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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 5

Type Specimens

page 143

Type Specimens.

Genzsch & Heyse, of Hamburg, whose beautiful series 18 of initials are familiar to our readers— the first letter of this paragraph is an example—have sent us their specimen-book. It begins with Schwabacher, new and old, English and French-faced romans, ancient and modern, with italics to correspond, and several pages of silhouette ornaments in the Elzevir style. Following these are job-letters, scripts, and rondes, light and heavy, many of them original faces, of which the most striking is a heavy condensed ronde, entitled Rondine-Schrift, in four sizes, 20· to 96·. There are good series of initials in the Gothic and German Renaissance styles. Series 455, 72·, the Nordische, for one or two colors, designed by Herr Heinrich König, of Luneburg, is very artistic. Series 11 and 12, German Text initials, two sizes of the same design, are evidently by the same artist as series 18, the resemblance in the Amoret figures with which they are adorned being so strong. With the original specimen of Series 18 a corresponding set of tailpieces were shown, but these do not appear in the book before us. A number of silhouette head- and side-pieces, with corners, and several original combinations, complete the volume. One of the latter is the Sgraffito border, 15 characters, in two sizes, 48· and 24·. It is a white floral design without detail, on solid ground. The Vine border, 36·, 5 characters, is very pretty and artistic, its sole defect being a little squareness of outline where the characters join. A series of line ornaments, 49 characters, is borrowed from a design of MacKellar's, but all the pieces have been re-cut, and several variations and improvements introduced. Lastly, we note some heavy floral Renaissance Corners, and the Hammonia combination, 42 characters, 6· to 48·, in the Elzevir style.

The Keystone Foundry, Philadelphia, sends us a packet of beautifully-printed specimens. First, we have a 32-page pamphlet of original designs, beginning with the Keystone Oldstyle series, and followed by French Oldstyle from 6· to 36·. In job-styles, Crayonette Open, four sizes, works effectively in register with the original « Crayonette. » Worcester is the « Washington » design, but lighter-faced. Ancient Gothic is a condensed fanciful sanserif, and its complementary, Ancient Gothic Open, is open two-thirds from the top, the rest solid, producing a peculiar and original effect in colors. Ancient Gothic No. 2 is the same style, condensed, and with the addition of lowercase—a very useful letter. It has a common fault of recent American job-letters—the word-ornaments are much too large and obtrusive. This, however, is no great disadvantage to the printer who does as we do—keeps all word ornaments in a special cabinet, and uses them with such styles as they best suit. Gothic Script is a very useful letter, between script and italic in style: six sizes, 8· to 24·. The wild and fanciful initials of the Ronde, we see, are now supplied open in all three sizes, for register color-work. Æolian is a really pretty fanciful style with lowercase, not easily described; in five sizes, 12· to 36·. The three larger sizes are also cast open; and the effect in register, as shown in the specimen, is good, though the divergence of a hair's breadth would spoil the effect. The three fine parallel lines descending from the caps in both series, must fall accurately into position, or a smudge is the result. Lining Gothic Open—or, more correctly « half-open, » is another face designed for register color-work—a letter absolutely plain in form, but exceedingly fanciful-looking when printed in colors. We have two more series— 8 and 9—of the characteristic Keystone borders, comprising characters 183 to 250. As in section 7, the purely geometric basis is not in all cases adhered to, and a pleasing variety is obtained.

Herr Klinkhardt has brought out a fine series of running borders, (characters 820-870), from 6· to 48·, including a great variety of tone, from outline designs to solid grounds with bold white figures. The series 844-852, 42·, a floral pattern on stippled ground, is very pretty and original. On a second sheet we find the series extended with special application to commercial-paper printing, openings being left in the design, horizontal, oblique, oval, &c., for the insertion of words or figures. There are twenty of these extra characters, besides the word « Actie » with the variation « Aktie » in ornamental styles.

From the Bauer Foundry, (Kramer & Fuchs), Frankfurt, we have three sample fonts of Mediæval Rundschrift, specimen lines of which we show. It will be noted that the letter is a bold and legible script, of a fashion now much in favor in Germany, and just being introduced into Great Britain. We are sorry to say that the specimen-book of the firm, of which we have advice, has not reached us though if posted with their letter, it is long overdue. From their letter-head we note that the same style of letter is cast with a tint-face and outline shade, doubtless to work in register with the solid face. With each font an electrotyped terminal flourish is supplied, as shown in the heading of this article. The larger ones are in proportion, that for the 48· size being about 25 ems long. The of French and German accents for caps and lowercase. The figures are bold and well shaped, but British printers will miss the £. The letter is free from fantastic decoration; it is well suited for the principal line in a script or italic circular, and is a thoroughly serviceable style, with almost unlimited wearing capacity.

The Lindsay Foundry send us sheets showing three new job styles with lowercase. Caroline is a wide eccentric, in six sizes, somewhat in the « Italian » style. Adele is an ornamented heavy sans, about the same set as standard roman; 12·, 18·, and 24. Martha is a heavy condensed sans—a modernized and improved variant on the old French Antiques. 30·, 36·, and 48·: and other sizes, 12· to 60·, in hand.

As we are closing this number, we are in receipt of a case of sample fonts and some late specimen-books from the Dickinson Foundry (Phelps, Dalton, & Co.), Boston. They include some seven or eight styles of letter, besides some modern ornaments, and will be shown in our next month's issue.