A Specimen of Book and Newspaper Printing Types
A slim specimen from Hugh Hughes, letter cutter and founder at 23 Dean Street, Fetter Lane, in the London printing district.
What it is
A slim specimen from Hugh Hughes, letter cutter and founder at 23 Dean Street, Fetter Lane, in the London printing district. It shows book and newspaper types in falling sizes, from English and Pica down through Small Pica, Long Primer, Bourgeois and Brevier. Each size carries the standard Latin of Cicero against Catiline, then English and French texts: the opening of Gibbon's Decline and Fall, Blackstone on the three sorts of colonial government, a passage on the arts rising among free nations, and a French line comparing the uneducated soul to marble in the quarry. One page is set as a newspaper column, with a state lottery notice from the broker T. Bish, grain and cattle prices, stock prices dated 28 January 1822, the tide at London Bridge and an auction of leasehold houses. Anglo-Saxon and Greek founts, numbered flowers and the founder's address close the book.
Why read it now
The newspaper page is the part to study. Instead of an alphabet, Hughes sets his small types the way the buyer will use them: a lottery notice, market prices, stock quotations, the tide table and an auction. A newspaper printer sees his next issue already composed and can judge density and legibility at working size. Showing a product inside the customer's real job, rather than on a blank ground, is still standard, from template previews to mock-ups filled with real data. Work on processing fluency, such as the 2004 review by Reber, Schwarz and Winkielman, finds that what is easier to take in is judged more favourably. The second lesson is the repeated address: the imprint appears on several pages and even in Greek letters, so any page torn out still leads back to the shop. What has dated: metal sizes named Bourgeois and Brevier, Latin filler, and no prices. Use: when you pitch a service, show the deliverable filled with the client's own kind of content, such as product names, prices and Arabic copy, and put your contact line on every page.
Passages worth keeping
HUGH HUGHES, LETTER CUTTER and FOUNDER
يقدم الصانع نفسه في صفحة العنوان بمهنتيه: حفر الحروف وصبّها، أي أنه يصنع القالب والحرف معًا.
IT begins 26th of NEXT MONTH, February. There are Five 20,000l. Money Prizes.
إعلان يانصيب يحدد موعد السحب وقيمة الجوائز، وضعه هيوز ليرى طابع الصحيفة حروفه في إعلان من النوع الذي سيصفّه غدًا.
In the second century of the Christian Æra, the Empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind.
بداية تاريخ غيبون المشهور عن روما، يستعملها الصانع نصًّا للعرض لأنها جملة إنجليزية فصيحة يعرفها قراء زمنه.
Je considère l’âme de l’homme sans éducation comme le marbre dans la carrière, lequel ne montre aucune de ses beautés inhérentes
النفس بلا تعليم كالرخام في المقلع لا يظهر جماله حتى يصقله الصانع، وهي صورة تنطبق على الحرف نفسه، فلا تظهر قيمته إلا في يد طابع ماهر.
H. Hughes, 23, Dean Street, Fetter Lane.
يتكرر عنوان الصانع في أسفل الصفحات، فكل صفحة تصل إلى أي مطبعة تحمل معها طريق الطلب.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
Read the original archive.org
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