Chapter 27

EXAMPLE 502Of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, eight have ascending strokes, five have descending strokes, and thirteen have neither

The descending curves of the lower-casegare a thing of beauty when allowed freedom (Example504-A), but on the shortened plan they resemble a man cramped with rheumatism, in need of crutches.

Proportion of Letters.—One of the elements in the beauty of the ancient Roman stone-carved alphabet is the proportion of its letters. Goudy, drawing lettering and designing type-faces modeled after the inscription capitals of the Romans, has had a large influence in reviving good proportion in type. Cloister Oldstyle (Example467-A), designed by L. M. Benton after Jenson’s letter, is an excellent study of the old proportions introduced in present-day type-faces. However, there is no type that has the beauty of proportion to be found in the Roman capitals (Example464-A) reproduced from an inscription on the Trajan column at Rome. The author has endeavored, in plain lines, to trace these capitals and show their proportions on a background of squares. It will be seen that the width of the lettersB,E,F,L,P,Sis less than half their hight, and about half the width ofO,M,Q,C,GandD. It is this contrast in width as well as in shape that makes the alphabet as a whole so pleasing.

Comparison of the capitals of the six standard faces in Example467will show that “old-style” faces tend toward the old Roman proportions and that “modern” types, such as Bodoni Book and Century Expanded (Example466-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 Example507, 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 503In 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

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 Example463a 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 Example508. 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 Examples509and510.

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 505In 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 decidedcontrasts 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 lettersg,j,p,qandyhave been the principal sufferers, as they are the only ones with descending strokes. The ascending strokes of lettersb,d,f,h,kandlhave 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 Example508shows what this practice has done to Caslon Oldstyle. It has also affected legibility by lessening the space between lines (see also Example509), 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 506The space between words in good lettering, according to Johnston, is less than the width of letter “o” (lower-case)

EXAMPLE 507The 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 lettero.” Example506is 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 Example508-Fit 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 Example508is the word “Typography” set in small six-point, and near the word is the lone lettera, 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 Example508, 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 508Legibility 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 determiningthe proper length of line, to consider the size and kind of type that makes up the line.

The author asks consideration of Examples509and510. 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 (Example509) 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 Example510.

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 Example510. How it appears set in words in two lines of the same measure is to be seen in the upper part of Example509. 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 Example127in 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 (Example509), 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 Example509that 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 Example510), 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 Example509also 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-caseoin one line and a lower-caseoin 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 theoshould be at least 2 millimeters, with space between lines of 4 millimeters. Eighteen-point Caslon Oldstyle, with long descenders (as shown in Example509), 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 Example509is 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, 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 Example515. 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. Example513shows how this was done, and this example, by the way, is a resetting inCloister Italic and Roman small capitals of the Aldus page, reproduced on page15of the chapter on “The Spread of Typography.” In that chapter are included further facts about this famous printer.

EXAMPLE 509The various sizes of type set to lengths determined by measuring as in Example510. 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 page188)

EXAMPLE 510Ascertaining 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 pages187and188.) The accompanying scales may be used for measurements

EXAMPLE 511Moxon’s Italic capitals of 1676

Examples511,512and514are 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 longsof that time is included in Example512, and Example514shows the decorated Italic capitals that we know as “Swash letters.”

EXAMPLE 513Resetting in Cloister types of an example on page15of this book of the original Italic types of Aldus and Francia

Swash Italic capitals and the old-style longsare to be had with Caslon Oldstyle. See Example517. The Italic mates of a few of the present-day Romans are shown in Example516.

EXAMPLE 512The Italic lower-case of Moxon, with long “s” (ſ)

EXAMPLE 514Decorated capitals, or Swash letters, as drawn by Moxon from Dutch sources

EXAMPLE 515The 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 pages17,18,19,20,22,23,24,25,26,32, and in Examples45,98,100,128,138,139,144,152,158,168,169,170,171,180,185,191,215,222,223,224,232,240,245,246,250,262,282,292,294,297,299,310,311,313,314,315,316,325,326,329,331,332,336,342,343,345,346,349,363,372,374,375,384,387,390,394,396,398,399,401,402,404,405,406,412,413,414,418,420,423,424,426,428,429,472,477,481and483.

EXAMPLE 516A few Italic type-faces

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 (Example521).

EXAMPLE 517Complete 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 (Examples518and519), 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 pages5and6of the chapter, “When Books Were Written,” and under thehead, “Development of the Roman Type-Face,” in this chapter. It is illustrated in Example465.

EXAMPLE 518

EXAMPLE 519Text capitals and Text lower-case letters as drawn by Moxon in 1676

EXAMPLE 520Two standard German type-faces, the Fractur and the Schwabacher

EXAMPLE 521The 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 pages5,7(insert),8,9,12,13(insert),14(insert),16,17,18,27(insert),31, and in Examples19,27,32,37,75,76,107,115,117,118,137,143,145,146,147,157,158,159,200,201,202,204,206,216,219,220,221,227,228,232,233,237,241,243,244,257,277,285,287, 301,307,319,333,336,347,353,354,358,361,392,404,405,421and425.

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