Typography

“ Example 316.—The stationery of a book dealer should have a bookish character—that is, the typography should be inspired by the same skill and taste evinced in the treatment of a good book. A well-designed type-face should be selected, and there should not be a great contrast in the sizes used. When it is possible to have two printings, the extra impression could take the form of a simple rule border in color, as on this specimen. The first type line runs almost from border to border at the head, and another portion of the copy is arranged directly under it in three even lines. ”

“ We have here the lines of development which led directly to the invention of typography. We have 24already mentioned books printed from plates with pictures without text, pictures with text, and text without pictures. What would be more natural than to cut off the part of the block containing the text and use the picture alone, or to combine the text with text cut from another block or with another picture from which the text had been removed? ”

“ Putting aside, therefore, as improbable, and not proved, the two theories of {9} engraved movable types, the question arises, Did typography, like her patron goddess, spring fully armed from the brain of her inventor? in other words, did men pass at a single stride from xylography to the perfect typography of the punch, the matrix, and the mould? or are we still to seek for an intermediate stage in some ruder and more primitive process of production? ”

“ This is almost a literal quotation of the remark of a printer who prides himself on his progressiveness, and he is only one of many who imagine that to be up-to-date it is sufficient to use new type-faces, ornaments and borders, caring little if the resulting jobs lack appropriateness, harmony, color, tone, and other elements that are essential to perfect typography. ”

“ Examples 157, 158 and 159.—Caslon Oldstyle and Caslon Text are factors in the effectiveness of the booklet of which these three pages are representative. These three examples are additional evidence that type alone when properly used is almost as effective from an advertising point of view as if supported by the best decoration and illustration. It might be said that good typography is to be preferred at all times to poor art work, altho really good art work properly subordinated will undoubtedly add attractiveness and interest to a booklet otherwise well treated typographically. ”

“ Charles T. Jacobi, of the Chiswick Press, London, as an instructor and writer on printing subjects has done much for typography in England. He is not wedded to a particular style of typography, but advocates the adaptation of any style that is good when by so doing clients are pleased and the principles of art are not violated. The title-page reproduced in this connection is unusual in arrangement. The type groups and the device are all squared and their angularity is enhanced by the exclusive use of capitals. ”

“ Because a job of printing is made for short service is no reason why it should not be as well done as book composition is required to be. All the art-reasons in book typography 68are equally applicable to job typography. The two methods should not be judged by separate standards—a thing is good, or it is not. At the present time educational work is elevating the standard of job typography, and the designer of job composition, drawing closer to his book brother, is beginning to notice the faults and flaws in the latter’s work.
EXAMPLE 130
EXAMPLE 131
Poor examples of book typography. ”

“ The border, formed of a heavy and a lighter line, is drawn with human irregularity that is in keeping with the character of the design as a whole. The “For” in italic affords contrast in both form and color. Also note the treatment of “St.,” which is made small and placed in a position above the base of the other letters. This treatment is typical of antique typography.
Example 329.—That artistic quality and interest may be put in a label form by means of typography is proved by this example. The lacelike border, the spaced Kennerley types and the words and rule in red blend attractively. ”

“ TITLE-PAGE OF 1872
Showing the development during the nineteenth century of a severe and uninteresting style
Attractiveness is as necessary to the typography of the general job of printing as dignity and legibility are to a law brief, but, endeavoring to get attractiveness into their work, job printers often go astray. They wrongly labor under the impression that to have a job distinctive it must be made freakish. Typography is not good unless based upon art foundations. ”

“ Many persons of the present day will shy at the use of a single capital letter immediately following the initial, but that is the way it was done in the old days. Typographers should early begin to accumulate a library of books. They should frequent the second-hand bookstores, and occasionally purchase some old volume that shows the style of typography of fifty, one hundred or more years ago. ”

“ The tone is made uniform by printing the border in a light color. Page by University Press, Cambridge
Lack of artistic feeling among typographers and customers is responsible for unpleasant contrasts in tone. A dense black illustration or initial will be set in a page of light gray reading matter, or type of black tone will be used on a page with an illustration of light lines. Great contrast in any detail of typography is not art but eccentricity ”

“ What were the earliest predecessors of typography? 18. Tell of some later methods of making impressions. 19. What early attempts at printing were made by the Chinese and their neighbors? 20. Did these attempts develop into typography, and why? 21. What devices took the place of books among the poor before the invention of printing? 22. What were image prints, and how made? 23. What were the two lines of development from the image prints? 24. How did these developments suggest typography? 25. How were early playing cards made, and what was their relation to block printing? ”

“ If it be urged that the twentieth-century comparison should be between typewriting and print, we may reply that typewriting is print, though it lacks most of its condensation, and that the credit for its superior legibility belongs to typography, of which the new art is obviously a by-product. ”

“ Works that contain bits of text in other languages, which never come out right. (d) Works that contain special diacritical marks. (e) Works that contain unusual archaic typography, such as special characters for "ct", or italicized script that the OCR can't handle. If you're working on a text that consists primarily of standard sentences and paragraphs, without italics or any special characters, and without archaic spellings or archaic typography, that is entirely in English, then Google's OCR might be useful. ”

“ Thus art makes concession to utility, but such concession should always be granted reluctantly. There is classic authority for the arrangement of the type lines in Example 20 of the preceding chapter, but on the majority of printing jobs it is necessary to compromise with utility and emphasize important words, as in Example 19-a of the same chapter. The secret of producing artistic typography in these practical times is to pilot the ideas of the customer into artistic channels ”

“ The style of book typography, averaged in this way, is today far from flattering. It is rarely that the reading pages, title-page and cover harmonize in style and motive. On the average volume the text-pages seem to have been set in any face that chanced to be on the composing machine at the time; the title-page is in some type foreign in style and design to the face used 69on the body of the book, and the cover (usually the only part of the work given artistic attention) is designed without regard to what is on the inside. ”

“ The plain, legible typography ably supports the strong illustration and attractive border treatment. By the Matthews-Northrup Works, Buffalo, N. Y.
Before proceeding with the composition of a catalog the printer should insist that the copy be legible, orderly prepared, and all points settled as to type-face, headings and position of illustrations. A dummy page should be planned and set up, and it should be studied and discussed by customer and printer before work is begun on the catalog as a whole. ”

“ There are some niceties in spelling and style that have to be passed with slight notice. The formation of foreign words in the plural number, obsolete or little-used forms of past tenses and participles, and the use of accents and diacritical marks for words in English, belong to grammar rather than to typography. ”

“ This sawing off of a portion of the descending strokes cripples the letters just as the sawing off of a portion of a man’s legs cripples his body. Not only is typography made imperfect by missing descenders, but, generally, the practice has worked toward the degeneration of type print, making it less easy to read, as the lines set too close together. When the descenders are of proper length they maintain a strip of blank space between lines, but when they are cut off the printer must add leads to recover the space—which he seldom does. ”

“ Since these books were written, all the old theories about the origin of typography have been examined with increased interest, and discussed with superior critical ability, by many eminent European scholars. Discoveries of great importance have been made; old facts have been set forth in new lights; traditions accepted as truthful history for three hundred years have been demolished. ”

“ A man lacks something in his make-up when he is satisfied to be rated as a twenty-five or fifty per cent printer.
Tickets, altho only a minute part of the printing-office product, afford opportunity for the practice and development of art printing. In typography there are many themes and styles and their incorporation into type-designs is an interesting and instructive study. The compositor or layout man should know and understand these various styles, that he may be able to adapt himself to any demand made for “something different.” ”

“ In type-making, when a font of type is designed, not only is each letter considered separately, but in combination with every other letter of the alphabet, that when the letters are assembled into words space may be evenly distributed. ”

“ Example 170.—Lettering, as has been pointed out, has an important place in booklet designing along with decoration, illustration and typography, and from well-lettered designs the printer can obtain valuable suggestions. This example was printed on hand-made paper, and the deckle edges and rough surface of the paper blended with the freehand drawing of letters and border. There was a further blend of the hand-lettering and the Caslon type-face used on the inside pages. The lettering was based upon the same model as the Caslon, which is standard for old-style effects. ”

“ The public learns to like whatever is served to it most frequently, and if it is provided with good printing and especially good typography, the tone of printing generally will be elevated and further dignity given to the business. ”

“ The treatises of the old Roman sophists and rhetoricians, the dialectics of Aristotle and the schoolmen, and the commentaries on ecclesiastical law of the fathers of the church, were the works which engrossed the attention of men of letters for many centuries before the invention of typography. ”

“ This slight contrast in the strength of lettering in many instances gives quality and legibility to steel-engraved and lithographed business cards and stationery. The printer by having a well-designed type-face in two strengths will be able to introduce similar good qualities in his work. The spacing between words on this card is closer than that usually allowed by compositors. Close spacing between words is a quality found in good lettering and in good typography. ”

“ In many cases title-pages are constructed with no regard to the motive suggested by the design on the cover. Bibliophiles judge a book not only by the excellence of its execution, but by the harmonious unity that may be expressed in every detail, from the literary contents to the last bit of tooling worked on the cover. The type, ornamentation, paper, ink, margins, leather, the arrangement of the title-page and the cover treatment, all must be selected and utilized in expression of a dominant central motive. The same rule presents the key to good typography in job work. ”

“ Two pages being exposed to view were treated as one page, much as double columns are now treated. As book illuminators required room for their handiwork the margins may have thus originated. The principal reason why we should observe such margins is that the arrangement has the sanction of long usage and the approval of the best bookmakers since books were written.
The job printer, it is reasonable to suppose, is more interested in proportion as it refers to display typography. He asks: What relation has type, in the shape of its face, to the page of which it is a part? ”

“ THE MODERN METHOD. This fac-simile gives an imperfect notion of the abbreviations, the blackness and obscurity of a page of the Donatus, but it is a fair specimen of the forbidding appearance of all the printed work of the fifteenth century. The illustration of the modern method of arranging the same letters shows the superior perspicuity of modern types and of modern typographic method. Not every reader of this age has a just idea of the extent of his obligation to what may be called the minor improvements of typography. ”