Abridged Specimen Book: Type, Nickel-Alloy on Universal Line
A 632-page trade catalogue issued by Keystone Type Foundry of Philadelphia in September 1906, with houses in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit and San Francisco and agents as far away as London, Mexico City and Havana.
What it is
A 632-page trade catalogue issued by Keystone Type Foundry of Philadelphia in September 1906, with houses in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit and San Francisco and agents as far away as London, Mexico City and Havana. It opens with an index and a short statement of the Universal Point System: every body cast to exact points, every face placed on a common baseline (Universal Line), and every character cast to a set width (Point Set), so lines justify without cardboard or paper packing. Then come ordering rules, complete outfit lists for a job office and a newspaper office, old-metal terms, and tables such as words per square inch. The bulk shows faces such as Caslon Old Style, Ben. Franklin, Encore, Admiral and DeVinne, each priced by font, followed by borders, ornaments, cuts, brass rule and printers' furniture. It ends with a telegraph code of one-word orders.
Why read it now
Most of this book is price lists, but two things in it still teach. First, the sample lines. Instead of filler text, Keystone set its own sales claims in its own faces: that printers should discard the old faces, that cardboard is not needed, that Nickel-Alloy will outwear any other type. The product and the pitch sit in the same line, which is the specimen-as-proof pattern at its most efficient. Second, the book is built to remove friction from ordering: exact ordering instructions, ready-made lists for equipping a whole print shop, old metal credited as cash, and a telegraph code that turns an order for two fonts into two words. The modern equivalents are the configurator, the starter bundle and the reorder button. What has dated is the technology. Machine composition was already spreading, and the book itself sells Linotype galleys and rules. The durability claims are the foundry's own, with no test figures given. Use it by making your catalogue's example content prove your main claim, and by pricing a first-time buyer's full kit as one list.
Passages worth keeping
Lines of Point Set Type will therefore space evenly to any measurement of even points, and will justify perfectly without the use of cardboard and paper, as was heretofore necessary with type not cast to Point Set.
الفائدة العملية للنظام أن السطور تستقيم بدقة دون حشو يدوي بالورق، أي توفير وقت العامل في كل صفحة.
PRINTERS SHOULD DISCARD THE OLD FACES And Replace Them With the New and Modern Types that are not only Business Creators but Dividend Payers.
سطر العينة نفسه إعلان: يطلب من صاحب المطبعة استبدال خطوطه القديمة لأن الخط الحديث يجلب العمل ويرفع الربح.
the ordinary type metal is very soft and soon wears out, making it necessary to purchase new.
الحجة هنا هي كلفة الاستبدال: الحرف الرخيص يبلى سريعًا فيدفع المشتري ثمنه مرة أخرى.
It is only necessary to give the size, name and number (if any) of the Type, Border, Rules or article desired to insure the accurate filling of the order.
الكتالوج يعلم العميل كيف يطلب بثلاث معلومات فقط، فيقل الخطأ ويسرع التنفيذ.
In telegraphing for two fonts of Admiral, 10-point caps only and one complete font of 18-point Cardinal, write the message as follows: Two Caps "Abate," One Font "Captive."
لكل مقاس من كل خط كلمة رمزية، فيكتب المشتري طلبه في برقية قصيرة، وهي فكرة قريبة من أرقام المنتجات وزر الطلب السريع اليوم.
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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