Introduction

measure of general approval. We must also remember that students of
typography in the various schools of this country have for years been
familiarized with our present terminology in the publicity material of
the founders and the makers of type composing and casting machinery.
An example is the widely distributed leaflet What's that Typeface ?

It is, of course, no part of the typographer's job to be able to recog¬
nize and name at sight any specimen of type face placed before him.
Such is an impossible task and would only be demanded by one ignor¬
ant of the subject. In actual practice one can name only those faces that
one knows really well. But what the typographer must be able to do
reasonably quickly is to place any face into its appropriate category or
group, thus narrowing the field in which a search has to be made and
to that extent simplifying identification.

This book has been published to familiarize students with the various
categories or groups of printing types. We hope that it will also intro¬
duce them to wide reading in a fascinating subject.

xxiv

THE BOOK TYPE S