The Practice of Typography: Modern Methods of Book Composition
The fourth and last volume of De Vinne's Practice of Typography, published by the Century Co. in October 1904 as the mechanical companion to Correct Composition.
What it is
The fourth and last volume of De Vinne's Practice of Typography, published by the Century Co. in October 1904 as the mechanical companion to Correct Composition. Its subject is the plain book made to be read, which De Vinne says is always in most demand, and it is written for the apprentice compositor. Ten chapters run from equipment (type sizes, cases, brass rules, leads) through hand composition, the parts of a book (title-page, chapter headings, notes, running titles), difficult work (algebra, tables, music, genealogies), foreign languages, making up, stone-work and imposition, with schemes from two to one hundred and twenty-eight pages. The last chapter, on the Mergenthaler Linotype, was written by Philip T. Dodge, the company's president, and ends with a section on keyboard fingering. The running-title pages show real specimens with a short verdict printed under each.
Why read it now
The lasting idea is in the preface: decoration is of doubtful value when it pulls the eye from the message to the skill of the maker. That is still the working rule of good interface and ad layout, and readability studies generally find that plain, familiar type is read faster than ornamental faces. The practical rules transfer: one type family on a title-page, blank space graded by how closely items relate, tables with room between rule and figure, and no display tricks in a document meant to be read. The teaching method is worth copying as well: show a real specimen, then print the verdict under it. What has dated: his rejection of ragged-right text and flush-left paragraphs, both now standard on screens, and his wish to confine display to handbills and advertisements, even while he concedes it attracts attention. Most of the book (cases, chases, imposition, the Linotype) is now history. Use: when briefing a designer, name the two or three places where display is allowed and ask for plain setting everywhere else.
Passages worth keeping
Decoration is of doubtful value when it diverts the eye from matter to manner, from the thought of the writer to the skill of the printer.
الزخرفة تفقد قيمتها حين تشغل القارئ بالشكل عن المضمون، وبمهارة الطابع عن فكرة الكاتب.
the attractiveness of a title-page depends as much on the proper distribution of blank space as on the proper display of important words.
جاذبية صفحة العنوان تأتي من حسن توزيع الفراغ الأبيض بقدر ما تأتي من إبراز الكلمات المهمة.
Lines of ragged outline may attract attention to an advertisement or an ephemeral pamphlet, but to the reader this raggedness seems slovenly.
نهايات السطور غير المتساوية قد تلفت النظر في إعلان أو منشور عابر، لكنها تبدو للقارئ إهمالًا.
This attempt at display, entirely proper in a handbill, advertisement, or tradesman's circular, is not really needed in any book. It may attract, but it irritates.
أساليب العرض اللافتة مناسبة للإعلان والمنشور التجاري، أما في الكتاب فهي تجذب النظر لكنها تزعج القارئ.
Legibility is the great merit of a table.
أهم ما في الجدول أن يُقرأ بسهولة.
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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