The Practice of Typography: Plain Printing Types
The pattern
This still is filed under Craft-argument book.
Define
A book or manual that sells a method by arguing it. Chapters as proof, not as decoration around a product.
Mechanism
Authority by treatise. The reader who accepts the argument has already accepted the seller as teacher.
Verdict
We can teach a craft in public and the teaching is the funnel.
Why it works
The live running head is the load-bearing device: because each one names the specific point of that page, the whole book works as a lookup tool rather than a narrative, which is what a reference actually gets used as. Claims about letterforms are settled by printing the letters at actual size between measure marks, so the reader compares real widths instead of trusting an adjective. De Vinne repeatedly demonstrates a calculation on the object in front of the reader, as when the weight rule is worked using the dimensions of that same page, which makes the method verifiable without leaving the book. The named acknowledgments and permission credits transfer authority from the author to the trade itself.
Steal this when
Use this build for any reference document people will consult rather than read: descriptive running heads, margin labels, and a worked example performed on the artifact the reader is holding. It is also the right model when you must prove a technical comparison and a picture of the real thing at real size will end the argument faster than prose.