make a readable print without undue impression. THOMAS MACKELLAR was born in the city of New York, 12th August, 1812, and was taught the trade of a printer in the printing house of J. & J. Harper. In 1833 he was proof-reader in the type and stereotype foundry of Johnson & Smith of Philadelphia. When Johnson retired, he became the senior partner in the new firm of MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan. He is the author of the “Amer- ican Printer,” and for many years was the editor of the “Typographic Advertiser,” and the witty and wise ‘‘Specimen Book” of the MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Co. Selections from his contri- butions to journals were published in Philadelphia, 1873, under the title of “Rhymes Atween Times.” Firm-face of broad form on 8-point body, solid. MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Co. 230 Why Small Types are Indistinct Students and book and newspaper printers are fully agreed as to the worthlessness of the sharp hairline. Punch-cutters and job printers who try to compete with lithographers and copperplate- engravers seem to be the only typographers who care to perpetuate this feminine feature which has so seriously degraded modern printing. To make a readable type the sharp contrast between thin and thick lines should be avoided; the hair- line should have a visible thickness even in small sizes, for this increased thickness is really needed as much to give legibility as to prevent wear. The continued popularity of the old-style is due more to the clearness produced by its strong lines and serifs than to its quaintness of form. The defects of the ordinary faces of roman type are most noticeable in the smaller sizes. Texts Light lines 11 Pearl or diamond are hard to print. cause weak Too much ink makes the letters thick presswork and muddy; too little ink makes them gray and indistinet. Even when inked with dis- cretion, the effect of presswork from small types is that of feebleness. Small types show little of the stem and still less of the serif and hair-line; they have not surface enough to carry a good body of ink. To remedy this fault, Quantin of Paris had made for his miniature editions?! a re- modeled light-face antique, in which all the lines were nearly of uniform thickness. 1 “Horace: odes et épodes,” 24mo, illuminated. Paris, 1883. Motteroz-face 231 The introduction of the Riverside-face of the late Henry O. Houghton, the Cushing style, the “Golden type” of William Morris, the Jenson face of Phinney, and the Century face of the De Vinne Press, are the practical protests of experienced printers against the growing effeminacy of modern types. Readers of failing eyesight rightfully ask for types that are plain and unequivocal, that re- veal the entire character at a glance, and are not discerned with difficulty by body-marks joined to hair-lines and serifs that are but half seen or not seen at all. The Morris and Jenson styles may be needlessly bold for readers of excellent eyesight, but they are attempts at an improvement in the right direction, which will be maintained. The Motteroz-face on the next page is another attempt at a letter that may be read more easily. It has too many French peculiarities to commend it to readers who have been used to English mod- els, but every reader must admit the propriety of some of its innovations. It is not too bold or black, and is notably round and clear. Characters like §, a, r, , which always have been pinched, in deference to type-founding traditions, are here made of full breadth, and are recognized with ease. The high strong arch of the m and n, and other features of the old-style, have been retained. Here its designer’s reforms have stopped. He has not thickened the hair-line, which is as sharp as before, nor has he angled or bracketed the serif. 2392 Motteroz-face Although the type-founders and printers of France object to its departures from the accepted stan- dards of form, it has been chosen by the Municipal Council of Paris as the most readable letter for its school-books and official publications. It is made for and used by Motteroz only, and is not for sale. CLAUDE MOTTEROZ was born in 1830,at Romanéche (Saone-et-Loire). As the descendant of an old family of rinters he was taught printing, to which he added the practice of other crafts. In1874he established in Paris a large atelierfor photographic repro- ductions by lithography, about which . he has written two treatises deemed of high authority. In 1876 he devised this form of roman letter. He is the printer and publisher of manyschool- books which have been adopted by the Municipal Council of Paris. As proprietor of large printing-houses, and as a contributor to “I Imprim- erie” for many years, he has exercised a marked influence upon the develop- ment of French typography. sz~ sary to put a certain number of let- in one line. If there are too many letters in this display line the types will be small and weak ; if there are too few letters the yeeq fora types will be too big and too bold. The condensed typographical practice which prevailed #r2¢ter before the year 1840 permitted types marked for a prominent line of display to be widely spaced be- tween letters when there were not letters enough in the words to fill the measure. The en and the em quadrat were frequently used as spaces. It was not permitted to set the words for large dis- play in two connected lines of the same size and style of type, either with or without a hyphen. 255 256 Beginnings of Pinched Types The words for large display must always be in one line, whether they were few or many. In the early days of printing the division of a prominent line was a common practice, but for a full century at least the division of displayed words in titles has been regarded as a mangling of language and as unworkmanlike in the highest degree. To avoid what was regarded as the uncouth division of the display lines of titles, or the al- condensea ETMAtIVE Of a selection of capitals too letters once small for proper display, printers had in fashion to yegort to condensed capitals, which seem to have first been shown in France about the year 1820. As two-line letters for titles, or as initials, or as headings of chapters, they had a remarkable success. Their slender, symmetrical shapes were an agreeable contrast to the stumpy Muuunune.. Condensed two-line letters. forms of the rudely cut two-line fat-faces then in fashion. Every publisher wanted condensed letters in his titles, and they were furnished on many bodies from one-line nonpareil to ten-line pica. Some were but moderately condensed, in Ineffectiveness of Pinched Types 257 which shape they were not more objectionable than the lean-faced capitals of a thin font; but the shape most popular was that of a character almost one half the width of the standard two- line letter. The legibility and the effectiveness of each letter were diminished with every new degree of narrowness, but this did not prevent the mak- ing, and use, of still thinner characters, which were labeled as extra condensed and double extra con- densed. In due time came lower-case letters for most of the new capitals, all of which were readily accepted and used by job printers. In English and American book houses the condensed shape never found favor; for a noticeably condensed lower- case has never yet been accepted as a proper text letter for the standard book. The use of the condensed capitals for book titles was carried to great excess, and a reaction followed. After a sufficient experience it was OMienioditn proved that the appearance of titles was as frail and really injured by a decidedly condensed indistinct letter. The thin type enabled the printer to get displayed words of many letters in one line, but the letters were necessarily weak, and in violent con- trast to the letters of other lines which had to be set in capitals of a standard form. Pinched letters and indistinct lines always seem out of place in the ample white space of the ordinary book title. The only form of condensed two-line letter now approved by critical printers is one which barely 33 258 Delicacy of the Larger Sizes deserves the title of condensed, for it is but lit- tle thinner than the capitals of the ordinary lean letter still used for book-texts. Many publish- ers have gone back to the old form, and refuse to MMM MMM Ma A recent form of condensed two-line letters. use any variety of condensed two-line letter for book titles. One reason for this objection is the mechanical feebleness of all the condensed letters. Many of them are copied from French models of great delicacy, in which the hair-line of the six- line pica is almost as sharp as that of the two-line diamond. The specimen that follows is a fair example of a French fashion of two-line letter. Note the slenderness of the hair-line, the exten- CHUEN A French form of two-line letter. Limits to Condensation 259 sion and flatness of the serif. To every reader of imperfect eyesight these hair-lines are practically invisible; a letter is guessed at by its stems. There are limits to the narrowing of letters that cannot be safely exceeded. For the bodies of pica, small-pica, long-primer, and o types bourgeois, the punch-cutter can make should not a lower-case alphabet readable within Pe pinched the compass of twelve ems of its own body, but he cannot make a satisfactory text-letter under this rule for any smaller body. Even when he proposes to make a symmetrical series of sizes, he cannot reduce size by strict geometrical rule. The alphabet of bourgeois may be kept within twelve ems, but that of agate should have fifteen ems, and that of diamond seventeen ems.! The insistence of newspaper publishers, who desired to crowd much reading in a very small space, has frequently induced type-founders to cut types below the standard, but never satisfactorily. Of the larger sizes of brevier and bourgeois the con- densed types were not as clear and readable; of the smaller sizes of nonpareil and agate the figures, fractions, and all the characters contain- ing close lines, soon became indistinct and of uncertain meaning after a moderate amount of wear. The slight advantages obtained in one direction were lost in another. A font of lean or 1Seeremarks and illustrations standards of type on pages 114- of the widths and the variable 116 of this volume. 260 Condensed Text-types Avoided moderately condensed type wore out much sooner than a font of standard-face. When it was de- monstrated that lean types of small body were deficient in durability and readability they went out of fashion. A strong reaction to the other extreme soon followed. The smaller types of many of our newspapers are now as much too broad as they were too narrow. In a recent essay, a French optician! lays down the proposition that the diminution of readability Dr. Javars iD the smaller sizes of roman lower- comments on case is chiefly due to their diminution readability jp height. He says that a small type should not be condensed, for it is too short; but a large type may be moderately condensed without loss of readability, as it is high. As the print is rarely placed in a strictly vertical line for the pur- pose of reading, but is usually held in the hand or put on the desk at an angle of about forty degrees, it follows that the perception and identi- fication of small letters are somewhat hindered by their shortness. They will not bear the fore- shortening made by the inclination of the print. The condensed faces shown on pages 205 and 215 of this work are about the thinnest that have been used for books in France, but they have not been approved by English or American publishers. Yet there are evidences that the prejudice against 1M. Javal, “La typographie, Ilustrated with types in ‘Revue et hygiene de la vue,” fully il- Scientifique,” No. 26, June, 1881. Condensed Types Needed for Books 261 condensed forms of the larger sizes is relaxing. There is need for a thin text-letter in poetry and in the page of two columns. To use & wyere thin round- or a broad-face in poetry where types are of the comparative narrowness of the SV measure compels a turn-over of the last syllable or word, or in a double-columned page where the narrowness of the measure compels the com- positor to wide-space and thin-space in adjacent lines, is always a serious disfigurement, and an offense to the reader. To select a smaller size of type and to lead or double-lead the composition is an equally objectionable alternative, for this procedure diminishes the readability of the type, increases the cost of composition, and produces the effect of padding by its needless extension of the matter. To make a larger page on a larger leaf increases expense in another direction with- out benefit to author, publisher, or reader. The only proper treatment of composition in a narrow or contracted space is to select a roman type that has been made for and is adapted to the narrow column or page. For all bodies below 10-point a narrowing that makes their lower-case alphabets thinner than that of the prevailing standards is not to be recommended. Experience has proved its inutility. For bodies between 10-point and 20- point, condensed styles with alphabets of about eleven ems could be used to good advantage in the best book-work. Types larger than 12-point, 262 Much Used by Job Printers that are now rejected by publishers as too coarse and sprawling, would be readily accepted if they were made of good cut, in the moderately con- densed shape of the style on page 215. A large size of this form, set solid, would be more inviting to the eye and more readable than a smaller size widened by leads. Unfortunately, a full series of moderately condensed face is not made by any American founder on a body larger than 14-point. The face shown on page 214 has to be submitted as the nearest approximation. INTRODUCTION TO LOGOGRAPHY, or the Art of Arranging and Composing for Printing with Words Intire, their Radices and Terminations, instead of Single Let- “ters, Henry Johnson, London, 1783, An early form of condensed pica, leaded. George Bruce’s Son & Co. Job printers have always appreciated the ser- viceability of condensed types. For the display lines of cards, handbills, and advertisements con- densed shapes of every style are as freely used now as they were fifty years ago, and there is no reason to believe that they will ever go out of fashion. The condensed face shown on this page, Condensed Light-face 263 which was introduced when fat-faced types were in the height of fashion, had all the defects of the text-types of that period — the thick stem and the shallow counter, the flat serif and the over-sharp hair-line. This style was not made in any size smaller than brevier. It wore out with little use. Its defects were seen and avoided in the cutting of a more popular face of condensed which soon followed. DR. WILLIAM CHURCH OF AMERICA received a British Patent, March, 1828, for * Improved Apparatus for Print- ing,” which was intended to cast and compose types at an unusual speed. A later form of condensed pica, leaded. George Bruce’s Son & Co. In this face the stems are relatively lighter, and the counters are deeper, but the serif and hair-line are as delicate as those of the earlier face. Some fonts of condensed have capitals that are not proper mates for the lower-case alphabet — each series obviously the work of a different punch- cutter. This incongruity properly excludes them from book-work, but even if they were unexcep- tionably cut, all the early faces on pica and the 264 Lixtra Condensed Styles smaller bodies are too condensed for a readable text. The merit of roman condensed is best shown by a specimen of the style on a larger body. A. DELCAMBRE Composing Machine March 13, 1840 A modern cut of condensed on double english body. George Bruce’s Son & Co. This beautiful letter, which is provided by some founders in a full series from pica to six-line pica, would be more largely used if it had been made with stronger lines. Although the faces previously shown are too condensed for any text of good book-work, they are not condensed enough to meet all the require- ments of job printers. For their use a series of extra condensed, ranging from brevier to four-line pica, has been provided. In the headings or columns of table-work, or in any other place where a large type seems to be re- quired in contracted space, this style is of value, but it is seriously abused when it is inconsider- Lixtra Condensed Styles 265 ately selected because it enables the compositor to crowd in one line the words or letters that should have been put in two lines with better effect. As the lower-case alphabet of this illustration comes WILLIAM HASLETT NYTCHEL, of Brooklyn, N. Y., received patents in 1853 from the United States and Great Britain for the first practical and efficient type-composing machine, It Was kept in use for many years in the office of John I, Trow, of New York, but fuled for want of a proper distributor, Pica extra condensed. George Bruce’s Son & Co. within eight ems of its own body, it approaches obscureness too closely. It can be used properly In very narrow measures, or in places where no other face of type will serve; yet it is not uncom- mon to see this face in the titles of French books .in which there is abundance of white space. CTOR BELMONT 3 This style of extra condensed, but in the series of capitals only, is occasionally to be found upon 34 266 Old-style Condensed the covers, and sometimes upon the inner titles, of recent books by Parisian printers. Made in full series from pica to six-line pica, this remark- ably pinched style had a brief popularity in this country, but it is now entirely out of use, and de- servedly so, for it proved a frail and most unsatis- factory type. The job printer of the present time prefers for condensed letters the newer styles of the antique or gothic class, which are more distinet and more durable. The old-style character has been pressed, but not without difficulty, into service as a condensed type. The face on this page, without lower-case, was obviously made for a two-line letter. It con- forms as closely as its condensed shape will allow to the general outline of the old-style form, but the spirit and the effect of the true old-style model are entirely wanting. The masculine strength and easy legibility of the model have been destroyed; we have instead the feminine curves and the deli- TIMOTHY ALDEN'S MACHINE OF 1846 Two-line small-pica condensed old-style. George Bruce’s Son & Co. Old-style Condensed 267 cacy of line affected by a teacher of penmanship or an engraver of visiting cards. A style not so condensed, but with stems a trifle thicker and with hair-lines equally sharp, is shown by the MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Co. This face, or the one illustrated on the preceding page, is generally preferred for the initial letters and the title-page letters of texts that have been composed in modernized old-style. NEW OLD-STYLE MLS. &J.CO.. 1880. Two-line small-piea condensed old-style. Another variety of condensed modernized old- style, provided with lower-case characters, is made by James Conner’s Sons. In this variety the hair- lines are a trifle firmer, but the spirit of the old- style is traced with difficulty in its smaller sizes. Odd Old-style Four-line pica old-style condensed. 268 Extra Condensed Old-style Old-style condensed letter is made in a greater variety, and is more thoroughly graded, than the established old-style of standard form. From the bodies commonly used a printer can select two or three distinct widths, which mate better than the condensed of modern-face. An extra condensed old-style is also provided, in which a few of the peculiarities of the old form are somewhat exaggerated while others are en- tirely neglected. It is largely used as a display letter in advertisements. Much Pinched Od-style 40-point old-style extra condensed. In all these attempts to reproduce the strength and simplicity of the old Caslon character, it does not appear that any founder has copied the firm hair-line which is one of its most characteristic features. VIII Italic Types =YTALIC is never selected now as the a type for the text of a book, but it 26 may be used with good evo for its WY preface. Good taste forbids its too 24 frequent employment in its much- abused be! oy of distinguishing emphatic imitations words. An excess of italic spots and in the use of disfigures the page, confuses the eye, '*U°tpes and really destroys the emphasis it was intended to produce. Yet italic cannot be entirely put aside. There is no other style so well adapted for sub-headings, for names of actors or persons in plays, for titles of books, and for special words not emphatic that should be discriminated at a glance. Although useful, italic is not liked by printers or founders, for it is troublesome to cut and cast, and it has many kerned letters that often break unexpectedly. There are mechanical difficulties 269 270 Original Old-style Italic not easily overcome in all attempts to put an inclined face on a square body. The inclination Mechanical Must seem uniform in all letters, but difficulties many letters must be cut with varying angles to shorten the unsightly gaps between irregular characters. Kerns are unavoidable, but much ingenuity is often required to prevent one kern from overriding another. There are few forms of faultless italie, but the earlier faces are the most objectionable for uneven workmanship.! ALDUS MANUTIUS exhibited his first form of Lralic type in bis octavo ed tion of Virgil, Venice,1 501. Original old-style italic on 22-point body, solid. MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Co. The italic furnished with the “original” old- style has some capitals which are sprawling and uncouth. They seem badly mated with each other, 1 Aldus, the inventor of italic, evaded the mechanical difficul- ties by giving to the characters the slightest possible inelina- tion, by making logotypes of all the interfering letters, and by using upright capitals of small size instead of inclined capitals of full height. No modern re- viver of old letters has ever at- tempted a faithful reproduction of the Aldine italic. Dutch Italic Baskerville Italic 271 and with its thick-stemmed and condensed lower- case. In the small sizes of this style the characters of the lower-case are of lighter face, sometimes so light that they are not proper mates for the roman. The larger sizes are frequently selected, more for their quaintness than for their beauty, as a strik- ing display letter for advertisements. There are old-style italics in use that seem to have been made up from a haphazard collection of discarded punches or matrices, gath- grudge forms ered from old Dutch and early English of old italic type-founders of inferior reputation. When the different sizes so collected are shown on one page, there is a painful discord from the inequality and irregular angularity of the characters. These un- couth types, which were never used by good print- ers, are often, but erroneously, regarded by readers as of greater age and relatively higher merit.2 The italic designed by Baskerville has capital letters of better form, but they have never been faithfully reproduced by any type-founder of this century. The Baskerville italic is more condensed and more script-like than that of Caslon. 1 Field & Tuer, of the Lead- enhall Press, London, have for 2 One of the rudest and most uncouth forms of old-style italic their exclusive use an excellent form of old-style italic of bold face, with the swash letters and other features of quaintness, which they use with good effect for initials and for the running titles of books printed in the fashion of the last century. is shown by Moxon in his ‘“ Me- chanick Exercises” of 1683, and with larger drawings and more of detail in his earlier book of 1676,—the “ Regula Trium Or- dinum Literarum Typographi- carum, or the Rules of the Three Orders of Print Letters.” 272 Modernized Old-style Italic 70 the Worfhipful SIR CHRISTOPHER WRENN, Knight, Surveyor of His Majefly’s Buildings. Str, ’ 70 you as to a Lover of Rule and Proportion 1 humbly Dedicate these my Observations upon Let- ters : If they prove Acceptable to you I have my whole Wifk, and fhall be careless of the Sleightings or Censures of the Ignorant Contemners of Order and Symmetry. Str, 1 am Your mofl Humble Servant, [ZLondon, 1676.] JOSEPH MOXOMN. Modernized old-style italic on long-primer body, leaded. George Bruce’s Son & Co. The modernized old-style italic follows the gen- eral form approved by Caslon, but it is a trifle broader in the lower-case sorts, lighter as to stem, and all the characters have a script-like slender- ness of extended hair-line not to be found in the Caslon original. The old forms of 7 and » have been properly rejected for 7 and %; but what is the reason for the occasional retention of the J in place of J? The long [and its double letters are not completely reproduced. The smaller sizes are sometimes provided with inclined figures. It is largely used for prefaces, and by job printers as a text-letter for circulars in place of script. Llzevir Old-style Italic 273 This Elzevir italic is the true mate of the Elze- vir roman shown on page 200. It is of a bolder face and of closer set, and has thicker Mannerisms stems and firmer hair-lines than the of Elzevir modernized old-style italic. While it reproduces nearly all the peculiar mannerisms of the origi- nal —the bold and dashing swashes of the capi- ABBE DE VILLIERS, 1699. I know a man who denies himself the things that are most ne- cessary, so that he can collect in a library, scant- ily provided with other books, as many little Elzevirs as be can find. In bis pangs of hunger he consoles himself with his ability to say: “I have ten copies of each, and all of them have the rubricated letters, and all are of good editions.” Elzevir old-style italic on body 10, leaded. Gustave Mayeur, Paris. tals, the conjoined ¢%, and the logotypes of final $s — as, es, 18, us — these mannerisms have been so remodeled that they cease to be uncouth or offen- sive. In most forms of printing they really add to its effectiveness. The Elzevir is largely used in book offices for prefaces, and as a suitable letter for subheadings and running-titles. Unfortunately this style of italic is not made on any of the larger bodies. There is a real need of larger sizes from 20-point to 7 2-point. 35 274 French Old-style Italic The French form of old-style italic is more round and open, and is sometimes of wider set than any used by American or English printers of books. Its most pronounced peculiarity is the thickening of the stem in every rounded letter obliquely, or “on its back,” as type-founders call it. See the 0, a, p, d, and other rounded characters. This mannerism, and the old-fashioned models of v and Ww, give to this style decided plainness and simplicity. There are other peculiarities of face, especially noticeable in the increased width of the capitals, which stamp this French italic with a distinet character. Its great fault is its frailty: the kerns on f and y are too long and too weak. A FRENCH DECREE of 1649. We command that, for the future, printers and publishers shall take one lad only as appren- tice. He must be of good life and manners, Catholic, of French birth, qualified to serve the public, well read in Latin, and able to read Greek, of which he shall have a certifi- cate from the rector of the Unwersity, un- der penalty of 300 livres and the cancelling of the license of the o fending master printer. French old-style italic on body 11, leaded. Fonderie Turlot, Paris. Bold-faces and Light-faces 275 This bold-faced italic is the mate of the roman on page 80. It has great boldness and blackness, but its hair-lines are slender and too readily worn. It is freely used by job printers as a display letter for circulars, and for book advertisements. DANIEL TREADWELL, born wn Ipswich, Massachusetts, 10th October, 1791, invented the Jirst power platen press made wm the United States. The new press had merit, but was soon superseded by the more efficient Adams press. He died in Cam- bridge, 10th October, 1872. Modern bold-face italic on columbian body, solid. George Bruce’s Son & Co. Ttalies of light-face seldom appear in our speci- men books. The light-faced romans of American manufacture are too often provided with italics of a thicker stem and of a different style, with which they always make a most unpleasing contrast. The face shown on the following page is of the round and open form which seems to be preferred by French publishers. 276 French Light-face Italic G.A.CRAPELET, a distinguished printer and publisher, was born in Paris in 17 89, and died at Nice in 1842. His editions are highly appreciated by connoisseurs for their accuracy and excellent workman- ship. He received medals of silver in 1827 and 1834 for his many services to French typography. His writings on the history and practice of printing are of value. Modern French light-face italic on body 10, leaded. Gustave Mayeur, Paris. The form of condensed italic at the foot of this page is of an older fashion that still survives. It is the mate of the French-face shown on page 215. JULES DIDOT, a son of Pierre, was born August 5, 1794, and died May 18, 1871. He was an expert type-founder and an ad- mirable printer, but not a successful publisher. His presswork on vellum has never been sur- passed. For his services to France as an edu- cator in the art of fine printing he was deco- rated with the medal of the Legion of Honor. Condensed French-face italic on body 12, solid. Gustave Mayeur, Paris. French Italics 27 - The round and bold-faced italic shown on this page is in the so-called Didot style: it is the mate of the roman shown on page 218. HYACINTHE DIDOT, a younger brother of Ambroise Firmin-Didot, was born in 1794. After 1857 he became Director of the Didot print- ing-office. He was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, and member of the Municipal Council of the Eure. Eighteenth-century French-face italic on body 12, solid. Gustave Mayeur, Paris. The inclination of italic allows the punch-cutter a much greater freedom of design than he can ex- ercise in the drawing of plain roman rtaiics of letter. Of this privilege the designers new forms of France have made liberal use. Many of the French-faces have peculiarities of marked merit, but these peculiarities are not accepted by English or American publishers, who object to any devia- tion from their own standards. French publishers are more tolerant. In standard books and maga- zines many of them admit such forms of italic as “Venetian” and “engraver’s,” which are here ex- cluded from good book-work. In America the only form of fanciful italic tolerated in books is the engraver’s hair-line, when used for mottos. 278 Hair-line Inclined Roman BAYARD 9YIZAYLOR, author, was born in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, 11th January, 1825. Hebegan as a printerin 1842. After a service of two years he went abroad, traveling always on foot, supporting himself by contri- butions to journals. As traveller, lecturer, poet, and translator, he earned a high reputation. At his death, 19th (December, 1878, he was the ambassador of the United States at Berlin. Engraver’s hair-line italic on long-primer body, solid. George Bruce’s Son & Co. The inclined roman shown at foot of this page is one of the many French varieties of italic. It has found ready sale with job printers, but it is an innovation that does not please critical publishers. WILLIAM A. BULLOCK, inventor of the rotary printing-machine then known as the Bullock press, was born at Greenville, Greene County, New York,in 1813. He was fully taught the trade of machinist, and qualified himself as a mechanician. He made many presses of merit. He died at Philadelphia, 14th April, 1867, from an accident which befell him when he was put- ting up and adjusting one of his machines in the office of the « Philadelphia Ledger.” Inclined roman on 10-point body, solid. Benton, Waldo & Co., Milwaukee. Law Italic Fanciful Italics 279 The law italic here shown is broader, clearer, and more easily read than any other. These good qualities have been secured by making each char- acter wider, by giving greater prominence to the round letters, and by shortening the lines of the descending letters. In England and America it is used only as a job-letter; in France it is some- times used for the running-titles and the sub- headings of standard books. PIERRE FRANCOIS DIDOT, son of Francois, was born at Paris, 9th July, 1732, and there he died, 7th December, 1793. He was a skilful type-founder, a manufacturer of fine bookpaper at Essonne, and the publisher of many books remark- able for their typographical merit. Law italic on long-primer body, double leaded. George Bruce’s Son & Co. The line which separates italic from seript is not easily drawn. There are many styles of type half italic and half seript, but all of them are properly regarded as unsuitable for book-work. This re- mark can also be applied to faces like the “en- graver’s,” “lithographic,” “French,” “Harvard,” and other styles that are ornamented with flourishes. 280 Italic Figures and Small Capitals The elongated italic is an extremely condensed form of thick-faced italic. It is practically an en- largement of the face shown at foot of page 276. It is cast only of large size, and usually on a rhomboidal body, to prevent the kerning of long characters. Italic figures are comparatively modern. They are made for many of the standard varieties of old-style letter, but rarely for italic of modern cut. The need of italic figures is clearly shown wherever figures have to be used in lines of italic capitals. The upright small capitals of Aldus by the side of his inclined italic are not more incon- gruous than the irregular but upright figures of roman when they are embedded in an italic text. Small capitals of italic are sometimes furnished to some fonts by Scotch type-founders, but they are not made in the United States. IX Fat-face or Title-types EVENTY years ago fat-face types were in fashion. It was believed that the legibility of a new style could be largely augmented by giv- ing to it greater blackness of face. With this end in view, the designer of the fat-face made the body of each character from one- pu race fourth to one-half wider than that of the made for ordinary text-letter. Then the body-marks PY were made extremely thick, to the consequent nar- rowing of the spaces between the body-marks and a greater shallowness of counter. The hair-lines were cut as sharp as those of the standard roman text-letter. So treated, the fat-face thoroughly de- served its name, for the face covered the body. The relation of black and white was reversed: there was more stem than counter on the body, 36 281 282 Early Cuts of Fat-face and more black than white in the print, mak- ing it really blacker than the ordinary forms of old black-letter. Job printers and newspaper publishers accepted the new face as suitable for display lines, and for the title lines of newspaper articles. Its frequent employment for these titles made it also known as title-letter. In its day it PLASTER STEREOTYPING Done in 1813 by D. & &. Bruce, N.Y. No. 140. JOHN WATTS & CO. Stereotyped in New York, 1813 No. 141. Fat-face or title of an early cut on long-primer body. George Bruce’s Son & Co. was so much admired that it was occasionally used as a text-letter for books.! The earlier forms of the fat-face are still shown in the specimen books, but they are seldom bought or used by printers of our time, for they are as unprofitable as they are ineffective. The stronger impression required for the stems is too much 1 In 1837, I. Ashmead & Co. of Philadelphia published an edition of “Heavenly Incense, or the Christian’s Compan- ion,” a chunky octavo of 612 for the weak hair-lines, pages. The entire text of this book is in pica fat-face of the boldest form. The forbidding solemnity of every page is in- describable. Modern Cuts of Fat-face 283 which soon break down. A more serious defect is the shallowness of the counters, which often become choked with ink. Fat-face types of the old form are therefore practically obsolete. The fat-face italic, which is a mate of the fat- face roman, was received by the book printers of the first quarter of this century with rat-tace marked disapproval. Italic had been the italic synonym of all that was light and graceful in type, but when introduced in a form as thick and bold as that of black-letter, all book printers de- nounced it as an uncouth letter. This prejudice still holds; for standard books fat-face italic is regarded as unsuitable. As a job-letter it is a favorite, and will not go out of fashion. For catalogue work many persons prefer it over all forms of display letter. Recent cuts of this letter are of lighter face and have inclined figures. STEREOTYPE PLATES Made by Wm. Ged, in Edinburgh, 1725 No. 143. EARL STANHOPE In 1802 made good plates in London No. 144. Title or bold-face of modern cut on long-primer body. George Bruce’s Son & Co. 284 Condensed Titles In the newer forms, better known now as bold- face, many of the objectionable features have been New cuts of removed. The stems are thinner, the tat-face counters are wider and deeper, the let- ters are not so fat and are of more pleasing forms. For the side headings of dictionaries and book- catalogues, for which a moderate degree of prom- inence or display is needed, this new cut of title- type is accepted in books in which no other style of display type would be tolerated. Much to the surprise of many publishers, it has been proved that this lighter-faced style of bold-face is really more readable and more durable than the older styles of over-black fat-faces. The need, or the supposed need, of a condensed form of bold-face or title-type that will present Condensed The greatest boldness in the narrowest forms of compass, has induced all founders to boldface furnish these faces on condensed and extra condensed bodies. Many of them are made in a full series of so-called regular bodies in capi- tals and lower-case. The over-black styles with flat and feeble ser- ifs, and without any proper relief of con- 7 trasting white space An over-black title of an old fashion. in their counters, are seldom bought. The extra condensed forms of lighter face and better cut are more useful. In . 8 the narrow measures of tables, and in some other Condensed Titles 285 forms of printed work, they are of occasional ser- vice, but they are grossly misused when they make print indistinct for no other reason than the sup- posed necessity for crowding many characters in one line. The extra condensed title capitals of the French founders, once much admired by all job printers, are now deservedly neglected. The most approved form of condensed title is that usually named Aldine. Its condensation is slight, for the larger sizes have letters Aidine not much thinner than those of the ordi- Peld-face nary lean text-letter. Having firm hair-lines, with deep and open counters, it is one of the few dis- play types tolerated in fair book-work. The Al- STEREOTYPING BY PRESSURE In Semi-fluid Metal, by Carez of Paris, 1786 Aldine. STEREOTYPING BY PAPIER-MACHE PROCESS Done hy Genoux of Paris in 1829 for a French Dictionary Extra condensed title. Condensed and extra condensed title on long-primer body. dine series usually shown in the specimen books of type-founders includes twelve bodies, from pearl to eight-line pica. In the smaller sizes of pearl and nonpareil this style loses much of its clearness. 286 Expanded Titles Title-types are also made of expanded shape. The face first made, then known as extended, or Extended fat-face extended, is completely and de- fat-face gervedly out of use. The specimens here shown are plain examples of the absurdity of con- necting the thickest possible stem with the thinnest CURRY EID I"ELATE C. Craasllace, 1 s58 Two-line pearl extended, No. 181. SEH EHC HR ECdPTET RR ET EC Brevier extended, No. 181. ELECTROTYPING Joseph A. Adams, in 1=39 Long-primer title expanded, No. 182. Extended and expanded titles. George Bruce’s Son & Co. possible hairline. When so made the composed types are deciphered with difficulty. To read a word one has to study carefully the outline of each character. The expanded form of title now . in use is not so broad, and is of better cut, but it is at best an uncouth style of letter, and not so popular or so useful as the lighter face of ex- panded roman shown in the chapter on modern faces of roman text-letter. Old-style Titles 287 Old-style peculiarities do not readily lend them- selves to any style of fat-face or title-letter, but they have been made to conform to this oia-style and other fashions with much ingenuity. fatface The clear and readable effect of the old-style roman text-letter is produced not so much by its angular peculiarity, or any -other mannerism of form, as STEREOTYPE SHAVER David Bruce, inventor, 1814. Pica old-style title. by its relative monotony of color, its thicker and shortened hair-line, and its comparatively narrow and protracted body-mark. An over-wide fat-face type, that emphasizes the distinction between an over-thick stem and an over-thin hair-line, neces- sarily destroys the most characteristic feature of the old-style letter. It then becomes necessary to exaggerate the angular mannerisms of the style, but these can be shown with best effect in the capitals only. The stubby serif, the shortened hair-line, and the high-shouldered arch lose much of their distinctive character when affixed to the over-thick stems of the lower-case sorts of an expanded letter. Old-style title so made may be more durable and more readable than the ordi- nary title, but it cannot be considered as a more 288 A New Style of Title pleasing form of letter. Critical publishers who readily accept for a display letter any cut of old- style antique refuse to take an old-style title. Old-style title expanded has all of the demerits and but few of the merits of the ordinary form of title expanded. It is never used as a book-type, but only as a fanciful job-letter. The old-style title condensed, when properly cut, is much more successful in preserving old-style Condensea Deculiarities; largely so because there old-style is more opportunity in the condensed boldface £45rm for the lengthening of the stems and the shortening of the hair-lines of the lower- case. The large sizes are most effective, but there are cuts of condensed and extra condensed old- styles in frequent use that are especially objec- tionable for their bad design and bad fitting. ALEXANDER M. TILLOCH Made Stereotypes in Glasgow 1780 Pica De Vinne. The form of title-letter that fairly preserves the distinguishing characteristics of the old-style is Devimne that made by the Central Type Foundry, bold-face and by that house named “De Vinne.” The general form of this new style is mainly based on old-style roman, but it is more expanded, and Recent Styles of Title-type 289 has some eccentricities of design in the capital let- ters. The stems are not over-thick, and the so- called hair-lines have width enough to make each SMCamdy| Four-line pica De Vinne. character distinct and in harmony with the thick- ened stems. It has the undeniable merits of sim- plicity of form, readability, and durability. A still bolder form of title-type has been recently introduced under the name of “Atlas” by H. W. Caslon & Co. of London. It is much blacker than any of the early styles of title-type, for its thin lines are fully as firm as those of a doric antique. The faces on the following page, although of small size and without lower-case, may be fairly classed with title-types. They were made by Barn- hart Brothers & Spindler of Chicago, and are known as Engraver’s Roman. The names are those of some of the punch-cutters of American type-foundries of the nineteenth century, as I find them in a series of articles on “Designers and En- gravers of Type,” written by William E. Loy, and published in the “ Inland Printer” of Chicago. 37 290 Pumch-cutters of the United States AUGUST E. WOERNER, BORN AT FRANKFORT-AM-MAIN, DECEMBER 18, 1844. RESIDENT OF NEW YORK. DIED IN NEW YORK, JULY 27, 1896. JAMES WEST, BORN AT EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, IN 1830. ALEXANDER PHEMISTER, BORN AT EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, IN 1829. DIED AT CHELSEA, MASSACHUSETTS, IN 1891. HERMAN THLENBURG, BORN AT BERLIN, GERMANY, IN 1843. RESIDENT OF PHILADELPHIA. SAMUEL SAWYER KILBURN, BORN AT BUCKLAND, MASSACHUSETTS, DEC.,, 1799. RESIDENT OF Boston. DIiEp DEC. 1864. GUSTAV F. SCHROEDER, BORN NEAR BERLIN, GERMANY, IN 1861. HARRISON T. LOUNSBURY, BORN NEAR PEEKSKILL, N.Y. IN 1831. W. F. CAPITAINE, BORN AT SOUTHGATE, NEAR LONDON, JANUARY, 1851. DAVID BRUCE, BORN AT NEW YORK, FEB. 6, 1802. RESIDENT OF NEW YORK. Diep IN 1892, Diep AT BROOKLYN, SEPT. 13, 1892, EDWARD RUTHVEN, BORN IN SCOTLAND, DEC. 31, 1811. ALEXANDER KAY, BORN AT EDINBURGH, JUNE 6, 1827. WILLIAM W. JACKSON, BORN AT CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY, JULY 25, 1847. Diep AT ArnanNTic City, Au. 14, 1898. ANDREW GILBERT, BORN AT EDINBURGH IN 1821. DIED AT CHELSEA, MASSACHUSETTS, JULY 25, 1873. JOHN F. CUMMING, BORNAT HARRISVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA, MAY 20,1852. JULIUS HERRIET, SR., BORN AT BRUNSWICK, GERMANY, FER. 9, 1818. Four faces on nonpareil body, of which three are here shown. Nz Gah Yas AD NA aD > HY ¥ TT SEs Nw 2 oF 4 RG xX Black-letter ALACK-LETTER is a degenerate form D of the roman character. Its man- nerisms probably began with copy- ists not expert at curved lines, who had to form each letter with repeated Se of the reed. If the parchment kinked or buckled, if the paper was rough, if the Beginning of reed spattered, repeated strokes were Plackletter all the more obligatory. Under these conditions the portions of a roman letter that were curved in the model would be straightened and made angu- lar at every junction with connecting lines. Whatever the cause, the angular character which printers call black, and bibliographers call gothic, was the form approved by the copyists of Europe 1 Bibliographers call it gothic character preferred by all people because it has always been the of Gothic descent. 291 292 Preferred by Medieval Copyists for some centuries before the invention of printing, Little text-writing was done in any other style. Italian copyists preferred the simple open forms which seem to have served as models for our mod- ern roman and italic, but they were too few in number to change the prevailing fashion. The majority of copyists adhered to black-letter, and readers who knew no other style objected to all attempts at change. There were many fashions of black-letter, for there was no generally recognized standard of au- Old formsof thority as to the correct form of letters, black-letter and each copyist made them to suit his own notions of propriety or convenience. A con- densed and pointed form was the accepted style for books of devotion; a rounder and more care- less form for texts or for writing that did not seem to call for precision. In different manu- scripts made before the fourteenth century one finds letters that are condensed, expanded, of light face, of dark face, with plain capitals, with flour- ished capitals, but all of them are of an angular style. Tt cannot be said that all of these styles are noticeably black, but most of them, espe- cially the more pointed forms, had lines so thick that more black than white appeared on the writ- ten page. The English name of black-letter was given to this character only after the introduction and general use of roman printing-types. The roman type was then called white-letter as a ready Preferred by Early Printers 293 name of distinction, for roman showed more white than black upon the printed page. To modern readers all the early styles of manu- seript black-letter are perplexing. One must study each style to decipher its characters. owscurity of The world of letters is not conscious early forms of its indebtedness to the art of typography for its enforcement of a simplification of the alpha- bet.! Out of the many styles then in fashion the early printers selected but two; probably because they were of simple forms, popular with readers, and easy to be made in type. One was the pointed black-letter, now known to French bibliographers as the lettre de forme.* This was the standard or formal letter which was preferred for all the care- fully written books. 1¢ So much beauty or dignity was supposed to be inherent in this distortion of the alphabet, that a treatise of one of the schoolmen, printed at Venice by Giov. di Colonna and J. Man- then, bears with it this com- mendation, that it is executed sublimi literarwm effigie ; and the “Conciliator Medicina” of the year 1483 has this subscription, charactere jucundissimo M. Jo- anwis Herbort Alemanni, cujus vis et ingenium facile superemi- nent ommes. In 1525 Nicolas Prevost at Paris writes of a Gothic impression, Opus pulchro literarum charactere politissi- mum. Another French printer of 1520 commends his book as The other style, the round Politioribus characterum typis.” Greswell, ‘“ Annals of Parisian Typography,” p. 14. London, 1818. 2 The “Bible of Forty-two Lines,” supposed to have been printed before 1455 by Guten- berg of Mentz; the ‘Psalter” of 1457, printed by Fust and Scheffer of Mentz; the small books attributed by some to Cos- ter of Haarlem between 1423 and 1440, and by others to some unknown printer of the Nether- lands before 1476; the ‘Books of Hours” and many other books of merit of the early French printers, are in different sizes and fashions of the lettre de forme. 994 Pointed Black and Round Black gothic, is known as the lettre de somme,' and it was the style most approved for ordinary books. Abcvefh Elbcdetgh Lettre de somme. Lettre de forme. Modern imitations of early styles of black-letter. The form of black-letter most approved by Eng- lish readers is the pointed form, which Blades says is modeled on the lower-case letters of the “Bible of Forty-two Lines.”” Al- though it has been supplanted as a text-letter by the roman, it is so identified with early English printing that it fairly deserves its generally ac- cepted name of Old English. The specimen on pica body (page 295) was cast from matrices sunk in the early part of the sixteenth century, probably in Rouen, France, whose type-founders then sup- plied England with its best types. The larger bodies are old, but of later date. The body-marks of this style are thick, and the characters are so Old English 1 The ¢ Letters of Indulgence” of 1453 and 1454, and the *Ca- tholicon” of 1460, attributed to Gutenberg, as well as the Latin “Bible of 1462” printed by Peter Scheeffer, are in the lettre de somme. The ordinary reader of the sixteenth century preferred this style to the pointed gothic and to the roman character. Even in Italy, Nicholas Jenson, after his introduction of roman types, foundit expedient to print books in this round gothic to suit the tastes of unscholarly book-buyers. 2 This form was sparingly used by Caxton between 1479 and 1483, but always with capitals in the Flemish style. Pointed Black-letter 295 closely fitted that it well deserves the name of black. Some of the capitals (not in the Flemish but in the French style) are uncouth, but the gen- eral effect of a printed page is pleasing. It is fre- quently selected for lines or words of prominence by lawyers, and for a formal text by ecclesiastics. The official copy of English statute law continues to be printed in this early style of black-letter. fit pleleany FHlan Spirttuel or Temporel to bpe onp Ppes of tive or three comemo- | vaciog of Dalilburi dle enprynted after the Forme of this prefer Lettre, Which ben wel and trudp correct fate hpm come to Weltmoneflter, in to the Almonefrpe, at the iced Pale, and he Mal haue them Good Chepe. ¢-& Dupplicio {tet ceduda. Real Old English on pica and larger bodies, leaded. Sir Charles Reed’s Sons, London. Pickering selected it for his Victorian edition of the “Book of Common Prayer.” Moxon com- mends it as a style that should be in the stock of 296 Flemish Black-letter every master printer. It is more in fashion now than it has been at any time during the past cen- tury, for the stringent rule that excludes almost every other style from the standard book tolerates and often commends the occasional employment of a good form of black-letter. For the facsimile reprinting of fifteenth-century books, abbreviations on pica body have been pro- vided, but they are not made for the larger bodies. Cram Qe $B ysaciouimiacsg gracioufifdcecfpp pp opie Strictly German styles of black-letter have never been used for book-texts at any period by English publishers. In the beginning English publishers had to buy their best types from foreign founders, and sometimes to get books made by foreign printers, but they never selected the fractur, schwabacher, German text, or any of Old Flemish @heodoric Food, a Berman born @ the Titp of Cologne, @hat be this curious Wook did print, @o aif Wen maketh hnown, And hig good Partner Thomas Punte, An Englifhman he was, Pow ad them Beaven! that thep man Denetian Dhifl surpass. Black-letter in the Flemish style on brevier body, solid. Sir Charles Reed’s Sons. Flemish Grosse Batarde 297 the German styles. When English printers could not buy from the type-founders of France, they went to those of the Low Countries. The illustra- tion on the previous page shows an early form of English black-letter with some Flemish manner- isms of the sixteenth century. In the modern form of Flemish black-letter these peculiarities are re- tained. It will be noticed that it is an entirely distinet style, and that it seriously differs from the accepted fashion of German text-letter. The book in which the English language was first printed!'is of another Flemish style, made after the design of some unknown mne Flemish copyist, who wrote with a free, flour- srosse batarde ishing hand. Although printed in English, it was not printed on English soil. The type first used by Caxton in England, and probably made in Bruges, was of the same style, but Blades describes it as “more dashing, picturesque and elaborate.” This style was then known in France as the grosse bd- tarde. It does not appear to have been much liked by English readers, for Caxton did not use it exclusively, and it was not renewed by his suc- 1The ‘““Recuyell of the His- toryes of Troye.” Translated in 1469-1471, but without place or date. According to Blades this book was printed by William Caxton about 1474, and probably in the printing-house of Colard Mansion at Bruges. Accord- ing to J. P. A. Madden, it was 38 printed before 1474 by Caxton at the monastery of Weidenbach, near Cologne, where Caxton and Mansion were acquiring their knowledge of typography. It is a style of type not at all English. “Lettres d'un bibliographe,” quatriéme série, pp. 13-30. 8vo. Paris, 1875. 298 Caxtows Favorite Character cessors. After long neglect it was revived in 1855 by Vincent Figgins of London for a facsimile edi- tion of Caxton’s “Game and Playe of the Chesse.” For J Bae not Added ne Mypn: ussBed, But Bane Fofowed as npaBe as J can mp Coppe. whiche was in Dutche, and Bp meWWiffm Carton transfated in fo this rude & spmpfe Eng: Ppssh in thaBBey of Westmonestre. Sen ps5Bed the vf dape of Fupn, the pere of our Lord N.EEEE Lerry. & ther pere of the Beane of Benge Edward te iiijf Here Endeth the Bistorpe of Repnard fhe Sor. ~~~ nr Old Flemish black used by Caxton. It has since been cut by other English or German founders in many sizes, from nonpareil to six-line pica. Printers have reinstated it as a valuable RERPEMPQRTD letter for the reprints of early English or Flemish books, and it is freely used for mottos, quotations, and for title headings in catalogues of books. Round Black-letter 299 The same desire for novelty has led to the re- vival of the old fashion of round gothic, or lettre de somme, which now appears as a more oa black, or carefully cut letter, under the name of round gothic old black. It seems to be a careful reproduction of a style of letter preferred by many Spanish printers of the fifteenth century. It is now made in a full series of sizes, from nonpareil to eight- Fuecimpressalapre= gente Carta d¢ MRelacion en la Dmperial Ciudad de Toledo por Gafpar d¢ avila, Flcabo fe a veynte dias del mes de Octu= bre. Ho del nacimiento d¢ nuef= fro faluador Jefu Chrifto de mil « quinientos x p veynte cinco aiios. Old black on pica and double small-pica bodies. line pica, but all of them are incompletely provided with abbreviating characters. The round lower- case letters have unusual height; the ascenders, descenders, and capitals are correspondingly short- ened. It is a useful letter for reprints of early books, and is frequently selected for headings or display lines in the advertisements of publishers. 300 Black of Sixteenth Century For more than three centuries English type- founders adhered with great tenacity to the form of pointed black that had been provided for them by the early French and Flemish founders. The model letters drawn by Moxon in 1676 for his “Rules of the Three Orders of Print Letters” From Moxon’s ¢‘ Mechanick Exercises.” show no important departure from those used by Pynson and Wynkyn de Worde. Nor was any change made by English founders of the seven- teenth or eighteenth century that would justify Che holy and blessed Doctour Daynt Jerom gayth thys Auctoryte, Do alveye some Hood Werke to thende that the Deuyl fynde the not Pole. And the holy Doctour Daint Austyn sayth in the Wook of the Labour of Monks that no Wan Deronge or Wyghty to Aaboure ought £0 be 39010, 12+ 130130 40430 430 43043043043 Golden Legend. Old English black of the sixteenth century, leaded. Sir Charles Reed’s Sons. Fat-faced Black 301 the naming of any one of their new cuts as that of a distinet style. The first novelty attempted in the form of black- letter was that of the fat-faced black, which ap- peared at or near the beginning of this wat-faced century when the fat-faced romans were black-letter popular. Hansard! denounced it as “a fanciful but ridiculous innovation”; Dibdin sneered at it as “gouty and frightful”; but these censures did HD oes He [a famous prin- ter of Fonvon] NY NaANY other yarvly less Distinguishey Printers avopt that Frightful, Gouty, Disproportionate, Eoe- vigtracting and Taste=vevolting form of Llack-=letter too frequently visible on the FFrontigpicces of His Books? Tet the Ghost of TWINK ve Wore haunt Him till he abandon it.? ===. == Fat-faced black on pica and long-primer bodies. 1¢ As a British classic type, it [Old English] must be regarded with veneration in England, as the character in which Wynkyn de Worde . . . first exercised the art, and therefore I shall include Blacks in the Synopsis; but studiously abstaining from mixing in the list the modern fanciful (but ridiculous) inno- vations, only called Blacks from the quantity of ink they are ca- pable of carrying.” Hansard, ‘“Typographia,” p. 404. 2Dibdin, ‘‘ Bibliographical De- cameron,” ii, 407. 302 Modern French Black-letter not prevent its employment. Many of the larger foundries made it in a full series of sizes from brevier to six-line pica. For thirty years or more it was preferred by printers to the older form, which was set aside as uncouth and obsolete. The designers of the early forms of black-letter avoided hair-lines; the designer of the fat-faced black studiously tried to introduce them in places where they were not needed. He also attempted to make the stems of some of the capitals conform to the shape of the roman capital. These changes are no improvement on the old models. In France and Germany these fat-faced blacks were never as popular as they were in England. French form of The continental founders modernized blaekeletior the early forms in another direction. This is the style now preferred in France, which has also been accepted to some extent in England and the United States, as a proper style for lines of display in good work. At its introduction it had the merit of novelty, but a modern reader Of making manp Books there is no End; and much Study is a Wcaviness of the Flesh. ¢ ¢ A French black-letter of modern cut. German Styles of Black-letter 303 fails to see in it any point of superiority when put in comparison with the English black-letter of the sixteenth century; yet it has the negative merit of few serifs at the angles. Unfortunately it has not been made in a full series of sizes. Neither the precise pointed gothic nor the more careless round gothic seems to have been entirely acceptable to the uneritical German practur ana reader of the fifteenth century. There schwabacher was a desire for types that should be more careless and unconventional, in imitation of the letters of ABCDEFOHIKYMNOPORES abedefahi Fractur. ABEDESGHIHLMAIOP abedefahi Schwabacher. SHAS HBR E EF a hasty manuscript. A few of the eccentric styles German-text. of black-letter then in fashion were reproduced, of which three still retain their old popularity—the fractur, the schwabacher, and the German text.! 1 The broad-faced style of the schwabacher was first made in avery rude form by Rewichs of Mentz, in 1486, although some of its peculiar characters are noticeable in the types of Peter Scheeffer. The slender and ex- tremely condensed fractur first appeared in a good form in the “Theuerdank” of Hans Schoen- sperger, Nuremberg, 1517. The text was adorned with flourished initials which have served as the models for modern German text. 304 Fractur and Schwabacher The fractur is still the preferred text-letter for the newspapers and ordinary books of Germany. For scientific books the antiqua or roman is usu- ally selected, and it is also more frequently used for the letters of coins, medals, and sign-boards. BVuderweyfung der Meffung, mit dem Jivchel ond richtfcheyt, in Linten Ebnen on ganen Corporen, durdy Albredt Ditver jufamen ge- sogen, oft durch jn felbs mun allen funft lieb- babenden in truc geben. 1538. Fractur on pica body, leaded. George Bruce's Son & Co. The schwabacher is a rounder, clearer, and sim- pler form, largely used for display, and to some extent as a text-letter. The German-text, once popular as a display letter in book titles, is now little used, and only in ornamental job printing. ch bin gefchicket mit der Press, So ich aufitrag den So ress ; So bald mein Dien den Bengel suck So ift ein Bogan Papyrs gedruckt. Bans Sachs. Schwabacher on pica body, solid. James Conner’s Sons. German-text and Composite 305 German founders have devised other forms of black-letter, which are occasionally seen in Ger- ie generlicheiten und eins toils dev geschichiten des [56[ichen strent poven ond Gochbe- riimbten elds ond Rit. ters fore SQ ewrdannchfs, Modern German-text. George Bruce’s Son & Co. man books. Some of them have been reproduced by our American founders, but only after they. have been divested of most of their unacceptable German mannerisms. The composite, Teutonic, Seriplovscripsissit ene; Jielius, si potuisset. Composite. 39 306 ; Borussian and Borussian are freely accepted by American printers as useful text-letters or display letters for legal formularies. At least a score of distinct styles can be seen in the specimen books of the large German foundries, most of them cut in a full series of sizes. Many are admirably drawn Dui Scripsit Scripta Sua Dextea sit HBenedicta. Borussian of bold-face. and engraved, but they are put aside by American founders as too fantastic for common readers; yet they are not more fantastic than many black-let- ters of American origin. During the past thirty years, American type- founders have devised many entirely new forms Reading maketh a Full Man, Conference a Seady Man, Writing an Exact Man. Borussian of light-face. American Styles of Black 307 of black-letter or pointed text. Card text, Anglo- saxon, Franklin, medieval text, fancy text, title text, eureka text, scribe text, modern text, Italian text, sloping black, expanded black, are the names Srafty men Gontemn Studies; Simple men 2Bomire them; Wise men AVlse them. Teutonic on english body. of but a few of the novelties designed for job printers. Many of these styles are varied by orna- mental outlines, or by ruled cross-lines, or shades, or inlays. All have been made in the lithographic or the copperplate style, with very sharp and long hair-lines, most of them with serifs bristling on every angle. Although of simpler form than the German novelties, their overworked delicacy and refinement of cut, and their excess of flourish and ornament, make them so feeble and ineffective that they are properly excluded from book-work. Exception to this general condemnation may be made in favor of a few new styles. The Au- gustan black, of as light face as the weakness of ordinary roman, is a remarkably grace- new styles ful letter. The same praise must be given to the condensed blacks of light-face and of bold-face. Tested by mechanical standards, they seem fault- less in design, spacing, engraving, and fitting-up. 308 Weakness of Modern Styles The characters, harmonious in every combination, impress the reader with their honest, painstaking workmanship. Yet they are thoroughly feminine in effect — so made by over-refinement in cutting, and by the needless decorations of flourished serifs @hemsreputemntotubich Letter of this cut [Fat-face] hus fallen as probably arisen from Fegligence, Fratten- tion and Want of Taste. . . . Jtis vfh- cult to mbestigate and specify the qualities hich constitute Beauty: but Fatness seems to habe been considered by the Let- ter-foumders as an adequate Substitute for all such qualities.” »eo-doososesy Augustan black on pica and double-pica bodies. George Bruce’s Son & Co. and hair-lines. One has but to contrast them with the sturdy styles of the old printers to understand why men of letters keep them out of standard books. When these blacks are selected for the headings of a chapter, or for the running-title, their incongruity with the roman text is startling. 1 Hansard, “Typographia,” p. 617. Obscurity of New Styles 309 ovtunate would it be, if the use of its Jn- 0) gles and Straight Strokes, its Points, Bosses, Hooks, Ligatures and Intermingled Letters, ag well as its mumerable Qbbreviations, Iwiv Strokes seaveely visible, united with Thich Ones, and its Breaks and Gurvatures, were entively to disappear, and Left only as the Supe of a peviod when all Learn- ing had nearly perished, together with Good Sense All Goold Taste, | Leese tee tataee ees Condensed black of bold-face on long-primer body. George Bruce’s Son & Co. This mischievous tendency to over-refinement in the designing of types has effectually spoiled and kept out of general use two char- obscurity of acteristic styles of early black-letter, church text The church text, as one may still see it upon in- scriptions on tombs and tablets in some of the old English and German churches, is an ecclesiastic letter of marked grace. In the types here shown, the general form is above reproach, for every let- ter has been carefully studied from good models. In these model letters on the stone or in the brass hair-lines were carefully subdued, but in the type the hair-lines and the knobby serifs have been thrust in where they were not needed. The re- sult is disappointing, for the strong character of 1Silvestre, ‘‘ Universal Pal@o- erick Madden, vol. ii, p. 652. 8vo. graphy,” translation of Sir Fred- London, 1849. 310 Church Text and Chapel Text the letter has been destroyed by the addition of these feminine graces. Churchmen who know and esteem this letter for its appropriateness in eccle- siastic work refuse to use it, condemning it for the faults of delicacy and obscurity. Mrs, sts, votes Cor Iman motare| Church text on canon and smaller bodies. Sir Charles Reed’s Sons. The chapel text is a modern variation of the old church text. It is not so condensed, and should Weakness of be more easily read. The capitals are chapel text pot unpleasantly ornamented, for the decorative lines are entirely inside of the letter proper, leaving a sharp and clear outline. This feature should make the capitals useful for the rubries of liturgical work, but the stems of the capitals, although without hair-lines, are too thin to retain the amount of color that is needed for a Chapel Text and Saxon 311 rubric. In the lower-case the punch-cutter has practically conjoined all the letters with angular knobs or serifs where they are not needed, by try- ing to make the short letters line at the top as well as at the bottom. The entirely unnecessary graces of occasional flourishes, and pendants, and over-sharp hair-lines, have made the weak and obscure lower-case a bad mate for the capitals. Difficult to’ read in black ink, it becomes almost unreadable, certainly ineffective, when printed in the prescribed scarlet red. Therefore the church- man neglects it, preferring the old form of black- letter, not for the uncouthness of its capitals, but for its legibility, since the broader surface of the character permits it to be easily read, even when printed in the palest of scarlet. (Qu Jaen Frond, ef Sevip- f argu non R eprehgudat. Chapel text. The Saxon is another example of the danger of emasculating a strong letter. The delicate finials and interlaced lines of this style, as they : : : Saxon black may be seen in early manuscripts, did not weaken but intensified the strength of the Saxon style, for these finials and interlacings were 312 Saxon and Anglo-black usually in pale color, and were a contrast to the stronger lines or stems of the letter. When cut in outline these ornaments become too prominent, and the strength of the character is destroyed. Wbsrure Saxon % 5 Ornamented Saxon on meridian body. The designer of the Anglo-black has given a good imitation of an incised letter, in the gothic style, cut in stone by different blows of the chisel. It has no beauty of form to recommend it, but is an appropriate letter for the representation of inscriptions on tombstones. Anglo-black Johnnie Carnegie lais heer, Descenoit of Adam and Eve, Gif ony can gang hieher, J’se willing gie him (eve. Anglo-black on pica body. Medieval 313 The medieval, although not in the pointed style, is usually classed with black-letter. It is admi- rably adapted for rubrication, but its use Medieval in that field is limited, for it is made in Plack three sizes only. The capitals seem to be the mod- ification of a mongrel type first made by William Le Rouge of Paris in 1512, as a rival to italic. The I efuniteot Pretinm, Dies Panperque Tenite: Ror Opus Epeellens enditur Kere Bret. Medieval on meridian and double small-pica bodies. broad Byzantine capitals were bad mates for the condensed lower-case. Many meritorious novelties in black-letter have been introduced recently by the type-founders of Germany, but the relatively limited use of the German character in this country does not allow here any more than respectful mention. 314 The Bradley Series A recent novelty in black-letter is the bold-face designed by Mr. Will H. Bradley, which has been introduced to the printing trade by the American Type Founders Company in eight sizes, ranging from 6-point to 48-point, under the name of the Bradley series. The series first made has remark- ably bold letters, with peculiarities of form never before attempted. Among job printers, and to some extent with advertisers, the Bradley is rated as a valuable type for display. Co the Reader, {Ubo Taulteth not, liueth not; who mendeth faults is commended: Che Printer bath faulted a little : it may be the Au- thor oversighted more, Thy paine (Reader) is the Ieaste; Thenerre not thou most by misconstruing or by sharpe censuring ; 1est thou be more uncharitable than either of them bath been heedlesse: God amend and guide us all, 2 %2 Robartes on Tythes, 4to, Cambridge, 1613. XI Gothic 2 OTHIC is a misleading name. Or- | dinary readers and book- collectors give it to all the older forms of black- letter, but American type-founders XN 4W apply it to a sturdy type that has neither serif nor hair-line. The gothic of the type- founder was not derived from black-let- The simplest ter, and has no resemblance to it. Its form of type capitals are a rude imitation of the classical Greek and Roman lapidary character. Probably it was called gothic because the style first put in type was as bold and black as that of the black-letter gothie manuscript. Some English type-founders call it sans-serif, but others call it grotesque and also gothic. . Of all styles this is the plainest. It has no use- less lines; in its regular or ordinary shape, each character is distinct, and not to be mistaken for 315 f 316 Gothic a Preferred Style any other. For this reason it is the style selected for the raised letters that are made for the blind, to be read by the sense of touch. Many adverti- A LIGHTER FACE OF GOTHIC provided with irregularfigures of old-style A GOTHIC OF MEDIUM FACE condensed and with a full lower-case No. 2. BOLD-FACE COTHIC with a rugged lower-case A GOTHIC NOT SO BLACK with bold and distinct lower-case No. 4. AN EXTENDED GOTHIC lower-case and figures No. 5. Five styles of gothic on pica body. sers prefer it over all other styles for the purpose of bold display. Many printers prefer it for its greater durability : it has no serifs to be bruised, and no hair-lines to be gapped. Defects of the Gothic Style 317 The bold-face gothic, No. 3 of the illustration (on page 316), appears to best advantage in the larger sizes. When the body is small, the thicker lines occupy too much of the face, and letters like E, AF, 8S a, es, and indeed all characters with a central crossing line, have too little relief of interior white space. The medium face, No. 4, and the lighter face, No. 2, are much more readable, and are preferred for display. The old-style figures of the lighter face No. 1 are often selected for tables in which the greatest distinctness is desired. The extended gothic; No. 5, also has old-style figures, but its lower-case characters are not so popular. Nor can its capitals be used effectively without a special and irregular spacing between single letters. Where letters with perpendicular lines like those in HH | M meet, one has to put spaces between to keep them apart at proper dis- tance. When letters with angled lines like LAY meet, an awkward gap of white space appears be- tween these irregular letters, which should compel the compositor to give a wider spacing to all other letters in the line.! Gothic calls for more care in spacing than any other style. 1 Although this remark can serifs like those of the Elzevir. be applied to all letters, even to It is probable that the long serif roman and italic, it is especially first made by Jaugeon of Paris applicable to gothic, and to any was invented to conceal or mod- style that has short and stubby ify this blemish. 318 Glothics of Condensed Shape The absence of projecting serifs in the gothic style allows its letters to be compressed with but a moderate loss of readability, as may be seen in A CONDENSED GOTHIC BOLD-FACE lower-case with short descenders No. 6. THIS GOTHIC CONDENSED is of a lighter face and on a wider set No. 7. GOTHIC CONDENSED. NO LOWER-CASE No. 8. A PICA GOTHIC, EXTRA CONDENSED AND OF A VERY FLIMSY FACE In which compression has been made at the expense of legibility No. 9. PICA GOTHIC CONDENSED HAIR-LINE No. 10. Five styles of gothic condensed on pica body. three of the preceding illustrations. The extra condensed gothics and the hair-line gothics on the smaller bodies are a severe strain on eyesight. The merit of the gothic character is largely in the simplicity and readability of its capitals, but the lower-case sorts furnished with many styles Usefulness of Lining Gothics 319 are often found unsatisfactory, for they are not as symmetrical as the capitals, nor are they always as distinet. There are publishers who forbid the use of gothic if they cannot have letters in cap- itals only. Yet those who do use capitals only soon find an unpleasing monotony in a succession of lines of gothic capitals all of uniform height. Nor are successive lines of gothic capitals neces- sarily distinet because the face is bold and black. If the lines are not widely leaded, and if meeting letters with parallel lines are not intelligently spaced, the composition will be huddled and ob- secure : it will not be as readable as lines that are composed in plain roman capitals. To enable the compositor to give a proper prominence to special letters or words, type-foun- ders now cast three or more faces of the Cities smaller bodies of gothic capitals on one of lining body, and adjust all the faces on one line, #othics This permits the compositor to make a proper distinction of selected words and letters by a judicious use of large and small capitals. The dif- ferent faces assist in justification and in the making of lines of even length. These combined faces are sold in series, and are known as lin- ing gothics. They are made of light-face and of bold-face, and in a backslope form, not only for small but for large bodies. The bodies preferred by job printers are those of the smaller sizes. These lining gothiecs have been found most use- 320 Illustrations of Lining Gothics ful in the composition of panels and headings. They are used also for the legend line of illustra- tions in places where the smaller sizes of small capitals are rejected as deficient in readability. THIS LINING GOTHIC OF A BACKSLOPE SWAPL \S PROVADED WATH FOUR DISTINCT FACES. ALL OF THESE FACES ARE PUT ON NONPAREIL BODY, AND MADE TO LINE SO THAT THERE SHALL BE NO SPECIAL JUSTIFICATION OF THE DIFFERENT FACES. Four faces. ESTIENN E, BEST KNOWN TO ENGLISH READERS BY THE name or STEPHENS, 1s THE FAMILY NAME OF MANY EMINENTFRENCH PRINTERS. HENRY, FIRSTOFTHE NAME, WAS A PRINTER IN PARIS FROM 1496 TO 1520. FRANCIS |, son oF HENRY, DIED IN PARIS, 1550. ROBERT |, son OF HENRY, PRINTED IN PARIS AND GE- NEVA FROM 1526 To 1529. CHARLES |, son oF HENRY, PRINTEDIN PARISFROM1536 To 1550. HENRY Il, son oF RoBERT I, PRINTED IN GENEVA FROM 1554 to 1598. ROBERT II, son oF RoBERT I, PRINTED IN PARIS, AND | DIED THERE IN 1588. Five faces. I | | OTHER ESTIENNES, sesr KNOWN TO ENGLISH READERS BY THE nave oF STEPHENS: FRANCIS Il, son oF ROBERT I, WAS A PRINTER AND PUBLISHER AT GENEVA FROM 1562 10 1582. PAUL, son oF HENRY 1, PRINTED IN GENEVA, AND DIED THERE IN 1598. JOSEPH, son oF HENRY II, PRINTED IN GENEVA, AND DIED THERE IN 1627. GERVAIS, anp ADRIEN, sons or FRANCIS 11, PRINTED IN PARIS: THEIR DATES OF DEATH ARE UNKNOWN. ANTOINE, son oF PAUL, PRINTED IN | PARIS: HIS DATE OF DEATH IS UNKNOWN. { | HENRY Ill, son oF ANTOINE, WAS A PRINTER IN PARIS IN 1846. | ROBERT lll, son oF ROBERT 11, WAS A | PRINTER IN PARIS IN 1640, AND THE | LAST EMINENT MASTER-PRINTER OF | THE FAMILY. Four faces. Three styles of lining gothic on nonpareil body. Eccentric Styles of Gothic 321 Gothic types are too simple in form to allow of much ornamentation, but some attempts have been made to give grace to their simple and severe lines, as may be seen in the following illustrations: ECCENTRIC IN CAPITALS A GOTHIC WITH SMALL CAPITALS A GOTHIC CONDENSED AND ORNAMENTED with very short serfs, after the latip model The eccentric capitals of the bolder style have some value in lines of display, but for ordinary work their added quirks are positive disfigure- ments; yet this face, as well as the gothic of lighter face with small capitals, is provided with one set of plain and another of eccentric letters. The gothic condensed and ornamented has very short serifs, and should be classed as a variety of the so-called latin face. Its slight degree of deco- ration is most noticeable in the capitals. The lower-case has little irregularity. It is a readable type, and is freely used as a text-letter in job-work. Gothics of inclined form are made by many founders, and are usually named gothic italic. For advertising purposes a bold-face like that 41 322 Inclined Gothics of the first illustration on this page is preferred. The lighter face that follows, equally close as to set, moderately condensed, and with some old-style THIS GOTHIC ITALIC CONDENSED Is of bold-face, is close-set, and very readable Gothic italic condensed on long-primer body. features, is a more popular style. It is one of the most readable of condensed letters, and is fre- quently selected by job printers for a text-letter. HENRI DIDOT, a son of Pierre Frangois, was born 16th July, 17656, and died in 1862. At the age of sixty-nine he cut the punches for his “microscopique” type on the body of two and one-half points Didot, or about twenty-five lines to the American inch. Gothic italic condensed on long-primer body, double leaded. X11 Antique Types, Runie, Celtic, and Italian NTIQUE differs from roman in the boldness of its lines: stem, serif, and so-called hairline are always of greater thickness. The general TY 1 effect of a composition in this style is that of blackness and squareness. As first made, antique was provided with lines that were too thick and counters too narrow, and the over- ru. eartiest hang of its descending letters was a bad form of bold fault. It was introduced ata time when SPY tre all forms of roman text-letter were made feeble with protracted hair-lines and frail serifs after the pre- vailing French fashion. The intent of the designer was to produce, for purposes of display, a bolder style that should be as distinet and easily read as that of the old lapidary characters. For this reason it was called antique by some founders and egyptian 323 324 Styles of Antique AN EARLY ANTIQUE probably cut before 1820 CAST BY GEORGE BRUCE as a substitute for the bold-face No. 2. THE DORIC ANTIQUE has features of roman No. 3. THE IONIC ANTIQUE has large face, open counters THE LIGHT-FACEANTIQUE is not much bolder than roman No. 5. THE EXPANDED ANTIQUE has no overhanging descenders No. 6. Six faces of antique on pica body. Old-style and Doric Antiques 325 by others. Copies or imitations of this over-black style are to be found in the specimen books of many American founders. For some years it was the most popular of display types, but the smaller sizes are now out of fashion, for they have been supplanted by others of neater cut. The over-black style is shown on page 324 as specimen No. 1. BOOKS ARE TEACHERS whose instructions are unaccom- panied by blows or harsh words, and who demand neither food nor wages. You visit them, and they are alert; if you want them, they do not secrete themselves; nor do they ridicule your ignorance, be it ever so gross. Richard de Bury. Old-style antique on pica body. Specimen No. 2 is of a style that is not yet out of fashion. The smaller sizes have been discarded, but the larger sizes are popular. Specimen No. 3, usually called dorie, is really a combination of a thick-faced roman and antique. This face, as well as the runic and celtic of the next page, lacks the square serif which is the characteristic of a strict antique. 326 Celtics and Runics Specimen No. 4 is often named ionic. It has some of the roundness of the dorie style, but is of a lighter face and is not expanded. Old-style peculiarities have been attached to the antique style. The illustration on the previous page is of medium boldness, but lighter and bolder faces are also made. Old-style antique is the pre- ferred letter for the side heads or displayed words of a text in old-style roman. The lightest and most open form of the antique style is usually known by the name of celtic. The first illustration below is of a face made in cap- itals only. Authors and publishers sometimes ACELTIC OF LIGHT FACE No.7, on long-primer body. BROAD-FACED CELTIC with lower-case complete No. 8, on pica body. A RUNIC OF CONDENSED FORM No. 9, on pica body. RUNIC OF SQUARE FORM has crescent-shaped serifs No. 10, on pica body. Celtics and Runies. Other Faces of Antique 327 select it for the title-pages of books in preference to the ordinary form of two-line roman. Another style of celtic is slightly expanded, and is provided with lower-case characters. Runie is the name given to another style of an- tique of light-face, of condensed form, with pointed serifs, and often without lower-case characters. Another style of runic is made with all lower- case characters, but of slightly expanded form and with the peculiarity of crescent-shaped serifs. Another style, of bolder face, condensed, and with serifs so short and pointed that it might be classified among gothics, is also known as runie. THIS IS RUNIC OF BOLDER FACE condensed, with lower-case sorts The square form of the runic style is usually known by the name of latin. Other styles of antique are provided by founders, but most of them have peculiarities too trivial to require special illustration. The modern antique, which is but slightly condensed, with a pointed and strongly bracketed or club-footed serif, is perhaps the one with most individuality. The latin, on the contrary, is slightly expanded, and has serifs even shorter and feebler than those of roman—so short that it might fairly be called a variety of gothic. 328 Latin Antique Other forms of antique, such as geometric, tus- can, concave, ete., and indeed all forms with very strong mannerisms or of eccentric shape, need no BOOKS AND furniture. Books are not made for fur- niture, but nothing else so beautifully furnishes a house. Give us the home furnished with books rather than with Both if but books at any rate. zu FURNITURE. You can, Latin antique. illustration here, for they cannot be regarded as plain types. They are never selected by printers of good taste for use in standard books, and they are rarely allowed in advertisements. Antiques of small size, of plain form, and of not too bold face, are occasionally selected for texts. Many varieties of antique condensed are made. The earlier and bolder styles, with flat or unbrack- 1 It may be necessary to repeat here the caution given on a pre- vious page, that the same name is not always given to the same face or cut of letter. What one founder names celtic, another calls romanesque ; one calls cale- donian what another calls ionic. Sometimes the same face has a different name given to it by each of three or more founders. ‘While the names here given are not universally accepted, they are believed to be those most frequently used for the respec- tive styles. Cushing Old-style Antique 329 eted serifs, and with kerned descenders, are now used only in the form of capitals and figures: ANTIQUE CONDENSED, OF OLD FORM with square and clean-angled serifs No. 11, on pica body. CONDENSED ANTIQUE OF CAPITALS ONLY A LIGHT ANTIQUE CONDENSED of a larger and more open face No. 13, on pica body. Antique condensed. The Cushing antique is a moderately condensed form of the old-style antique character. Unlike HORSES FIRST, BOOKS LAST. I say first that we have despised lit- erature. What do we, as a nation, care about our books? How much do you think we spend altogether on our libraries, public or private,as com- pared with what we spend on horses? Ruskin. Cushing old-style antique on pica body. 42 330 Antiques for Side Headings other series of display letter, the Cushing style has been cut for all bodies, including the so-called irregular bodies of agate, minion, bourgeois, and small-pica. This nicer graduation of sizes aug- ments its usefulness in books for which many sizes of text and of display letter are needed.! THE BASKERVILLE, OR THE LATIN CONDENSED, is a most useful letter : bold, black, condensed, readable No. 14, on pica body. A more useful letter for side headings or for bold display in the text is a slightly condensed antique of the old form, with flat, unbracketed serifs, of close set and marked compactness. THIS ANTIQUE CONDENSED is a valuable dis- play type, often used FOR THE SIDE HEADINGS of catalogues and for other emphatic words in a text No. 15, on brevier body. 1 Display letter is rarely made for the irregular bodies of agate, minion, bourgeois, and small- pica. But there are many books in text-types of irregular bodies for which it is necessary to use a display letter, like antique, title, or gothic, in the text or as side headings. To do this the compositor has to justify the smaller regular body in the text with thin leads or cardboard. It is always done at extra ex- pense and with bad effect. Clarendon 351 PLATEN PRINTING MACHINE. A press that gives instantaneous flat impression on every part of the sheet by one movement of the platen. Many forms are in use. The Adams Printing Machine of large size is designed for book-work. The Gordon, the Universal, and the Kidder are of small size, made for job printing. No. 16, on brevier body. Clarendon, a popular variety of condensed an- tique, was first made for the Clarendon Press of Oxford, to serve as a display letter in a mass of text-type, and for side headings in dictionaries or books of reference. Its clearness in the smaller sizes is seriously diminished by the unnecessary boldness of its bracketed serif or turned-in corner. A BOLD-FACED CLARENDON with strong bracketed serifs No. 17, on pica body. THIS IS CONDENSED CLARENDON of lighter face and with square angles No. 18, on pica body. The lighter and more condensed variety has no descending kerns, but is not as popular. x 332 Extra Condensed Antiques Extra condensed antiques of thick, medium, and thin faces are made by many founders. Grecian may be regarded as one of the many varieties of the antique style. In 1840 it was a popular face, but it is now almost out of use. Its ANTIQUE EXTRA CONDENSED, VERY LIGHT FACE made on brevier, long-primer, pica, and larger bodies No. 19, on pica body. THIS LIGHT FAG OF GAPITALS ONLY No. 20, on great-primer body. THIS GRECIAN TYPE IS MARE ON EIGHT BODIES No. 21, on great-primer body. marked peculiarity is the angling of those parts of lines that are usually made with curves. It has a lower-case alphabet only in the larger sizes. Antique italics of the old-fashioned black-face still have a place in some specimen books, but they are out of style. A new form of light-face with lower-case alphabet is a pleasing type. ANTIQUE ITALIC one of the oldest forms No. 22, on pica body. Italian Antiques 333 Antique extended bears expansion without loss of legibility much better than the expanded roman. EXTENDED lower-case No. 23, on pica body. Italian may be classified as a variety of antique. It is a fat-faced roman with transposed stem and hairline. “To be hated, it needs but to be seen.” ! OLD ITLLILIT FACE MODERN ITALIAN CONDENSED has nine sizes, nonpareil to canon No. 25, on pica body. ITALIAN ANTIQUE provided with lower-case No. 26, on pica body. 14Oh! sacred shades of Moxon And those who follow, as many and Van Dijke, of Baskerville years hence as you have pre- and Bodoni! what would ye have ceded us, to what age or beings said of the typographicmonstros- will they ascribe the marks here ities here exhibited, which Fash- exhibited as a specimen?” Han- ion in our age has produced? sard, ‘ Typographia,” p. 618. 334 Antique as a Text for Books Italian condensed is a more readable letter, for the so-called hair-lines have ample thickness. The thickening of the face is given mainly to the top and the bottom lines. Italian antique is of similar design, but it is slightly expanded and of bolder face. The antique style of type is frequently used in place of roman by job printers, who find it more Soll typos effective for display work, and espe- oftenneeda cially for single lines that are printed in bolder face olored ink. The weakness of our pres- ent fashions of roman is most painfully illustrated when roman types are printed in a scarlet red or an ultramarine blue. The modern method of printing on dry polished paper, too often with weak impression and deficient ink, makes the print hard to read, even when the ink selected is black. DR. JAVAL ON THE EVOLUTION OF TYPOGRAPHY. There are five important methods of increasing the quantity of matter contained in a page of prescribed size, viz.: 1, to take out the leads; 2, to give a closer set to each letter; 3, to compress or condense each letter so that more letters will come in oneline; 4,to put the letters onasmaller body; 5, to cut down the height of long letters and put all on a body. . .. The form of type shown in this paragraph seems to approach the conditions we have named [readability with com- actness] more closely than any other type in regular use by the print- ing trade. When types shall be made to conform still more closely to these conditions they will be well fitted for readable impressions. No. 27, on corps 5. French publishers and authors who have satis- factorily made use of celtics and runies for title- pages in red ink have been gradually led to try the effect of a light-faced antique for the text Antique preferred to Roman 335 of small pages, which are always difficult to read when printed upon dry calendered paper in a ro- man letter of six points or smaller. The illus- tration on the preceding page is one of a series " which is commended by Dr. Javal as a most read- able cut of small text-type. It has been used with good results by French publishers for little books of poems in éditions de luxe, for this corps 5 is decidedly more readable than ordinary roman on corps 7. Although an improvement, the new face is not beyond criticism: the wide set given to each character does not make the composition more readable. This style is made by the Turlot Foundry on many larger bodies. The monotone shown on a previous page is not quite as distinet, but its lower-case letters are more pleasing to American readers. XIII The Classes and Prices of Printing-types LL type-founders agree upon the pro- priety of different prices for the leading classes of roman, display, and ornamental. The line of sepa- SRS ration is not fully indicated by their titles. In the class of roman are included italic and the fractur of the Germans; in the class of The three Plain display are put antique, gothic, classesof celtic, title, and every style of plain types face made for display; in the class of ornamental are put decorated letters, black-letter and ornamented text, and all the simpler styles of script and secretary. There are other varieties of type not included in these classes: Greek, Hebrew, and all Orientals; music, accents, signs, superior and inferior references; piece fractions, space rules, and all strange types that require for 336 Low Prices of Printing-types 337 the quantities made, a disproportionate expendi- ture for punches and matrices, are necessarily sold at special and irregular rates. The rates made for the different sizes represent differences in the value of labor more than of metal. To make a pound of type re- quires only two or three letters of the more than larger, but sometimes two or three metal thousand of the smaller sizes. As each type has to be separately cast and finished, the value of the labor put on the smaller type is greater. The metal in small type is harder and costs more than that in large type, but its value in any size is always less than that of labor. Old type, when bartered for new, is sometimes allowed for at a special rate ; when sold for cash, the price allowed never exceeds that of waste lead, and is often less. New type-metal, as sold in pigs by the smelter, varies with the market prices of its constituents, but is always worth more than the metal of old type, which always has much dross. Fluctuations in the cost of metal often make corresponding changes in the prices of types, but prices have been more affected by improvements in machinery, which invariably reduce the rates. When types were made by hand, as in the first quarter of this century, they were of high price; since they have been made entirely by machine they are furnished at lower rates than were ever known before. 43 338 Prices of American Types Price List of the American Type Founders Co. Bodies. Roman and italie. Diamond, or 43-point, per 1b. Pearl, or 5-point. . ~~. . . - Agate, or 53-point Nonpareil, or 6-point Minion, or 7-point Brevier, or 8-point Bourgeois, or 9-point Long-primer, or 10-point Small-pica, or 11-point Piea,or12.point . . . . . English, or 14-point . . . . Columbian, or 16-point Great-primer, or 18-point Paragon, or 20-point Double small-pieca, or 22-point Double pica, or 24-point . . Double english, or 28-point Double columbian, 32-point Double great-primer, 36-point Double paragon, or 40-point Meridian, or 44-point Canon, or 48-point Five-line pica, or 60-point . $1.20 90 52 45 40 37 34 32 31 .30 .30 .30 .30 30 .30 30 .30 .30 .30 .30 .30 .30 .30 Orna- Plain | mental display. display. 90 $2.40 | .76 | 2.00 .66 | 1.80 .62 | 1.60 56 | 1.44 52 | 1.30 48 | 1.20 46 | 1.16 44 | 1.12 42 | 1.06 | .60 | 1.00 00] 919 BG | ..90 A601 .90 p6 | 86 B56 | .86 be | 82 bil 8 BL 78 Jil 72 H2 | 64 1 Adopted March, 1893. Cost of Punches and Matrices 339 These prices are subject to discount, which will vary with fluctuations in the price of labor and metals. The discount in April, 1900, is ten per cent. on regular fonts of job type, body type, quadrats, borders, and ornaments; for prompt payment, five per cent. more. The table rates for roman and italic are for fonts that weigh not less than fifty pounds. Sorts, or additions to a font, when ordered in reasonable quantities, are usually furnished by American founders at the same rate as the origi- nal font. When ordered in small quantities the rate may be higher. Single lines or letters are always at a higher rate. Although roman and italic are sold at the low- est rates, the cost of their punches and matrices is greater than that of the punches for (ost of plain display or ornamental. A full font punches of roman and italic, including accents and signs, requires the cutting of about two hundred and forty punches, and the making of as many mat- rices, at a cost of about $1200. Ornamental types may require more labor for each punch, but the total number of punches in a font of this class is always small, rarely exceeding seventy-five char- acters. The punches for roman type are or should be cut on steel ; those made for the larger types are more cheaply cut on type-metal, from which electrotype matrices are made. Steel punches for roman and italic will cost more in the beginning, Discounts 340 English Types but this expense, large as it may seem, becomes a small fraction of the entire cost when the punches serve for the casting of many hundreds of thou- sands of pounds. Plain display types are rarely sold in large quantities ; fonts of ten and twenty pounds are sizes of in greatest request. Some fonts on small fonts hodies do not weigh two pounds. Limited sales, and the relatively greater labor that has to be given to the casting, division, preparation, and packing of small fonts, are the reasons given for their greater cost. Ornamental types, required chiefly for occasional lines of display, and always sold in small fonts, have but a brief popularity. As they cost more to produce, and soon go out of fashion, the rate is necessarily high. The rates for roman and italic in the price-list of English printing types are for fonts of one mnelisn hundred and twenty pounds and more. methods Small fonts are at higher rates. Sorts ordered within three months from the time of the delivery of the original font are at regular rates; if ordered afterward at a special higher rate. Quadrats are the only exception; when ordered as sorts they are furnished at lower prices than letters. A discount of ten per cent. from these rates is often given for cash payment. The bodies of English types differ from those of American foundries (see the table on page 158 of this work). In height English types differ inap- Prices of English Types 341 Price List of English and Scotch Type-founders.! | | Roman | Orna- Bodies. and | Plain | mental italic. | yy display. goods. Ss. d. Diamond, per 1b. 6.0 | 8 08 6 Pearl... wav 5 6 | 5. 0. 840 Raby... 0 :.. 2 8[14'6,7 6 Nonpareil 2 408 3.6 6 Bmerald .~. . 24013 06 4 Minion: =. . . . ... L 7.12 41.6 0 Brevier . . . . .. 1 6,2 2159 Bonrmeols oh. 1 52 008 6 Long-primer . 1 31110 | 5 0 Smallpies 0... "211 8409 Pien . .. 1 1.{* 6:40 English. .:. 1-0/1 413 9 Great-primer’. . . . . 1 0 | 1 2 | 3 0 Payagon . . . . Hoe bd Two-line pica . 1 11 2/3 6 Two-line english 10/1120 Two-line great-primer .| 1 0.| 1 1 | 2 0 Four-line pica i102 09 Canon... 0... 1]1 02 0 Five-line pica. . . . 111020 Sixlime plea . . . . . 9 | 312 0 Seven-line pica . 9 | 9{2°0 1 From the specimen books of H.W. Caslon & Co. and Sir Chas. Reed’s Sons of London, and Mil- ler & Richard of Edinburgh. 342 Prices of French Types preciably from the American; they can be used together in the same line. The rates for small bodies and ornamental letter are relatively higher in England than in America. The rates of French and German types are by the kilogram, which is about two and one-fifth (2.2055) American pounds. French and German Price List of French Types. Potten, | 2 | pra cept. | Som francs. Jranes. Jranes. Corps 6, kilo. 8.00 12.00 Corps 7. . .1 6.00 11.00 Hr CorpsS. . .| 5.50 10.00 30.00 Corpe9 . .{ 500 9.00 sat Corps 10 . .| 4.50 8.00 18.00 Corps1l . .|. 425 7.50 16.00 Corps12 . .| 4.00 7.25 14.00 Corpsl4 . .| 3.75 7.00 13.50 Corps 16 . .| 3.50 7.00 13.00 Corps 18 ...( 3.00 6.75 12.00 Corps 20 . .| 3.00 6.50 11.00 Corps 24 ...{ 2.90 6.00 10.00 Corps 28 . .{ 2.90 6.00 9.50 Corpz 36 . .|. 2.30 5.50 9.00 Corps 40 . .| 2.380 5.00 8.00 Corps48 . .| 2.70 5.00 8.00 1Compiled from the specimen book of the Turlot Foundry, Paris. Prices of German Types 343 types are of variable height, but are always higher than the American or English. Russian types are more than one inch high. These higher types cannot be used in the same form with American types until the bodies have been cut down at their feet, but this cutting down is rarely done with proper accuracy. Impressions from cut-down types of foreign manufacture always show uneven height and usually make unsatisfactory plates. Price List of German Types. . Roman and Plain Seripts and Bodies. fractur. display. | ornamentals. marks. marks. marks. Perl, per kilo. | 6.35 i Nonpareille .| 4.80 8.20 Colonel . . .| 408 i Palit... .| 3.15 6.20 14.00 Bourgeois . .| 2.88 6.00 = Corpus . . .| 2.58 6.00 13.00 Cicero. . . i 240 6.00 13.00 Mitiel . . .. .[ 3.00 5.40 12.00 Tertia: . . 2.90 5.20 11.00 Poul . . 1 290 4.80 10.00 Doppelmittel 2.90 4.60 9.00 Kanonl. - . 2.90 4.20 8.00 Kanonll . .] 290 4.00 8.00 1 Compiled from the price- gart, and Julius Klinkhardt of lists of Bauer & Co. of Stutt- Leipsic. 344 Objections to Foreign Types The French franc may be rated at 19.3 cents. The German mark may be rated at 23.8 cents. The duty levied by the United States Custom House on all importations of type is twenty-five customs PET cent. on the cost as stated in the in- duties voice. When the bill amounts to one 1n 7809 hundred dollars or more, the exporter is required to make affidavit before a United States consul as to its correctness. The prices of Euro- pean types do not tempt American buyers to pur- chase. Importations of French and German types are practically prohibited by the duty as well as by the delay and cost of transportation, and the damage inflicted on type by cutting down the bodies to the American height. OH £ YW NX 55 2 4 ) XX 5 HOE Xv Large Types Wood Types The Pantograph Benton’s Punch-cutting Machine HOC ARGE types were sparingly used in \ 2 old times: they were difficult to cast, AZ) and they could not be effectively NJ J printed when cast, for the hand-press Coe~—<