PERIODICALS
The typography and the make-up of periodicals in the century last past were sedate and uninteresting to most Americans. As a consequence there came a change, and publishers endeavored to make their publications more attractive to readers. The letterer and the decorator were permitted to let their fancies run free over the magazine pages, and assuming that their readers had poor taste and weak eyesight the publishers of trade journals splattered their pages with ugly black circus poster type.
So long as there is poor printing (we read in the Good Book: “For ye have the poor always with you”) there will be periodicals typographically poor. Yet, thanks to those who have trained themselves as typographic advisors, many American periodicals are now good to look at and at the same time easy to read.
EXAMPLE 410
Dignity in make-up and type treatment. By Walter Gilliss
We will consider the dimensions of the publication, the front cover, number of columns, the margins, type-faces for the text and for the headings, make-up of the illustrations, arrangement of headings, the captions, the editorial pages, features, and the advertisements.
The Dimensions.—Whim has much to do with the selection of sizes for periodicals, and precedent, or what the other fellow is using, has some influence also. Assembled and stood on end, several dozen periodicals gathered at random present the appearance of a platoon of “rookie” soldiers before they have been ranged according to hight.
Sixty-six business and technical publications were recently measured by the writer, and the dimensions of about half of them approximated 9 × 12 inches. The other half varied from 6 × 9 to 10 × 15 inches.
EXAMPLE 411
Harmony of the type-faces used for heading and text
Examination of about two score of magazines revealed three groups of dimensions: 7 × 10, 9 × 12 and 11 × 14 inches. These dimensions are approximate, few magazines measuring exactly the same, the variations amounting to half an inch in some instances and several inches in others.
EXAMPLE 412
Advertising the story to the readers
EXAMPLE 414
Style of make-up of these three pages suggested by Benjamin Sherbow
EXAMPLE 413
Interesting heading treatment and inserted feature panel
Scribner’s is a type of the magazine in the 7 × 10 class (the actual measurement being a trifle minus); the Independent, of the 9 × 12 class (actual measurement 8¾ × 12 inches); and the Saturday Evening Post, of the 11 × 14 class, measuring exactly that size.
There has been a movement among magazines away from the smaller dimensions toward the larger, for the purpose of better displaying features and of enabling reading matter to be placed alongside of advertisements.
To a similar extent the business and technical publications have experienced reductions from the very large sizes that originally were probably inspired by the bigness of newspapers.
There are also a few small pocket magazines of the Philistine size that Elbert Hubbard made popular.
The Front Cover.—Typography has little to do with the average cover of the general magazine in America. The foundation of the design is usually a painting, the subject being seasonable or otherwise appropriate. Lettering and decoration are added by an artist other than the one drawing the picture. In such cases the design is changed with every issue. Some magazines, the more conservative ones, use a design containing lettering and decoration only, and with each issue merely change such lettering as refers to editorial features.
The European custom of printing a paid advertisement on the front cover of periodicals has extended to America, and, while such advertisements will not be found on the general magazines, some business and technical periodicals have succumbed to the temptation thus offered for increased revenue.
When the front cover is sold, only an inch or so is retained for the title of the periodical. One publisher did stipulate that no color in the cover advertisement should come within two inches of the title; but even this rule is now disregarded on his periodicals. The time may yet come when the title of a publication will appear at the foot of the front cover in six-point.
EXAMPLE 415
Headings and text matter in the same face of type, Scotch Roman
EXAMPLE 416
Type of medium strength and use of a small illustration in heading
EXAMPLE 410-A
Section of text matter from the “World’s Work”
(Monotype No. 22-E, 10-point on 11-point body, 10 set)
A weekly technical periodical in every issue has some appropriate view made into halftone and uses it inside a large panel under the title, and a photographic journal prints a reproduction of an artistic photograph on the cover, changing the subject with each issue.
Columns.—The number of columns to a page should be decided by the size of type used. Seven-point and eight-point type should be confined in columns twelve or thirteen picas wide. Ten-point, eleven-point and twelve-point type can be read even if the columns are sixteen or more picas wide. However, no column in a book or periodical should exceed twenty-four picas. Neither should a column be unreasonably narrow.
Scientific tests show that the eye is strained in the reading of wide columns. The column should be of such width that reading of the matter can be accomplished with only slight movements of the eyes to the right, after they have been focused at the beginning of the line to fit the size of type. When the column is too wide the head must be moved to the right and left with the reading of every line or the eyes may be injured from the strain and repeated change of focus.
A look over the examples of periodical pages in this chapter will show practically an acceptance of these requirements—three columns in the periodicals of large size and two columns in those of smaller size. For pocket magazines one column is naturally sufficient. In several instances (Examples [417] and [418]) three columns instead of two would have been advisable.
Gutenberg, when he planned the pages of his famous Bible, arranged for two columns each about twenty picas wide, altho his type was large—about twenty points in size.
EXAMPLE 424-A
Section of text matter from the “Saturday Evening Post”
(Monotype No. 20-A, 8-point on 9-point body, 8¾ set)
It is a great mistake to set, as some business publications do, six-point type in lines twenty-five or thirty picas wide. To require the reader’s eyes, after being focused on such small type, to travel back and forth that distance is almost an invitation not to read the matter.
The Margins.—Blank space surrounding the printed pages in periodicals should be apportioned as it is in good books—the smallest margin at the binding side and increasing in amount in this order: Head, outer side, foot. Even when the total amount of margin is small it should be apportioned in this manner.
The rule can be stated in another way: the largest margin at the foot, with the type page inclining toward the bound side.
Periodical binderies do not always give the publisher good margins, even after he has planned for them. Unevenly cut paper, careless folding and inaccurate trimming will prevent the securing of desired results.
In measuring margins the running headings should be ignored if they are small, but in any event the printed page should have the appearance of being a trifle high on the leaf.
Type-Faces for the Text.—Type-faces for the text matter of most periodicals must be chosen for reasons different from those governing the selection of type-faces for other purposes, because of the small size, usually eight-point or nine-point.
EXAMPLE 422-A
Section of text matter from the “Independent”
(Monotype No. 20-A, 9-point on 10-point body, 9¾ set)
Type-faces that are legible and good-looking in twelve-point may prove illegible and ill-looking in eight-point. This is to some extent true of Caslon Oldstyle when printed on calendered surfaces. Such illegibility may be due to the hairlines, which almost disappear in the small sizes.
Commendable letters for periodicals that require small type-faces are the dark-printing kind represented by Century Expanded. Examples [422] and [424] are set in letters of this kind. (See also Examples [422-A] and [424-A] for type matter as actually used.)
As these types have short descenders the text matter is made more legible by separating lines with one-point leads or, in machine composition, by casting a face on a body a point larger (as in Example [424-A], which shows an eight-point face cast on a nine-point body, and in Example [422-A], which shows nine-point on ten-point body).
French Oldstyle (especially Cadmus) is not only fairly legible in small sizes but good-looking. A representative of this style of type will be found in Examples [410] and [411], and is shown actual size in Example [410-A].
Modern or old-style type-faces that are legible when printed on news paper or antique paper are sometimes not so when printed on calendered surfaces. A type-face such as Caslon Oldstyle was designed for printing on dampened paper of an unfinished surface, and it is no wonder that it does not appear at its best in small sizes on calendered paper.
EXAMPLE 417
Box headings are conspicuous on this editorial page
EXAMPLE 419
Excellent typography of an editorial page
EXAMPLE 418
Another way to feature the editorials
EXAMPLE 420
Novel use of rules on an editorial page. By Sherbow
EXAMPLE 421
News photograph on the front page
It is absolutely necessary that the text matter of a periodical be easily read, yet the type-face should not be selected for that reason alone. It should be well formed and pleasing to look at, and, if possible, be a face that makes feasible some harmony in design between text type and head letter.
In publications that have text matter in eleven-point or twelve-point a letter such as Caslon Oldstyle would doubtless be satisfactory, and on small publications Old-Style Antique or Cushing Oldstyle render excellent service.
Scotch Roman, notwithstanding the fact that it contains hairlines, gives fairly good results, provided the paper is not highly calendered.
Letters with hairlines when printed on calendered paper lack the little legibility that they otherwise possess. Many letters could be made more legible, especially those composed on machines, by cutting the matrices so that the print of the thin lines is a trifle stronger.
The chapter on “Type-Faces” should be read in this connection.
Type-Faces for the Headings.—An ideal condition in periodical make-up is one which makes possible the use for headings of the identical design of type that has been selected for the text matter, as in Examples [410] and [411], where a French Oldstyle has been used, and in Example [415], where Scotch Roman is the type-face.
It is not possible always to use the very same design of type-face for both headings and text matter. After a text letter has been chosen for legibility or other reason, the identical type in larger sizes may prove to be too plain for the sort of periodical on which it is to appear. And there are sometimes special reasons, regrettable but unavoidable, an instance of which is this volume, wherein the text matter is in Scotch Roman (a modern letter with some relation to old-style) and the headings and captions in a type-face of old-style form. This combination is not ideal, and the explanation follows. In order that “The Art and Practice of Typography” could be published at a price that would enable it to be widely circulated, the chapters, as soon as each was prepared, were first printed in The American Printer. The type-face used for the text matter and headings in that publication was Scotch Roman, hence it was felt necessary to use Scotch Roman for the text of this volume. However, it was believed that a darker type-face of old-style formation would be more pleasing for the headings, and a Goudy letter was selected.
EXAMPLE 422
Fine specimen of typographic make-up
A modern type-face (Bodoni Bold) appears on the headings in Example [412], [413] and [414]. Bodoni (not the bold) is also used for headings in Examples [416] and [427].
Caslon Oldstyle is to be found used for both headings and text in Examples [426] and [430]. Old-Style Antique appears in Example [431].
The Saturday Evening Post for many years made use of an old-style letter for its headings that as a type-face was known as Post Oldstyle. The italic, outlined and filled in with gray-printing lines, is shown in Example [424].
A Gothic decorative letter is not out of place on a Christmas number of Collier’s (Example [425]), but is not recommended for general use on periodical pages.
Large, bold, black type-faces for headings in periodicals should be avoided.
Interest can be added, in the treatment of department headings of technical publications, by using slightly decorative panels, but such decoration should be light or slight, and not the commonplace sort sometimes found in ill-treated job work.
EXAMPLE 423
An attractive first text page. By Lester Douglas
Editorial and title headings in typographic treatment should blend with other parts of the text pages and not look, as some do, like quarter-page advertisements inserted in reading matter. Example [429] shows good treatment.
Make-up of the Illustrations.—When planning to use illustrations on periodicals both facing pages should be before the person doing the planning. The text matter of the two pages forms a background of gray, and the problem is to place illustrations, headings and initials in positions that will not only be well balanced but so assembled that one will not interfere with another.
Usually there should be some text matter between illustrations; they should be placed toward the outer side of the page (see Example [422]). The center position is practicable when there are three columns and the illustration is but a single column in width, or when the expense of running around may be incurred (see Example [424]).
Illustrations frequently look better separated from the heading, as in Example [414], than when joined with the heading, as in Example [412].
The same style of illustration should, if possible, be used on facing pages. Make-up that shows a line plate on one page and a halftone on the adjoining page is inharmonious and not so pleasing as when all illustrations on facing pages are of the same character. They should be, say, either line like that in Example [414] or halftone like that in Example [412].
EXAMPLE 424
Illustration placed in center, necessitating running around
EXAMPLE 425
Feature page of a Christmas number
When an illustration appears on a text page, initial letters should be plain and small, as in Example [414]; but when no illustration appears the initial can be large, as in Example [411], or even decorative. For regular purposes initials as used on Examples [409] and [425] are inadvisable.
EXAMPLE 426
Convention feature page of a technical journal
Pleasing use of a vignette style of illustration is to be seen in Example [430]. It lends interest to the first text page and at the same time illustrates the leading article.
The illustration in Example [429] is also effectively placed.
Arrangement of Headings.—Headings, in a way, advertise or “sell” the contents of a periodical, and their arrangement depends on how far the editor or layout man wishes to go in advertising or “selling” the contents. The American people have so much reading matter available that it is probably necessary in most instances almost to force them to read the various articles in periodicals. Encyclopedias are read even if there are no display headings and the type is in six-point, and there are periodicals that are read without urging; but it may as well be conceded that articles are read more when they are well advertised.
A well-advertised story will be found in Example [413]. The title is brought out prominently in a large, bold type, as is the name of the author. The italic line above the title smacks of real advertising, as does the group of type inserted in the upper part of the text. The display in Example [412] is frankly advertising in its appearance.
The Saturday Evening Post heading (Example [424]) is large, but there is no descriptive advertising, and there is little of the nervous fear of going unread so evident in Examples [412] and [413].
Calm, yet pleasing, treatment of headings is to be found in Examples [411] and [423]. It is well to give attention to the presentation of article headings, but sometimes in the place where the heading should go there is so much noise and so much talking that, as a means of resting the nerves, the leaf is quickly turned or the periodical laid aside.
EXAMPLE 427
News headings and make-up
Periodical titles, as they appear on the first text page of each issue, are variously treated. The small, neat effect of Example [423] is commendable. It is in Scotch Roman and harmonizes with the article heading and text type. Title headings on a larger scale will be found in Examples [410], [415] and [416]. Special lettering is sometimes pleasing, as in Examples [421] and [430].
The news department of trade and business periodicals requires numerous headings. Example [427] is suggestive. There the news articles are in narrow columns and have a newspaper style of heading.
Caslon Oldstyle looks well on any class of publication. Roman capitals and lower-case and italic may be used in the same line, as on Example [429].
The Captions.—It is customary to set captions centered under illustrations in a size smaller of the type-face used for the text matter and to arrange the caption in one or more lines no wider than the illustration.
When the caption is in two parts the first part is usually set in capitals and the second part in lower-case, both centered. The lower-case is sometimes roman and sometimes italic.
Seldom do captions receive the special decorative treatment that has been accorded them in Examples [412] and [414]. Even two-line initial letters have been used with them.
The plain double caption in roman capitals and lower-case is to be found in Examples [421] and [422]. A single caption in italic lower-case is shown inside a rule that surrounds the illustration in Example [424].
EXAMPLE 428
A conservative and readable editorial page
Arrangement of captions in lines of the same length, making a block of type (as in this book) is liked by many. However, the caption is to be read and its shape is not of more importance than its legibility. It is a mistake to arrange a caption in several lines of capitals and then letterspace some of the words to obtain the block effect. Such letterspacing advertises the effort as unsuccessful and also disfigures the page.
The Editorial Pages.—In periodicals, editorial pages are treated variously. There is no standard style such as is found in most newspapers. All five editorial pages reproduced here, in make-up and typographic treatment, differ from one another.
The Ladies’ Home Journal (Example [417]) has the title of each editorial in a small rule panel along with the publication’s trademark, and the matter is set in two wide columns. The first clause beginning each editorial is composed in capitals and small capitals. The page is surrounded by a double-line border.
Collier’s (Example [418]) begins each editorial with an initial letter, followed by several words in capitals, and the title in a dark-faced italic is set at the left end of the line. A decorative symbolic heading is placed above all.
System (Example [419]) has a neat, readable editorial page, arranged in an interesting manner. The name of the magazine, of the editor, and the month and volume are neatly placed at the top, and the blank space that follows, occupied solely by the small black decorative mark, gives pleasure. Each editorial is introduced by a heading in small capitals and by an initial, which is larger in the first article. The editorial page of Advertising and Selling (Example [420]), by Sherbow, is unlike any of the others. Rules are used between columns, on both sides of headings, and above and below the page heading. The result is pleasing, and invites reading of the page.
EXAMPLE 429
Caslon headings and an old-style text type
The style of make-up of The American Printer editorial page (Example [428]) was purposely patterned after that of the conventional newspaper editorial page. The editorials of conservative metropolitan newspapers are probably read more regularly than any other part of the publications, and such reading has possibly been invited by the restful style of the typography. There is reason to believe that this somewhat old-fashioned treatment and its lack of affectation have really accomplished what was intended.
The editorial page should be unlike the other pages of a periodical, and these examples should assist printers and editors in determining suitable typographic treatment.
Features.—Typography can have much to do with the playing up of features in periodical make-up. An instance is the page reproduced as Example [426], which consists of what would ordinarily be the notes of the convention. In this instance the notes were written in a style that suggests the quaint diction of Colonial days. Some of the words of the text were capitalized, as was done in those times. In the page heading a few of the letters were tilted to give an irregularity caused in old composition by defective typefounding. Even the brass rules were nicked (brass rule was seldom in good condition in the old days). A crude initial of ancient vintage and an illustration simulating an old woodcut added decorative interest. This page was a change from the routine style of the other pages.
The page from Collier’s (Example [409], Insert) was one of the features of a Thanksgiving number. Its decorative border suggests the treatment found in Books of Common Prayer (see page [27]).
EXAMPLE 430
Caslon typography on a magazine. By Will Bradley
Christmas feature treatment is also found in Example [425], also by Will Bradley. The text letter used in this example for initials and headings is hardly suitable for use generally in periodicals, but for occasional features it is not out of place.
Verse when used will usually look more interesting set in italic, especially when the italic has a decorative quality. One of the important general magazines sets verse in Kennerley italic in a decorative panel broken into the text page at a suitable point.
Important parts of an article reprinted in an attractive panel on the same page would call attention to the article and invite reading.
A certain amount of restraint is necessary when planning typographic features for periodicals. Type-faces should be selected with knowledge and care, and seldom should large sizes be used. “Jobby” display effects are never in order on the text pages of periodicals.
The Advertisements.—The typographic details of the editorial section of a national periodical in the field of advertising were recently revised and made more pleasing, yet when made up and printed the work that had been done was so overshadowed and counteracted by the bold types on the advertising pages that the general result was disappointing.
It is useless to attempt good typography on periodicals so long as advertisements are inserted in text pages or occupy facing positions; that is, it is useless unless the periodicals set or reset the advertisements neatly in good taste as is done by the Curtis publications.
Advertisements should not be mingled with text matter. According to old-fashioned ideas, the reader buys a periodical for the text matter, and it is for him to determine whether or not he shall read the advertising pages. In some publications the text pages are yet to be found intact, altho preceded and followed by sold space; in others good resolves peter out as text meets advertisement toward the rear, and in others—a majority perhaps—advertisements dominate almost all of the text pages.
Treatment of advertisements in periodicals need not necessarily be shy and timid; neither need it be blustering and noisy. Where advertisements are neatly treated and not unduly forced on the attention, readers are likely to give as much time to their perusal as to the text pages. A gentlemanly solicitor who talks clearly in low tones is more likely to sell goods than one who disturbs the entire office by his loud talk and boisterous demeanor. Apply this to the typography of the advertising pages.
Editorially, it is to be regretted that advertising must go “alongside of reading,” but it is to be deplored that in so many periodicals, especially of the business and technical class, reading matter is seemingly written and placed for the purpose of accommodating the advertising.
The successful publication of a periodical, as of a newspaper, depends on liberal patronage from advertisers; yet these advertisers are best served when the publication is planned with first consideration for the text features, and the advertisements are prepared to harmonize and not clash with the typography of the text matter.
EXAMPLE 431
Good typography of a pocket magazine
EXAMPLE 432.—A house-organ by Taylor, Nash & Taylor, San Francisco, that features typography
