Long Primer. Upon the supposition that some bodies of letter took their names from works in which they were first employed, we are induced to believe that the Germans gave the name of Corpus to this character on account of their Corpus Juris being first done in this size. The French call this letter Petit Romain.
Bourgeois is a very useful and convenient size of letter. It is frequently used in double-column octavo pages. The name indicates that it originated in France; although type of this body is now called Gaillarde by French printers. Two lines of this letter are equivalent to one line of Great Primer, or four lines of Diamond.
Brevier was first used for printing the Breviaries, or Roman Catholic Church books, and hence its name. The Germans call it Petit, and Jungfer (maiden letter). It is an admirable type, and cannot conveniently be dispensed with in any considerable printing-office.
Minion follows Brevier, and is commonly used for newspapers, and for notes and indexes in book-work. Its name is due probably to its being smaller than any type in use at the period of its invention. It fills a useful place in a printing-office.
Nonpareil came next in order; and its originator, supposing that he had reached the extreme of diminutiveness, gave it this triumphant title. It is extensively used, though mostly on newspapers, and for notes and indexes for duodecimo books and smaller. It is certainly the smallest type that should be allowed in book-work.
Agate probably arose from the necessities of newspaper publishers. As patronage increased, it became desirable to have a type less in size than Nonpareil, for the advertisements, shipping news, markets, &c.; and Agate was made to meet the emergency. It is now extensively used for pocket editions of the Bible and Prayer Books.
Pearl may be said to have been born of ambition. As punch-cutters became more expert, some one possessed of a keen eye and a delicate mechanical finger determined to surpass in smallness the achievements of his predecessors. Hence the origin of this type. This type is also employed in printing miniature volumes.
Diamond followed, as a matter of course; for human ingenuity, when provoked, seems determined to go to the utmost verge of possibility. This type is so minute that a pound of it will contain more than 3300 of the letter i; yet, to produce each letter of an alphabet, a steel punch has to be cut and a matrix made, in which the types are cast one by one, and, being set up in lines, are rubbed and dressed by the founder for the use of the compositor.
Brilliant. Expert penmen, it is said, have succeeded in writing the Lord’s Prayer upon the edge of a sheet of paper. A type-setter in Berlin, most surprisingly, has formed a type so minute as to be scarcely readable without a good magnifying glass. The type of this paragraph, though not so small as the microscopic letters produced in Prussia, is yet so diminutive that even Diamond is large by comparison. Of the letter i nearly 4600 go to a pound.