PRESS REVISERS
MR CARDER
MR KIRKUP

page —whetherin lower-case or capitals, as soon as
you stop to consider the precise position of a letter
between two others you fixate the eye, and
particularly the fovea, more than you do when reading
text. For example, in the case of the capital'L' between
two Ts the eye fixates on the three vertical strokes in
turn and adjusts the centre vertical stroke (the 'L')
more as if it were another T. Peripheral vision,
which surely must play a larger part in actual reading
is less demanding, and if this is a fact it should be
taken into consideration.

An optical spacing instrument in use

My first great opportunity to demonstrate the
possibilities of optical spacing came when Mr
Brooke Crutchley, the University Printer at Cambridge
commissioned me to design an alphabet for use
throughout the new building for the University Press.
It is a fact that I did not dare tell the press that I was
about to use my optical letter spacing instrument.
However, all was well when the letters, 1 ft 10in. high
along the top of the building, were passed as
satisfactory. Although I was fairly certain of letters
1 in. high, I had some doubts as to whether a simple
enlargement together with a very large inter-letter
constant would work.

For the doors etc. throughout the building we used

Fig. 33

Letraset with space guides (Figs. 33,34, and 35).
The sheets were arranged with markers that gave me
the opportunity to expand or contract the spacing as
you see in the left illustration of Fig. 34.

In the right illustration of Fig. 34, you can see the
method at work. The results of spacing this alphabet
at three different sets can be seen in Fig. 35. First
the wide, secondly at 'L' minimum fit, and thirdly
close. Here you will notice how the letters begin to
overlap, and the fourth set shows the letters stopped
before this overlapping takes place.

The University Press, for whom it has been such a
great pleasure to work and from whom I have, over
many years, received such encouragement, did me

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Fig. 34

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N X * X-V

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