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 497
(A) No serifs or stroke contrast. (B) Serifs added. (C) With serifs and thick and thin strokes

EXAMPLE 498
Vertical thick strokes were made with pen held straight

EXAMPLE 499
Diagonal thick strokes were made with pen held at a slant

The most uninteresting kind of lettering is that which is not only serifless but without contrast in the width of its strokes—lettering that is known to the printer as Block, or Gothic (Example [497-A]). Dignity and something of good looks are given to it by adding serifs (Example [497-b]), yet it is not eligible for admission to the select society of pure Roman type-faces until the various strokes show, properly proportioned, a difference in thickness (Example [497-C]). The difference should be at least as two to one. It is about that in Cloister Oldstyle, but in Baskerville Roman (Example [496]) it is as six to one. When the difference in thick and thin lines is exaggerated, as was done in the nineteenth century, the result is a caricature and type that is almost impossible to read, even in large sizes.

EXAMPLE 500
Heavy strokes in the lower left and upper right part of curves