List of Illustrations

93. Shaded types—early nineteenth century 159

94. Twelve lines pica letters of Thomas Cottrell 160

95. A lottery hand bill of 1810 162

96. Robert Thome's fat face 164

97. William Thorowgood'sfatface 165

98. William Thorowgood'sfatface 166

99. Vincent Figgins's Antique, 1813 168

100. Robert Thome's Egyptians 170

101. William Thorowgood's Egyptian 172

102. Another early nineteenth century lottery bill 173

103. Vincent Figgins's Five lines pica, in Shade, 1813 174

104. Shadowed types, Vincent Figgins, 1833 176

105. The first sans seriftype, 1816 178

106. Sans serif, Vincent Figgins, 1832 180

107. Thorowgood's Reversed types, 1828 182

108. G.W.Bower's White types, 1837 184

109. Henry Casions Ionic tidings, circa 1844 186

110. Henry Casions Double pica Ionic, circa 1844 188

111. Some of the first outline or open types, 1833 100

112. Two outline types of Blake & Stephenson, circa 1833 192

113. The first Clarendon 1.04

114. Other sizes of the first Clarendon 196

115. Part of a Writing Sheet designed by Mrs Irene Wellington 198

116. The completion of the Writing Sheet shown in previous example 200,201

117. Bifur, Neuland and Koloss 206

XX

Introduction

The text has not only been made deliberately brief but we have tried
not to bestrew it with too many names or dates. Only a few of the most
famous typefounders, printers & publishers are mentioned in this book :
and only some of the most important dates in the five hundred year
period in which types have evolved from the first gothic or black-letter
faces.The bones of the matter are here. It is for the student to clothe
them appropriately by reading the authors already cited in the Preface,
among others, and by studying as many specimens of old and contem¬
porary types as possible.

There has never been anything sudden or spectacular in this long
process of evolution. Many forces have been at work.Tradition, econ¬
omics, new scientific discoveries, changes in techniques—both of paper-
making and of printing—and in the fashions of the day, have all played
their part in the evolution of printing types.

Roughly we may divide types into two groups : those that are used
in books for continuous reading and those best reserved for the pro¬
duction of epb.emera.The examples in this book are so divided, but
from an examination of them it will be seen that anything like clear-
cut divisions in the groupings are virtually impossible, so many and so
subtle are the variations in type designs.

The subject of type classification, the attempt to group or sort into
different categories types sharing similar traits in relation to their de¬
sign, has for some years been occupying the attention of various bodies
& individuals. It is a large&complex one because of(i) thelarge number
of faces extant—estimated as as many as five thousand (2) the number of
type foundries operating in this country, Europe & the US A. The term
'type foundries' of course includes the makers of type composing and
casting machinery (3) the fact that plagiarism has flourished in this field
since the beginning.

Many of the flood of type faces which have been produced during the
last thirty or forty years are fairly exact renderings of earlier classic de-

xxi