Specimens of Printing Types
A short specimen booklet from the London foundry of W. Caslon Junior, letterfounder, Salisbury Square: 16 scanned pages.
What it is
A short specimen booklet from the London foundry of W. Caslon Junior, letterfounder, Salisbury Square: 16 scanned pages. Each page shows one body of type under the trade names of the day: Five Lines Pica, Canon, a new size called Trafalgar set "between Two-line Great Primer and Canon", Long Primer Nos. 4 and 5 with an italic, Double Pica, Great Primer, and English Canon, or Four Lines Pica. Every text face is set in the same Latin passage, the opening of Cicero's first speech against Catiline, followed by capitals and figures, so a printer can compare sizes like for like. One page offers open, outlined capitals from Pearl to Long Primer. A later bookplate shows the copy belonged to the Typothetae of the City of New York and was placed with the American Type Founders Company's library in 1912.
Why read it now
The booklet is a sales document with no sales copy. Its only argument is the product, shown at every size on offer, with one passage repeated so the buyer judges the letters and not the words. That is a controlled comparison, and it still works: type foundries, paint makers and software demos that fix the sample and change one thing let buyers decide without a salesman. What has dated is the vocabulary. Names like Pica, Long Primer and Canon gave way to the point system in the late 19th century, and a Latin passage tells a buyer today nothing about how Arabic or English copy will set. The scan says little on its own, since several display pages did not read, so the evidence is in the images. Use: when you show a client options for a logo, typeface or pack, set every option with the same real headline and body, at real size, on one page, each with a plain name. Use the client's own Arabic copy, because a sample in another language hides the problems that matter.
Passages worth keeping
TRAFALGAR, No. 1. (A Size between Two-line Great Primer and Canon.)
مقاس جديد سُمّي «ترافلغار» ووُصف بأنه بين مقاسين معروفين، أي أن المسبك يضيف مقاسات وسيطة ويعطيها أسماء لافتة ليبيعها.
Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?
مطلع خطبة شيشرون باللاتينية، ومعناه إلى متى تسيء استغلال صبرنا يا كاتيلينا. استُخدم نصًا ثابتًا في كل المقاسات حتى تكون المقارنة بينها عادلة.
A new Pica and English Two-Lines, Open, on the same plan as the Long Primer. All the Sizes have the different Points.
إعلان عن حروف كبيرة مفرغة جديدة بمقاسين إضافيين على نمط المقاس الأصغر، مع توفير علامات الترقيم في كل المقاسات.
This Book is the Property of The Typothetae of the City of New York.
لوحة ملكية لاحقة تبيّن أن النسخة صارت لجمعية أصحاب المطابع في نيويورك، فكتب النماذج كانت تُحفظ مرجعًا مهنيًا لا مجرد نشرة بيع.
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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