Specimens of Type Faces in the United States Government Printing Office
The Government Printing Office's in-house type book, dated May 1959 and marked for office use only, made so printers and authors could find what type the Office held and where it sat. It is sorted by composing method, not by style: Intertype and Linotype faces in the Linotype Section, Monotype faces by case number, Fotosetter faces for offset work only, then Intertype, Ludlow and foundry type in the Job Section, wood type, and miscellaneous sorts such as fractions, chemical and mathematical signs, borders, ornaments, Greek, Russian, Hebrew and German alphabets.
What it is
The Government Printing Office's in-house type book, dated May 1959 and marked for office use only, made so printers and authors could find what type the Office held and where it sat. It is sorted by composing method, not by style: Intertype and Linotype faces in the Linotype Section, Monotype faces by case number, Fotosetter faces for offset work only, then Intertype, Ludlow and foundry type in the Job Section, wood type, and miscellaneous sorts such as fractions, chemical and mathematical signs, borders, ornaments, Greek, Russian, Hebrew and German alphabets. Brass type for the bindery and the faces held at the Library printing branch and the Smithsonian close the book. Faces include Baskerville, Bodoni, Caslon, Century Schoolbook, Cheltenham, Futura, Garamond, Stymie and Times Roman, some with canceled versions struck through. Two indexes, by name and by case number, cross-reference everything, and supplement pages keep it current.
Why read it now
This is not a sales document. It is an inventory, and its value to a marketer today is structural. It indexes every face twice, by name and by physical location; it codes which machine can set each one (L, M, J, Lud, F); it states limits in plain words, such as foundry type to be used only when absolutely necessary; and it promises supplement pages so the book stays current. That is the shape of a working brand design system: assets, where they live, which platforms can render them, and a change log. What has dated: the technology. Linotype, Monotype and Ludlow are gone, and the Fotosetter section shows the photocomposition that would replace metal within two decades. The pages show alphabets and character sets, not running text, so they tell you what exists, not how it reads. There is no Arabic among the foreign alphabets. Use: keep a one-page font register for the brand listing each Arabic and Latin face, its weights, where it is licensed (web, app, office software, print suppliers), and the fallback when it is missing, with dated updates.
Passages worth keeping
It is our purpose to make this edition as comprehensive as possible, for either printer or author, and arrange same so that any effort in fact-finding as to type will be minimized to the greatest degree possible.
هدف الكتاب أن يجد الطابع أو المؤلف أي حرف بأقل جهد، فالمعيار هنا سرعة الوصول إلى المعلومة لا جمال العرض.
All Foundry type is located in the Job Composing Section, but only one job case of each is available, therefore this type should not be used unless absolutely necessary.
الدليل يصرح بحدود المخزون ويمنع الإفراط في استخدام ما هو نادر، وهذا ما يجب أن يفعله أي دليل أصول للعلامة.
With the acquisition of any new type faces or miscellaneous characters, supplemental pages will be distributed within the Office, so that at all times this book will be up to date.
الكتاب مصمم ليُحدَّث بصفحات تضاف كلما وصل حرف جديد، فهو مرجع حي وليس نسخة تُطبع مرة وتتقادم.
These faces can be used ONLY in offset or photoengraving processes. Type is composed in the form of a film or paper positive.
هذا القسم يسجل دخول التنضيد الضوئي إلى المطبعة الحكومية، ويحدد بوضوح أين يصلح هذا الحرف وأين لا يصلح.
This is not printer's type and can be used ONLY for stamping and lettering in the Bindery.
كل مجموعة حروف تُعرّف بوظيفتها ومكان استخدامها، حتى لا تُطلب لعمل لا تناسبه.
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
If this library is useful, leave an email
We send new patterns, ads, and notes when we add them. Name and phone are optional.
You are on the list
We will write when we add more library material.