however, serve to show the construction of an excellent Blackletter, which may fairly be considered as typical.
The first essential of a good Blackletter line or page is that it shall be of a uniform color. Unlike the Roman, the Blackletter form does not permit that one word be wider spaced than others in the same panel. The amount of white left between the several letters should be as nearly as possible the same throughout, approximately the same as the space between the perpendicular strokes of the minuscule letters themselves. Usually, the less the white space the better will be the general effect of the page, for its beauty depends much upon a general blackness of aspect;—and let it be noted in passing that, for this reason, it is doubly difficult to judge of the final effect of a Blackletter page from any outlined pencil sketch. Even in the cases of those capital letters that extend both above and below the guide lines it will be found possible to so adjust the spaces
and blacks as not to interrupt the general uniformity of color, and it is sometimes advisable to fill awkward blanks by flourishes; although flourishing, even in Blackletter, is an amusement that should be indulged in cautiously. As a general rule the more solidly black a panel of Blackletter is the better (a principle too often disregarded in the modern use of the form); though on the other hand, the less legible the individual letters will become. The designer should therefore endeavor to steer a middle course, making his panel as black as he can without rendering the individual letters illegible.
No style permits more of liberty in the treatment of its separate letter forms than the Blackletter. The same letter may require a different outline at the beginning of a word than in the middle or at the end. The ascenders and descenders may be drawn so short as hardly to transcend the guide lines of the minuscules, or may grow into
flourishes up and down, to the right or to the left, to fill awkward blanks. Indeed so variable are these forms that in ancient examples it is often difficult to recognize an individual letter apart from its context.
The two pages drawn by Mr. Goodhue, [188] and [189], deserve careful study as examples of modern use of the Blackletter. It will be observed that almost as many variants of each letter are employed as the number used would permit, thus giving the panel variety and preventing any appearance of monotony or rigidity. Notice the freedom and variety of the swash lines in the capitals, and yet that each version is quite as graceful, logical and original as any of its variants.