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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 5
[miscellaneous paragraphs]
The present number of Typo is printed from a sample of American Lion Brand job-black ink, forwarded to us by the English agent, Mr E. T. Marler, 57 Shoe Lane, London, E.C.
The uniform rate of a half-penny for every two ounces on books, newspapers, and patterns between Great Britain and the colonies, comes into operation in January.
The Auckland Weekly News Christmas number contains 56 large pages and a colored supplement: « View on the Waikato River. » It is a wonderful sixpennyworth.
« The American Dictionary of Printing and Bookmaking, » quarto, published by Howard Lockwood & Co., New York, and supplied as a free supplement to subscribers to the American Bookmaker, promises to be one of the most important books of reference that the Craft has produced. It is edited by Mr Pasko, librarian of the New York Typothetæ, and is necessarily based to some extent on the labors of Savage, Southward, and Ringwalt; and in addition, the foreign standard dictionaries of the art have been turned to account. We have not seen parts 1 and 2, but (owing to the somewhat late appearance of the present issue) are able to acknowledge parts 3 and 4 together. They include pp. 97 to 102, from chi to fin. Among the principal articles are Chinese Printing, Color, Composing-room, Composition, Copyright, Cost of Production, Daily Newspapers, Electrotyping (nine pages), England, English Language, Female Compositor, Figures, Fine Work, and Finishing. There are a good many illustrations, which in most cases appear to have been engraved for the work. In the biographical notices, American printers, as might have been expected, receive the most attention, and there are some excellent portraits. The literature of printing having become cosmopolitan, a new and useful feature of the present work is the inclusion of technical terms in the principal European languages. The information is brought well up to date, the whole field of printers' journalism for the past few years having apparently been carefully gleaned. Of this we find examples in two brief but correct entries having a local interest: « Colenso, William, » and « Dunedin. » To illustrate the article on Color-Printing, a beautiful diagram in eleven printings, representing 110 colors and shades, is shown. Eleven colors were worked in as many squares in perpendicular columns, and then the same eleven worked across them horizontally in register, forming a complete color multiplication table. The diagonal from left to right represents each color worked upon itself: all the rest are compounds of two. The horizontal rows are marked by letters, the perpendiculars by figures; thus, F 11 is Prussian Blue over Crimson, and K 6 is Crimson over Prussian Blue, the result in each case being a very dark purple. The eleven colors are Scarlet, Dark Green, Magenta, Ultramarine, Lemon Yellow, Crimson, White, Violet, Medium Green, Deep Orange, and Prussian Blue. Including the text in black, there are twelve printings in this page, and the register is perfect.—The parts are issued quarterly, and the publication is expected to extend over three years.
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We have to thank Mr Henry R. Boss, printer, of Chicago, for a copy of the Phonographic World, devoted to shorthand and typewriting; some spelling reform tracts; a copy of the Ink Fiend, with biography and portrait of Miss ElizaB. Burnz, a champion of spelling-reform in the United States; and a copy of the Journal of Helth, printed in reformed spelling. When we find space, we will be glad to set forth the rules by which the English and American reformers respectively are endeavoring to simplify and render more uniform our perplexing English spelling without the introduction of additional characters. Meantime, we would be glad if Mr Boss, or any other friend, would send us a copy of some paper or leaflet, showing the phonetic alphabet which some spelling-reformer has endeavored to introduce in America. We would much like to compare it with that devised by the united labors of Ellis and Pitman in England; and, if possible, to show it in our pages as we lately showed Pitman's. The types, we believe, were supplied by the Central Foundry, and so far as we know, pica was the only size cast. Detailed information on the subject would be valued by us.
By some oversight, we omitted some months ago to acknowledge the calendar-blotters sent us by Mr W. H. Wright, jun., printer, of Buffalo, New York, though the paragraph was written and in type. We have now several of these calendars, the earliest bearing date November, 1890. Mr Wright is the inventor of this particular style of advertising, which he has found to be very effective and profitable. Each month he sends out a small desk - blotter, 9 ×3½ inches, mounted on a glazed card. On this card is a calendar for the month, and a more or less elaborate advertisement of his establishment. The cards are printed in three or four colors, and on each there is some quaint device or clever play upon words. The one for January, 1891, which some of our trade contemporaries have copied in facsimile, represents a hand holding his business card, with the motto, « The Winning Card for 1891. A satisfactory deal assured. » The one for November informs customers that « This card is of absorbing interest to you, » and has along the upper edge, in gold, a scale of inches and quarters, underneath which is « a golden rule » for his customers. Mr Wright occupies a field where ingenuity and originality meet with appreciation, and we are glad to know that his business is « booming, » as it deserves.
The Hawera Star again sends us its book almanac and West Coast directory, which still keeps up its reputation as the best annual published in New Zealand outside of the four chief cities.—From Auckland we have Murray's excellent Household Diary and Almanac. —Bond's Waikato and Te Aroha Almanac strikingly indicates the progress of the important district it represents, and is one of the best country book almanacs in the colony. The editor does not, as some do, copy wholesale from existing handbooks, but has gone to the expense and trouble to compile a work of reference specially adapted to his own district. The local and topographical information is very complete, and is supplemented by a good sketch-map. There is an amount of advertising support that some of the leading handbooks in the chief centres might envy, and the compositors have displayed the work in a very creditable manner. The book is printed and published by the editor and compiler.—A good sheet almanac reaches us from the Oamaru Mail; another from the Northern Advocate; and a very well printed one from the Marlborough Express. The Salvation Army sheet almanac is creditable alike to the designer and compiler, Mr T. S. Lambert, of Dunedin, and to the lithographers, Messrs J. Wilkie & Co., of the same city.