PROGRAMS
“Let all things be done decently and in order.” These words of Paul, while possible of wide application, have peculiar significance applied to the program. The program exists because of recognition of the necessity of orderly procedure “where two or three are gathered together.” Historically, the program has come to us from the early times, when all knowledge was transmitted by word of mouth. Church services are the result of evolution from ancient ceremonies, and other exercises for which programs are used originated in the far past.
Programs familiar to printers could be divided into four classes: Programs of sacred services, dance programs, banquet programs, and programs for various entertainments. In this order they will be considered.
EXAMPLE 201
Excellent arrangement for economizing space on a program containing numerous small titles
The historical side of the program of sacred services should not be overlooked. It is a mistake for printers to produce church programs in the same style of typography employed on secular forms. Church programs, more than any other line of printing, offer opportunity for artistic treatment, and their production is pleasure to the artist-printer who believes significance is an important element in good typography.
EXAMPLE 202
An almost perfect specimen of church-program printing, showing the missal style
The key to the proper treatment of ecclesiastical printing lies in the old manuscript books written in the monasteries. Black ink was commonly used for the main portion of books, and vermilion, a red earth (rubrica), for titles and important parts of the text. In the writing of Missals (containing services of the celebration of mass), of Psalters (containing the psalms), and of Books of Hours (containing prayers and offices for the several hours of the day), maltese crosses and uncial capitals were written in vermilion. Uncial capitals are now made by several type foundries as Missal initials, Caxton initials, Sylph initials, etc., and maltese crosses are easily procured. As black text letters were also used on these missals and psalters, the type-faces now known as Caslon Text, Cloister Black, Flemish Black, etc., being copies of these early text letters, are appropriate faces for display portions of church programs. Text letters were long ago discontinued for body purposes in English printing, hence they have become unfamiliar to the general reader and it is not desirable to use them for such purposes. A roman letter such as Caslon is the best companion for these black text letters.
EXAMPLE 203
Classic treatment of church-program page. By D. B. Updike, Boston, Mass.
The Church of England, the American branch of which is known as the Protestant Episcopal Church, deserves much credit for the modern development of an ecclesiastical style of printing. Because of the custom of using red ink in forms of service, for the parts giving direction as to the conduct of the services, these parts have become known as “rubrics.” It is necessary to mention to printers generally that when colors are used on programs or books of service the “rubrics” should be in red. This treatment is illustrated in the page from the marriage service shown as Example [146] in the chapter on “Books” which also shows an uncial initial. When only black is used it is customary to set the rubrics in italic.
EXAMPLE 205
Generous margins on a church program are pleasing
Example [200] (Insert).—This title-page presents a modern interpretation of the historic ecclesiastical treatment. The black type-face is Caslon Text, and is a copy of one of the early manuscript letters, as before mentioned. As pointed Gothic is usually accepted as the style of church architecture, so pointed Gothic type-faces have been adopted for church printing by typographers who know. Uncial rubricated initials as used on this title-page are known commercially as Caxton initials. The red lines which are a prominent part of the page have historic significance. Now grown to possess decorative value, they originated thru the necessities of writers of manuscript books, and were originally guide lines for writing. They designated the position of the page and the lines of letters. With the ancient churchmen the maltese cross was the symbol of Christ, and today also these crosses have that significance, altho to a great extent they are now considered merely as ecclesiastical decoration. The square device in the center is in the Celtic style of ornament. The significance of the design lies in the decorative cross and the letters I. H. S. (Iesus Hominum Salvator, Latin, meaning “Jesus Saviour of Men”). It may be well to suggest that treatment of church printing should be varied sometimes with the denomination for which the work is done. The majority of clergymen will be pleased with printing treated in the accepted ecclesiastical style, yet there are some, prejudiced against “high church” liturgies and emblems, and others with individual ideas of what is appropriate, who must be considered. The writer recalls an instance in which the customer, an Episcopal clergyman, objected to what he called a “Latin” cross, used as an ornament on a title-page, and was satisfied when a maltese cross was substituted for the purpose. Many church programs which now appear commonplace would take on a churchly aspect if rubricated, even tho that be possible only on the title-page.
The example under consideration (No. 200), it will be noticed, is constructed on squared lines, a shape dictated by the large decorative device. While the page as arranged is interesting and fairly harmonious, the pointed letters in the type lines would blend better with a device of the pointed Gothic kind; or, again, the squared device would be in closer harmony with a squared type effect such as could be obtained with roman capitals.
EXAMPLE 204
Program cover-page in semi-missal style. By Lee Crittenden, New York
Example [201].—This page presents an excellent suggestion for the arrangement of a program in which numerous small titles appear. If each title were set in a measure the full width of the type page, as is frequently done, the matter would not come into one page. The arrangement as shown not only economizes space but gives symmetry and tone, which otherwise would not be had. The portions in red are well selected for printing in that color. There is artistic value in the shape formed by the vertical dividing rule and the page heading.
EXAMPLE 206
A dance card by Edward W. Stutes, Spokane, Wash.
EXAMPLE 208
Unconventional treatment of a dance program
Example [202].—This page has not the compactness of the preceding one, yet esthetically it is more pleasing. It is an almost perfect specimen of church-program printing. As already mentioned, the horizontal red lines and the black text letter used for titles have an ecclesiastical motive. Careful disposition of blank space has given a pleasing tone to the page, which is also helped by the position of the second stanza of the hymn at the foot. The type-faces are harmonious, the use of black text, old-style roman and italic affording a pleasing variety. By including in the color the initial letters and the title “Holy Communion,” all parts of the page are blended and related.
Example [203].—The printer may be naturally curious to know how a typographer such as D. B. Updike, who is known to specialize on ecclesiastical typography, treats church programs. Here is an Updike page, from a program of Lenten services, arranged in the simple, classic style of typographic treatment that he always renders so well. As will be noticed, the main portion of the type page is aligned at the left. The manner of using capitals, small capitals, lower-case and italic is an interesting study. While examining the page it is enlightening to note that A.M. and P.M. are in small capitals, and that no space other than furnished by the period is placed between these abbreviations or the degrees D.D., Ph.D., etc.
EXAMPLE 207
Page from a booklet program. By C. R. Beran, Denver, Colo.
Example [204].—This is the title-page of a small program which was in booklet form, a page being devoted to each event on the program. The title-page is in missal style, with cross rules and uncial initials. The spaced Pabst capitals at the foot are not sufficiently strong in tone to balance the upper part of the page. Perhaps the effect would be better had the missal style of treatment been extended to the lower portion of the page.
Example [205].—This is the second page of a small program used at the laying of the corner-stone of a new church building. It would have been possible to get all the type matter on one page, but crowding into small space is often done at the sacrifice of beauty, and this program profits by the liberal margins. The rule lines at the head were used to obtain uniformity of page width and hight. The outline type ornament gives ecclesiastic dignity to the program. The two-line initial at the beginning of each hymn adds style and finish to the typography.
The dance program is a far step from the church program. The contrast between the subdued and reverent atmosphere of the house of worship and the gayety and frivolity of the brilliantly lighted ball-room emphasizes the necessity of printers using their best powers of discrimination in treating the various programs that come to their shops.
The dance program should be dainty. White seems to be more acceptable than colored stock on which to print the order of dancing. The type and ink treatment should be neat and delicate. If a bold type-face be used, it should be printed in a light tint of ink, such as gray, pale blue, pale green, and the like. It is possible for printers to produce attractive dance programs with the material generally found in the shop, yet stock folders may save wear of the thought machinery and probably be more satisfactory to the customer. Young people are imitative and may be suspicious of a dance program which does not resemble those they have seen before; it has got to “look like a dance program.” For fifty years or more dance programs have consisted of folded cardboard with tassel and pencil dangling therefrom. The stock folder is to be had in a variety of designs printed or embossed on the first page, appropriate for many occasions. However, there are shown three typographic dance programs.
EXAMPLE 209
The decorative border on a banquet program. By Edward Everett Winchell, New York
EXAMPLE 211
Page from a booklet program. By Will Bradley
EXAMPLE 212
The banquet program in the form of a checkbook
Example [206].—An Indian border was used around this dance card, but its strong lines were softened by printing in gray and red. White stock was used. In the headline, instead of the customary periods, dots are centered decoratively. Artists often place a dot or small ornament between words of a lettered design for the purpose of benefiting the tone. More often practically no space at all is placed between words if in lower-case beginning with capital letters.
Example [207].—A part of an outing program, this page carries the style of all the other pages as regards border and head panel. It illustrates the effectiveness and economy of uniform border treatment on a program. There are very few programs that would not be benefited by decorative borders in color. But one border need be set in type, duplicates being obtained by electrotyping. If there are to be only a few hundred programs, two borders may be set in type and printed on all the sheets, running only two pages on. If desired, a hand-drawn decorative border could be engraved and afterward duplicated by electrotyping.
Example [208].—There is nothing conventional in the design of this dance program. It is different from most others. The rule lines extend to the border, and the heading “Dances” sets slightly to the right of center, supported underneath by the graceful flower ornament. Punctuation is omitted. This page is recommended for dance cards, when the printer desires to have the job exclusively typographic.
EXAMPLE 210
A halftone decorative background on a program. Design by Griffith-Stillings Press, Boston, Mass.
EXAMPLE 213
Humorous treatment of titles and odd menu arrangement. Design by the Griffith-Stillings Press, Boston, Mass.
The banquet program not so many years ago here in America and in England was commonly called a bill of fare. Now only the cross-roads hotel and the cheap city eating house have bills of fare. The polite title is now “menu,” pronounced men-yu or meh-noo. Some writers claim the word came to us from “Manu,” a mythical sage said to have sprung from the god Brahma. Yet the dictionary would seem to indicate that the word is French, meaning small, and was derived from the Latin minutus, little. It is possible that the small portions now served in many restaurants suggested the use of “menu” because of the contrast with the generous “helpings” of the old-fashioned meal. In 1512 a “shore dinner” for an individual consisted of “a quart of beer, a quart of wine, salt fish, red herring, white herrings and a dish of sprats.”
EXAMPLE 214
Suggestion for a menu page, introducing a bit of fun
EXAMPLE 215
A classic menu page. Designed by D. B. Updike, Boston, Mass.
In the banquet program the printer has great opportunity to make use of his inventive faculties. No other kind of program allows of such varied treatment. There is no limit to the shapes, the type arrangements and the color treatments that are suitable for banquet programs. An association of leather merchants holds a dinner and the members may find beside their plates a program bound in a miniature hide, the sheets of the program attached by a leather thong.
Bankers meet and the program may be in the form of a checkbook.
For an athletic association an oval-shaped program suggesting a football will “score.”
Newspaper publishers will appreciate the menu list presented as a papier-mache matrix of the type form.
Commercial travelers would be pleased were their banquet programs designed in imitation of a mileage book.
A literary society dinner would be appropriately graced were the program printed on parchment and wound around a wooden or ivory rod, as “books” were bound in ancient times.
EXAMPLE 217
Dignified style for menu page. By the De Vinne Press, New York
Pyrography could be blended with typography in producing odd effects in banquet programs. One way of getting results by this method is to print the menu page on a piece of soft wood, say a quarter of an inch thick, and then, by means of the pyrographic writing tool, burn a decorative border around it. Type ornaments and borders could be printed on the wood as a guide for burning the designs.
Many effective menu forms could also be evolved with the assistance of the bookbinder. Pulp board covered with an artistic cover paper makes a handsome background for mounting the menu page, which should be printed on a harmonizing stock. Italian and Japanese hand-made papers are particularly suitable for such work, and when the style of typography is made to blend with the stock the effect is rich. Domestic manufacturers, too, make a large line of artistic papers applicable to the purpose.
Example [209].—This page is from a booklet program, and is companion to Example [125] inserted in a preceding chapter. It sets forth the value of the decorative border on programs. The arrangement of the type matter is the customary one. The minor dishes are set in small type, while the damp stuff from the wine cellar is represented at the left in rubricated text letters.
Example [210].—A halftoned decorative background in olive was a feature that lent value to this page, which is one of a number of similarly treated pages in a booklet program. The classic panel design makes a good background for a menu page. The idea is applicable in many other ways.
EXAMPLE 216
A menu program used by master printers. By Charles Edward Peabody, Toronto, Ont.
EXAMPLE 218
Treatment simulating woodcut decoration
Example [211].—This chapter would be incomplete without one or two Bradley specimens. Here is an idea in menu printing born while he was with the American Type Founders Company in 1905. It took the form of a small booklet 2¾ by 4¾ inches, eight pages and cover, and each page was devoted to one of the dishes on the menu. Below the name of the dish was a chap-book ornament. Altho the small booklet has been little used as a form for menu purposes, it has possibilities for development that should not be overlooked by the printer.
EXAMPLE 219
The missal style adapted to a menu program. By Will Bradley
Example [212].—Here is a novel banquet program. Each dish on the menu was presented in the form of a check on the “Printers’ Bank of Dyspepsia,” and the “bank” was ordered to pay to the order of the guest a portion of food or drink, in this instance oysters on the half-shell. The checks were signed by appropriate names, “A. Shellgame” in this instance. The entire lot of checks was bound in the customary checkbook style.
Example [213].—In this program the menu is termed “Hash” and the toasts “Rehash.” The treatment is unique, especially in the arrangement of the list of palate ticklers.
EXAMPLE 220
Unique treatment of a menu page in which the minor dishes are arranged at the right
Example [214] (Insert).—Suggested for a menu page in two colors. Banquets are occasions of gayety and enjoyment, and humor is appreciated. Displaying choice drinks prominently, and then in a note at the foot calling attention to the fact that they can be had at the bar at regular rates, is a bit of fun that has not been widely perpetrated. Typographically the page is refined, yet is sufficiently decorative to appeal to a large class of customers.
Example [215].—A classic menu page by Updike. Roman capitals and italic lower-case only are used. Perhaps this is the way Aldus would set the page were he alive today. The page as a mass is symmetrical.
Example [216].—This page is from a program used at a master printers’ banquet, all pages being treated in a style appropriately humorous. The word “Stock” tops the page instead of the usual “Menu.” “Make-up” heads the list of officers, and in this manner were the guests’ funny-bones agitated.
Example [217].—Here is a program for those accustomed to eat in a foreign language. The typographic treatment is refined and dignified, the roman capitals and the italic blending classically. Little side hits such as those to the right are always appreciated, especially when carefully selected.
EXAMPLE 222
Refined entertainment program page. Design by D. B. Updike, Boston, Mass.
EXAMPLE 221
Excellent typographic treatment. By Harry Haime, Boston, Mass.
Example [218].—An artistic treatment simulating woodcut decoration suitable for many occasions is presented by this page. The four initial letters give the appearance of a decorative heading and blend well with the border. It is appropriate that capitals should be used thruout the page and that the type-face should be Old-Style Antique. The florets dividing the dishes distribute the color pleasingly. The fact that this program was used by an organization of mechanical engineers explains the queer wording of the list of good things to be eaten.
EXAMPLE 223
EXAMPLE 224
These two pages are from an entertainment program by Bruce Rogers, Cambridge, Mass., and furnish interesting material for study
Example [219].—Bradley suggests another good arrangement in this page. It is simply constructed, yet possesses interest and style. The original was in black and light-brown inks on buff antique stock.
EXAMPLE 225
A program page in lower-case. By Stetson Press, Boston, Mass.
Example [220].—This page has the merit of being unique while containing elements of the artistic. The important dishes are set forth prominently, the minor dishes appearing in small type grouped at the right. Uncial initials blend with the Old-Style Antique type. The horizontal rule and the large flower ornament play necessary parts in obtaining a balance.
EXAMPLE 226
The decoration was in color. By Fred S. Lang, Los Angeles, Cal.
Example [221].—The treatment of the titles at the left side and the symmetrical arrangement at the foot of this example are highly commendable. The details of the entire page denote the finished typographer. The combination of capitals and small capitals is pleasing, and the manner in which variety has been secured in a design of orderly arrangement is commendable.
EXAMPLE 227
Program in the Gothic style. Designed by Merrymount Press, Boston, Mass.
Programs for entertainments and exercises, while not allowing the unrestrained workings of the fancy that those for banquets do, are yet proper vehicles for carrying artistic ideas. The program should be artistic. The commonplace program is a disappointment to the intelligent auditor and an evil in that it influences the public taste towards mediocrity. The printer who cannot produce a good entertainment program has need to study art principles and observe the artistic programs being produced by others.
Example [222].—A refined program page by Updike. In the original the border was printed from a copper intaglio plate on smooth-surfaced hand-made paper, the reading portion being printed clearly and sharply from type. Updike’s work is noted for the clearness of the print. Just enough ink is carried to prevent the print being called gray. Of course the type must be clean and unaffected by wear, the ink well ground and the impression firm. This specimen is almost entirely in italic, with “swash” or decorative capitals that add interest to a page of dignified typography. Swash italic capitals properly used are valuable aids in securing attractive yet refined typographic effects.
Examples [223] and [224].—These two pages by Bruce Rogers should have interest for every printer who loves good typography. The zinc reproductions of these pages, also that of the preceding example, fail to present the sharp print of the originals. Roman lower-case is absent from this program. Rogers and Updike, with Aldus, have demonstrated that roman lower-case is not essential to typography. Perhaps that is why their work has distinction—other printers set most of their type from the roman lower case.
On the title-page the features of particular interest are the long s in the word “music,” the swash italic capitals and the woodcut ornament.
The program page is interesting in its construction and its details should be studied closely. Unless suitable ornamentation is available, program pages had better be treated plainly as here, with such attention to the details of the type arrangement as will obtain finished results. It is a test of typographic ability in the production of a program page to compose work that, without the friendly aid of decoration, is pleasing to look upon.
Example [225].—This page shows admirable treatment of a brief program. The various sizes of type are well distributed, and the consistent use of roman lower-case is pleasing.
Example [226].—The type in this page overprinted the decoration which was in pale orange and pale green. The decoration was appropriate in that the program was for a meeting held on the fruit-growing Pacific Coast.
Example [227].—The Gothic style dominates this page. Excepting the two uncial initials, only one size of type has been used. That fact alone is interesting, as the result is remarkably finished. Decoration of quality for similar effects can be obtained by having historic decorative borders from old books photographed and redrawn upon the photograph with such alterations as are desired. The face of the photograph can then be washed away, leaving only the drawing, from which the plate is made.
EXAMPLE 228
A well-arranged page. By Stetson Press, Boston, Mass.
Example [228].—The list of characters in a dramatic entertainment is here displayed in an unusual manner. It is so easy for compositors to set copy such as this in the conventional type-leader-type method, but this compositor has arranged it to conform to the proportion of the page.
The program containing small advertisements, especially the theater program, is possible of much improvement. Such typography should be given better attention, as theater programs exert large influence in forming public taste.
EXAMPLE 229
Classic capitals combined with rules. Suitable for announcements having to do with art, architecture, literature and music
