that the width of the page should approximate one-half of the diagonal.
Another is that the length of line should be one-half more than the
length of a line of the twenty-six lower-case letters of the type used.
But all such rules are only guides, to be discarded when the effect
you are after seems to require something else; this something else to
be determined only by the judgment of the designer and his feeling for
the appearance of the page. In the reproduction of the styles of early
typography the designer should avoid setting small type in too wide a
measure. The old printers in their folio volumes did not seem to mind
very long lines of comparatively small type. But most of these ancient
books in Roman type were never intended for rapid reading. They were
generally Latin texts where the eye follows the line better than in
English or French composition. Latin composition naturally makes more
beautiful pages on account of the preponderance of short letters--m, n,
u, etc., with comparatively few ascenders and descenders. The evenness
of spacing that the early printers got came from their abundant use of
Latin abbreviations and their indifference as to how many consecutive
word divisions occurred at the ends of lines, but it was never a
conscious effort to obtain what is called "texture" in the page. There
should be no laboring to produce a perfectly spaced page but rather an
endeavor to avoid a badly spaced one.
* * * * *
The amount of leading that a page requires depends on so many factors
that it is difficult to give any fixed method of procedure. The kind of
type, the size of type, the length of line and the general character of
the text all bear on this point. Generally speaking, most types should
be at least slightly leaded, especially if the lines are fairly long.
This helps the eye to catch the following line in rapid reading more
easily than when the type is set solidly. The solid pages were usually
adopted when old-style types were used exclusively; but when modern
type came in, beginning with Bodoni, the custom of leading, sometimes
double-leading, arose. The effect of these new types was helped by
a generous amount of white paper between the lines. This applies to
Bodoni, Bulmer, and the Scotch face and their derivatives. Antique
types were, however, occasionally very freely leaded, especially in
Spanish books of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
The conventional use of quotation marks is to place a double mark at
the beginning and end of the passage quoted, with single marks for
any quotations within it. In books with much conversation the use of
double quotes frequently results in very mottled typography, and for
many years some English printers have adopted the single mark for the
major quotations, using double marks only if an inner quote occurs.
This violates, a little, one's sense of relative importance, but in
a book where there are only simple quotations there is no reason why
the single mark should not suffice, much to the visual improvement of
the typography. There is some possibility of confusion if the last
word of the extract should chance to be a possessive plural, with
an apostrophe, as the two marks are identical; but this occurs so
infrequently as to be negligible.
Inverted commas were used for opening quotes in most founts until
comparatively recent years, but now a separate pattern is provided for
most founts. Reversed, instead of inverted commas now accompany many
founts, particularly the reproductions of late nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century types, at which time they were first introduced.
French, Spanish and other continental founders furnish a special design
of marks, « »; but these look rather strange to Anglo-Saxon eyes.
In Elizabethan printing the quotation marks sometimes ran entirely
down the margins of the extracts, and if, as was frequently the case,
the page was enclosed with rules, they were often placed outside
the rules. This treatment occurs in one of the handsomest books of
that period, _Nobilitas Politica vel Civilis_, printed in 1608 by
William Jaggard, the printer of the First Folio fifteen years later.
The _Nobilitas_ is generally accounted the masterpiece of his press,
and in itself comprises nearly all of the various typographical
features of books of that time. Large and small types, Roman, Italic,
black-letter and Anglo-Saxon, both solid and leaded pages, tabular
work with handsome braces, side notes, woodcut initials, head-pieces
and tailpieces, and a series of costume plates engraved on copper and
printed within the rules on folioed blank pages left for them in the
form--all go toward making a book that is a compendious example for
students of Elizabethan typography.
[Illustration]
Red is the most satisfactory secondary color with black, and you will
often find that it is better to use just one spot of color on the page.
In using red for an occasional display line, blue-red or purple-red or
orange-red should be avoided. A red such as the early printers had, a
full-bodied, rather dull vermilion, which will hold up well with the
black, is the most successful. If it is desirable to employ the blue
for a border or an initial it shows up much more brilliantly when
the design is in white on a solid or stippled ground of the blue. An
outline design in blue is too light in mass to accompany the black of
the type. But black and blue alone are never so pleasing a combination
as when red is introduced as the second color, with blue as the third.
The black for the text or reading types should be intense without being
glossy, because the gloss causes a reflection of light and interferes
with legibility. The same objection does not apply to colors, for a
moderate gloss enriches them and overcomes a sort of dustiness that
their surfaces take on.
The text pages of most books should be printed in black ink.[36] The
tendency of a young printer is often to try for novelty by printing
with color rather than with black, not realizing that most types were
not designed for anything but black on white. If, however, the job is
somewhat aside from the usual run of books, and is not of too great
extent, a brown or green ink may be substituted for black if the tint
be dark enough to afford perfect legibility. But the result then
acquires something of the character of an object of art rather than a
book.
* * * * *
Letter-spacing is often misused. It is safe to say that lower-case
type should practically _never_ be letter-spaced, for the individual
letters were designed for close combination with other letters of the
alphabet. If it becomes necessary to fill out a line it is preferable
to put all the extra space between the words even though the resultant
"holes" are distressing to the eye. Sometimes with very large types
it is permissible to letter-space in a minor degree, as the spaces
between the letters naturally are larger and letter-spacing does not
detract too much from the appearance of the line, especially if it is
distributed according to the irregular space between the different
letters as normally set.
With capitals or upper-case letters the conditions are different.
Then it is frequently a great advantage to use letter-spaces, even
considerably; but this depends upon the general style of the typography
adopted for the book. In the hands of some contemporary printers the
Aldine practice of wide letter-spacing of small capitals has been
followed quite skilfully in title- or subtitle lines, chapter headings,
and other display work. This is of particular advantage with the rather
heavy-faced modern types, i.e., Scotch, Bodoni, etc.
It is well to avoid too many, and too open letter-spaced lines in any
kind of display composition, for the effect is sometimes disastrous.
Baskerville was very fond of letter-spacing and most of his work is, in
that respect, extremely ugly.[37] He sometimes pushed spacing to the
point of absurdity; notably in his great Bible, where in the heading of
the Book of Job he set the letters J O B in capitals of about 48-point
size with three inches of space between them. It could hardly be called
a word, but rather just a bad job of type-setting.
The practice of letter-spacing to produce blocked-out lines of
capitals must be done with great caution and skill or else a very
uneven texture will be produced. Frequently it is better to abandon
the idea of a block of type if the spacing cannot be done with a
fairly uniform effect. It is a mistake to start with a determination
to produce a block of type and then to persist in it at any cost of
legibility or appearance. When lines of capitals are set without
leading, letter-spacing should never be used. The leading should be
in proportion to the spacing in order to keep the continuity of the
lines of type, otherwise you will produce columns of letters instead of
lines. It is hardly necessary to say that the best letter-spacing is
not done with uniform spaces between the letters. The spacing on either
side of a letter should be determined by the shape of the adjacent
letters. Most compositors have now learned to use spaces according to
the shape of the letters, but the cutting of such letters as V, W, to
make them set closer than their natural width is usually very much
overdone. The new logotypes cut for this purpose are equally faulty
in this respect. The resulting effect is more noticeable and more
objectionable than the natural setting of the type would be. Anything
that strikes the eye as strange or unusual in a line of type is to be
avoided.
Periods and commas of letter-spaced capitals should not be set off from
the last letter of the word, regardless of the amount of spacing used
elsewhere in the line.
Colons and semicolons have traditionally been set apart from the word
they follow, whether in capitals or lower case. In old books they are
frequently centered in the space between the words where they occur.
Exclamation and interrogation points should if possible be set off
with thin spaces because they often form disagreeable and confusing
combinations with the last letter of the word, such as ff!, ll!, f?,
etc.
COMPOSED IN CENTAUR AND ARRIGHI TYPES
FOOTNOTES:
[36] Of the more than half-thousand books that Mr. Rogers has designed,
only four come to mind as having the text matter printed in anything
other than black; and these four were all slight volumes, more or less
in the gift-book classification.
[37] "When we look at his books we think of Baskerville; while to look
at the work of Jenson is to think but of its beauty, and almost to
forget that it was made with hands!" UPDIKE, _Printing Types_, II, p.
116.
ADVENTURER WITH TYPE ORNAMENT
[Illustration: B.R.]
_Paul A. Bennett_
Revised and amended from P.M., Vol. II, No. 5, New York, January 1936.
To anyone who has set or handled type, the achievements of Bruce Rogers
in combining decorative type units to form a design are extraordinary.
This may seem undiluted enthusiasm; actually and sincerely it is but
simple fact.
How? Why? Only a detailed examination of a particular B.R. design with
type ornaments will reveal. An examination, that is, accompanied by
simultaneous scanning of a proof of the individual elements comprising
the design. When one sees the units alone--some of them so seemingly
useless that one wonders that anything, even second-rate stuff, could
possibly be done with such drab material--then one appreciates the
typographic magic B.R. has accomplished.
_How_ he sees anything in some of the units he uses so dexterously, I
don't know. When and how he first became interested in doing designs
with type ornaments is worth considering.
His experiments date back to Riverside Press days, though in
that period no attempts were made to use type ornament except by
conventional combinations into borders or head-pieces. But even
at that time he had several seventeenth-century flowers recut
for the decoration of a collection of early American documents,
titled _Sailors Narratives of Voyages Along the New England Coast,
1524-1624_, edited by George Parker Winship.
Interest in combining type ornaments was shown again while at the
University Press in Cambridge, England, during 1918-19, but he
developed it there into nothing more than the revival of two or
three other earlier ornaments which were used, as at Riverside, in
conventional ways. A page of his scrapbook shows also a number of
trials with Egyptian hieroglyphs, but apparently nothing came of these.
The germ of his allusive use of ornaments is probably to be found in
the "Goosefest" menu which he concocted at Carl Rollins' Montague
Press; when at the bottom of an elaborate bill of fare three of Will
Bradley's strutting little figures are set (or laid) flat on their
backs in a row, with the legend, "Turn over (not us but the leaf)."
The earliest traceable use of ornaments and punctuation marks that
in combination bear directly upon the text thus decorated was in the
heading for the first page of _The Symbol and the Saint_, where a line
of parentheses, a cross and three dolphins symbolize the overseas
quest of the hero of the tale. This same motif was developed and
elaborated later in _Joseph Conrad the Man_, _The Ancient Mariner_,
and other pieces. His scrapbook shows many unused variations on this
theme. The sea and leaping dolphins and palms seem to be his favorite
preoccupation.
[Illustration]
Probably the most difficult compositions of this kind he has produced
are to be found in Conrad's unfinished novel, _The Sisters_; where in a
space the width of the page and one-quarter to one-half inch in depth
may be found suggestions of illimitable Russian wheat fields, Paris
with its mansard roofs and French roads leading into it, a farewell
scene at sunset on a winding Spanish road, etc., each based upon some
phrase or paragraph in the story itself.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Most certainly B.R.'s accomplishments surpass those decorative
combinations of type ornaments shown in early printers' and
type-founders' specimens--yes, even including the foremost achievements
of the hallowed rule benders.
Little research is necessary to support these rather inclusive
statements. An excellent example is the _Utopia_ title page, done for
the Limited Editions Club. Here is swirling movement in a border, if
ever you saw it. And accomplished, mainly, with two traits of ornament
and their reverses. The entire border took but several more.
[Illustration]
Setting them out individually, doesn't give a hint of their
possibilities. Yet look at the result of their use by B.R., scan the
design closely to discover just where and how each element is placed
with such telling effect--and you begin to appreciate the man's ability.
Another example--old stuff B.R. will call it--is the title page of a
little Christmas book issued a dozen years ago by Rudge. Could one
reasonably expect anything remotely approaching typographic whimsy from
a few typographic toy soldiers, a dog, an elephant, a few Christmas
trees, a half moon and some stars? Just glance at _The Symbol and the
Saint_ title page though, and see how B.R.'s subtle skill utilized
material teetering toward the junk pile.
"Never," your perceptive collector will say, "has anything more
masterful been done with type ornaments than in the Grolier Club
_Pierrot of the Minute_." Few would disagree, for if ever there was
a typographic jewel, the _Pierrot_ is it. Yet B.R., in discussing
it critically, termed it "French millinery. Probably all right for
its purpose. Rather over-decorated, but then the poem itself seems
over-decorative."
[Illustration]
There are dozens of other examples of B.R.'s mastery of typographic
decoration. But space is not limitless, and I want particularly to
say something about some designs with Linotype ornaments (drawn by T.
M. Cleland) that Mr. Rogers devised a few years ago for the Linotype
Company. These were used for the first time in the insert discussing
the auction prices of twenty B.R. books, which appeared in _Barnacles
From Many Bottoms_, several of which are shown on pages 290, 299 and
300.
That "something" may best be told, I believe, by excerpts from letters
written to a Company executive, in April and May 1931, by B.R., who
then was in London:
"... In an odd hour I got to playing about with some of the Cleland
ornaments, cutting them out of a specimen and pasting them into a
design which finally evolved itself into several amusing compositions.
Later on it occurred to me that you might be able to use them in some
piece....
"Having only a limited number of proofs, and no slugs whatever, I was
able to work out the idea in only the roughest fashion--not fit to show
anyone--but the principal one of the designs is for a page heading ...
or the elements composing it could be used singly--as tail pieces,
initial letters, etc.
"This probably is an impractical idea [a suggestion by Mr. Rogers on
how the material might be used], but I only make it to put into action
more or less work that I have already done to save it from the scrap
basket--work that might be useful to your firm as a demonstration of
what can be done with some of your product. I really don't think anyone
has yet worked out the possibilities of your ornamental material, much
of which is the best on the market."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Additional proofs of the Cleland ornaments were sent immediately to Mr.
Rogers in London. With them he made eight designs, cutting the proofs
and pasting the ornaments to show the desired effect. This tree, for
instance, was used on the title page of the _Barnacles_ insert:
[Illustration]
This was printed from a line engraving made direct from Mr. Rogers'
paste-up, and used "as is" to show how accurately his layouts for this
type of work reach the composing-room.
A month later, in May 1931, Mr. Rogers returned his layouts with
this note: "... I have only just been able to complete the designs
I had begun.... One or two other combinations occurred to me, which
I have also put in--but we could go on endlessly, almost, when once
started on this kind of thing.... I would have built up the designs
with impressions from sections of a slug, had you sent an inch or two
of each unit; but it is perhaps better, though slower, to cut and
paste proofs, as each cutting is a guide to the compositor as to how
and where trimming or beveling the ornaments are necessary. But only
a few such trimmings are required, and all the bevelings are at 45
degrees--as is the diagonal composition of the oak tree heads.
"If at all possible I would like to have a chance to revise proofs of
these, before they are actually printed--but if that isn't feasible,
then I must rely on the compositors getting the closest possible
approximation to my pasted-up designs. As close setting as possible
is the secret of most work of this kind. The various parts must
hang together well--though I do not mind a slight indication at the
joints that they are made of individual pieces of type. I once had
an over-zealous electrotyper fill up all the joints with solder--and
ruined the appearance of the design--it looked like a drawn one."
It wasn't possible to show Mr. Rogers what had been done with his
layouts for the insert in _Barnacles_, which was essentially a surprise
book distributed as a keepsake at a dinner in his honor.
The "fighting cocks," to cite one instance, were originally suggested
by B.R. to be used to dress a page folio at the bottom of the page; in
the insert they were raised to the top of the page and printed with his
initials. Other slight adaptations of similar character were taken in
that piece of printing.
[Illustration]
"Typographic whimsy," wrote Carl Purington Rollins in
_B.R.--America's Typographic Playboy_, in 1927, "is a pretty
difficult achievement. The compositor at the case is too much concerned
with the practical minutiæ of his craft to have much time for such
trivialities, and the man who designs printing at a draughting
board is apt to find his humor, if he attempts it in type, limping
like a thrice-told jest. Mr. Rogers has had the advantage of enough
familiarity with type to know what can be done, and he has been able
at times to work with compositors who take a large and robust view of
their calling."
That "whimsy" Mr. Rollins had reference to lies in many of B.R.'s more
ephemeral efforts, frequently reproduced. It is reflected to a measure,
by _The Symbol and the Saint_ page. But there is considerably more than
whimsy in the type ornament designs by B.R. These have graced dozens
of books of varying subjects ... and the marvel of it all is, to me,
that the man never repeats himself--he swings off on a new tack ...
adventurous, exploring, mastering new trails, scattering typographic
inspiration for dozens of others, pointing up paths they previously
never even suspected.
_Postscript_, 1951:
It is fitting to add a note concerning one of
B.R.'s more distinguished recent projects, the great folio Bible
designed for The World Publishing Company, which was four years in the
making.
The design of the World Bible employed decorative treatment for the
bordered title page, the sixty-six book openings, initial letters
and numerous tailpieces. "These, together with the type selected [a
revised, special cutting of Goudy New-style], are intended to give a
slightly oriental flavor to the volume," B.R. pointed out, "indicative
of the Syriac and Hebrew sources of the text on which the King James
translators based their classic version."
In discussing the matter of ornaments in the Bible with the publishers,
B.R. revealed his thinking concerning their use: "... Most of the Books
will probably not begin at the top of the page and the use of ornaments
are to me necessary to separate the end of the preceding book from the
title of the following one.
[Illustration]
"The Bible has always been a book on which much decoration and
illustrations have been lavished, and there is no reason in tradition
why it should be treated solemnly in that respect. The very first
edition (of which I have specimen sheets and a whole Bible printed
from the same type and with the same decorations by the same printer,
twenty-five years later, 1635) is just peppered with woodcut
decorations and type ornaments. So we have a good precedent for a
decorated treatment--if any were needed. You know the Bible is on the
whole one of the most exciting texts in existence, and the modern
'practical' treatment of it as mainly a book of devotion is ignoble, to
say the least...."
Some of the typographic decoration and initials used in the Bible
are included here. William Targ's detailed account, _The Making
of the Bruce Rogers World Bible_, contains most of the decorative
elements--initials, tailpieces and chapter initials--and reveals the
intimate story of the progress of the book's production through the
four years. It was published by World in 1949, in a limited edition of
1875 copies, 500 of which were for sale.
COMPOSED IN CENTAUR AND ARRIGHI TYPES
[Illustration: Book labels devised with typographic ornament by B.
R. In the originals, a second color was used for each excepting the
Reydel.]
SOME TENDENCIES IN MODERN TYPOGRAPHY
[Illustration]
_Daniel Berkeley Updike_
From _Some Aspects of Printing Old and New_ by D. B. Updike. Copyright
1941 by the author. Reprinted by permission of the Providence Public
Library, Providence, Rhode Island.
Not very long since I was asked by a printer to what extent he should
accept or avoid modern trends in the design of types and books. I
attempt here to answer that question.