The Fleuron: A Journal of Typography, Number 6
The sixth issue of The Fleuron, edited by Stanley Morison and published in 1928 by the Cambridge University Press with Doubleday Doran, printed in Barbou type at Cambridge in 1,150 copies on antique wove and 160 on handmade paper.
What it is
The sixth issue of The Fleuron, edited by Stanley Morison and published in 1928 by the Cambridge University Press with Doubleday Doran, printed in Barbou type at Cambridge in 1,150 copies on antique wove and 160 on handmade paper. Albert Windisch profiles Rudolf Koch through Koch's own account of his life, his types, tapestries and scissor-cuts. A. F. Johnson re-examines Geofroy Tory and finds much credited to him doubtful, including initials shown in Fleuron number 1. Paul Beaujon surveys American book decoration, from Cleland and Bruce Rogers to the stencilled ornaments of W. A. Dwiggins. Morison traces decorated types from Roman and fourth-century Damasine inscriptions to current German and French founts. Luc Benoist writes on the illustrator Bernard Naudin, and Updike edits documents on the Gillé types. Book reviews follow, then reviews of six new types, among them Lutetia italic, Stempel's Baskerville and Pastonchi, most shown in bound-in specimens.
Why read it now
The idea that lasts is the type review: new typefaces judged in print by name, against stated standards, with the maker's specimen bound in so the reader can check the verdict. That is a model for any category review a marketer publishes. Beaujon, a pen name of Beatrice Warde, states the rule she later made famous as the crystal goblet: the printer's job is to carry the idea from author to reader, and ornament should work like music at a cinema, almost unheard. Legibility studies since have found that familiarity and size matter more than style, which supports plain text setting. Morison's line that decoration is "a condiment and not an aliment" is a usable brief for a brand's display type. Johnson's correction of the journal's own first issue is a lesson in credibility. What has dated: the wall both writers build between book work and advertising, which brand design no longer keeps, and their contempt for publicity type. Use: when choosing a brand's Arabic and Latin faces, review each candidate on fixed criteria and set real copy in it before deciding.
Passages worth keeping
the printer's only task is to convey an idea as comfortably as possible from author to reader, and if books were only transparent vessels for argument there would be no place for decoration.
وظيفة الطباعة الأولى أن توصل الفكرة إلى القارئ بأقل جهد، ولو كان الكتاب مجرد وعاء للحجة لما احتاج إلى زخرفة.
Money is conservative, and although advertising has a wide experimental field it cannot speak with sufficient authority from its hired square-inches to initiate a movement.
ترى الكاتبة أن الإعلان يجرّب كثيرًا لكنه لا يصنع اتجاهًا فنيًا، لأن المساحة المستأجرة لا تمنحه سلطة كافية.
decoration is a condiment and not an aliment, and the bravado which is the very life of a "good" publicity type obviously is inadmissible in any type intended for use in books.
الزخرفة في الحرف كالتابل في الطعام، تضيف ولا تُغني، والجرأة المناسبة لحروف الإعلانات لا تصلح لحروف الكتب.
Of thirteen initials shown, only one can with any confidence be assigned to Tory
من ثلاثة عشر حرفًا نُسبت إلى توري لا يثبت له بثقة إلا حرف واحد، وهذا تصحيح لما نشرته المجلة نفسها سابقًا.
On the score of common matter-of-fact legibility, where any slight deviation from the norm means confusion, Pastonchi does not rate high.
في القراءة اليومية العادية يربك أي خروج عن المألوف القارئ، ولذلك لا ينجح خط باستونكي في وضوح القراءة.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
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