There is much uncertainty manifested among typographers as to the proportionate strength of display lines on a page. A type line is proportionately large or small as it contrasts with its environment. Gulliver was a giant when among pigmies. The foremost citizen of a country town is considerably reduced in importance when he rubs elbows with the big men of the cities. The homely adage that “a big frog in a small puddle is a small frog in a big puddle,” is applicable to typography. A display line surrounded by other type lines (Example [64]) must be made larger or by strengthened strokes made bolder than when alone on the page (Example [65]). The old City Hall in New York is claimed to be the most beautiful work of architecture in the city, but is ridiculously out of proportion with the towering office buildings surrounding it.
EXAMPLE 63
Horizontal lines are not suitable for a vertically narrow page (See Example [62], insert)
EXAMPLE 61
Type-faces and borders are mismated
Examples [66], [67] and [68] are studies in the proportion of a type-face to the page of which it is a part. In Example [66] the page is largely covered with type, treatment that is necessary on poster, dodger and other printed matter that must force its presence upon the public. In Example [67] the page consists mostly of blank space, the type standing modestly and apologetically in the midst of that space. This treatment is proper on dainty works of poetry or when the demands of extreme refinement are to be satisfied. Example [68] is the “happy medium,” the compromise—a strength of display that will be satisfactory in almost every case. This method of arriving at correct treatment emphasizes the need in the typographer of a judicial as well as an artistic temperament. The wise judge knows that truth is about midway between the claims of opposing counsel.
EXAMPLE 64
EXAMPLE 65
A display line surrounded by other type lines must be made larger than when alone on the page, to obtain proportionate emphasis