Specimen of Printing Types (Fann Street Foundry)

What it is

A small specimen book from Robert Thorne's Fann Street Foundry in London, opened by an engraved script letter to printers dated 1803; this copy lacks its title page. It shows one fount per page, largest first: Ten Lines Pica, Seven Lines Pica, Five Lines Pica and Canon, the heavy display capitals with thick stems and hairline thins later called fat faces. Then come the text sizes, Double Pica, Great Primer, English, Pica, Long Primer, Bourgeois, Brevier and Minion, each setting the same passage of Cicero's first speech against Catiline in roman and italic, followed by capitals, lower case and figures. Several showings carry a casting year such as 1800 or 1802, and many founts are labelled New. It closes with ornamented two-line founts. No prices appear.

Why read it now

Thorne's display pages mark the point where type began to be cut for impact rather than for reading. The fat face was built to stop the eye on posters, bills and notices, and the modern habit of heavy, high-contrast display type for headlines and sale banners runs back to that choice. The book's method still teaches three things: one item per page with nothing competing, the most extreme capability shown first, and a fixed control text so the buyer judges only the letterform. Labelling founts New and setting the casting year in the specimen dates the stock and signals an active foundry, a light form of freshness proof. What has dated: the Latin text meant little to a jobbing printer's customers, and the fat face's extreme contrast breaks down at small sizes, a limit screen typography still has to manage. One use: open a portfolio or case study deck with your boldest work, then show the everyday range on one fixed brief.

Passages worth keeping

The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.

What it teaches best

• Specimen as proof
• Demonstration ad

Read the original archive.org