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

EXAMPLE 495
(A) The diagonal stroke of the first Roman type-faces. (B) The lower cross stroke or serif extended to right on the Roman type-face of Jenson

The Scotch typefounders also attempted to improve the types of William Caslon, and the result of their labors is known as Modernized Oldstyle (Example [466-A]). This kind of type was first made about 1852 for Miller & Richard of Edinburgh, Scotland. With Caslon Oldstyle unknown, Modernized Oldstyle would be a rather satisfactory letter, but with Caslon Oldstyle procurable there seems to be no need of the Scotch letter. There was brought out in 1884 by the MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Company a decorative Modernized Oldstyle under the name of Ronaldson Oldstyle.

Characteristics of Roman Type-Faces

The Serif.—The serif is that portion of a type-face indicated by the small black sections in Example [492]. It has a powerful influence in determining the character and style of a face of type.

As an experiment, we will make three vertical lines exactly the same length (Example [491-A]), leaving one as it was first drawn, but on the other two adding V-shaped marks, because of which the character of the line is changed and the length seemingly affected.

However, the serif, when properly used, has a decorative quality and is to type what the capital is to the column and the cornice to the building in architecture.

EXAMPLE 493
By altering the serifs, “old-style” type is changed into “modern.” From Bullen

After further experimenting with three vertical lines that we will now identify as capital Is (Example [491-b]), there can be no doubt that the serif is necessary as a finishing stroke. The serifless I suggests a man in the public streets without hat or shoes. The crudest manner of adding a serif is to place a small horizontal stroke at the head and foot of the long vertical line, but the sharp angles thus formed can be softened and one stroke joined to another by a curve, with the corner filled in, as is shown. These two illustrations of the serif are merely for the purpose of introducing the novice to the subject. The fact that there are so many different faces of type is due somewhat to the manipulation of the serif—changes of length, thickness, direction and curve.