| page | ||
| Features of a Type | [7] | |
| A Font of Type | [9] | |
| Scheme for Job Font | [11] | |
| Scheme for 100-lb. Font | [12] | |
| The Sizes of Type | [13] | |
| Lining Type Faces | [16] | |
| Kerned Types | [18] | |
| Spaces and Quads | [19] | |
| How Type is Made | [20] | |
| The Linotype | [23] | |
| The Monotype | [25] | |
| Ingredients of Type Metal | [26] | |
| Wood Type | [27] | |
| Supplementary Reading | [28] | |
| Review Questions | [29] | |
| Glossary of Terms | [32] |
MECHANICAL FEATURES OF TYPE
Printing owes its development first and chiefly to movable metal types. The so-called invention of printing was the discovery of a method of making serviceable type in quantity. The idea of a separate type for each letter of the alphabet was probably conceived long before Gutenberg’s time, but it remained for him and his associates to devise an apparatus for making them quickly and accurately enough to be of practical value. That apparatus was the type mold, which experience has since proved to be the most efficient means of securing exactness and uniformity in a number of small pieces of metal.
Type is made of an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony. Its length (technically called height-to-paper) is .918 of an inch. Each type is cast separately in a mold, and has the letter or printing character in bold relief on one end.
Exact uniformity of body is necessary in order that the types, when composed in lines and pages, may be locked together by pressure at the sides so as to make a compact mass. All types in a printing form must be of the same height, so that their faces may present a uniformly level surface from which an impression may be made that will show all the characters clearly. A short type will print faintly or will not print at all, while a long one will be unduly forced into the sheet.