ORNAMENTATION

EXAMPLE 51Another 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—whomakes 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.

EXAMPLE 53In 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.

Examples50and51illustrate two widely-used methods of determining page lengths. By the first method (Example50) 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.

EXAMPLE 54Compare with Example53

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 Example52there 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 Example55. 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.

EXAMPLE 55The conventional page shape, with type and ornament in proportion

EXAMPLE 52Three widths of type-faces

EXAMPLE 57Compare with Example56

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 (Example54). 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 (Example53). The proportion of page shown by Example55is 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 Example56where the page is more wide than long, horizontal lines are more numerous than vertical ones.

EXAMPLE 56In 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 Examples54and57. In Example54notice 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 Example57observe the width of the openings; how it blends with the general proportion of this structure. Now to ascertain that typography parallels architecture compare Example53with 54, and56with 57.

EXAMPLE 59

EXAMPLE 60The 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 Examples62(see insert) and63. The vertical lines of Example62run with the length of the page as smoothly as a canoe floating down stream. The horizontal lines of Example63are 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. Examples59and60also illustrate this point.

I have prepared in Example58(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 Example61this 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 (Example64) must be made larger or by strengthened strokes made bolder than when alone on the page (Example65). 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.

EXAMPLE 63Horizontal lines are not suitable for a vertically narrow page (See Example62, insert)

EXAMPLE 61Type-faces and borders are mismated

Examples66,67and68are studies in the proportion of a type-face to the page of which it is a part. In Example66the 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 Example67the page consists mostly of blank space, the type standing modestlyand 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. Example68is 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.

EXAMPLE 64

EXAMPLE 65A 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 (Example73) 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. Example76is 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. Examples69and75show out-of-center balance adapted to a business card and a booklet cover.

EXAMPLE 69Out-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. Example71shows a word placed in exact center, yet it appears to be low. Example72shows a line above center at the point of vertical balance. On a title-page, business card, and on most jobs of printingthe weight should come at this point. The principal line, or group, should provide strength necessary to give balance. Example70presents a page with type group and ornament placed unusually high. The typographer responsible was undoubtedly testing balance to the limit.

EXAMPLE 66Type proportionately too large for the average page

EXAMPLE 67Type proportionately too small for the average page

EXAMPLE 68This proportion is about right for the average page

EXAMPLE 62In which the lines of the design run in the proper direction. Arranged by Will Bradley

EXAMPLE 70In 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 Example74. 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.

EXAMPLE 74A 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 (Example79-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.

EXAMPLE 71A word placed in exact center appears to be low

EXAMPLE 72Showing 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 (Example80-a). Letter-spaced words thus used are perhaps as neat as italic, and the idea may well be adapted to roman types (Example80-b).

EXAMPLE 73Balance out of center

EXAMPLE 75The ornament balances the design. Page by School of Printing, Boston

EXAMPLE 76Out-of-center balance. Page by Will Bradley

The relation of lines to proportion,as illustrated by Examples62and63, is also to be considered in the composition of plain reading pages. Example77shows 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 Example63, contrary to the principles of proportion. How this may be overcome is illustrated in Example78, 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.

EXAMPLE 77The effect of horizontal lines is given by narrow spacing between the words and wide spacing between the lines

EXAMPLE 79Other letters must be spaced because of the open appearance of the letter “L”

EXAMPLE 81The erroneous and obsolete practice of spreading the lines over the page

Adapting this principle to display composition, Examples81and82are enlightening. Example81shows the manner in which some years ago display lines were erroneously distributed over the entire page, presenting in effect the faults of Example77. The manner of rectifying these faults is demonstrated in Example82, 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.

EXAMPLE 78The effect of horizontal lines is avoided by having the space between the words approximate that between the lines

EXAMPLE 80Emphasis obtained by letterspacing, in lieu of italics and small capitals

EXAMPLE 82The 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.

EXAMPLE 125Illustrating the significance of ornamentation, as applied to a booklet. Design by the Matthews-Northrup Works, Buffalo, N. Y.

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.

EXAMPLE 83The egg-and-dart ornament

EXAMPLE 84The 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.

EXAMPLE 85The 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.

EXAMPLE 86The 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 ofprinting; 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.

EXAMPLE 87Conventionalized papyrus plant (Egyptian)

EXAMPLE 88The winged ball, an ornament much used by the Egyptians

EXAMPLE 89The acanthus leaf, much used by the Greeks and Romans in ornamentation

EXAMPLE 90Palm-like ornament, used by Greeks and Romans

EXAMPLE 91Plain and dignified. The Doric pillar

EXAMPLE 92Slightly ornamental. The Ionic pillar

EXAMPLE 93Elaborately 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.

EXAMPLE 94Ornamentation as used by the Romans on an entablature and a Corinthian pillar, showing egg-and-dart, bead, and acanthus ornaments

When typography was invented Gutenberg’s first book was based upon the Gothic style—the type-face a pointed black letter, such as was then used on manuscript books, and the ornamentation pointed foliage (done by hand). It was some years after this that typography came under the influence of the Italian Renaissance, and both type-faces and decoration assumed the Roman style. In the old days there was sympathy between the various arts and crafts, and it worked for harmony in effects. Building-decoration, metal-carving and wood-engraving were governed by the same artistic motive, and were often done by the same man, much as the printer at one time was compositor, pressman, binder, typefounder, ink-maker and paper-maker, all in one. Now, many a piece of printing goes wrong because the ideas of several people, inharmonious from lack of relation, are injected into the work during the several stages necessary for its production.

The relation of typography to architecture is plainly shown in the formation of the Roman and Gothic alphabets. The letters of the Roman alphabet, dignified in their straight strokes and symmetrical in their rounded lines, suggest features of Roman architecture (Example106; also see Example43of a previous article). In the interesting picturesqueness of the pointed black Gothic letter may be seen reflections of the graceful arches of the cathedral pointing upward like hands in prayer—and of the pointed leaf ornamentation of the Gothic period. (Example107.)

EXAMPLE 98Dainty, elaborate rococo ornament, as applied to a program title-page. Compare with the chair, Example97

Ornamentation is both inventive and imitative. An ornament purely inventive or one purely imitative is seldom artistic. A child may make a jumble of lines that altho original means nothing; when it is older it may draw a flower so realistic and imitative that little is left to the imagination. When a flower or plant is used as a model in designing an ornament it is “conventionalized,” that is, it is blended with its environment. A flower in a garden surrounded by other vegetation should be as the other flowers, but as an ornament on the flat surface of paper it should be without perspective. Example108-ashows how commonplace an ornament looks when its details are carefully shaded in perspective. Examples108-band108-cshow how more decorative an ornament is when either outlined or filled in. Sometimes shadows are merely suggested, as on the fruit basket and book ornaments in Example113.

EXAMPLE 95Square-lined, ornamentless furniture

EXAMPLE 97Dainty and elaborate rococo ornament, as applied to furniture. Compare Example98

EXAMPLE 100Slightly ornamental typography. Compare with chairopposite. Design by Will Bradley

In the conventionalized decorative art of all ages may be found traces of the things which have inspired the decorator. The lotus leaf, and the papyrus plant (which once gave writing material to the world) thousands of years ago influenced Egyptian design (Example87). Religion dictated many of the decorative forms in ancient art. The winged-ball-and-asps (Example88) was a favorite device in Egyptian decoration and has come to us by way of Roman mythology as the winged staff of the herald Mercury, the ribbons on the staff supplanting the Egyptian asps, but later evolving into serpents as in the decorative border of Example125. The work of the best artists is full of meaning. The Egyptians considered certain animals sacred, and they were reproduced numerously in the picture-writing and ornamentation of the time. The sacred beetle as conventionalized was much used. In Example125the cog-wheel of commerce is conventionalized as the rim of the ball, which also contains a seal. The anchor and rope, hour glass, wreath, torch, acanthus leaves, all are conventionalized and blended pleasingly in outline drawing. The tone of the border approximates that of the type matter it surrounds.

EXAMPLE 96Square-lined, ornamentless typography. Compare with chairopposite. Design by Fleming & Carnrick, New York

EXAMPLE 99Slightly ornamental furniture

The acanthus leaf (Example89) is the model for much of the elaborate leaf decoration found on the capitals of Corinthian columns and wherever rich imposing leaf ornament is desired. The anthemion (Example90) is a palm-like ornament used by the Greeks and Romans, now frequently found in decorative work of an architectural nature.

It may not occur to the average printer that architecture is in any way allied with typography—that there is any connection between the ornamentation of a building and a job of printing. Fred W. Goudy, BruceRogers and D. B. Updike employ conventionalized architectural columns and arches to ornament title-pages of classic motives. The average typographer, tho, finds more inspiration in the ornamentation that is only an embellishment to architecture. There are several ornamental units that are used more frequently than others, and these are the egg-and-dart (Example83) and the bead (Example84). You, who are reading this, are invited to verify by observation this last statement. A printer who did so was astonished at the eggs, darts, and beads that were to be seen wherever he looked. Cut into the stone of buildings, carved into the wood of furniture, used on molding about doors and windows, on office partitions, on library lamps, in the ceiling panels of restaurants, about the prosceniums in theaters, around the mirror in the barber shop—wherever he looked there were the ornaments. It is remarkable how non-observant the average printer is. The hands of artists—Greeks and Romans—who lived thousands of years ago made similar designs, and yet a knowledge of history is counted non-essential by printers and others!

EXAMPLE 101Regularity of repeat

EXAMPLE 102Variety of repeat

EXAMPLE 103Monotony

EXAMPLE 104Less monotony

EXAMPLE 105Contrasted shapes prevent monotony

EXAMPLE 106Type border of Roman architectural ornament. Compare the straight and curved lines with the Roman type-face

Let us apply the egg-and-dart and bead ornaments as borders in typography, and notice how admirably they serve the purpose. Example85shows the egg-and-dart ornament perhaps too carefully drawn as to detail; and Example86demonstrates how the bead ornament may be adapted to panel work.

From early times there seems to have been a triple division of taste regarding ornament. In the days of Rome these divisions were given expression in the treatment of supporting columns, the three styles being known respectively as Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. The Doric column is severely plain, the Ionic slightly ornamental, and the Corinthian elaborately ornamental.

The Doric style (Example91) is emblematic of dignity, simplicity and strength, and appeals to the man preferring these qualities in printing.

The Ionic style (Example92) represents refinement in ornament, and pleases the man able to discriminate between the severely plain and the over-ornamented—a quality of judgment worth cultivating by every typographer.

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