Palmer & Rey's Fifth Revised Specimen Book and Price List of Printing Material (1892)
Palmer & Rey's fifth revised specimen book, issued in San Francisco in 1892, is a trade catalogue for printers.
What it is
Palmer & Rey's fifth revised specimen book, issued in San Francisco in 1892, is a trade catalogue for printers. It opens with a department index, an alphabetical index of several hundred faces, a price list of type by size, a page explaining the 'interchangeable system of bodies' (the point as one seventy-second of an inch, with old names such as Nonpareil, Brevier and Pica set at 6, 8 and 12 points), and terms of trade: cash or C.O.D. for small orders, credit on references, old type taken back at 8 cents a pound. Then come the specimens: book faces set in a paragraph on California's future, then gothics, scripts, texts, fancy display letters such as Karnac and Nymphic, borders, newspaper mastheads and stock cuts. It closes with priced outfits for a country newspaper and a job office, and an illustrated list of presses, cutters and cabinets.
Why read it now
A type specimen is a product catalogue where every page proves the product by using it, and this one shows the method at full scale. Each book face is set in the same paragraph at each size, so a printer compares like with like; side-by-side demos and comparison tables work on the same logic today. The line 'all cast on the interchangeable system of type bodies' heads nearly every page: a compatibility promise repeated where the buyer decides, the way software sellers now print 'works with' badges. The office estimates bundle a press, cases, type and ink into one priced outfit, and the terms ask buyers to state their budget first so the selection can be built to fit. The trade-in price for old type lowers the cost of switching. What has dated: most of the ornate display faces fell out of fashion soon after, and this scan garbles them along with the price tables. Use it: for a B2B price list, show each item doing its job, offer two or three ready outfits at set budgets, and state compatibility on every page.
Passages worth keeping
THE future prosperity and glory of California do not depend upon her beautiful climate, nor upon an aristocracy of wealth, but rather upon an aristocracy of honesty and intelligence.
هذه فقرة العرض التي صُفّت بها خطوط الكتب، وتقول إن مستقبل كاليفورنيا يقوم على نزاهة أهلها وعلمهم لا على مناخها أو ثروة أغنيائها، واختيار نص محلي يجعل العينة قريبة من المشتري.
This is the unit of measurement, and is one-twelfth of Pica, or one-seventy-second of an inch.
النقطة هي وحدة القياس في النظام الجديد، وتساوي جزءًا من 12 من البايكا أو جزءًا من 72 من البوصة، وعليها تُبنى كل الأحجام.
When asking for estimate state amount of money the selection is to be limited to.
على من يطلب عرض سعر أن يذكر ميزانيته، ليختار المسبك له ما يناسبها بدل أن يعرض عليه قائمة مفتوحة.
Do not mutilate this book. Order by name or number. When ordering roman type, order italic extra if wanted.
الكتاب نفسه أداة طلب، فيُطلب الخط باسمه أو رقمه دون قص الصفحات، والخط المائل يُطلب منفصلًا عن الخط العادي.
When ordering display or job type remember no spaces or quads come with fonts, and should be ordered separately.
خطوط العناوين تُباع دون الفواصل والحشوات، فعلى المشتري أن يطلبها وحدها، وهذا تنبيه يمنع شكوى لاحقة.
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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