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 514
Decorated capitals, or Swash letters, as drawn by Moxon from Dutch sources

EXAMPLE 515
The first Italic was not made merely by inclining the Roman lower-case letters. Cloister Oldstyle (upper line) is modeled after one of the first Roman types, that of Jenson, cut in 1470. Cloister Italic is modeled after the first Italic type of Aldus and Francia, 1501

Italic types, besides the instances previously mentioned, may be seen in use on pages [17], [18], [19], [20], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [32], and in Examples [45], [98], [100], [128], [138], [139], [144], [152], [158], [168], [169], [170], [171], [180], [185], [191], [215], [222], [223], [224], [232], [240], [245], [246], [250], [262], [282], [292], [294], [297], [299], [310], [311], [313], [314], [315], [316], [325], [326], [329], [331], [332], [336], [342], [343], [345], [346], [349], [363], [372], [374], [375], [384], [387], [390], [394], [396], [398], [399], [401], [402], [404], [405], [406], [412], [413], [414], [418], [420], [423], [424], [426], [428], [429], [472], [477], [481] and [483].

EXAMPLE 516
A few Italic type-faces

Text Types

Gutenberg and other German printers who followed him fashioned their type-faces after Black Letter, the formal writing of the German scribes, as Jenson fashioned his type-face after White Letter, the formal writing of the Italian scribes. The White Letter of Jenson grew into the Roman types that today are used almost exclusively in France, England and Italy and in our own country, while Black Letter developed into the German types that are almost exclusively used in the German Empire. As this is being written, the Great War is being fought. America has just entered it, and it is a coincidence that the countries favoring White Letter are on one side in the struggle and the countries favoring Black Letter on the other side. The years that follow the war may see, so far as general reading purposes are concerned, the gradual elimination of the letter we know as Text and the largely increased use of Roman characters in the books and newspapers of all races. The Germans are already favoring a Roman half Text in character (Example [521]).

EXAMPLE 517
Complete Roman and Italic alphabets of Caslon Oldstyle with “Swash letters” and long “s” (ſ)