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

TYPOGRAPHY IN THE 19th CENTURY

It was near the close of the nineteenth century when William Morris, the distinguished exponent of strength and simplicity in art, declared that “no good printing has been done since 1550.” According to this statement one hundred years after its invention typography forfeited its place among the esthetic arts, and then for three hundred years remained below the standard set by its inventor. By setting his date at 1550 Morris overlooked the achievements of such eminent printers as Plantin and the Elzevirs, but his arraignment probably had some justification. Posterity had defaulted in its administration of the legacy left by Gutenberg.

The first book printed from separate types, as an example of artistic arrangement and careful workmanship, is a remarkable testimony to the genius of the inventor, especially when the completeness of the invention is compared with the initial productions of later inventors. The first cylinder press and the first linotype machine were both crudely constructed.

Typography attained its highest point toward perfection in Italy in the days of Jenson and Aldus. The Italian style of lettering and decoration differed greatly from the German. There were dignity, refinement, a dainty neatness, in the printed pages of the Venetians, and their type-faces were precise and of a dark-gray tone. The German page, with its bold Gothic letters arranged in masses of black, was characteristic of the religious fidelity and sturdiness of the dwellers on the banks of the Rhine.

As the art of printing spread, the German and Italian styles became mingled, finally resulting during Colonial days in a style of typography which represented the Italian modified by the German just enough to make it interesting. But typography as an art was in a state of deterioration. Even Franklin, called by the printers of America their “Patron Saint,” as a typographer lacked the artistic perception of Aldus and Plantin, altho he was a superior mechanic and a shrewd business man.

The beginning of the nineteenth century found the practice of typography leaning more than ever toward utility and away from art. William Nicholson, an Englishman, had planned a cylinder printing press, and Dr. Kinsley, of Connecticut, had constructed a model of one. A roman type-face on severe, mechanical lines had been designed, and picturesque old romans such as the Caslon were going out of use. Ornaments and borders were being discarded, and the style of typography was getting uninteresting and losing the personal element.

PLEASING BORDER ARRANGEMENT
Letterpress imitation of the decoration of double-column pages on early books. From the “Book of Common Prayer,” London, 1814

To illustrate this transition there are reproduced four representative title-page arrangements. The first is that of a book on printing published in 1810, containing several lines of the then new roman type-face. In arrangement this page is similar to the “Queen Elizabeth” page inserted in the chapter on Colonial typography which is perhaps the source from which came the “long-and-short-line” and “catch-word” style of the average title-page of the nineteenth century. The second example of the group shows a displayed page of 1847 similarly treated, and the third is a reproduction of the title-page of a printer’s manual of 1872. This last-mentioned example is the product of a prominent type foundry of that time and very likely was arranged in the style then accepted as good typography. A more uninteresting page could hardly be conceived, especially in a book intended for printers.

DESIGN MADE WITH BRASS RULE
Executed in 1879, it is one of the best specimens of the rule-curving period

The fourth example is a reproduction of the title-page of MacKellar’s well-known manual, “The American Printer” (now out of print), and presents what to the head of the most prominent American type foundry was probably an ideal arrangement. While revealing the long-and-short-line characteristics of the previously mentioned pages, as a whole the effect is more interesting to printers. In this page may be noticed the trend toward delicate, characterless typography.

A printer, Charles Whittingham, of the Chiswick Press, and a publisher, William Pickering, of London, England, furnish an example of effort made in the middle of the nineteenth century to raise the practice of typography to a more artistic standard. These men, both lovers of books, and artists in temperament, had become intimate friends, and together endeavored to introduce into their publications simplicity, appropriateness, and other artistic qualities.

Desiring to use an old-style face on one of their books, Whittingham inquired of the Caslon type foundry if any of the punches cut by the first William Caslon were in existence. The original punches being recovered after years of disuse, fonts of type were cast and used on a book, “The Diary of Lady Willoughby,” printed in 1844. The title-page of this book is reproduced on a following page, and it will be seen that Whittingham arranged the typography in the Colonial style to harmonize with the literary motive of the book. So well was this done that one has to look twice at the date to satisfy himself it is not 1644. Other typography from these men is not quite so radically different from that of their contemporaries, but is more refined, artistic and tasteful, as may be seen by the “Friends in Council” page further on in this chapter. An innovation by Whittingham was the omission of punctuation marks excepting where needed to make clear the significance of the wording.

Whittingham and Pickering, in the field of artistic typography, were fifty years ahead of their time, as printers in general were not ready to accept the good things offered them. The modern renaissance came later.

---

Job printing as a distinct department is of modern development. Typographers of old were primarily book and pamphlet printers, and in many cases interest was chiefly centered in publishing newspapers or almanacs; job printing was incidental. This caused similarity in the typography of newspaper, book and job work, a condition that today exists only in a small degree. Now these three classes of work are generally separated into departments, each with its own rules, styles and practices, job composition being less restrained by customs and rules than any of the other departments.

TITLE-PAGE OF 1810

TITLE-PAGE OF 1847

TITLE-PAGE OF 1872
Showing the development during the nineteenth century of a severe and uninteresting style

Attractiveness is as necessary to the typography of the general job of printing as dignity and legibility are to a law brief, but, endeavoring to get attractiveness into their work, job printers often go astray. They wrongly labor under the impression that to have a job distinctive it must be made freakish. Typography is not good unless based upon art foundations.

Ideas in plenty could have been plucked by the printer of the nineteenth century from old books, especially from those printed for religious organizations, such as the “Book of Common Prayer.” A handsome edition of a book of this kind was printed in London by John Murray in 1814. Each pair of pages is different in decoration and typography, the designs being by “Owen Jones, architect.” The decorative treatment of the page of Psalms reproduced from this book is worthy of study and adaptation.

THE TREND TOWARD DAINTINESS
Title-page of MacKellar’s manual, “The American Printer,” 1882

About the time of the Civil War the job printer was less fettered than ever by the customs of the book printer. While title-pages of books were being composed without ornamentation in severe-looking modern romans, the job printer, influenced by the typefounder, took a liking to fancy typography, for the production of which there were shaded, outlined, rimmed and ornamental letters, in imitation of the work of the copperplate engraver. The business card on the next page, and the “bill of fare” here shown, are specimens of such work.

BANQUET PROGRAM
As arranged in Boston in 1865

The changing styles of typography as applied to commercial headings are well set forth by the group on the fifth page of this chapter. The first specimen is a “plain” billhead of 1870. The second is a billhead of 1893, when the compositor was taught to corral all excess wording in an enclosure of rules at the left side of the heading proper. In this specimen there is a touch of ornamentation and a showing of seven different type-faces, one of which is the then conventional script for the date line. The third specimen of the group, a letterhead which won first prize in a contest held in 1897, reveals further development of simple typography. Only one face of type is used (Tudor black) and there is no ornamentation excepting a few periods on each side of the word “The.”

During the nineteenth century no type foundry did more toward influencing the typography of the general job printer than the one known at the time of its absorption by the American Type Founders Company as MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan, of Philadelphia. The reproduction of a few clippings from its specimen book of 1885 may recall memories to the printer now of middle age.

The Free Press business card has peculiar interest to the author. It was set and printed by him during dull hours about the year 1889, when his thinking apparatus was controlled by influences from the underworld of typographic practice.

There is another phase of late nineteenth-century typography which should be mentioned. It seems that printers had developed a longing for pictures, color and decoration. The process of photo-engraving not having been perfected, job printers shaped brass rule into representations of composing-sticks, printing presses, portraits and architectural designs, and cut tint blocks from patent leather and other material. The skill exhibited by many printers is remarkable; beautiful combinations of tints were produced. It will be difficult for many persons to believe that the “Boston Type Foundry” design (shown on a preceding page) was originally constructed with pieces of brass rule, but such is the fact. It was composed by C. W. L. Jungloew in 1879, and is truly a wonderful example of the work of the printer-architect. The perspective obtained by the designer is a feature. Black, gold, and several tints were used in the printing.

“IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS”
From a specimen book of 1885

Interesting as are these wonders of the curved-rule period, they are not artistic in the true sense of the word; examples of skill indeed, but not art as it is today understood.

---

We now come to one of the most interesting periods in the history of printing, a period which may well be termed the “Modern Renaissance.” As was intimated earlier in this chapter, the invention of printing machinery served to lead typography away from art. The printers of that time thought they were doing artistic work when they set their jobs in fancy type-faces, twisted brass rule, or printed in many colors. They did not know that art-printing was simplicity—and something else. The apprentice was taught to set type as was his journeyman instructor before him. Any inspiration he received came from the typefounders, and even that was often interpreted wrongly.

Ten years before the close of the nineteenth century display typography was in a chaotic state so far as art was concerned. Printers who before had not doubted the appropriateness and quality of their own typography, began to realize that it lacked something they were not able to supply, and were ready to follow a Moses who could lead them to better things. Then began to form a curious chain of events that was to have a revolutionary influence upon commercial typography as well as upon commercial art. The first link in this chain was the establishing of the Kelmscott Press in England by William Morris.

William Morris was an artist, a poet, a designer and a craftsman. Partiality for things medieval showed itself early in his life, and before he took up printing he manufactured artistic house furnishings in the ruins of an old abbey.

Years ago if the average American citizen were asked what great thing Benjamin Franklin did, his answer might have been, “He invented the Franklin stove.” The average person of today would connect the name of Morris with the Morris chair. As the application of art principles to typography has caused the compositor to turn from rule curving, to set his lines straight, and to seek paper and ink without luster, so the influence of Morris led to a distaste for gilt and polish and trimmings, and created a demand for subdued colors and straight lines in home furnishings. He who can influence others to think and act in manner different and better than they have done before, is truly great.

Morris lived in a picturesque old manor-house in Kelmscott on the Thames in England, and it was there at the age of fifty-seven years that he began to print. He was not a printer by trade, but before a type was set he studied the art from the beginning. He even learned to make a sheet of paper himself. Kelmscott Press paper was made by hand of fine white linen rags untouched by chemicals. Morris as a handicraftsman had an abhorrence for machinery. It is doubtful if he would have used even a hand-press if results equally good could have been obtained without it.

Morris’s idea seems to have been to take up good typography where the early printers left off. When he wanted types for the new printshop he had enlarged photographs made of the type pages of Jenson, Koburger and other printers of the fifteenth century, and from these photographs designed his type-faces, arranging the details of the letters to conform to his own ideas.

His roman type-face he called “Golden,” probably because of its use on the “Golden Legend.” This type-face was afterward reproduced by foundries in America as Jenson, Kelmscott, and other type-names. Morris was wont to say that he considered the glory of the Roman alphabet was in its capitals, but the glory of the Gothic alphabet was in its lower-case letters. He also designed a type-face characteristic of the Gothic letters used by Koburger and other fifteenth-century printers, and, probably because of its use on the “Historyes of Troye,” called it Troy. This type also was reproduced by type foundries, and printers knew it as Satanick and Tell Text.

The space ordinarily assigned to the page margins Morris covered with foliage decoration in the manner of the early Italian printers, large decorative initials blending with the borders. These initials and borders, with few exceptions, were drawn by himself and engraved upon wood by W. H. Hooper. Compare the right-hand page of the two pages here reproduced with the Venetian specimen in the chapter on “The Spread of Typography.”

BUSINESS CARD
As displayed in 1865

One of Morris’s books, an edition of Chaucer, was additionally enriched by upward of a hundred illustrations by Burne-Jones, a noted British artist.

In both England and America Morris was the subject of much criticism. Men who as art printers were not fit to touch the hem of his garment were loud in condemnation of his work. Others, more fair, pointed out the excellence of his printing, but claimed that neither his type-faces nor his style of typography would be used many years. This last prediction has proved partly true. The Jenson, or Kelmscott, type-face was used so frequently and so generally that despite its virtues it finally tired the public eye, and is now seldom seen. Satanick, the “Troy” type-face, as made by the American Type Founders Company, is not now displayed in that company’s specimen book.

A BUSINESS CARD OF 1889
One of the author’s early attempts at artistic (?) printing

However, the work of William Morris, tho not accepted as the model for general use, was the cause of a revolution in modern typography. Instead of the delicate and inartistic type-faces and ornamentation of 1890, the contents of type-foundry specimen books revealed strong, handsome, artistic letters and common-sense art borders and ornaments. Morris’s experience as a printer did not cover five years, yet his name will always live because of the good he did typography in the nineteenth century.

Decorative artists were wielding a big influence in the revival taking place in the field of typography. Contemporary with Morris in England was a young artist, Aubrey Beardsley, prominent in a new school of art which saw merit in the flat masses of color as found in the seemingly grotesque designs of the Japanese.

Here in America the work of Morris and Beardsley found favor in the eyes of Will Bradley, who was destined to lead the forces in the typographic revolution on American soil. Bradley had been a country printer; as apprentice, journeyman and foreman he had tasted both the joys and sorrows of practical work in the printshop. However, Bradley was more than printer; he had artistic tendencies which finally influenced him to go to Chicago to study art. There he frequented the art galleries and public libraries, and developed into a poster artist of exceptional merit. There were those who called him the “American Beardsley.”

The year 1896 found Bradley with a studio at Springfield, Mass., where his love of printing influenced him to open a printshop which he called the “Wayside Press.” In May of the same year he issued the first number of “Bradley: His Book,” a unique publication for artists and printers. The type-faces used were Jenson, Caslon and Bradley, and almost every page contained decoration. There were many odd color combinations and Bradley must have stood close to his presses when this first number was printed. Purple-brown and orange, olive-green and orange-brown, orange-yellow and chocolate-brown, purple-red and green-blue—these were some of the color harmonies.

The Christmas number of “Bradley: His Book” was set entirely in Satanick, the American copy of Morris’s “Troy” type, and bright vermilion was nicely contrasted with dense black print.

While Morris was a medievalist, and received his inspiration from the printed books of the fifteenth century, Bradley was inspired by both past and present. Printers know him particularly because of his adaptations of the styles of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He demonstrated how Colonial printers could have done their work better. In presenting the Colonial specimens which are here reproduced from the November, 1906, “Bradley: His Book,” Bradley wrote:

Antique and deckle-edge papers enter so largely into the making of books today that printers cannot do better than to study the styles of type-composition that were in vogue when all books were printed upon hand-made papers. A knowledge thus gained should prove of great value, especially in the setting of title-pages.... The only face of Roman type which seems appropriate to antique paper is that which is known as Caslon. When types were fewer, and the craft of printing less abused than it is now, this was the only type used in bookwork; and some of the title-pages in our earlier books are extremely interesting and suggest motifs which may well be carried out today. Taking suggestions from these books we have set a few pages, using as subjects the titles of some modern works. There seems to be an unwritten law which we are supposed to follow in this class of composition; and yet one should be a little brave and daring, purely for the joy of getting out of the old beaten track.

Stationery composition of 1870

The panel as used in 1893

A neat letterhead of 1897
THE CHANGING STYLES OF COMMERCIAL HEADINGS

The type foundries helped the spread of the new typography by supplying a series of Bradley’s decorations, known as “Wayside Ornaments.”

Bradley discontinued the Wayside Press in 1898 and combined his printshop with that of the University Press at Cambridge, Mass. There a battery of presses was kept busy during the continuance of the extraordinary interest in Bradley booklets.

In 1905 Bradley impaired the strength of his following by attempting for the American Type Founders Company the introduction of a new style of typography, the prominent feature of which was profuse ornamentation. While this effort supplied job printers with many valuable ideas in type arrangement and color treatment, happily the style as a whole was not adopted by printers generally or typographic conditions might have become as unfortunate as they were previous to 1890.

Frank B. Berry, associated with Bradley during his engagement with the American Type Founders Company, tells in these words of the construction of a thirty-two-page pamphlet of specimens entitled “The Green Book of Spring”: “Starting in on this about half-past ten one morning Bradley made up a dummy, prepared the copy and laid out the work—specifying the size and style of type to be used, the form of display and designating the exact position of each ornament with the required spacing. This was in effect practically furnishing reprint copy for the compositors. Then, to ‘give good measure,’ as he expressed it, copy was prepared for the cover, and the work was ready for the printers before half-past one.”

AN INTERESTING TITLE-PAGE
By Charles Whittingham, London, 1849

In the few years succeeding the establishment of the Wayside Press, Bradley’s style of typography was closely followed by many printers, and all the printshops of America were more or less influenced by it, but at this date his ideas and Morris’s ideas are merged more or less with those of De Vinne, Jacobi, Updike, Rogers, Cleland, Benton, Kimball, Goudy, Goodhue, Winchell and others. From Germany, too, have lately come suggestions in decoration that are visibly influencing general typography.

TITLE-PAGE IN THE COLONIAL STYLE
By Charles Whittingham, London, 1844. The first use in the nineteenth century of the Caslon type-face

In recent years Bradley devoted his talents to the make-up of magazine pages. His characteristic decoration has added interest to the text sections of several leading magazines. He dictated the make-up and drew the cover design and department headings for the twenty-fifth anniversary number of The American Printer issued July, 1910.

This versatile artist-printer also accomplished the unique task of applying business and industrial methods to the making and selling of art work. He had a staff of working artists, one of whom acted as foreman. Bradley had a book in which he pasted his sketches of decorative borders, ornaments and illustrations. These were classified and numbered, and when a design was to be drawn he gave instructions to the working artist indicating which sketches were to be worked up. In this manner he eliminated the manual labor so far as he was concerned and was able to accomplish much more than if he had attempted to do everything himself. He also planned a series of decorative units and illustrations and offered a quick art-service to advertisers and printers.

Fred W. Goudy, who designed such type-faces as Pabst, Powell, Forum, Kennerley and Goudy Old Style, has influenced printing styles in the direction of classic effects. Goudy as a student of Roman architecture and letter-carving has dignified the printing industry and enriched typographic art.

This lesson would not be complete without a tribute to the work of Theodore L. De Vinne, who had the distinction of being the only printer but one in America to receive a college degree for accomplishments as a printer.

Bradley’s adaptation of the Colonial style as produced by him at the Wayside Press in 1896

De Vinne’s introduction to typography was as an apprentice in a country printshop. He went to New York in 1847 and worked at the case and press in several offices before accepting a position as job compositor with Francis Hart. Upon the death of Mr. Hart in 1877, Mr. De Vinne took charge of the business, which is now known as the De Vinne Press.

As a writer on printing subjects, perhaps his greatest work is “The Invention of Printing,” published in 1876. I have examined and read most of the books on the subject of the invention, and De Vinne’s book is the most reasonable, fair and understandable of all.

De Vinne had always been an exponent of the sane, conservative and dignified in typography. The work of his shop was precise, exact and thoro. While giving credit to Morris and Bradley for their accomplishments, he had little sympathy for the styles of either. De Vinne properly claimed that a writer’s words are of more importance than the decoration of a designer. Morris intended his books for the shelves of the book collector; De Vinne looked upon a book as something to be read. However, there need be no conflict between the styles of Morris, De Vinne and Bradley. The typographer should learn to discriminate, to choose wisely when selecting a style for a book or a piece of job work. For editions de luxe in limited numbers, and for booklets on art or literary subjects, the Morris style is appropriate. For books on scientific or legal subjects, and for booklets of conservative and dignified nature, there is nothing better than the De Vinne style. For booklets which are to attract attention and for job work that is to be distinctive, Bradley shows the way.

A JACOBI PAGE OF 1892
Arranged in squared groups in the form of a letter Z

With De Vinne beckoning to us from the point of conservatism and Bradley from the point of radicalism, the typographer anxious to do work properly must decide for himself how to treat it. I have seen a jeweler’s booklet cover so filled with ornamentation by Bradley that it was almost impossible to read the wording, and I have also seen a children’s Bible typographically treated by the De Vinne company in a style as severe as if it were a book of legislative acts.

A BRADLEY PAGE
As produced at the Wayside Press, 1896

De Vinne had always been a leader in the perfecting of modern methods. He was one of the pioneers in the use of dry paper and hard press-packing, and gave much thought to modern type-faces. The type-face known as Century was designed after his suggestions as a model roman letter.

De Vinne did much in persuading printers to group the wording of title-pages instead of equally separating the type lines as was done in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Charles T. Jacobi, of the Chiswick Press, London, as an instructor and writer on printing subjects has done much for typography in England. He is not wedded to a particular style of typography, but advocates the adaptation of any style that is good when by so doing clients are pleased and the principles of art are not violated. The title-page reproduced in this connection is unusual in arrangement. The type groups and the device are all squared and their angularity is enhanced by the exclusive use of capitals. Realizing that a page or design is defective if it presents the appearance of disjointed sections, Mr. Jacobi has avoided such results in this instance by arranging the page in the form of a letter Z.

With this chapter the history of typography is brought down to the twentieth century. The modern typographer has great responsibilities. Upon him depends the solution of the problem whether or not our beloved calling is to be ranked with the esthetic arts. Shall the product of the village printer be only of the standard of that of the village blacksmith? Every typographer, regardless of the nature of the work that is his to do, should cultivate a love for the artistic and enlarge his knowledge of the things that make for good printing. The chapters that follow will help to this end.

Because printing as now practiced is in a great degree dependent upon principles and styles developed during the early days of the art, the student should not neglect carefully to read and digest the historical facts and reproductions that have been presented. Too many typographers underrate the value of a knowledge of history. “I do not care what printers of old did; I want to know what the printer of tomorrow is going to do.” This is almost a literal quotation of the remark of a printer who prides himself on his progressiveness, and he is only one of many who imagine that to be up-to-date it is sufficient to use new type-faces, ornaments and borders, caring little if the resulting jobs lack appropriateness, harmony, color, tone, and other elements that are essential to perfect typography.

A BRADLEY PAGE
As produced at the Wayside Press, 1896

A DE VINNE PAGE
This probably presents De Vinne’s idea of title-page arrangement

He who labors without a knowledge of history is much like the young man who started to work on a job press. He was allowed to make ready a form, and after a while the pressman went over and examined the work. On the back of the form he found something that looked like an underlay, but could discover no reason for its use. Mystified, he inquired what it was all about, and was told that the apprentice was doing only what he had seen the pressman often do before—cut out several pieces of paper and place them under the form. It had never occurred to the young man to ask why this was done. Thus it may be with the typographer. He arranges a job of type composition in the style of something good he has seen, but fails to get the quality of the original because he does not comprehend just what has served to produce that quality.

Morris was a student of ancient printing. His thoughts were back in the fifteenth century with Jenson, Aldus and Koburger, and when he began to print, he printed understandingly. There was a well-defined plan, and there was harmony in ornament, type, ink and paper. When the “up-to-date” printer began to imitate Morris he did it with the same degree of comprehension possessed by the young man who made the “underlay.”

Will Bradley would not today be as famous as he is in printing circles if he had labored under the false idea that it was useless to know history. Bradley knows printing history and loves old books, and this knowledge and affection are expressed in his work. The printer who succeeds is the one who looks upon all knowledge as valuable and has a good reason for everything he does.