EXAMPLE 481
Earliest known specimen sheet of printing types, issued by William Caslon in 1734
As time went on, printers and typefounders made changes in the Jenson design, but these alterations were not numerous (the cross stroke in the lower-case e was one, Example [495]), and fairly close resemblance to the Jenson types is found in the Roman types of Paul Manutius, 1566 (Example [472]), Daniel Elzevir, 1675 (Example [477]), and Fournier, 1766 (Example [478]).
EXAMPLE 480
Moxon’s lower-case alphabet, which he says was patterned after the letters of a Dutch punch cutter
In selecting a page from Jenson’s book, “Eusebius,” to be photographed, the writer had great difficulty in finding one of sufficient evenness and clearness of print. It may be that Jenson, in his endeavor to enhance the “White Letter” effect of his types, used a minimum of ink, and, under these circumstances it was perhaps more difficult for him to maintain consistent page color than it was for Gutenberg to do so with his “Black Letter” pages. Bruce Rogers’s printing of his Jenson-like pages of typography would be a revelation to the old-time Venetian printer.
Jenson made his Roman letter in only one size, and that fairly large (about sixteen-point), so that the open design of the characters would admit white light from the paper background. When, some years later, he was required to print cheap devotional books, he cut and used a compact Black Letter Text type for the purpose.
There is now a movement away from the mechanical style of type-face, restricted in design by arbitrary craft rules, in the direction of the graceful, interesting yet legible faces represented by Cloister Oldstyle.
This type will be found in use in Examples [171], [240], [256], [266], [286], [316], [337], [340], [341], [345], [357], [359], [372], [383], [399] and [452].
The Italic that accompanies Cloister Oldstyle is based on the Italic of Aldus Manutius.