-54- degrees from the vertical. This means that 6 point in color and
Aspects width is approximately 71 per cent of 12 point, and not 50 per
of type design cent. And the eye is the sole arbiter of proportion after all . . .'

When photo-composition became a reality in the 1950s the
manufacturers of typesetting machines had to make an import¬
ant decision: whether or not to carry forward into the new system
the principle of optical compensation, when the plain and tempt¬
ing fact was that the photographic part of the system was capable
of producing a considerable range of type sizes from just one
font. To abandon the principle altogether was to risk forfeiting a
substantial part of a reputation for typographic quality. The
manufacturers faced the problem by compromise. American
Linotype produced film replicas of both the 8 and 12 point ver¬
sions of text types, and of the 18 point where display sizes existed.
To judge the effect of using 8 and 12 point as masters to produce
other sizes the Falcon type, previously mentioned, can be used as
an illustration. Ten point from the 8 point would have been
about 10 per cent wider than the metal version; 10 point from the
12 point would have been about 7 per cent narrower than the
metal. In fact, by comparison with the optical proportions de¬
scribed by Griffith, all sizes except the 8 and 12 point would have
varied from the ideal - the sizes which were reductions from the
artwork being weaker than the metal versions, and the sizes
which were enlargements from it being clumsier. This compro¬
mise between the full scope of former manufacturing finesse and
the geometrical progression inevitable in electronic typesetting
can only be regarded as a loss of some of the refinement of types
as they used to be. It was probably the only course possible at the
time.

Ultimately, though, it was for the printer to decide whether he
would buy more than one font of a type face to satisfy the typo¬
graphic sensitivity of his customers. Unfortunately, it became
clear that some printers preferred to sacrifice typographic quality
for economy in capital expenditure. This encouraged some
manufacturers, especially those who had entered the field with¬
out a 'bank deposit' of existing letter drawings, to think that if
printers were willing to use a single font for all sizes of type then
there was no need to bother with optical compensation. Some of
them apparently thought that increasing the x-height of the faces
would be an acceptable alternative. It is not. Although it assists
the legibility of small sizes it vulgarises the larger ones.

To make a choice from a broad range of working drawings of
just one size of artwork for a master font that will be used to
compose a band of type sizes is an anxious business. Too much
concern for the look of the display sizes may mean that the art¬
work size chosen, say the 12 point, produces a cramped result at 6
and 8 point. Nervousness about the small sizes may result in a

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Monotype Bembo, 24, 12, 8 and 6 point: left, the metal version, right, a film version

choice that makes the larger sizes appear clumsy. The Bembo
face, an admirable example of optical compensation by the
Monotype drawing office, demonstrates the point. In the speci¬
mens of the metal version shown here the modifications of x-
height and lowercase letter widths up and down the size range
can be discerned by the sensitive eye. In the other version the 8
point is almost identical, but three of the sizes were obtained by
direct projection from the 8 point, instead of the separate masters
available. The 6 point is obviously less effective than the metal 6
point; and the 24 point, where the characters are precisely three
times the size of the 8 point, is distinctly less elegant than the
original. (The effect on the italic can be imagined.) It would be a
comfort to be able to say that that kind of thing never actually
happens. But a new work by a distinguished novelist, printed in
England as recently as 1983, has chapter headings in 24 point
Sabon italic which sprawl deplorably, for the same reason.
(Tschichold would have hated such ill-treatment of his design.) It
is not an isolated case.

Although there are few faces that have the modest x-height and
long ascenders and descenders of Bembo, automatic sizing inevit¬
ably impairs all faces to some degree. Modern designers, creating
faces for electronic typesetting, avoid the worst effects of it by
organising the proportions of their characters as a compromise
between the ideal and the necessary. But it is a compromise. Not
until the suppliers of high-resolution fonts adopt the principle of
separate masters, each proportioned for a narrow band of sizes,
will their claim that their faces are superior to the metal versions
be justified in all respects.