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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 6

Type Specimens

page 4

Type Specimens.

From the Bauer Foundry (Kramer & Fuchs) Frankfurt, we have a fine large quarto specimen-book, in the expansive style which is less in vogue now than formerly. The types are displayed with a freedom and effectiveness unattainable in the octavo and smaller sizes lately in favor. As in most German books, the first place is given to the national character, which seems very far from dead as yet; Romans and standard job faces follow, then ornamental styles and borders. An original face by this house is the Mediæval Rundschrift in three sizes, which, by the courtesy of the founders, we were able to show in our November issue. The Verzierte Rundschrift-Cursiv is the same letter, opened, shaded, and adorned with light ornament. It is shown in the three sizes of the plain style, and also in one size larger, 72·. Circular-Cursiv is an elegant italic with decorated caps, in nine sizes, from 10· upwards. There are a large number of admirable running borders, many of them original; several of the larger ones being supplied also in dissected form for two or more colors. A new series of Gothic outline and open borders (1446-1482) is original in design, and exceedingly light and graceful. The series would be a great acquisition to any job-office making art-work a special feature. It is cast for one color only; but shows fine possibilities for illuminated work if brought out with ground-tints and solid color.

The Mackellar Company show a new body-series under the name of MacKellar. It is called an old-style, and the figures are of that character, but the modern type predominates. It may perhaps be taken as an indication of the gradual dying-out of the fancy for old-face. It is a solid and rather heavy letter. Columbian is a somewhat cranky but not unpleasing condensed style with lowercase: five sizes, 24· to 60·. A really fine poster sans is the 72· Gothic. Black Cap is the grimly-suggestive name of a somewhat ugly square-shaped fancy sans. The difference between the D and O is so slight that if mixed they could scarcely be separated, and the N (an inverted U) is like a carpet-staple with one point gone. Giraffe Extended is a wide form of the really dreadful design already brought out under the name of Giraffe. It is a little less legible than Hebrew, to which it bears a ludicrous resemblance.

Pointers—16 characters, on pica and nonpareil—is the name of a novelty by Marder, Luse, & Co. It consists of a series of short heavy flourishes, such as are used with the heavy scripts now coming into fashion.

Barnhart Bros. & Spindler show Brownies, 19 characters, a pretty series of imps in outline.

From Bruce, New York, we have the Seventh Supplement to the 1882 Specimen-book. Ornamented No. 1089 is a peculiar variant on the French Clarendon, It is a very narrow skeleton letter, all the horizontal lines double the thickness of the verticals, so that to reduce the letter to standard proportions it is necessary to look at it from the foot, sloping the paper to an angle of 45°. No. 1090 is a copperplate engravers' standard face, a plain sans in contour, faoe scratched obliquely, and with solid shade at right side and foot. No. 1091 is a lanky high-waisted old-style roman, sharply defined. Neither of these styles is provided with lowercase, and all three are in five sizes, ranging from nonpareil to four-line. Black Ornamented No. 544, in the same five sizes, is a style intermediate between Old English and the Heidelberg of Marder, Luse, & Co. It differs materially from any standard black, the verticals being hair-line, and the horizontals thickened.

The Central Foundry has made a decided hit with its Victoria Italic (caps only), for which we have nothing but the highest commendation. It has all the evenness and regularity of the popular « Geometries, » and does not, like them, distort the curved characters. All the sizes are cast to line, three on 12·, and five on 6·.

The Inland Printer for November contains an exceedingly pretty alphabet of Initials, drawn by Charles A. Gray. Each letter is in a different style, and the decoration in each case is varied; but all are graceful and artistic; also, three fine large Tail-pieces by Mr W. H. Bradley.

Some pretty headpieces, pierced cuts, and concert ornaments, all very Teutonic in style, are shown by the Printing Plates Exchange Company, Chicago, in the Ink Fiend for November.

In our notice of the Enschede Foundry's specimens we described their « non plus ultra » Roman, two-point on four-point body. The founders now inform us that it is also cast on its own body of two-point, and is used by them in this form in certain classes of work. It is therefore absolutely the smallest type in existence. The founding as well as the composition of such minute types (33·8 lines to the inch) involves so much trouble that the letter is usually cast to four-point body.