Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 2

Design in Typography. — Corners and Centres

page 95

Design in Typography.
Corners and Centres.

While in the case of rule borders, as we have already pointed out, the mitred angle of 45° is the simplest and most natural form of corner, it is not in any way decorative. It is specially appropriate in plain work, or where the rule is used as an adjunct to an ornamental border. Where the rule is the only border used, and some degree of decoration is desirable, the ornamental corner, and in some cases—though not so commonly—the ornamental centre is resorted to. The variety of corners is very great, from the simplest forms to the largest and most elaborate. In some cases, sets of corners originally designed for brass-rule have been further supplemented by other sorts until they have developed into combination borders. The principal points to be attended to in practice are, that the corner (or centre) corresponds with the face of brass-rule used, that it is not inappropriate to the work in hand, and that it lines and joins up perfectly with the rule. Neglect of either of these points will spoil the effect.

The simplest forms of corner are the square and the Oxford. The square, in one sense, is not a true corner, being merely a cut-off, and therefore applicable to any pattern of rule or border; but it is the most readily used, and often with used in five different ways. The rule may start from the centre, the top, the bottom, or from intermediate points above or below:—

Where the rule runs from top or bottom of the large corner, a little additional ornament is sometimes introduced to break its abruptness, as shewn above.

The « Oxford » corner is double, the lines crossing. It is much used in ecclesiastical work, as it introduces the figure of the cross. It may be perfectly plain, as in the first example below, or variously ornamented, as in those which follow:—

These all come under the category of Oxford corners, and were brought out by the Johnson Foundry in 1877. They are very neat and simple, but find little favor with compositors, on account of the difficulty of justifying them to the appropriate rule. It is not possible to do this with any regular body of type, and thin card or paper must be resorted to. If they were originated in the Johnson Foundry, this defect is altogether without excuse. We find the same designs in German books, however; and it is probable that they were originally cut to work with German bodies, in which case there would be some little difficulty in adapting them to any other standard. With combined.

Closely allied to the Oxford corner is the « Frame » corner, originated in 1875 by Woellmer, of Berlin, to display his nail- and screw-head ornaments, and which soon came into favor. It may be used with or without the screw-pieces. When these are inserted, care should be taken to place them at the exact point of intersection of the end-pieces. There are several series of these ornaments in the market, some of large size. The set above is by Caslon, who brought them out in six sizes in 1879. In using this design, or shaded corners of any kind, the compositor should see that the shades, which fall differently on each side of the design, are put in correctly.

The varieties of geometrical, scrolled, floriated, and otherwise decorated corners are innumerable; they are adapted to almost every style of rule; and some are so ingeniously designed as to correspond equally well with many different faces. We shew below some miscellaneous styles:—

Many novelties in the way of corner ornaments and centre-pieces have been introduced in the last few years. Some of these, of an emblematical character, have already been treated of [gap — reason: illegible] our articles the « card ornaments » already described. It is one of the results of the imitation of Japanese work. Allied to these are the German elliptical centre-pieces, which may be used either inside or outside a border:—

These were originally cast only on curved bodies; but they may now be had on rectangular body also. The aesthetic revival has introduced many novel and fanciful patterns, lying outside the range of regular rule corners. We defer consideration of these to a future article.