printer, and also between the printer who regards his calling as a
business and the printer who regards it as an art. The employer and
employee who consider printing only a means to an end and that end
money, are as near right and as near wrong as they who produce art
printing for art’s sake and forget the pay envelop and the customer’s
check. The first starve their souls, the last their bodies.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 51
Another method of determining the page length. The length of the page
should measure fifty per cent more than its width. These examples
also present proportionate margins, the foot margin in each instance
being the largest
]
The printer who does things artistically in an economical manner
“strikes twelve” (in the slang of Elbert Hubbard). Printing need not be
shorn of beauty to be profitable to both printer and customer, tho
beauty too conspicuous turns attention from the real purpose of the
printed job—which, in the case of a booklet, is the message the words
convey. An equestrian statue of Napoleon should feature the great
conqueror, not the horse, but would be impossible with the horse left
out.
Art is essential to printing; so are Uncle Sam’s specimens of steel
engraving. The more art the printer absorbs the larger should grow his
collection of these engravings. Study of art arouses ambition; ambition
brings better and harder work. It reveals in the typographer the
difference between mere lead-lifting and the artistic selection and
arrangement of types. The boy who sweeps the floor and does his best is
nearer art-heaven than he who sets type and cares not how he does it.
The printer who determines to learn about art—who makes continued effort
to find the reason why one man’s work is good and another’s is not, will
be surprised and gratified at the new world that unfolds itself as he
studies. He will find that altho having eyes, he has really seen only as
he has appreciated. There is no easy road to the appreciation of the
beautiful. Art does not consist merely of a set of rules to be observed;
there are few beacon lights placed by those who have trod the road.
Beyond a certain point the novice must depend upon intuition or
“feeling.” Great painters have been asked their method of producing
masterpieces, and have been unable to explain.
* * * * *
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 53
In which vertical lines predominate
]
In introducing the subject of “Proportion” it is well first to dispose
of book pages. In olden times the sizes of books were known by the
number of folds to a sheet of paper about 18 × 24 inches. A book made
from such sheets, folded once into two leaves, was known as a folio
volume and measured about 12 × 18 inches. Folded twice into four leaves,
a quarto, measuring 9 × 12 inches. Folded three times into eight leaves,
an octavo, measuring 6 × 9 inches. Paper is now made in a variety of
sizes, which allow of individual preferences being satisfied. For the
sizes of catalogs 9 × 12 and 6 × 9 are becoming standard. The sizes do
not depart far from the rule of proportion which holds that the width of
the page should be two-thirds its length.
Examples 50 and 51 illustrate two widely-used methods of determining
page lengths. By the first method (Example 50) the page should measure
diagonally twice its width. In this instance the width being eight
picas, the diagonal measurement is sixteen picas. By the second method
the length of the page should measure fifty per cent more than its
width. Here the width being eight picas, the length is twelve picas.
These measurements may or may not include the running titles or folios.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 54
Compare with Example 53
]
If only small margins are possible, the page (exclusive of running
title) should be about centered, with a slight inclination toward the
head and back. But when margins are reasonably ample the page should set
liberally toward the head and back; the margins of the head and back
(exclusive of the running title) should be about the same, the outer
side margin should be fifty per cent more than the back margin, and the
foot margin one hundred per cent more than the back margin. Various
explanations of this rule have been put forward, a few of which are: The
old book-owner making marginal notations as he read, needed wide margins
for the purpose. Early manuscript books were bound on wood, and this
wood was extended at the foot and used to hold the book when reading.
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?
And the answer is: A type-face should conform in the proportion of its
letters to the proportion of the page. Let us thoroly understand this.
In Example 52 there are shown three widths of type—condensed, medium and
extended. The type of medium width is more used than the condensed or
extended kind, and most pages have a proportion such as Example 55. From
viewpoints of both economy and art, the type-face of medium width should
be given preference when selecting type equipment. Condensed types are
properly proportioned for use as headings in the narrow columns of
newspapers and for narrow folders and booklets.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 55
The conventional page shape, with type and ornament in proportion
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 52
Three widths of type-faces
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 57
Compare with Example 56
]
Many of the laws that are necessary to good typography also govern the
other arts. As an instance, in architecture it is requisite that a tall
and narrow building contain a preponderance of vertical lines, a feature
most noticeable in church buildings of Gothic style (Example 54).
Because the extent of vertical lines is greater than that of horizontal
ones in a condensed type-face, such a face is proper for a long and
narrow page (Example 53). The proportion of page shown by Example 55 is
about that met with most frequently in printing production. Here the
vertical lines are in a slight majority, but it is interesting to
observe that in Example 56 where the page is more wide than long,
horizontal lines are more numerous than vertical ones.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 56
In which horizontal lines predominate
]
It is not always possible to follow out in every detail the requirements
of proportion. Architects must sacrifice much in the interests of
utility and in deference to the wishes of their clients. Printers must
do likewise, but as a rule they travel farther from true art principles
than do architects. Consider the contrasting proportions of the
structures in Examples 54 and 57. In Example 54 notice that the openings
have been made to conform to the general proportions, and that vertical
lines have been multiplied to emphasize narrowness and hight. As a
contrast, in Example 57 observe the width of the openings; how it blends
with the general proportion of this structure. Now to ascertain that
typography parallels architecture compare Example 53 with 54, and 56
with 57.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 59
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 60
The type-faces of these two examples are not in proportion with the
pages
]
An exaggerated idea of the relation of lines to proportion is furnished
by Examples 62 (see insert) and 63. The vertical lines of Example 62 run
with the length of the page as smoothly as a canoe floating down stream.
The horizontal lines of Example 63 are irritating in their disregard of
proportion. For the eye to take in at a glance both the page lines
running vertically and the rules running horizontally is as difficult as
watching a three-ring circus. Examples 59 and 60 also illustrate this
point.
I have prepared in Example 58 (see insert) a page in which not only are
ornament, type-face and page-design in proportion, but the
characteristics of the ornament are reflected in the border, and the
tone is uniform.
Irregularity of form is valuable in breaking monotony, and in some forms
of art may be essential, but as contained in Example 61 this feature is
inharmonious. Before experimenting with variety or becoming agitated
about monotony the typographer should perfect himself in the things that
make for regularity. When he learns to set a page that is harmonious and
in proportion then it may be well to introduce irregularity—in
homeopathic doses.
* * * * *
There is much uncertainty manifested among typographers as to the
proportionate strength of display lines on a page. A type line is
proportionately large or small as it contrasts with its environment.
Gulliver was a giant when among pigmies. The foremost citizen of a
country town is considerably reduced in importance when he rubs elbows
with the big men of the cities. The homely adage that “a big frog in a
small puddle is a small frog in a big puddle,” is applicable to
typography. A display line surrounded by other type lines (Example 64)
must be made larger or by strengthened strokes made bolder than when
alone on the page (Example 65). The old City Hall in New York is claimed
to be the most beautiful work of architecture in the city, but is
ridiculously out of proportion with the towering office buildings
surrounding it.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 63
Horizontal lines are not suitable for a vertically narrow page (See
Example 62, insert)
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 61
Type-faces and borders are mismated
]
Examples 66, 67 and 68 are studies in the proportion of a type-face to
the page of which it is a part. In Example 66 the page is largely
covered with type, treatment that is necessary on poster, dodger and
other printed matter that must force its presence upon the public. In
Example 67 the page consists mostly of blank space, the type standing
modestly and apologetically in the midst of that space. This treatment
is proper on dainty works of poetry or when the demands of extreme
refinement are to be satisfied. Example 68 is the “happy medium,” the
compromise—a strength of display that will be satisfactory in almost
every case. This method of arriving at correct treatment emphasizes the
need in the typographer of a judicial as well as an artistic
temperament. The wise judge knows that truth is about midway between the
claims of opposing counsel.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 64
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 65
A display line surrounded by other type lines must be made larger than
when alone on the page, to obtain proportionate emphasis
]
* * * * *
Balance is another important subject, as it has a big share in making
typography good or bad. The builder works with plumb-line and
spirit-level that his walls may be in perfect balance, tho sometimes he
is tempted, as the printer is tempted, to work away from the center of
gravity. In Italy there is a building, an architectural curiosity—the
leaning tower of Pisa (Example 73) in the construction of which gravity
has been defied to the limit, and in Canada only recently a bridge in
course of construction on this gravity-defying principle, fell in a mass
into the river. In typography, safety from blunder lies in type lines
horizontally centered. Typographic experts experimenting with
out-of-the-center balance, both succeed and fail. Compositors imitating
them generally fail. Example 76 is an out-of-the-center arrangement that
is fairly successful. Balance is saved by the type-lines in the upper
left corner and by the border surrounding the page. Examples 69 and 75
show out-of-center balance adapted to a business card and a booklet
cover.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 69
Out-of-center balance, adapted to a business card
]
While horizontally the center is the point of perfect balance,
vertically it is not. Stick a pin thru the very center of an oblong
piece of cardboard and twirl the card; when movement ceases the card may
not hang uprightly. Mark off the card in three equal sections and stick
the pin thru the horizontal center of the line separating the upper two
thirds. After being twirled the card will cease to move in a perfectly
upright position. Example 71 shows a word placed in exact center, yet it
appears to be low. Example 72 shows a line above center at the point of
vertical balance. On a title-page, business card, and on most jobs of
printing the weight should come at this point. The principal line, or
group, should provide strength necessary to give balance. Example 70
presents a page with type group and ornament placed unusually high. The
typographer responsible was undoubtedly testing balance to the limit.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 66
Type proportionately too large for the average page
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 67
Type proportionately too small for the average page
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 68
This proportion is about right for the average page
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 62
In which the lines of the design run in the proper direction. Arranged
by Will Bradley
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 70
In which the upper type group is unusually high. Page by D. B. Updike
]
Sometimes the customer gets a notion he wants a type-line placed
diagonally across the page in a manner like Example 74. Such
arrangements generally show lack of imagination and are crudely
freakish. There are so many orderly ways of arranging type that such
poorly balanced specimens are deplorable.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 74
A disorderly arrangement
]
Spacing is seemingly one of the little things—merely incidental to the
mechanical practice of typography. When the apprentice compositor is
told to divide his spaces evenly among all the words in a line; not to
thin space one line and double-thick space another; to transpose a
two-point lead, or make some other what to him may appear to be trivial
alteration in spacing, he judges his instructor to be over-particular.
Yet the proper apportionment of space on a page determines the tone and
the balance and aids in giving proportion and emphasis.
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. The designers of the best type-faces have given
attention to this feature and have demonstrated that legibility is
increased with proper space distribution. Because of the excessive open
space it contains, the capital L gives the most trouble of any letter
used as an initial. As part of the word “Millinery” the irregularity of
spacing is particularly prominent (Example 79-a). Partly to overcome
this irregularity the companion letters should be spaced as shown in
79-b. When the letters A T occur together, and the space between them
should be decreased, it is necessary to file the metal in the upper
right of the type A and the metal in the lower left of the type T.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 71
A word placed in exact center appears to be low
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 72
Showing the point of vertical balance
]
With roman type-faces, important words are usually emphasized by italics
or small capitals. The Germans, using for body purposes a text letter
which has no italic or small capitals, space the letters to get emphasis
(Example 80-a). Letter-spaced words thus used are perhaps as neat as
italic, and the idea may well be adapted to roman types (Example 80-b).
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 73
Balance out of center
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 75
The ornament balances the design. Page by School of Printing, Boston
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 76
Out-of-center balance. Page by Will Bradley
]
The relation of lines to proportion, as illustrated by Examples 62 and
63, is also to be considered in the composition of plain reading pages.
Example 77 shows how the effect of horizontal lines is given by narrow
spacing between the words and wide spacing between the lines. This gives
a result, like that of Example 63, contrary to the principles of
proportion. How this may be overcome is illustrated in Example 78, which
contains the same amount of space between the words as is between the
lines. This treatment not only gives better proportion, but improves the
tone of the page.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 77
The effect of horizontal lines is given by narrow spacing between the
words and wide spacing between the lines
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 79
Other letters must be spaced because of the open appearance of the
letter “L”
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 81
The erroneous and obsolete practice of spreading the lines over the
page
]
Adapting this principle to display composition, Examples 81 and 82 are
enlightening. Example 81 shows the manner in which some years ago
display lines were erroneously distributed over the entire page,
presenting in effect the faults of Example 77. The manner of rectifying
these faults is demonstrated in Example 82, where main lines are grouped
at the point of balance in the upper part of the page.
The narrow measure to which these words are set necessitates
letterspacing. The resulting appearance is far from satisfactory yet it
enables illustrations to be grouped pleasingly and makes possible a
squaring of the pages which could not be done otherwise.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 78
The effect of horizontal lines is avoided by having the space between
the words approximate that between the lines
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 80
Emphasis obtained by letterspacing, in lieu of italics and small
capitals
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 82
The correct modern practice of grouping the lines at the point of
balance
]
It is not always that results are as perfect as we desire them. In New
England there is a printer who, in the opinion of those fortunate to
have viewed his work, is producing typography classically perfect; yet
this man goes from his work at the close of the day almost discouraged
because of the faults that are evident to his trained eye. The artist’s
ideal always eludes him and the chase seems a hopeless one, yet he
continues on lest he lose sight of it altogether. It is a good sign when
one recognizes imperfections; it means that he is gaining ground on
success.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 125
Illustrating the significance of ornamentation, as applied to a
booklet. Design by the Matthews-Northrup Works, Buffalo, N. Y.
]
[Illustration]
ORNAMENTATION
Offer a child the choice of two toys, alike excepting that one has a
flower painted upon it, and he will doubtlessly select the ornamented
one; proving that the human race has a natural liking for ornamentation.
When the old-time trader visited savage countries, he took with him
colored glass and brought back gold. The glass soon after ornamented the
somber bodies of the savages, and the gold became rings and bracelets
worn by the whites. There are those in this day who love the trees and
the flowers and hear music in the brooks, but more find pleasure in
artificially ornamented ball-rooms with music blown and sawn and
hammered from brass and catgut and sheepskin.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 83
The egg-and-dart ornament
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 84
The bead ornament
]
Man was created in a garden of flowers and trees pleasant to the sight,
yet he has ever been yearning for a new Eden of pure gold, garnished
with precious stones, forgetting that Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like the lily of the field. Nature is the great artist, and
man’s ornamentation at best is a poor imitation of natural things. The
trees of the forest gave the motive for the stone columns and ornamental
capitals of architecture, and the plant and animal world furnished
themes for talented calligraphers in the days when books were literally
written. The blue vault of the skies inspired Michelangelo to plan the
great dome of St. Peter’s at Rome, as the sun furnished a model for the
Indian while decorating his tepee, and the flowers of the field have
provided inexhaustible color harmonies.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 85
The egg-and-dart ornament as a typographic border
]
In the early days of this country most of the inhabitants devoted their
working hours to the struggle for existence, and it has been only within
recent years that the average man has given thought to art. Many a one
has thrown off his lethargy to discover beautiful things all about which
he had never before noticed.
Art galleries and libraries all over the United States are aiding
greatly in the cultivation of taste for art, and the printer to whom
these privileges are accessible, yet who does not avail himself of their
advantages, is much like the man who was lost in the Adirondacks, not
knowing he was but a half-mile from a railroad. China, who could conquer
the world if she only knew her power, has been sleeping for centuries,
while a little handful of intelligent people on a small island of Europe
wields an influence that is felt wherever the sun shines.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 86
The bead ornament as a typographic border
]
The printer and he of an allied vocation should take less thought of
food and raiment and devote more thought to learning the things of today
and yesterday with which he may be but little acquainted. If one knows
just enough to “make a living” he will never make more than a living. A
study of art, of history, of the larger things in the printing business,
will result in the good things of the earth being added.
* * * * *
Is ornamentation necessary to art-typography? Ask one good printer and
he will answer, yes. Ask another and he will answer, no. One of the
meanings of ornament as given by the Standard dictionary is: “A part or
an addition that contributes to the beauty or elegance of a thing.” A
paper may be so pleasing in texture as to give beauty or elegance to an
otherwise plain page of printing; in fact, it is sometimes a mistake to
use type ornaments or other embellishment on a richly finished hand-made
paper. On the contrary, a stock poor in quality or color had better be
covered with decoration to divert attention from the paper.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 87
Conventionalized papyrus plant (Egyptian)
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 88
The winged ball, an ornament much used by the Egyptians
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 89
The acanthus leaf, much used by the Greeks and Romans in ornamentation
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 90
Palm-like ornament, used by Greeks and Romans
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 91
Plain and dignified. The Doric pillar
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 92
Slightly ornamental. The Ionic pillar
]
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 93
Elaborately ornamental. The Corinthian pillar
]
There are printshops in which all ornaments are kept under lock and key;
a compositor wishing to use decoration must present good reasons before
he gets it. Customers have become suspicious of type ornamentation
because of the peculiar use to which printers sometimes put it. A young
man some years ago became possessed of a desire to do artistic printing
and had a number of type ornaments purchased with which to express his
ideas. When one proof after another came from the customer with ominous
blue marks upon the cherished ornaments, he realized the necessity of
revising his ideas of art. For fully a year after that he worked without
voluntarily using an ornament, meanwhile developing all the
possibilities of good type-faces and appropriate paper stocks and color
combinations. It has been claimed that fasting has a beneficial effect
on the body; be that as it may, our friend certainly improved his
artistic taste by his abstinence. When he again began using ornaments it
was with discrimination and after study of their significance and
appropriateness.
* * * * *
This leads to the subject of motive or reason in ornamentation. The
styles of typography may be generally divided into two classes, one
dominated by Roman or Italian influence and the other by Gothic or
German influence. During the Middle Ages the Gothic influence was felt
chiefly because the pointed style of architecture and embellishment was
sanctioned by the Christian church. As art was practically dead outside
the church, the art-workers absorbed the Gothic style.
[Illustration:
EXAMPLE 94
Ornamentation as used by the Romans on an entablature and a Corinthian
pillar, showing egg-and-dart, bead, and acanthus ornaments
]