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Trade Exchanges.

The British Printer, No. 18, Nov.-Dec., completes its third volume, including title and contents. We do not understand why this paper pages each issue separately, instead of carrying the folios through the book. In the case of an index, this necessitates a double set of figures. In place of an index, however, we have a table of contents in six divisions, one for each number, headed « Index to vol. iii. » In a certain sense a table of contents may be called an index, but the term has a specific and well-understood meaning in bookwork, and should not be loosely applied. The title-page to the volume, in colors and tints, is the finest yet issued—a superb piece of designing, engraving, and presswork. It is, however, something more than type-composition, an engraved design for several colors having been specially prepared and arranged to combine with the type-work. The type-decoration proper, if we except two or three word-ornaments, is confined to brass-rule. This exquisite piece of work, therefore, is of little use as a model to the ordinary job-compositor. Reviewing vol. xi of the International Specimen Exchange, the editor says that it proves that British printers « are doing artistic work equal to any produced in any part of the world, bearing ample evidence of the growth of a distinct style of typographic design and display that is neither American nor German, but embraces the best points of both—the freshness and originality of the first and the chaste coloring and correct taste of the latter. » Four specimens of ordinary job-work in black, are admirable models, but are of no avail to the comp who is unprovided with modern facilities. Work of this kind cannot be produced from the material of even ten years ago. New borders, pretty vignettes, and accurately-cut labor-saving rule are essentials to its production.—The Jan-Feb. issue, just to hand, is of unusual bulk, and full of interesting matter. The supplement « Queen of the Roses » is one of the most beautiful illustrations from a process block that we have seen in a trade paper. Three prize specimens of job display selected from fifty-six sent in for competition, are all admirable. On p. 35 is a very striking study of a lion in brass-rule—the work of a London compositor, recently deceased. It is full of vigorous life, and is quite unlike any other piece of brass-rule work that we have seen— resembling most of all some of the early masterpieces of wood engraving. The process by which it was produced is unique. « It is built up with odds and ends of rule, first cut and filed to the required shapes and then driven into a mount of soft wood (pine) and finished off with a fine-cut file. » This made the form more than type high, so an electro had to be taken to work with type. We altogether disagree with the critics who have described this as a waste of time. Commercially the time, no doubt, might have been more profitably employed; but the result is a genuine and unique work of art, possessing much interest.

We have the numbers for February and March of the British Bookmaker—the first that we have seen. They are numbered 44-45; but this numbering is carried on from the Bookbinder, which has been incorporated with the Bookmaker. The field occupied by the latter is wider, and the paper is proportionately more interesting. It is uniform in style with the British Printer, and is under the same editorship. In the February issue there is a very interesting illustrated article by Mr Gilbert M'Intosh, Shanghai, on Chinese printing; in the March number is an article on Gutenberg, with portrait, illustrations, and facsimiles of his types.

Caslon's Circular, No. 56, in referring to the fact that the unique typographical library of the late Mr William Blades—the most complete and valuable collection of the sort in existence—is in the market, urges upon the Craft to raise a fund to purchase it as it stands, to form the nucleus of « The Blades Library and Museum of Printing. » We trust that the suggestion will be carried out. It would be a national loss if this grand collection were broken up; and there are signs that American buyers are eager to secure some of Mr Blades's treasures. — A brief article recommends printers to use extra-long quadrats, which the house is prepared to supply, instead of tediously making up long blanks with quads not more than four ems in length. It also recommends printers to drop ordering Æ Œ æ œ in job-fonts. As a rule, printers do not order and don't want them. All the founders need do is quietly to drop the sorts out, and not one printer in a hundred will miss them. And on this point, ؟why in the world do printers have the interrogation and exclamation signs, the colon, and semicolon, with large letter? They are quite useless, yet are religiously supplied, even with big poster-types in wood.

We welcome among our exchanges for the first time the superb Italian typographical journal L'Arte della Stampa of Florence, now in its twentieth year. We have long known it by repute, but have never before seen a copy. It is beautifully printed, and admirable taste is displayed both in the advertising pages and in the literary portion of the paper. Each page is surrounded by a narrow border printed in blue.

A very interesting exchange comes to us from Japan—No. 1 of The Press and Paper. It would doubtless be more interesting still if we could read it; but with the exception of an advertisement of the Tokyo Tsakiji Type-foundry, the four words we have quoted represent all the English to be found in its 36 quarto pages. The matter begins, in Hebrew fashion, at the right-hand end of the book, and the variety of size of the characters is very noticeable. The general text is about pica size, set in columns of single characters, about a pica white between each column; but here and there in these white spaces smaller characters are found, like side-notes.

These are certainly not larger than a nonpareil em, and are much simpler than the larger characters, some of which are very elaborate, containing as many as nineteen or twenty distinct strokes. There are several good process-blocks—portraits and views— and a comical study in rule-work—a Japanese with a fan, and a kind of mitre on his head. The decorations on his dress are made up of bits of German architectural combinations, arranged in a way that would interest the designer. The cover contains a full-page emblematical device, well designed and executed.

The American Art Printer is very miscellaneous in its literary contents. The issue for December contains a fine study of a vase in rule, gold and colors, by E. B. Wolf, Columbus, O. In the February number there is a capital portrait of Mr G. W. Childs, with autograph, done in brass-rule by Mr. Fred B. Crewe, a skilful artist in this class of work. A very artistic corner of convolvulus flowers and leaves, also wrought in rule, sets off the job, and is beautifully brought out in tints. The supplements of the later issues show some exceedingly fine process-work. One of these—part of the program of a typographical union ball—is an original idea. The form, having been set in a distinct sanserif, has been photographed, furniture, quoins, and all, and the picture process-engraved. So well was the work done, that every letter is legible, and any comp can read it « in the metal. » It also contains quarter-size reductions of two effective studies in brass-rule by Mr Lewis Rudy, a clever Philadelphia comp.

In the Artist Printer, under the head of « Some badly-needed Type Characters, » Mr N. Y. Werner attacks the descenders, g, j, p, g, y. What an intolerable nuisance and burden they are, every job-printer knows. These five wretched characters add twenty per cent, to the weight and consequently the cost of every font with lowercase. They throw caps and figures out of the centre of the body. When they are kerned, thus saving metal and space, they break. When they are atrophied—minimised almost out of sight, they look ridiculous, and destroy the proportions of the whole font. We do not think that the present roman character is final. Mechanical writing and typesetting demand a simplification of the standard character. Everywhere thoughtful printers and students are in revolt against it. Our own idea is that the « lowercase » may yet be abolished altogether, and instead of about fifty distinct characters to represent twenty-six ambiguous alphabetic signs, we shall come to a forty-letter phonetic alphabet, on the system of the present « titlings » —one alphabet only. A font, including points and figures, sufficient for all the grammatical requirements of the language, is even now comprised in a case of 49 cells, with one cell to spare, besides the three redundant characters:?! And printers hamper themselves with fonts of some 400 characters, besides extras.

L'Imprimerie, acknowledging Mr Bassett's new paper, the Printing World, says that it « est comparable aux luxueux journaux d'imprimerie américains et australiens: le Paper and Press, The Printers' Album, The American Model, The Artist Printer, The Typographic Messenger, the Typo, etc, » Typo is here in decidedly good company.