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Sizes and Kinds of Type. Editors and copy-readers need some knowledge of type in order to do their work efficiently. The size of type is measured by the point system. The unit of measure, a point, is one seventy-second of an inch. Six-point type, accordingly, is six seventy-seconds of an inch, 10-point is ten seventy-seconds of an inch, and 36-point is thirty-six seventy-seconds, or one half, of an inch in size. Before the point system was adopted, each size of type had a name, and these names are still in common use. Thus, 5½-point type is known as agate, 6-point as nonpareil, 7-point as minion, 8-point as brevier, 9-point as bourgeois, 10-point as long primer, and 12-point as pica. Nonpareil, or 6-point, is the size commonly used by large newspapers, and minion and brevier by smaller papers.
Type is classified as body type and display type. Body type is that which is used in newspapers for all reading matter; display type is the large sizes, or “faces,” of type used in headlines and in advertising. As distinguished from the light-face body type, the heavy faces, that print blacker than the body type, are known as bold-face type (abbreviated, “b.f.”). Thus the boxed summaries and lists on pages [86]–[88] were marked to be set in 6-point bold-face type (abbreviated, “6-pt. b.f.”).
Type is further classified on the basis of the proportion of the height of the letter to its width, as extra-condensed, condensed, regular or medium, and extended. Extra-condensed and condensed faces are used in the top deck of large headlines, and medium, or regular, faces are usually used for banner heads extending across the page, as well as in underline and overline heads for cuts. As distinct from slanting or Italic type, the usual perpendicular type is called Roman.
Different kinds, or faces, of type are given names by type founders, such as “Caslon,” “Cheltenham,” “De Vinne,” “Ronaldson.” Each kind or face is generally made in different sizes, body sizes commonly ranging from 5½-point to 12-point, and display type from 8-point to 120-point.
A “font” of type of a particular size and kind consists of a complete set of letters, figures, etc., each character being furnished in numbers proportional to the frequency with which it appears in ordinary printed matter. Type is kept in shallow wooden trays, or “cases,” divided into compartments, or “boxes,” one for each character. Capital letters (abbreviated “caps.”) are often called “upper case,” and small letters are always known as “lower case” (abbreviated “l. c.”), because the capital letters are in the upper of the two type cases and the small letters in the lower one.
The amount of type set is measured by the number of “ems” (from the letter “M”). An “em” is a square of a given size of type; i.e., an em in 8-point type is eight seventy-seconds of an inch square. The standard unit of measure for type matter is usually the 12-point, or pica, em. A column of a newspaper that is thirteen ems wide, therefore, is thirteen 12-point ems, or thirteen picas, in width; i.e., it is one hundred and fifty-six seventy-seconds of an inch, or two and one sixth inches wide. Advertising space is measured by the so-called “agate line,” on the basis of fourteen agate lines to one inch.
In setting type by hand, the compositor has a small metal tray, or “stick,” inclosed on three sides and adjusted to the width of a column or a line, into which he places the type, letter by letter, as he picks it out of the case before him. As a stick holds about two inches of type, a “stickful” has come to be a common expression for about two or two and one half inches of printed matter. A news story is spoken of by editors and compositors as being two or three “stickfuls” long, and an editor often tells a reporter to “write a stickful or two” on a particular story, or directs a copy-reader to “cut it down to a stickful.”
Type is “leaded” when thin strips of lead or brass are placed between the lines, these “leads” being two points in thickness. When two of these 2-point leads are placed between the lines, the type is “double-leaded.” If no leads are used, the type is said to be “solid.” The first paragraphs of news stories are often leaded, and very important news, particularly short bulletins for extra editions, are frequently double-leaded. In most parts of a newspaper, however, the type is solid. All type and cuts are made of the same height—that is, they are “type-high”—so that when used together they will present an even surface for printing and stereotyping.
Marks Used in Copy Reading. The marks used in editing copy are a few simple time-saving devices to indicate to the compositor how the matter is to be set in type. They are as follows: