Chapter XX: Section C: shows a plain letter of modern cut known erroneously as (9)

Comparison of the capitals of the six standard faces in Example 467 will show that “old-style” faces tend toward the old Roman proportions and that “modern” types, such as Bodoni Book and Century Expanded (Example 466-B), reveal an effort to make the capitals as uniform in size as possible. Typewriter types are an example of what happens when this idea of uniformity is carried to its logical end. It is really not necessary to throw Beauty out of the back door as Utility is admitted at the front. Both can live happily under the same roof.

As will be seen by Example 507, the lower-case letters are made up of a variety of curved lines, and vertical, horizontal and diagonal strokes, the purpose being the same as that of having capitals of different widths, to make them when joined together in words readable and pleasant to look at. The word “minimum” is an example of unpleasant monotony in the repetition of similar forms.

EXAMPLE 503

In good lettering, the descending strokes are as long as the ascending
strokes. From Johnston
]

EXAMPLE 504

(A) How descenders are frequently cramped. (B) Compression of upper or
lower ends of letters as found in “improved” Caslon Oldstyle
]

LEGIBILITY OF TYPE-FACES

Type matter should be easy to read, and this end is attained not only in the designing of type-faces but in the manner of their use.

Many tests for legibility have been made in this country and in Europe, but none of them, so far as the writer knows, has considered the manner of printing the types and the character of the paper surface as factors in legibility, altho glossy paper has been condemned because of its reflection of light, and cream-white paper preferred to blue-white. There is shown as Example 463 a test made in the printing of the same type-faces on a hard-finished paper and on a soft-finished paper. The Caslon and Bodoni types are not only more legible on the soft-finished stock, but the character of the designs is brought out. The results of this demonstration should not be wondered at, as the original Caslon and Bodoni types were intended to be printed on soft-finished stock, and not on highly calendered coated paper.

Studies in legibility are presented in Example 508. As there are many details that count in the production of good-looking typography, so there are seeming trifles which go to make typography easily read. In “A” there are groups set in Cheltenham Oldstyle and Cloister Oldstyle. As Cheltenham is narrower in form and closely set, it is more suitable for long, narrow pages or columns. Cloister, on the other hand, conforms better to wider pages and columns. In lighter types (B) Bodoni Book and Caslon Oldstyle are similarly compared. For further illustrations of this point see Examples 509 and 510.

One of the tests previously referred to proved Gothic (C) the most legible type-face. This unshaded, serifless type, which has long been popular on sales bills and for advertisements in some newspapers and trade publications, is not approved by those who believe there should also be character in type-faces, as it lacks the two essentials of typographic beauty—serifs and contrasting thickness of strokes. Then, again, it is not as legible in the mass as in single lines.

EXAMPLE 505

In the old-style Arabic numerals, five figures descended, two ascended
and three did neither. The modern style is to have them of one hight
]

While bold-face types, especially those with decided contrasts in thickness of strokes, are legible when used in groups of two to a half-dozen words, they greatly tire the eye when used for entire pages of text. For this reason Bodoni Book is to be preferred over Bodoni for text purposes (D). The writer came to this conclusion when, during the reading of a book set in Bodoni, he found it necessary frequently to stop because of eye fatigue produced by the sharp contrasts and bewildering medley of light and shade.

It is generally conceded by authorities that lower-case types in the same size of letter are more legible than capitals (E) and should be used for headings and for display lines in advertising matter, where easy reading is essential.

Assuming that the largest possible face on the smallest possible type body results in legibility and allows more matter on a page, both users and makers of type have in many fonts caused the descending and ascending strokes to be shortened. The lower-case letters _g_, _j_, _p_, _q_ and _y_ have been the principal sufferers, as they are the only ones with descending strokes. The ascending strokes of letters _b_, _d_, _f_, _h_, _k_ and _l_ have been treated with more respect, and their principal ancestor, the Caroline Minuscule, would not have so much difficulty in recognizing them.

The left portion of section F of Example 508 shows what this practice has done to Caslon Oldstyle. It has also affected legibility by lessening the space between lines (see also Example 509), and reading, already difficult, is made still more so by the excess space that careless hand compositors and “speedy” machine operators place between words.

* * * * *

EXAMPLE 506

The space between words in good lettering, according to Johnston, is
less than the width of letter “o” (lower-case)
]

EXAMPLE 507

The lower-case letters grouped according to formation. As generally
mixed in various combinations, distinctive word groups are formed.
The word “minimum” is an exception
]

_Space Between Words._—The eyes can, in the same space of time, read many more words if the words are narrowly spaced than if they are widely spaced. The early printers knew this and set type accordingly. When lower-case letters are widely spaced one letter must be read at a time (508-I). When words are widely spaced one word must be read at a time. A person accustomed to reading reads by thoughts—groups of words or sentences. Even in the schools they are discarding the long-used method of teaching the A-B-Cs, and instead of at first learning each letter separately, the child learns to know words by their formation and to read by word groups.

The present prevalence of wide spacing in the composition of books, catalogs, pamphlets, periodicals and newspapers is a legacy from the ante-machine period.

In hand-set days, job and book compositors, when they were called on to set so-called straight matter, were required to use great care in spacing. In the spacing out of a line the conscientious compositor would remove thick spaces and insert thin spaces rather than add much extra space between the words. The newspaper compositor, on the other hand—he usually being a piece worker—seldom thin-spaced, but liberally added space between words, especially on occasions when his “take” was to “meet” that of another compositor. When machine composition was introduced the spacing practices of the news-room hand compositor were passed along to the machine, with the result that today a page of machine matter set in the average careless way shows open spaces running irregularly down the page, resembling a trench map of a modern battlefield.

Close spacing and the resultant neat and readable appearance of the page are possible in machine composition, as many users of these machines are obtaining such results; but the general standard, due not a little to the demand for rapidity and somewhat to ignorance of the fundamentals of good typography, is humiliatingly low.

The design and form of the type-face, of course, determine the amount of space between words. Johnston tells letterers that “the average space between two words is less than the width of the letter _o_.” Example 506 is illustrative.

A newspaper editor some years ago asked the hand compositors to thin-space, as there was a great deal of copy that day, whereupon the printers all laughed in ridicule of the lay notion that such a procedure would be of much use. That the request was not such an impractical one was recently borne out by an experience of a periodical publisher, who, on the machines in his own shop, produced close-spaced matter. In an emergency an outside machine-composition house was called on to set a part of the copy. When the work of making up was completed, it was found that there were several galleys of matter that could not be used, altho there was no more copy than usual. By again referring to Example 508-F it will be seen that in the left group spacing between words is lavish, while in the right group there is no waste of such spacing. Altho there is more space between the lines of the right group, it contains three more words than the left group.

In the lower part of Example 508 is the word “Typography” set in small six-point, and near the word is the lone letter _a_, same size. It is difficult for a person without excellent eyesight to identify the small six-point “a,” but he can more easily and as quickly read the word made in the same size from ten letters. When the letters of the word “Typography” are widely spaced (even in larger size, as shown) they must be read one letter at a time, but when closely assembled they can be seen at a glance and read ten times as rapidly.

An experienced proofreader does not read a galley letter by letter, but recognizes a wrong type because the natural formation of the word has been broken.

Carrying the experiment further, place in “open formation” the words “Art and Practice of Typography,” and they must be read slowly one word at a time, but group the words closely, as has been done in the lower left of the same Example 508, and the entire group of words can be read practically at a glance. Just as an illiterate person laboriously reads letter by letter, a young child beginning to read will see only one word at a time. While on rudimentary primers the words should be isolated, there is no necessity for wide spacing between words in text matter intended for adults.

EXAMPLE 508

Legibility and other qualities illustrated
]

_Length of Lines._—This leads to consideration of the effect length of lines has on reading.

The Board of Education of the city of New York disqualifies textbooks in which the length of line is more than 100 millimeters (about twenty-four picas, or four inches). The maximum length of line recommended by the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1912 is about the same. Professor Huey, in “The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading” (1907), says: “There is a general consensus in favor of the shorter as against the longer lines, with a tendency to favor 90 millimeters as a maximum, some placing the maximum at 100 millimeters.” Dr. Javal, the French oculist, who thirty-five years ago made tests in typography, believes the maximum should be considerably below 90 millimeters (about 21 picas).

It would be well, in order to arrive somewhere in determining the proper length of line, to consider the size and kind of type that makes up the line.

The author asks consideration of Examples 509 and 510. The length of line is limited by authorities because the eye finds it difficult to read a long line of comparatively small type. Isn’t it true that healthy eyes can read a line of type twelve inches long set in fifty-four-point Caslon Oldstyle, say, with the same ease as a line four inches long set in eighteen-point Caslon Oldstyle?

By the same reasoning, the line of twelve-point Caslon Oldstyle set three inches wide (Example 509) is as easily read, after the eyes are focused on it, as the line of eighteen-point Caslon set four inches wide.

The author suggests, then, that the proper length of type lines be ascertained by measuring one-and-a-half alphabets of the lower-case of the desired type, as is demonstrated in Example 510.

Let us try out the top group—Caslon Oldstyle. (This type-face seems smaller, according to body sizes, than Scotch Roman, for the reason that its descending strokes have not been cut off, while those of the Scotch Roman group have been shortened; but of this more later.)

A lower-case alphabet-and-a-half of twelve-point Caslon Oldstyle (with long descenders) measures 17½ picas in length, as will be seen in Example 510. How it appears set in words in two lines of the same measure is to be seen in the upper part of Example 509. According to the working out of the plan, 17½ picas is the ideal length of line for books using this twelve-point type. By referring back to Example 127 in the chapter on “Books,” the theory will be found borne out in practical use on a model book page.

Testing the length of lines by reading (Example 509), it will be found, if the distance between the eyes and book is lengthened as the sizes grow larger, that the line is short enough not to necessitate a hunt for the beginning of the second line after the first is read.

The optical disadvantage of using in one piece of printing type-faces of any great contrast in sizes may be proved by focusing the eyes so as easily to read the eighteen-point size and then changing quickly to the eight-point size, attempting to read the latter without again focusing the eyes to fit the smaller type.

There is a technical as well as an optical reason for determining the length of line by measurement of the types themselves. It will be seen by Example 509 that the copy adjusts itself to the various lengths of lines, or, in the vernacular of the printer, “works out line for line.” If fourteen-point type, instead of twelve-point type, were set in lines measuring fifteen picas in length, the compositor would have more difficulty in adjusting the spaces between words, as these spacing points would number two less. This difficulty is usually solved by regrettable wide spacing between words or more regrettable spacing between letters.

Testing types used on newspapers, selecting for the purpose the most used newspaper linotype face (see lower part of Example 510), we find that the length of line for six-point should be thirteen picas and for seven-point fourteen picas. As actually used in newspapers, the length of line is usually twelve and a half or thirteen picas.

* * * * *

_Approved Type Sizes and Space Between Lines._—The type in the upper part of Example 509 also illustrates the sizes of type and the amount of space between type lines that investigators have determined are minimum for use on schoolbooks.

Dr. Cohn, whose findings in these matters have been practically indorsed by educational boards and writers on school hygiene, stipulates that for first-year school children the vertical measurement of the lower-case o should be at least 2.6 millimeters, with space between lines (measuring vertically between a lower-case _o_ in one line and a lower-case _o_ in the line above or below) of 4.5 millimeters. Twenty-two-point Caslon Oldstyle, with long descenders (not shown here), conforms to these measurements.

For the second and third years, the measurement of the _o_ should be at least 2 millimeters, with space between lines of 4 millimeters. Eighteen-point Caslon Oldstyle, with long descenders (as shown in Example 509), conforms to these measurements.

The fourteen-point size meets the requirements for the fourth school year—at least 1.8 millimeters, with space between lines of 3.6 millimeters.

After the fourth school year the type should measure not less than 1.6 millimeters, with space between lines of 3 millimeters, to which twelve-point Caslon Oldstyle, with long descenders, conforms.

The descending strokes are sufficiently long in the eighteen-point size to maintain between the lines of type the amount of spacing stipulated by Dr. Cohn, but in the fourteen-point size it was necessary to add a two-point lead and in the twelve-point size a one-point lead.

In comparing one font of type with another, it is not accurate to compare, say, eleven-point with eleven-point. Not infrequently one type-face has been pronounced more readable than another, when the preferred type-face was really a twelve-point face on an eleven-point body, with the descending strokes mutilated to allow for such an arrangement. The faces should be compared by the Cohn method given above.

The panel inserted in Example 509 is illustrative.

The three letters (_Hdp_) at the left are twenty-four-point “lining” Caslon; the three letters (_Hdp_) at the right are thirty-point Caslon Oldstyle No. 471. The economical printer too often prefers the “lining” fonts, as he does not need to buy waste (?) metal. It is the same sort of reasoning that sees in the park spaces of the cities real-estate waste.

The laws of compensation in good typography require, where one point or two points or more are unwisely removed by shortening descenders, that these points shall be restored by leading. So where is the gain by mutilation?

ITALIC TYPES

Italic, the graceful, inclined, feminine type that is now mated with most Roman types, was not known by Jenson or his contemporaries. It made its appearance for the first time in 1501 on a book printed and published at Venice, Italy, by Aldus Manutius. In that volume, an edition of Virgil, Aldus gave credit for the cutting of the face to “Francia of Bologna,” who has since been identified as the great painter and contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci.

The legend has been passed along for many years that Italic was fashioned after the handwriting of the Italian poet Petrarch, but specimens of his handwriting do not bear the proper resemblance, and there are now those who scoff at the story.

However, the Aldus Italic is not, as one writer declares, merely an inclined Roman. As it has been recut by the American Type Founders Company and mated with Cloister, the recut Roman letter of Jenson, there is opportunity to compare Italic and Roman lower-case, which is done in Example 515. It will be seen that, while there is a family resemblance, there are many differences other than that of mere inclination. Italic capitals, however, are inclined Roman letters, but it should be remembered that Aldus and Francia did not make or use Italic capitals, but that with the slanting lower-case letters Aldus used small Roman capitals. Example 513 shows how this was done, and this example, by the way, is a resetting in Cloister Italic and Roman small capitals of the Aldus page, reproduced on page 15 of the chapter on “The Spread of Typography.” In that chapter are included further facts about this famous printer.

EXAMPLE 509

The various sizes of type set to lengths determined by measuring as in
Example 510. Also showing the space between lines needed for easy
reading. The size of type-face and space between lines of the
eighteen-point, fourteen-point and twelve-point of the Caslon group
have been authoritatively recommended for schoolbook printing (Read
page 188)
]

EXAMPLE 510

Ascertaining the proper optical length of line by measuring a
lower-case alphabet-and-a-half of each size and style of type. This
method furnishes a practical rule for determining lengths of line.
(Read pages 187 and 188.) The accompanying scales may be used for
measurements
]

EXAMPLE 511

Moxon’s Italic capitals of 1676
]

Examples 511, 512 and 514 are reproductions of Moxon’s drawings (1676) of the Italic types of a Dutch punch cutter. They show the character of Italic used in the seventeenth century. The long _s_ of that time is included in Example 512, and Example 514 shows the decorated Italic capitals that we know as “Swash letters.”

EXAMPLE 513

Resetting in Cloister types of an example on page 15 of this book of
the original Italic types of Aldus and Francia
]

Swash Italic capitals and the old-style long _s_ are to be had with Caslon Oldstyle. See Example 517. The Italic mates of a few of the present-day Romans are shown in Example 516.

EXAMPLE 512

The Italic lower-case of Moxon, with long “s” (ſ)
]

EXAMPLE 514

Decorated capitals, or Swash letters, as drawn by Moxon from Dutch
sources
]

EXAMPLE 515

The first Italic was not made merely by inclining the Roman lower-case
letters. Cloister Oldstyle (upper line) is modeled after one of the
first Roman types, that of Jenson, cut in 1470. Cloister Italic is
modeled after the first Italic type of Aldus and Francia, 1501
]

Italic types, besides the instances previously mentioned, may be seen in use on pages 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 32, and in Examples 45, 98, 100, 128, 138, 139, 144, 152, 158, 168, 169, 170, 171, 180, 185, 191, 215, 222, 223, 224, 232, 240, 245, 246, 250, 262, 282, 292, 294, 297, 299, 310, 311, 313, 314, 315, 316, 325, 326, 329, 331, 332, 336, 342, 343, 345, 346, 349, 363, 372, 374, 375, 384, 387, 390, 394, 396, 398, 399, 401, 402, 404, 405, 406, 412, 413, 414, 418, 420, 423, 424, 426, 428, 429, 472, 477, 481 and 483.

EXAMPLE 516

A few Italic type-faces
]

TEXT TYPES

Gutenberg and other German printers who followed him fashioned their type-faces after Black Letter, the formal writing of the German scribes, as Jenson fashioned his type-face after White Letter, the formal writing of the Italian scribes. The White Letter of Jenson grew into the Roman types that today are used almost exclusively in France, England and Italy and in our own country, while Black Letter developed into the German types that are almost exclusively used in the German Empire. As this is being written, the Great War is being fought. America has just entered it, and it is a coincidence that the countries favoring White Letter are on one side in the struggle and the countries favoring Black Letter on the other side. The years that follow the war may see, so far as general reading purposes are concerned, the gradual elimination of the letter we know as Text and the largely increased use of Roman characters in the books and newspapers of all races. The Germans are already favoring a Roman half Text in character (Example 521).

EXAMPLE 517

Complete Roman and Italic alphabets of Caslon Oldstyle with “Swash
letters” and long “s” (ſ)
]

Text type, besides being known as Black Letter, is also called Gothic and Old English; Gothic because of its preference by Gothic or German peoples, and Old English because of its use by Wynkyn de Worde and other early printers of England.

Moxon, in 1676, drew an alphabet of Text letter in both capitals and lower-case (Examples 518 and 519), and Caslon, in the eighteenth century, cut a Text letter similar but somewhat thinner in form. Alteration in capitals works great changes in Text type.

Text letter in a variety of designs is used in America for special purposes—sometimes as headings of newspapers or for a line on stationery, but because it is generally considered illegible it seldom is given place, except in German-language newspapers, on body portions of printed work.

The story of the evolution of Text type from Roman capitals has already been told on pages 5 and 6 of the chapter, “When Books Were Written,” and under the head, “Development of the Roman Type-Face,” in this chapter. It is illustrated in Example 465.

EXAMPLE 518
]

EXAMPLE 519

Text capitals and Text lower-case letters as drawn by Moxon in 1676
]

EXAMPLE 520

Two standard German type-faces, the Fractur and the Schwabacher
]

EXAMPLE 521

The half-Gothic and half-Roman type-face now favored in Germany as the
nearest approach to the Roman allowed by national prejudice of
readers
]

Text type may be seen in use, even to a small extent, on pages 5, 7 (insert), 8, 9, 12, 13 (insert), 14 (insert), 16, 17, 18, 27 (insert), 31, and in Examples 19, 27, 32, 37, 75, 76, 107, 115, 117, 118, 137, 143, 145, 146, 147, 157, 158, 159, 200, 201, 202, 204, 206, 216, 219, 220, 221, 227, 228, 232, 233, 237, 241, 243, 244, 257, 277, 285, 287, 301, 307, 319, 333, 336, 347, 353, 354, 358, 361, 392, 404, 405, 421 and 425.

EXAMPLE 522

Several representative Text types
]

BLOCK TYPES

The style of letter known as “Block,” because of its plain, square appearance, is more in use than it should be (Example 523). It serves a purpose for very small sizes of lettering on lithographed stationery and on blank work, its capitals being more legible than regular Roman capitals in diminutive form; but its use on periodical and newspaper advertising, books and general job work is deplorable.

It is an unfinished Roman letter, as shown by Example 497. It is really not admissible to the company of the educated and informed until serifs have been added and a difference in thickness of strokes is visible.

Some American typefounder many years ago called this style of face “Gothic,” and under that name this rather questionable type is widely known, probably better known than many worthier faces. It is possible, also regrettable, that it is the “best seller” of the type foundries’ product. Over in Scotland and England the type is called “Sans-Serif” and “Grotesque”; in Germany it is known as “Block”; in France and Spain as “Antique.” Examples showing use of “Block” type or “Gothic”: 263, 276, 291, 305, 318, 320, 321, 373, 404, 405, 406.

Poster artists of Germany and Austria have developed the “Block” type into a very strong letter of wide strokes, which, when printed in color, show forth color values attractively (Example 235, chapter on “Announcements”). This style of letter has been brought out in type form in Germany and in America. Alphabets of the American type (Publicity Gothic and Advertisers’ Gothic) are shown in Example 524. As indicated by the titles, these types serve a special purpose.

BOLD TYPES

There is a legitimate use for bold type-faces, especially in small sizes, on books of reference, schoolbooks, catalogs, and similar printed work, but it is safe to wager that half the bold types in use, and almost all of the large sizes, could well be dispensed with. When used to a great extent, the printed work on which it appears is unattractive. Bold type is to typography what the bass drum is to music: it fits in nicely for purposes of accentuation and emphasis; but who likes a bass drum solo?

However, a slight strengthening of lines sometimes serves special purposes well. Daniel Elzevir used a letter with slightly deepened strokes for the main line in Example 477.

Old-Style Antique has long been popular with good printers for typography requiring a darker tone than is given by Caslon Oldstyle; the so-called Caslon Bold will never really take its place.

Most of the standard type-faces referred to in this chapter are procurable in bold form. Cloister Bold, Caslon Bold, Bodoni Bold and Cheltenham Bold are included with a few other faces in Example 526.

ORNAMENTAL TYPES

Typography has its periods of abstention and fasting, which usually follow periods of revelry in decorative types in which good taste and dignity are not infrequently sinned against. After the typefounders of the nineteenth century had twisted, distorted, decorated, shaded and otherwise disguised the Roman alphabet until Jenson, Aldus, the Elzevirs, Caslon and Franklin would no longer recognize it, the users of printing, the printers and the typefounders became sobered and realized what they had done.

A period of fasting set in, but, recollections of the old typographic carousal wearing off, ornamental letters again began to appear. They were on different models, however—some of them very good—and were acceptable for informal typography (Example 527-C).

Some ornamental types of historic origin are based on the eighteenth-century letters of Fournier, the French typefounder, and on those of English founders (Examples 527-A and 527-B).

EXAMPLE 523

Block types, serifless and of one thickness of stroke
]

EXAMPLE 524

Modern-art poster type; the upper alphabet being known as Publicity
Gothic, and the lower one as Advertisers’ Gothic
]

EXAMPLE 525

McFarland (lower line), based upon the French Oldstyle (upper line),
the strokes having been made bolder
]

EXAMPLE 526

A few representative bold-face types
]

TYPES FOR SPECIAL PURPOSES

There are numerous other faces, many of them admirable, which for lack of space cannot be shown or described here. There are type-faces for special purposes, such as the imitation copperplate-engraving faces, made in English and French Scripts, Romans, Texts and Gothics; imitation typewriter faces, gray-printing “halftone” faces, such as were used for many years as a head-letter on the _Ladies’ Home Journal_.

EXAMPLE 527-A

The eighteenth-century ornamental types of Fournier, the French
founder
]

EXAMPLE 527-B

Early nineteenth-century ornamental types of English founders
]

A dozen pages, were they available, could well be given over to exhibits of the privately designed types of the Riverside Press, Merrymount Press, University Press, Village Press and other notable printing offices.

THE INFLUENCE OF GOUDY

A liberal showing would be worth while of the various fonts designed by Frederic W. Goudy, who has done much in influencing type design during recent years, but it will be necessary to be content with the exhibit of Kennerley, in Example 463, and other faces by Mr. Goudy in use in preceding chapters. Kennerley, the best known and most characteristic of the Goudy letters (1911), is shown in Examples 187, 313, 329, 364, 395, 432, 445 and 446. Forum, made in capitals only, is to be found in Examples 20, 229, 334, 360, 366 and 395. Goudy Oldstyle is used in Examples 324 and 391. Camelot, which was Mr. Goudy’s first effort at type designing (1896), appears in Examples 44 and 124. Pabst, another early effort of Mr. Goudy, but not so good in design as his later types, will be found in Examples 30, 100 and 214, and also used in this book for headlines, captions, title-page and cover labels.

EXAMPLE 527-C

Type-faces of the ornamental kind
]

Frederic W. Goudy is wielding a large influence over art work and typography in America. His style of lettering, decoration and type designing is now to be found on much of the good printing produced in our country. His type-faces are original; in their completed form they are not just like any one type-face previously used, but they revive details in letter forms that for many years had been considered obsolete by typefounders. Mr. Goudy is a humanist; he believes that type-faces should be more expressive of the art of the letterer than the skill of the typefounder. He is speaking:

Type must be finely and boldly designed to be beautiful. In the
majority of cases where these points are claimed for a type, it
will be found that the claims rest on their perfect finish, exact
lining or ranging, perfection of curve, precise angles,
straightness of stem, or sharpness of serif and hair line. None of
these points give beauty or legibility, altho they may be present
in a type both beautiful and legible. Finish in the design of a
letter is a merit only when it improves, but if made at the
expense of design it constitutes a defect.

Ruskin’s universal law, that “neither architecture nor any other
noble work of man can be good unless it be imperfect,” applies no
less to our type designs. Types are made to use, and when
spontaneous in design, the natural irregularities and deficiencies
are signs of life and sources of beauty, giving credit to the
designer for careful craftsmanship according to his ability. The
demand for perfection is evidence of a misunderstanding of the
true ends of art.

EXAMPLE 528-A

The first “imprint,” as found on Fust and Schœffer’s Psalter of 1457
From De Vinne
]

EXAMPLE 528-B

Colophon and imprint by Peter Schœffer, 1476 From the original in the
Typographic Library and Museum, Jersey City
]

IMPRINTS

The printer’s name or device should, with all regard to good taste, be placed on every well-executed piece of work produced by him. That this is not more often done is due to neglect of advertising opportunities and to fear of the customer’s objection. Why should not the printer mark his product as other craftsmen and manufacturers do? Each piece of clothing he wears, from hat to shoes, probably carries the name or trademark of its maker, as do automobiles, pianos, watches, silverware and many other articles he owns. The maker’s name and trademark are a guarantee of a certain quality of product; in fact, they are absent only on cheap or imitative articles. If the printer is doing careless work and giving no thought to quality, he had better hide his identity, but if he is really producing good printing, as a duty to the craft of which he is a member he should “let his light shine before men.”

EXAMPLE 529

The first imprint-device, and three marks based on it
]

EXAMPLE 530

Aldus’s anchor-and-dolphin device, and adaptations by modern printers
]

If a commercial printer has not been in the habit of placing an imprint on his product, and he decides to do so, customers should tactfully be made acquainted with the innovation. They probably stand ready to be convinced of its reasonableness. It may be an excellent plan for the printer to mail his customers an announcement to this effect: “The standard of quality attained by the Smith Printshop is such that it is due our customers and ourselves so to mark each piece of printing produced by us as to identify it as a product of the Smith Printshop. This we will do hereafter.”

As a further precaution, all proofs receiving the O. K. of the customer should contain the imprint just as it is to be used, and on important large orders, where there is any doubt, permission should be obtained. There are instances where customers have refused to accept printed work for the reason that an imprint was placed on it.

It is only necessary to have printing-office patrons become accustomed to the new order of things.

John Dunlap, who printed the Declaration of Independence for Congress, placed his imprint on it (see frontispiece of this volume). If some friend had suggested to John Gutenberg that he imprint his name on his work, the discussion that has since arisen as to whether or not he printed the “Bible of Forty-two Lines” would not have taken place.

The commercial printer’s imprint should be unassuming and placed inconspicuously. Decorative imprints could be used on booklet and catalog work, and in addition the decorative device should find place on every piece of the printer’s own stationery and advertising matter, even on the office door.

* * * * *

The use by printers of decorative devices dates back to one of the first printed books, the famous Psalter of 1457. For a great many hundred years previous, pictures and devices in various forms had been relied upon to convey information and to act as distinguishing marks for various purposes. Figures such as the white horse and the red lion, hung as signs in front of taverns and public houses during the last two centuries, were outgrowths of the coats-of-arms of titled folk who in ancient times hung the family device in front of their estates as emblems of hospitality to the weary traveler.

EXAMPLE 531

The most popular imprint-device as early used by printers, and modern
interpretations
]

Emblems and devices seem always to have had place in human history. The sign of the Cross in the eleventh century led the Crusaders against the followers of the Crescent. The cross of St. George (+) furnished inspiration for the English in their warfare with the Scots, who rallied around the cross of St. Andrew (❌), and the combined crosses of St. George, St. Andrew and St. Patrick now inspire the patriotic Britisher.

It would seem that printers could do better work if they were to select some device which would represent an ideal, and then attempt to live up to it.

While the Gutenberg Bible of Forty-two Lines, generally accepted as the first book printed with separate metal types, contained neither device nor printer’s name, the Book of Psalms, or Psalter, of 1457, not only has the names of Fust and Schœffer and the date, but an imprint device which has the distinction of being the first ever used on a book typographically printed. This famous Psalter was the product of Johann Fust and Peter Schœffer, who succeeded to Gutenberg’s printing office. At the end of the book, printed in red ink, is the colophon of the printers (Example 528-A), a translation of which follows: “This book of Psalms, decorated with antique initials, and sufficiently emphasized with rubricated letters, has been thus made by the masterly invention of printing and also of type-making, without the writing of a pen, and is consummated to the service of God, thru the industry of Johann Fust, citizen of Mainz, and Peter Schœffer of Gernszheim, in the year of our Lord 1457, on the eve of the Assumption.”

The colophon contains a typographic error, perhaps the first to be made by a typesetter, the second word showing “spalm-” for “psalm-.” On several of the Psalters still in existence (one is without it) the colophon is accompanied by the decorative device shown in Example 529, consisting of a pair of shields suspended from the limb of a tree. The significance of the characters on the shields is not definitely known. Humphreys, in his “History,” asserts that the shields contain the arms of Fust and those of Schœffer. It is conceded that the shield on the left is Fust’s and the shield on the right Schœffer’s. In Rietstap it is found that one branch of the old German family of Faust bore a coat-of-arms containing on a shield two crampons in saltire (crossed). Bullen claims the character in the Fust shield is the Greek letter Chi (Χ) and that in Schœffer’s shield the Greek letter Lambda (Λ), and that they had some connection with secret societies to which Fust and his son-in-law Schœffer belonged.

EXAMPLE 532

Arms supposedly granted the Typothetæ, a society of master printers,
by Frederick III
]

Schœffer’s device was used for many years by his descendants, Example 529 showing its use as late as 1747 by Peter Schœffer, of Bois-le-Duc, in the Netherlands.

EXAMPLE 533

The imprint-device of England’s first printer, its probable
derivation, and two notable devices evolved from it
]

This device of Fust and Schœffer furnished inspiration to several printers of the same century, chief among whom were Michael Furter and Nicolas Kessler, whose devices are shown in Example 529. Furter, who printed at Basel, Switzerland, in 1490, was once credited with being the inventor of printing, thru an error in a book, the date of which was made to read 1444 (M.CCCC.XLIIII), instead of 1494 (M.CCCC.XCIIII).

EXAMPLE 534

Two modern designs with ancient motifs
]

What is considered to be the most classic of all imprint-devices (Example 530) is that used by Aldus Manutius, the great Venetian printer, who introduced the italic face of type. The device, an anchor, around which is twisted a dolphin, is said to be symbolic of the proverb “Hasten slowly.” The anchor represents stability and the dolphin swiftness. The mark was taken by him from a book he had printed, “Reveries of Polyphilus,” and was used as the Aldus device for the first time in an edition of Dante of 1502.

In a spirit of affection and regard for the famous Venetian, the device of Aldus has been adopted or adapted by several well-known printers. There is a nice sentiment connected with the use of this mark by William Pickering, the noted English publisher. In place of the “AL-DVS” of the original, Pickering’s adaptation contained a motto in which he announced himself as the English disciple of Aldus. The reproduction of the Pickering device shown is from a book published by Pickering and printed by Whittingham in 1840.

By 1892 we find a lion added to this device, as used by the Chiswick Press.

The McClure Publications of New York have a conventionalized interpretation which shows the dolphin and anchor in white upon a black circular background (Example 530).

Bruce Rogers, at the Riverside Press, has most interestingly adapted the Aldus device. It seems that he always had a fondness for the thistle, the national flower of Scotland, and when seeking a motif for his mark, naturally turned to it. When the time came for putting it into use, the first requirement happened to be for an Aldine page, so it was cast in a form that would distinctly suggest the Aldus anchor and dolphin. (Compare the two designs in Example 530.) While on the subject of Bruce Rogers’s device it may be interesting to relate that later, when he desired to use it on a book modeled on French sixteenth-century work, he reshaped it as shown in Example 540, which carries a suggestion of one of Robert Estienne’s marks shown with it. Rogers redrew his personal device, or that of the Riverside Press, to blend with the motif of the book on which it was to be used, a practice that embodies the highest use of the printer’s mark.

EXAMPLE 535

The pun, as found in two printers’ marks
]

* * * * *

One of the most famous imprint-devices is that adopted by the Society of Printers of Venice in 1481 (Example 531), about the time of the death of Nicholas Jenson, who is supposed to have originated the design. Various explanations have been given of the significance of this device, the most reasonable being that the globe and cross refers to the millennium, when, according to prophecy, God shall reign upon earth. The globe-and-cross symbol was frequently embellished with supplementary characters having other religious significance. The mark of Androw Myllar (Example 535) contains a figure 4, which denoted the Supreme Being. People of antiquity frequently composed the name of the Deity in four letters. The globe in the Venetian device probably represented the earth, altho the fact that the earth was round was not common knowledge in the early days. The theory, however, was accepted by the educated priest and layman long before Columbus sailed, as he thought, for India.

The double-cross in the Roman church today is associated with the authority of an archbishop, and as a decorative form of the cross, extends back many centuries. The ornamental double-cross pictured in this connection was once the property of St. Waudru of Belgium, who died in 670. The double cross or Lorraine cross was used by Geofroy Tory as a small mark on his wood engravings (see lower left corner of the Tory mark in Example 536).

EXAMPLE 536

Devices used by notable printers of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries
]

EXAMPLE 537

A colophon-imprint by D. B. Updike, from “Petrarch and His Masters,”
1907
]

EXAMPLE 538

The Lion of St. Mark appropriately adapted by Bruce Rogers to a book
on Venetian life
]

EXAMPLE 539-A

The Lion of St. Mark as a printshop device
]

EXAMPLE 539-B

The Oswald Press mark designed by T. M. Cleland
]

In further consideration of the cross-and-globe device it may be well to mention that an astronomical sign consisting of a circle with a cross above it (♁) was used by the Egyptians many years before the Christian era. Such a sign is yet used astronomically and also to indicate the male in botany. Another astronomical sign bearing on the subject is that of a cross within a circle (⨁), by which the earth is indicated.

EXAMPLE 540

Robert Estienne’s mark, and Bruce Rogers’s adaptation of it
]

EXAMPLE 541

An appropriate mark for a printer to adopt
]

The cross-and-globe device of the Venetian Society of Printers has proved the most popular of any of the old imprints. When Elbert Hubbard established the Roycroft Shop at East Aurora, N. Y., in 1896, he adopted it as a work-mark, placing an “R” in the lower half of the circle in place of the dot. Fra Elbertus’s interpretation of the device established the circle as “the emblem of the perfect (the complete), and the lines puncturing the circle the attempt to make a perfect article, to do perfect work.”

When the advertising manager of the National Biscuit Company was looking about for a trademark this old device of the Lorraine cross and circle must have appealed to him strongly, and such is the power of advertising that printers may some day be accused of copying the design from this biscuit house.

The remarkable adaptability of the device is also demonstrated by the Griffith-Stillings imprint, in which it forms a part of a clever modern decorative design (Example 547).

Frederic W. Goudy incorporated the Venetian printers’ device most interestingly in the decorative mark of the Village Press (Example 531).

The imprint-device of the Gould Press (Example 543) may have originated with the Venetian printers’ design. It is an interesting variant.

These numerous uses by printers and others of the old circle-and-cross design suggest a paraphrase of an ancient proverb: “A good device lives forever.”

* * * * *

William Caxton, England’s first printer, used an imprint-device (Example 533) that in appearance resembles a rug, which it may have been intended to represent, as Caxton is supposed to have used this mark when he was a merchant at Bruges in Belgium. The characters contained in the design have caused much discussion. The “W” on the left and the “C” on the right are generally accepted as the initials of Caxton. The center characters have been claimed by some to be the figures “74,” but the most reasonable explanation is that they form a trade device used by the merchants of Bruges. This explanation is seemingly confirmed by the discovery of a memorial plate to one John Felde, containing his trademark as a merchant, which trademark is very similar to the characters in the center of Caxton’s imprint-device. The reproduction of the Felde design shows that if the top stroke were taken away and a loop added the result would be Caxton’s characters.

Wynkyn de Worde, when he succeeded Caxton as England’s printer, adopted Caxton’s characters (probably a sentimental act) and in the device shown added his own name at the foot.

William Morris, in planning an imprint-device for the Kelmscott Press, evidently made a study of de Worde’s design, for there is resemblance in shape and in the placing of the name at the foot.

T. C. Hansard, on the title-page of his “Typographia” (1825), uses a device which tradition tells us was granted by Emperor Frederick III of Germany to a corporation of master printers known as the Typothetæ. (See Example 532.) References by writers to the origin of this design are generally contradictory. The United Typothetæ and Franklin Clubs of America, an association of employing printers, has adopted the device and uses it in the conventionalized form shown. The design in its original form tends to heraldic elaborateness. There is represented an eagle holding a copy guide in one claw and a composing stick in the other. Surmounting the design is a griffin (eagle-lion) grasping two ink balls. The Winthrop Press mark (Example 543) and other printers’ devices have been inspired by this emblem, as the griffin copyholder and ink balls are familiar decorative forms.

* * * * *

In Great Britain the printer whose name would allow a pun has always been considered fortunate. John Daye, a London printer of 1560, had an elaborate device, paneled, in the center of which is a picture of a reclining man being aroused by a figure which, pointing to the sun, says, “Arise, for it is day.” (Example 535.)

Androw Myllar, who printed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1510, used a device which portrayed a miller climbing to his mill (Example 535). The arrangement of his name in the lower part of the design suggests de Worde’s, and the characters in the shields have meanings that may be determined by a study of the religious symbolism of the Middle Ages.

EXAMPLE 536-A

The printer’s device and imprint here occupies two-thirds of the
title-page. From a book by Robert Estienne, Paris, France, 1544
]

The imprints of some of the notable printers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are interesting. The first mark in Example 536 shows one of the devices of Geofroy Tory of Paris from his “Champ Fleury” of 1529. It consists of a broken pot filled with instruments and the Latin phrase _Non plus_ (nothing more). The Lorraine cross in the lower left corner is interesting in connection with the use made of it by the Venetian Society of Printers (Example 531). Tory, an accomplished scholar and noted wood engraver and printer, was, according to an epitaph written by a compatriot, “the first man to discuss seriously the art of printing,” and “taught Garamond, chief of engravers.” His work on the derivation and formation of Latin characters had considerable renown. He claimed, according to Fournier, that all the letters are formed of I and O. Proportions are arrived at by dividing a square into ten lines, perpendicular and horizontal, forming one hundred squares completely filled with circles, the whole giving form and figure to the letters.

EXAMPLE 542

Use of the oval shape in the designing of printers’ marks
]

EXAMPLE 543

Modern imprints suggested by ancient forms
]

The troublous times of the Reformation, during which John Bebel was imprisoned, may have had some influence on his selection of a device. It consisted of a tree, in the branches of which was a prostrate man, and over him was a large flat thing representing the platen of a printing press (Example 536). On the platen were words meaning “Do not press poor me to death.”

Christopher Plantin, printer and publisher of Antwerp, Belgium, whose famous printing office, preserved as a museum, was one of the shrines of worshiping printer-pilgrims up to the beginning of the European war, employed a device which is emblematic of the saying of Jesus, “I am the vine.”

A device used by the Elzevirs at Leyden, Holland, in 1620, shows a tree with spreading branches. On one side of the trunk is the figure of a man and on the other a scroll with the words _Non solus_ (not alone).

Robert Estienne had a similar device in 1544 (Example 536-A). This device as shown is slightly reduced from the original, while those previously mentioned are greatly reduced in size.

John Froben of Basel, Switzerland, who was a close friend of Erasmus, the philosopher and patron of learning, in 1520 used a device containing a staff surmounted by a dove and entwined by two serpents. (Example 542.) The legend, “Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves,” occasionally accompanied the design.

Sometimes these printers’ marks were so large as to leave little room for the title-page proper, in contrast to which is the extreme modesty of Ulrich Zell of Cologne, Prussia, whose works are numerous and who is credited with starting the story of the invention of printing by Coster. Zell scarcely ever placed even his name on a book, yet his work may easily be identified.

* * * * *

The Heintzemann Press device in Example 534 has an antique appearance and its designer evidently received inspiration for his anchor, foliage and scroll from such devices as those of Aldus and Plantin. The Rogers-Riverside Press mark, too, has ancient motifs. The anchor-shaped thistle, as already stated, is based upon Aldus’s device, and the frame suggests old designs in metal.

EXAMPLE 545

A mark that has to do with mythology
]

There is a suggestion of the pot device of Tory in the decorative portion of the Merrymount Press imprint shown as Example 537. This appeared at the end of the book as a colophon, the style in which the imprint is written fitting it for that position. It will be remembered that the printers of Italy usually had the beginning and ending set in capitals to differentiate them from the body of the book. Elbert Hubbard used the idea commercially on his advertising booklets, as in Example 550.

Perhaps the device shown as Example 541 is a bit too suggestive for practical use by printers of the present day. Stephen Dolet’s name, in its literal meaning, has something to do with an ax, hewing and cutting. Dolet was a scholarly printer of the sixteenth century who suffered martyrdom at the stake in 1546.

The oval shape for imprint designs is not unpleasant, as will be seen by Example 542.

The Fezandat device was designed by Tory. The pheasant is a pun on the printer’s name. The device as a whole is pleasing.

The Riverside Press device is classically Greek in motif. Pan and his pipes appear on many of the marks of this press in various designs. The one shown is from “Pan’s Pipes,” a Riverside Press publication.

EXAMPLE 544

Printers’ marks based on architectural motifs
]

The winged ball, torch and other symbolic decorative devices are blended pleasingly on the mark (Example 542), which appeared on the title-pages of the famous Eliot six-foot shelf of books, “The Harvard Classics,” 1909.

* * * * *

EXAMPLE 546

The monogram is an attractive form for printers’ devices
]

EXAMPLE 547

Representative of the large variety of devices in use by American
printers and publishers
]