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
