I think the reader now understands the object of the second part of “Drawing for Printers,” and will see that nearly all the illustrations in it are selected with a view to their appropriateness for rough printing, simply because it is therein that you need to study the subject of designing for printing. It is self-evident that to print a half-tone cut you need calendered or coated paper, and that with this a little half-tone initial letter could be used, but as we study printing on poor stock, familiarity with the styles of the past is necessary to acquaint you with what is best in pictorial, or rather decorative, effect.
This much said, let us fall to considering some principles of designing. Other things being equal, a broad black line is best if there is any shadow or detail in the drawing. But if there is no shadow the outline need not be very heavy, but the drawing may partake of a diagram effect, as in the watch-chain illustration from the Figaro, given in a preceding chapter (page [165]). Such a thin line harmonizes with the type and does not {168} attract too much attention. It is also well suited for the unimportant elements in a heading design. But if you wish to introduce in a heading an important element like the American eagle, the coat-of-arms of a state, or an emblematic design for a class paper, then a strong line or a solid black is preferable. Strong lines and blacks are also preferable for an initial letter that is to form part of the decoration of a page.
Therefore, if we consider the front page of a paper or catalogue consisting of a heading, an initial letter and an illustration, we may treat each design according to the following principles. If the illustration is to be the main thing, the heading and initial letter would best
Heading to a novel in The Pall Mall Budget, an example of free-hand lettering and device, showing elements suggestive of the subject matter. The lettering is not heavy enough for the title-page of a periodical, nor is it so heavy as to interfere with the effect of the illustration on the same page.
be mostly in outline, as in the Figaro watch chains. But if there is no illustration, and we wish the heading and initial letter to be decorative, a heavy outline and solid black may be used. As an example of heavy outline and solid black we have selected the dictionary cover by Grasset. This is strong enough to serve as a heading for a newspaper or periodical, but in the case of a {169} chapter heading such heavy lettering might not be desirable, and the lighter Pall Mall Budget design might be preferable. So, too, as in the Jugend, since
TITLE-PAGE TO VOLUME II OF JUGEND. Designed by Caspari. Showing harmonious uniting of free-hand designed letter, type, and device. The device, however, is a little too pictorial; it would be better if its background were simpler.
the illustration is not the most important thing, heavy blacks may be used; it is an excellent example of the {170} proper heaviness of the heading contrasted with an unimportant illustration. Here, however, the black is around, not upon, the letter.
Perhaps one of the most enjoyable features of the printer-designer’s work is that of designing covers for booklets and pamphlets. If he does not have to confine himself to a definite idea, he may choose a motive from a thousand and one different elements. Of course, he must be more or less logical in his choice of motive, and not put a Pierrot upon a church fair programme, nor a bunch of violets upon a stove manufacturer’s catalogue, though we frequently run across such designing. One of the enemies to good designing is the prevalent taste for photographic half-tone covers, where the stove manufacturer requires the reproduction of his stoves on the cover. Now, we are utterly opposed to this; not on the ground that the picture of a stove is not a fit emblem for a stove manufacturer’s catalogue—for it certainly is quite proper—but we object on the ground that the printing of it requires coated paper, which often is not tenacious enough for a cover; and, secondly, on the ground that the delicacy of the half-tone, which has no strong outlines or masses of light or dark, does not make a picture that can be seen at a sufficient distance to warrant its being a cover. The brevier that you use in the body of a book is not the proper type for its cover, and so a delicate half-tone that is appropriate for the reading pages of your catalogue is not appropriate for its cover. The specimens we give in this chapter, therefore, are nearly all of them {171}