Caslon Oldstyle.—This is a historic American type-face. It was used by that renowned American printer, Benjamin Franklin; it appears on eighteenth-century school books, and even our paper money was printed with it. It was the type-face used by John Dunlap, the Philadelphia printer, in setting up and printing the first published copies of the Declaration of Independence, a few hours after it had been passed by Congress, July 4, 1776. (See facsimile that appears as a frontispiece to this book). It was one of these copies that was read to the Continental Army.
EXAMPLES 479-A and 480-A
The Moxon alphabets inked in and reproduced in a smaller size
Today, nearly two hundred years after the first font was cut, Caslon Oldstyle has the approval of the good printers of America, who regard it, in its original form, as the best and most useful Roman type-face available, as it is one of the few old faces the punches and matrices of which have been preserved and placed at the disposal of all printers.
The Caslon foundry in England now casts the original letter as “Caslon Old-face.” In this country, all typefounders make some sort of Caslon, and it may be procured practically in its original form, with long descenders, kerned f and j, old special characters, decorated Italic capitals and all, from the American Type Founders Company, which has named it “Caslon Oldstyle 471” (Example [517]).
Other foundries are preparing to furnish the letter more in its original form, and composing-machine makers are doing likewise. The monotype company, after cutting several faces in imitation of imitations of Caslon’s type, finally copied the original fairly successfully, and this, as now obtainable, is known as Caslon Oldstyle No. 337. The linotype company is recutting its Caslons and is making a sincere effort to reproduce the original letter as closely as possible. Mechanical difficulties prevent an exact duplication in every detail of the Caslon type in machine composition, yet the companies that are attempting it show a spirit that augurs well for the future quality of printing in America.
Caslon Oldstyle is not at its best printed on a smooth, highly-calendered surface.
When properly composed and printed, it presents as a page a dark-gray tone, formed of a pleasant mixture of black ink and white paper; its letters show more of a contrast in thick and thin strokes than do the Roman types of Nicholas Jenson, and have more color and interest than the modernized old-styles of the nineteenth century. In the sizes above ten-point it measures up in legibility and beauty to the requirements of the best printers and other students of typography.
Caslon did not create an entirely new Roman letter, but with the elements that had already been provided by Jenson and the type designers of Holland he did, with good taste and skill, build a type-face that is distinctive, legible and beautiful. The illustration of the evolution of Roman lower-case in Example [465] furnishes opportunity for study of this point.