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 5

A Case Index

page 136

A Case Index.

In a former volume we described and illustrated our method of keeping combination borders and large fancy fonts dust-free, accessible, and safe from unnecessary abrasion, no matter how numerous the pieces, or how varied in size. Since that time the German invention of spiked spaces, and later still, of movable rectangular cell-divisions, has partly met the case, and has the merit of being more quickly applied and more susceptible of subsequent change than our own plan, though on the whole we still prefer the method we have so long successfully used. We have now a further suggestion, which in these days of varied and rapidly-multiplying styles of type should be of practical use. We have given it a sufficient trial, and are quite satisfied of its value. Our suggestion is, that printers' furnishers should supply blank diagrams, uniform in size, of all the kinds of cases in common use—upper, lower, double, treble, quad, and such special designs as they may themselves manufacture, as the « Bowra, » Ullmer's registered double, &c. It is important that the size should be uniform, and we would suggest 8 x 3½in. (allowing ½-in. squares for the small boxes of the lower-case) as the most convenient size of the diagram. This would come on a quad-large card, with space for the necessary blank lines. The diagrams could be supplied by the dozen or hundred, assorted as required, and should be on paper as well as on card. The following is the kind of thing we suggest;—

The diagram we show is for an upper-case in which two job-fonts are supposed to be laid. For a treble or quad case, the necessary changes in the blank lines are evident. Other particulars, dates, or references, could be added by the printer at discretion. The blanks should be filled in duplicate—one copy on a card, for ordinary use; the other to be preserved in a properly-arranged reference-book.

Before the great development of typefounding which has characterized the past twelve or fourteen years, there was no need for any special index. The lay of the ordinary upper and lower prevailed throughout, and the job-letter followed the same system as the ordinary body-fonts. This is no longer possible. In job-fonts extras of all kinds, duplicate or triplicate forms of one letter, ligatures, logotypes, and word ornaments are now the rule instead of the exception. To adapt the font to the case is in the first place a problem, and afterwards there is endless trouble, both in composition and distribution, in finding the special sorts, in keeping them apart, or in sorting them out after they have been mixed. There is but one remedy—equally efficacious as prevention or cure—an authoritative reference-plan of each case.

Our system is this. When a new font is opened, the laying is not entrusted to an inexperienced boy who will dispose the special sorts at random and straightway forget all about them; but is committed to a compositor whose judgment is to be relied on. He follows the lay of the office as far as the standard sorts are concerned; carefully classifies the extras, places them to the best advantage (« doubling up, » if necessary, such sorts as;:,'-,?!, c o); and when the whole font is laid, fills up the plan, in duplicate, impressing each type on the space allotted to it. Formerly this had to be done in inconvenient fashion with the aid of a small proof-roller. By means of an ordinary self-inking rubber-stamp pad it can be now performed in much more expeditious and cleanly style. Printers should know that a metal type yields as clean and sharp an impression from rubber-stamp ink as from printing-ink, and with less pressure. By this operation the special features of each letter are impressed not only on the diagram, but on the mind of the workman; and what is even more important, an authentic record may thus be preserved of every type-character in the office, its proper place, and the special font to which it belongs. Oftentimes have we seen vain attempts made by workmen to « locate » a peculiar character, and in the case of border-sorts, we have known men insist that they belonged to a series quite foreign to that of which they formed a part. In the latter case the question may be settled by reference to the synopsis in the specimen-book—if it is accessible; but it is not so with job-fonts, peculiars, and ornaments. No founder, in late years, has had the gumption to publish with each font a complete scheme of characters, and therefore unless this necessary work is done by the printer it is not done at all.

In carrying out this plan, we have always used rough diagrams, sketched by hand. These vary in size, and though in some respects fulfilling their primary purpose, are not as good for record as they should be. It is on this account that we recommend a systematic series of case-diagrams, and we hope that any houses furnishing them will adopt the suggested scale along with the suggestion. We have used the plan with great advantage for job-letter, Greek, German, cases set apart for signs, accents, &c., as well as for border-fonts. In the latter case we prefer the system of standing the type upright in cainets; but the case of borders like these, time is saved by keeping them in ordinary lower cases, and two pounds or one « kilo, » just nicely fills one of the large square boxes.

And here, though it is a digression from our subject, we will say a word about the « Bowra » double-case. We have half-a-dozen, and value them highly—but we do not use them for English. They make the best Greek-cases in the world. The numerous accents, instead of being packed in a steep upper, out of convenient reach, and ever and anon tumbling out and getting mixed, are at the compositor's right hand, just under his eye, and fully accessible. Try the « Bowra, » printers who have Greek to set, and you will be troubled no more with the traditional Greek upper.

A hint may here be given as to numbering cases. As ordinarily followed, this system does not allow for expansion, and body-fonts, job-letter, and borders soon become sadly confused in a scheme of consecutive numbering. It is best to use several series of numbers, distinguished by the initials A, B, C, D; or if preferred, R for roman, S for scripts, and so on, as far as subdivision is desirable. Cases containing job-fonts and fancy letter would not then be numbered in the same category as the regular roman uppers and lowers, and their corresponding italic cases.