The Art & Practice of Typography / A Manual of American Printing, Including a Brief History up to the Twentieth Century, with Reproductions of the Work of Early Masters of the Craft, and a Practical Discussion and an Extensive Demonstration of the Modern Use of Type-faces and Methods of Arrangement

by Edmund G. Gress

POSTERS, CAR CARDS, WINDOW CARDS

Poster printing is a specialty in large cities, where plants are equipped for the economical and effective production of such work. However, consideration of the subject in this chapter will be confined to the interest it may have for the general commercial printer, he who is called upon at one hour to print a business card and at another to produce a window card, car card or other form of poster printing.

The type equipment of the poster specialist includes strong gothic and Clarendon faces, of a variety of widths that enable him to make a full line of almost any word or combination of words. When such strong-printing capital letters are used, most of the lines should be full, as the general effect should be one of compactness. A very little amount of spacing is sufficient. No extended reference will be made here to the conventional poster that carries these heavy types, as its arrangement is merely one that emphasizes in a plain manner the various important parts of the copy. Skill is necessary, but not the skill of an artist.

The wood-type equipment of the general commercial printer need not he elaborate, but it should be well selected. There should be a blending of styles in type-faces from the smallest size of metal type to the largest wood letter. The wood-type makers duplicate most of the standard job faces, so that harmony in this respect need be no idle dream.

EXAMPLE 367
A lettered poster by Harvey Hopkins Dunn that should be studied by the typographer

Among poster printers a sheet 29 × 39 inches is taken as a unit and is known as a “one-sheet.” “Four-sheet,” “twelve-sheet,” etc., are terms designating the number of units or “one-sheets” in the whole display. On the other hand, the commercial printer’s “sheet” poster is generally the full 25 × 38-inch paper, a “half-sheet” being 19 × 25 inches and a “quarter-sheet” 12½ × 19 inches.

The size of car cards—the advertisements used in trolley, elevated and subway cars—is usually 11 × 21 inches.

The most common sizes of window cards—advertisements placed in store windows by courtesy of the merchants—are quarter-sheets (11 × 14 inches) and half-sheets (14 × 22 inches), the unit of which is the standard sheet of cardboard (about 22 × 28 inches).

Posters in their most attractive form are designed in pleasing combinations of decorative illustration, lettering and harmonious coloring. The printer with type alone cannot give the picture element, but he can give color and lettering.

What a poster authority has said of the pictorial poster can to some extent be said of the typographic poster: “The poster should be simple, clever, attractive, perhaps sparkling, spontaneous, appropriate, sometimes humorous, but in good taste, and should tell the story at a glance. It should not be elaborate in detail or labored; the designer should know where to stop. The coloring should be brilliant, yet simple; when many colors are used most of them are wasted, as the eye does not see them all. As detail in a poster is lost at a distance, it is unnecessary. The best posters have no background and not much lettering, as small lettering cannot be seen across the street, which is the test.”

It is assumed that the typographic poster is viewed at closer range, as in its smaller sizes it is usually hung in stores and offices or posted in convenient locations that permit of easy reading; yet the printer who sets the work, as well as the man who writes the copy, should keep before him the manner in which the poster, car card or window card is to be used. A person sitting on the opposite side of the car should be able to read the car card, and the person passing a store window should find it possible to obtain the principal points of information from the window card. On store cards, such as used during special sales, the price should be prominently displayed.

EXAMPLE 368
A lettered arrangement that has suggestion

EXAMPLE 369
A few words of copy and strong contrasts

EXAMPLE 370
A typographic style unique among insurance advertising in cars

EXAMPLE 371
Simplicity that is worthy of adaptation

Example [366] (Insert).—The possibilities of typographic effects in poster printing are to be seen in this example, arranged by Frederic W. Goudy. Forum Title, designed by him, was selected as the type-face. In order to obtain the larger sizes, the type was set in a smaller size, a clear proof pulled and a photo-engraving made. This poster measures up to the qualities outlined by the poster authority previously quoted. It is “spontaneous, appropriate, simple, clever, attractive.”

Example [367].—Altho this design is lettered, it should prove of great value to the typographer as a study of composition. In the production of this effective poster Mr. Dunn has given of his talent as an illustrator as well as of his skill as a letterer. The apportionment of blank space in the margins and at the head is pleasing, and it helps to make effective the black masses of lettering and the octagonal illustration. The border of thick and thin lines ties the design together.

Example [368].—Most cards in urban cars are made up greatly of design and illustration, but in this one we find the illustration taking a minor position. The lettering is the main feature, and it should suggest treatment with type that could be almost as effective.

Example [369].—The strong contrast of black, red and white in this car card could be approximated with bold, well-designed wood type. The trade name is given most prominence, altho the remainder of the copy is also strongly presented. A suggestion of decoration is to be found in the ruled lines at the head and foot.

Example [370].—Seldom is copy such as this furnished for car cards, yet its conversational style probably caused it to be read more than other cards. As an advertisement it is an improvement over the common method of merely stating name and business. It presented opportunity to the printer to use types in a sane, simple manner, and he did so. A two-line initial letter starts the reading pleasantly, and the name in capitals has sufficient prominence.

Example [371].—At an exhibit of German modern-art posters the design that stood out most strongly was one which contained only a name lettered and an article illustrated. There was no detail to detract, and the effect was altogether pleasant. This shoe card is planned along similar lines, and the idea could well be put to further use.

Example [372] (Insert).—This is a presentation of a three-sheet poster which attracted the attention of the writer a few years ago because of its simplicity. For such effects as this, which carry but little copy, lower-case letters are appropriate. It is seldom, however, that the commercial printer is provided with so few words for his posters. Lower-case display, to look well, requires plenty of surrounding blank space, while capitals accommodate themselves to close quarters.

EXAMPLE 372
Refinement in theatrical printing. Was a large three-sheet poster

EXAMPLE 373
A border such as this blends with gothic type-faces

Example [373] (Insert).—The “Secession” style of border and ornament blends well with monotone type-faces without serifs, such as the type commonly known as gothic. As the wood-type equipment of most printshops very likely includes gothic faces, the style of treatment shown by this specimen may be produced successfully. A border such as this is easily procured, or can be made by the printer if he desires.

Example [374].—Printers seldom take advantage of the opportunities offered for unusual effects. This copy did not suggest anything to the compositor who first set it and the result was commonplace, with nothing to excite anything but ordinary interest. The fact that the birth of Franklin was to be celebrated should have been sufficient to suggest an arrangement such as is here presented, but it did not. Benjamin Franklin purchased his type in England, some of it at the old letter foundry of the Caslons; and what is more interesting than a poster announcement of a Franklin dinner set in the style of type-face that Franklin himself used? This has been done in the example under consideration. Roman, italic, capitals and lower-case have been blended in the interesting manner in which this was done in the eighteenth century. The long s (ſ) of Franklin’s time is also used, to carry along the interest; it appears, as will be noticed, in all cases excepting at the end of words. A Caslon ornamental band is at the head and foot.

Example [375].—This is another instance where the copy furnished a motif that could be developed typographically. Reproductions from the First Folio of Shakespeare’s works were available and from them an initial and two decorative bands were enlarged to the desired size. The typography of Shakespeare’s time was then studied and worked into the poster. The Caslon type-face is not exactly the same as that used in the seventeenth century, but there is sufficient similarity to make it suitable. Many persons of the present day will shy at the use of a single capital letter immediately following the initial, but that is the way it was done in the old days. Typographers should early begin to accumulate a library of books. They should frequent the second-hand bookstores, and occasionally purchase some old volume that shows the style of typography of fifty, one hundred or more years ago. The best printers do this.

Example [376].—It should be an easy matter to produce attractive window cards or paper hangers in this style. Selections from the many artistic and odd cover papers obtainable, supported by harmonizing color combinations, make possible any number of attractive effects. Only one size of type should be used, and the border should be one that reflects the character of the type-face. Plain rules for border purposes are more successful in obtaining harmony than is decoration. As most letters contain two widths of line, a rule border matching the wider line, or both lines, is pleasing.

EXAMPLE 374
Type treatment that suggests Franklin’s time

EXAMPLE 375
Poster in Shakespearean typography

Example [377].—The Colonial style of type arrangement is here adapted to window-card purposes. The window card has the same advertising reason for its existence as the paper poster, and is printed on cardboard to enable it to stand upright. The treatment of this card is such that the word “Pinafore” and the decoration stand out most prominently, taking for granted that a person interested by the sight of this word will come close to the card and read it. Such an arrangement should not be attempted unless the copy is suitable. Forcing unsuitable copy in full-line Colonial arrangements results in illegibility and dissatisfaction.

EXAMPLE 376
A simple typographic treatment that offers possibilities for attractive posters or window cards

Example [378].—Sunday-school excursions furnish copy for many window cards. The printer may appreciate this suggestion for an arrangement of such a job. It is sufficiently unconventional to attract attention, at the same time providing a simple way of arranging the matter that usually comes in with such orders. The arrangement has merit from an advertising point of view, the information being given concisely and legibly.

It is probably true that the majority of printers have given no thought whatever to the arrangement and treatment of posters. It is even likely that there are job printers who feel that poster composition is beneath their dignity. In view of these conditions, it is to be hoped that what has here been written regarding the poster will serve to create new interest in that line of work.

Years ago the author knew an old printer who had the reputation of being the best sale-bill compositor in the county. His work was confined almost entirely to the setting of posters announcing sales of farm goods, yet he did it so carefully and efficiently that residents of the county traveled miles to place an order with the concern for which this man worked.

EXAMPLE 377
The Colonial style used on a window card

Poster printing should not be attempted unless the equipment is such that the work can be done profitably. Lack of sufficient wood type will result in poor printing and makeshift arrangements. However, absence of equipment did not worry a certain printer who did business some years ago. He had no wood type at all, yet he accepted orders for posters and, taking advantage of the craft courtesies of those days, borrowed all the type lines from a competitor. It frequently happened that when the competitor desired to set up a bill he found that the type was mostly in the possession of the borrowing printer.

EXAMPLE 378
Suggestion for an excursion window card

The large two-sheet and three-sheet posters look very big indeed to the printer in the small shop whose product is confined to the output of his platen presses, yet poster printing is merely printing on a larger scale. The builder of the New York subways was once asked how he found it possible to put through such a large undertaking. He replied that he knew he could build a cellar, and a subway was merely a multiplication of cellars. The printer who learns how effectively to produce a small piece of printed advertising matter should be able, by developing and enlarging on his ideas, to produce good poster work.

EXAMPLE 381
A city department-store advertisement of the good kind