extended much further than is allowed by these limits. Pages could be
filled with descriptions of instances in which the compositor had erred
in treating typography and ornamentation inharmoniously or with an
unimaginative appropriateness. The use of angelic ornaments on Y. M. C.
A. printing, where something more substantial is desirable; the
double-meaning that may be read into the use of a horseshoe ornament on
a printer’s letterhead; the placing of illustrations of live fish,
lobsters and animal food on banquet programs—these are a few of the
things that might be mentioned.
High-class catalogs have been marred by the use of stock decorative
initials which were at variance with the other decoration. In order to
save a few cents both printer and customer are inclined to use stock
decoration that happens to be on hand at the moment. Hundreds of dollars
are spent on the work and then for the sake of saving thirty cents (the
cost of a harmonious initial or ornament) many dollars in effectiveness
are sacrificed. Another way of injuring the appearance of a book is to
use a type-face on the title-page that does not harmonize with that used
for the body matter and the sub-headings. In order to secure complete
harmony even the lettering on the cover should blend in style with that
used for the title-page, sub-headings and text pages.
Altho strict adherence to the laws of harmony and appropriateness is
necessary in the production of good work in any field of endeavor,
Americans seem to be really proud when they violate such laws. We all
know the person who dresses in a slouchy manner because he read
somewhere that Horace Greeley dressed that way. And there is the modern
politician who wears a slouch hat and constantly carries a quid of
tobacco in his mouth because Henry Clay did so. There are also
house-organ publishers who use inharmonious and inappropriate type-faces
and decoration because Elbert Hubbard thus treats the cover of the
Philistine.
It is not a question of the sort of clothes a person actually needs to
go from one end of a street to another—Lady Godiva reached her
destination with no clothes at all—yet we often admire a person dressed
harmoniously and in good taste without knowing the reasons for our
admiration. As there is art in tailoring and in the selection of
clothes, there is also art in printing, and he who investigates will
find that the great natural laws of beauty apply even to typography,
which some by their work seem to think requires no more thought than
ditch-digging.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 43
Uniform tone in classic typography. Page by Bruce Rogers
]
[Illustration]
TONE AND CONTRAST
This chapter is a story of the alpha and omega of color—white and black.
Since the creation of the world, when light first illumined the
darkness, these two colors (if I may call them colors) have been
emblematic of extremes—white, the symbol of purity and goodness, black
of impurity and evil. White and black represent extremes in color.
Mixing of all the color rays of the solar spectrum produces white, and
mixing of all the colors in the solid form of printing ink produces
black. From this contrast of white and black maybe drawn a lesson in
color. (Example 31.) Light represents warmth, darkness cold. As the
colors are toward light they are warm; as they are toward darkness they
are cold. Red becomes warmer as it takes on an orange hue, and colder as
it takes on a purple hue. A warm color should be contrasted with a cold
color—as orange with black. The further in tone the color is from black
the more it contrasts with the black. As an illustration: Orange is more
pleasing than a deeper shade of red as a companion color for black.
Blue, purple or green, selected to be used with black, must be lightened
with white ink to get the desired contrast.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 31
Contrast in color and tone
]
White and black as a combination are and ever have been popular with
writers, printers and readers. Fully nine-tenths of the newspapers,
books, catalogs and other forms of reading matter are printed with black
ink on white stock. It is coincident that optical necessities require
for best results in reading a black-and-white combination, and black ink
and white paper are more cheaply and easily produced than other colors
of ink and paper.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 32
An example of uniform tone and contrast of black and white. Page by F.
W. Kleukens, Darmstadt
]
This chapter is also an illustrated sermon on uniformity of tone or
depth of color, in which is pointed out the necessity of bringing many
spots of black or gray into harmonious relation. The esthetic importance
of uniformity of tone is universally recognized. Choirs are robed in
white and black; fashion has its uniform clothing for the hours and
functions of the day and night; theater choruses and the soldiery are
living masses of uniform tone and color. As uniformity is important in
these things, so is uniformity important in the tone of a page of
printing. A type-page exhibiting a variegated mass of black and gray
tones is not unlike a squad of recruits in different styles of clothing
marching irregularly; while on the contrary a type-page of uniform tone
and arrangement maybe likened to a uniformly equipped regiment of
soldiers marching with rhythmic tread.
A page of display typography composed of a mixture of irregular gray and
black tones is inexcusable in the sight of the art-loving reader. As
combinations of inharmonious type-faces are wrong, equally so are
combinations of incongruous tones. For the sake of contrast and variety
in typography, art principles are too often ignored, the printer
confessing to ignorance or lack of ingenuity. Contrast is necessary, but
it may be had without sacrificing uniformity. Again making use of a
military simile: soldiers are marched in platoons, companies, battalions
and regiments that the monotony of solid formation may be broken; type
is arranged in groups and paragraphs for similar reasons. While an
absolutely solid page of type may present a pleasing tone, a slight
break in the regularity is desirable for reading purposes. 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; emphasize the
words he wants emphasized, but do it in a way that will result in
creditable typography. There is a right way and there is a wrong way of
arranging type, and too many typographers arrange type the wrong way and
unjustly blame the customer for the result.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 34
]
* * * * *
The effectiveness of uniformly black tone on a background of white is
well illustrated on the beautiful book title shown as Example 32, in
which even depth of color is consistently maintained. There is not a
weak spot on the page; border, ornament and lettering are of equal tone,
and the white background is reflected thru the black print in agreeable
contrast. The Germans are masters in their treatment of contrast and
uniform tone, and he who bewails the limitations of black and white
printing should ponder over the results shown by this specimen from over
the sea.
Here is a practical demonstration of the workings of the theory of
uniform tone in typography. Example 33 displays four ornaments, each of
a different tone or depth of color. One of the customs when constructing
a booklet cover-page to be ornamented, is first to select an ornament
that is appropriate in design and of proper proportions. Upon this
ornament the page is constructed, and it dictates the characteristics of
the border and of the type-face; its tone determines the tone of the
entire page. This is also true of a trademark furnished by the customer,
altho such plates are frequently so inartistic that a compromise is
necessary.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 35
]
Assuming that a cover-page is to be designed and that ornament A has
been selected for use on the page, a rule border is chosen with triple
lines approximating the strength of those in the ornament. (Example 34.)
The lines are very thin, and white space is a large factor in producing
a tone that is light and dainty, in keeping with the subject of the
illustration. A perfect result would be obtained with a type-face of
very thin strokes, yet Caslon capitals, slightly separated to let in
white space, give good results.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 33
Four ornaments, each of a different depth of tone, used in the
construction of the four pages shown as examples 34, 35, 36 and 37
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 36
]
The ornament shown as B has been formed of lines darker than those used
in the first ornament, and a mass of white forms a spot of contrast.
Rules of the proper tone are selected and a border unit adopted that
reflects the spot of white in the ornament. (Example 35.) Cheltenham
capitals maintain the tone scheme. In this case, as in others, the
type-face is a trifle stronger in tone than ornament and border. This is
well. Type-lines on a cover are usually of more importance than the
decoration.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 37
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 38. Dark tone—solid
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 39. Light tone—spaced
Two extremes of tone on book pages. The same type-face is used on both
pages; the spacing between words and lines alters the tone
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 40
A page by J. H. Kehler, in which illustration and text are blended in
uniform tone
]
Ornament C differs from ornament A in that it is composed of light lines
contrasted with solid blacks. A border is made of a light line and a
dark one, and the Bodoni type-face, containing light and heavy strokes
in contrast with a white background, assists in producing a decidedly
pleasing medium black tone (Example 36).
This combination of ornament, type and rule demonstrates there is
considerable tone beauty in a well-selected contrast of light and dark
lines when set off by liberal white space between lines and in the
background.
The dense black tone of ornament D is duplicated in the dark-line border
filled with black decorative units (Example 37). The black-printing
Chaucer Text reflects not only the tone but the decorative
characteristics of ornament and border. The tone of this example
approximates that of the German page (Example 32).
These four examples afford an interesting study in uniform tone.
As the tone or depth of color increases from the light gray of Example
34 to the dense black of Example 37, it will be observed that the
contrast between the print and the paper background also increases. This
leads to the subject of contrast. What amount of contrast is needed on
the ideal job of printing? There is conflict between art and utility on
this question, but there need be none. Art demands that the print be a
part of the paper upon which it is impressed, much as the plant is a
part of the earth in which its roots are buried, and utility demands
that the print shall be strong and clear that reading may be made easy.
The artist-printer lessens the contrast between print and paper by
printing with gray ink on gray stock, brown ink on light brown stock,
and so forth. The utility printer gets the maximum of contrast by
printing with black ink on white stock. As printing is both art and
business some compromise must be made, and it is this: On two-color
printing have all reading matter in the stronger color and subdue the
color of the decoration so that the contrast between the paper and the
print of the reading portion of the page is softened by this
intermediate tone. Black print on white paper is made artistic by
impressing the print firmly on antique paper. This roots the print to
the paper, and the result is more idealistic than that presented by the
print daintily set upon the surface of glossy, enameled papers.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 41
The spotted black tone of the border is reflected in the treatment of
the text. 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; this
statement may be made plain by a comparison. One winter’s day when the
conventional folk of New York were wearing clothing of a somber hue,
they were startled by the appearance among them of Mark Twain in a suit
of white. Six months later the humorist’s garb would have excited no
comment, but the black clothed mass of humanity around him emphasized
the whiteness of his attire, and the conspicuousness thus produced
separated him from his surroundings and made him an object of curiosity.
Such things are done by great men to show their disregard for custom and
by others because they are foolish or are advertising something; but it
is common-sense right from Cervantes to do when in Rome as the Romans do
(meaning that printed work which both attracts and repels by its gaudy,
unconventional appearance is not nearly so good or desirable as the more
conventional printed work which tastefully and quietly presents its
message in subdued tones). One man will become widely known because he
has dived from a big bridge or gone over Niagara Falls; another because
he has painted a great picture or modeled a great statue. The one
thrills, the other impresses. It may be easier to produce typography
which attracts attention by contrast, but such results do not bring the
lasting satisfaction that comes from typography thoughtfully and
artistically designed.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 44
A study in uniformity of tone as found in combinations of type and
decoration
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 42
The tone of the illustration and type-face is here blended. Card by
School of Printing, Boston, Mass.
]
Several other points are suggested by Examples 34 to 37. A page for a
cover should be of darker tone than a page to be used as a title inside
the book; this where the body-type of the inside pages is of the
customary gray tone. A cover placed upon a book to protect it suggests
strength, and the typography of the cover should conform to this
suggestion. The reason for the uniform tone presented by each of the
four examples above mentioned is another important point. Were the
border darker than the ornament and type lines, the ornament darker than
the border and type lines, or the type lines darker than the ornament
and border, there would not be uniformity of tone, and a consequent loss
in the effectiveness that comes from tone harmony.
* * * * *
The tone of a massed page is of vital importance in the typography of a
book, and a happy medium is somewhere between the under-spaced black
type-page of Morris and the over-spaced hair-line type-page against
which the Morris page was a protest. Examples 38 and 39 show the manner
in which the tone of a page may be controlled by spacing. In Example 38
the page is moderately spaced between words and lines and in Example 39
the page is liberally spaced, presenting two extremes and vividly
picturing the manner in which spacing influences the page tone.
The tone of the pen-and-ink outline illustration in Example 40 is
admirably duplicated in the typographical treatment accorded the page.
The result would not have been so satisfactory if there had been no quad
lines to break the solidity of the page.
The spotted black tone of the decorative border in Example 41 is
reflected in the typography of the page, a result obtained by using a
bold-faced body-type and separating the words with a liberal amount of
space. However, the tone would not be equal printed in one color, but by
printing the border in a lighter color the tones are equalized. Here is
a suggestion for obtaining even tones. Where one portion of the page is
bolder than the other, print it in a lighter shade of ink, or if any
part of a type-page must be printed in a lighter color, set that part in
a type-face of darker tone (Example 47).
Job printers should be interested in Example 42, as it is a good
presentation of the theory of uniform tone. The effect of the open-line
illustration is duplicated in the spaced Jenson capitals and cross
lines. The result would have been even better had the small groups on
both sides of the illustration been slightly letterspaced and the line
at the bottom spaced less.
Example 43, on the insert, is a classic interpretation of uniform tone.
The architectural design is formed of lines about the same strength as
the strokes of the type-face and the massed capital letters admit
sufficient light to give them a tone near to that of the open-spaced
border.
Example 44 (insert) is a pleasing blend of tone and characteristics. The
delicate light-gray tone of the Camelot type-face is closely matched in
the decoration and border, and altogether this is an almost perfect
exemplification of the subject of this chapter. It is seldom that an
artist so carefully considers the characteristics of a type-face and
reproduces these characteristics in so admirable a manner as was done in
this instance.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 45
In which the tone of the initial and headpiece is lightened to near
that of the text portion. Page by Heintzemann Press, Boston
]
Initials and headpieces should approach closely the tone of the
type-page of which they are parts. Example 45 shows such a combination,
with the tone of the decoration just a trifle darker than that of the
text portion. An initial has other duties to perform than merely to look
pretty; it must direct the eye to the beginning of the reading matter.
In the manuscript books of the Middle Ages, written without paragraphs,
the starting point of a new thought was denoted by an initial more or
less elaborate. The utilitarian purpose thus served by the initial is
reason for making it a trifle darker than the remainder of the page.
However, if there is great contrast in tone, the page will be difficult
to read because of the initial claiming too much attention. The effect
would be much like attempting to listen to one speaker while another is
calling and beckoning.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 46
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 48
Display lines in tone should match the border
]
Every rule has its exception and I wish to record one in the matter of
uniform tone. On a page composed of display lines and a large amount of
reading matter it is an offense against legibility to set the reading
matter in a type-face of black tone to correspond with the display
lines, considerable contrast being necessary in such cases to make
reading easy. (Example 48.) Notwithstanding this exception in the case
of reading matter, uniform tone should be retained between display lines
and border.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 47
]
If a catalog is illustrated (and the majority are) it is important to
have the illustrations prominent on the page, sacrificing tone to
utility if necessary. Sometimes the illustrations are printed in dense
black and the remainder of the page in gray or brown. While this causes
the illustrations to stand out in relief—an important point when
machinery is depicted—it should not be forgotten that the type matter
must be read.
In advertising composition it is seldom possible to have an even tone on
the entire page. The New York _Herald_ advertising pages are unique in
this respect. Outline type-faces are used, and all illustrations are
redrawn in outline before they are published. This serves to give a
uniformly gray tone to the pages, but the advertisers are not
enthusiastic over the effects. While other newspapers may not be able to
maintain uniform page tone, it is possible at least to have each
advertisement present a tone uniform in its displayed parts and border,
and the good typographer will secure such effects. The gray shaded
type-faces now available should enable printers and publishers to obtain
tone uniformity where gray effects are desired and large type sizes
used.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 49
Equal spacing is necessary to obtain uniform tone
]
Irregular letterspacing has been the cause of many pages of
unsatisfactory tone. In a displayed page where one line is spaced
between letters, all lines should be similarly spaced. Example 49
presents a decidedly unconventional letterhead by reason of the
letterspacing, and it illustrates the point that all lines should be
spaced equally. It may be well to warn job compositors inclined to
imitate the style of this heading that there are few customers who would
concede any merit to such an arrangement, and it should be used
sparingly. Unconventional treatment, even tho good along the lines of
the style chosen, is not always appreciated.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 58
In which the ornament, the border and the type-face are in proportion
]
[Illustration]
PROPORTION, BALANCE AND SPACING
Symmetry is necessary to beauty. This law of esthetics is as applicable
to typography as to sculpture and architecture. Proportion and balance—
the things that make for symmetry in typography—are obtained only by
giving the work more attention than seems necessary to the average
producer and buyer of printing.
Why should the printer worry about esthetics—about symmetry? What has
art to do with printing, anyway? Questions such as these find too
frequent voice in the printing trade, coming from the employee whose
interest and ambitions end when he “gets the scale,” and the employer
who is satisfied merely to deliver so many pounds of paper and ounces of
ink for so much money. Pity the man whose work is drudgery and who
denies that art and beauty are meant for him. He has his antithesis in
the man who, appreciating the higher blessings, neglects to give value
to the more common and practical things.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 50
One method of determining the page length. The page should measure
diagonally twice its width
]
There have always been two opposing classes—in religion, politics, art,
music, business. On all questions one portion of humanity is “for” and
the other “against,” mostly because of the influence of environment upon
tastes and interests. Mozart’s and Beethoven’s music charms and enthuses
and also lulls to sleep. One class should try to understand the other.
Each has good reasons for its preferences, but none at all for its
prejudices. The painter Rubens, gathering inspiration in the courts of
royalty, portrayed luxury and magnificence. Millet, painting in a barn,
pictured poverty, sorrow and dulled minds. What pleased one found little
sympathy in the other. During the Middle Ages learned men talked, wrote
and thought in Latin, and when it was proposed to translate the
Scriptures into the language of the masses these men held up their hands
in horror.
Not so many years ago the book printer looked upon the job printer as
the Roman patrician looked upon the plebeian, but the job printer has
absorbed dignity and typographic taste from the book printer. While the
book printer’s highest ideal is a volume with uncut leaves ornamenting
the book shelves of the collector, the job printer’s mission is to be
all things to all men. He prints the refined announcements of art
schools one day and another day finds him placing wood type to tell the
story of a rural sale of articles “too numerous to mention.”