The title-page offers the printer and the publisher a tempting
opportunity for display and for artistic typography, and too few
realize the value of restraint. Cobden-Sanderson once remarked, as
explaining the high prices which he secures for his work, that he
always charges more for what he leaves out than for what he puts in.
The earliest volumes lacked the title-page, because vellum and
linen paper were held so high that the expense of an extra leaf was
considered an unnecessary luxury. In these books that which took the
place of the title was at the end, the colophon being in evidence,
indicating the name of the illuminator, if not always that of the
printer. As was the case with the manuscript book, the volume began
with the phrase, "Here beginneth...." Later came piratical reprints,
which resulted in making the critical reader insist upon having each
volume stamped with the printer's name or mark, as a guarantee of
reliable workmanship.
The first definite step in the direction of the title-page is marked
by bibliographers in a little volume printed by Arnold Ther Hoernen,
of Cologne, in 1470. It consisted of an introduction at the head of
a page, the major part of which was left blank. Whether the printer
forgot to place the usual introduction at the head of the first page,
and took this way to remedy his error, is not known.
In general, different faces of type should never be combined upon the
title-page, the variations being secured by using smaller sizes of the
same face, or harmonizing fonts. Capitals and lower-case letters can be
successfully combined on the title-page only as a result of care and
thought, the best title-pages usually being all in lower-case or all in
caps and small caps. A two-color title-page is rarely a success unless
it was originally composed with two colors in mind, instead of being
set up in black and arbitrarily split up for colors.
The decoration should never overbalance the type, and this applies
as well to the question of borders on decorated books. No matter how
beautiful, if the decoration overbalances the type, the volume or the
title-page ceases to be an example of typography and becomes something
answerable only to itself.