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HISTORY OF TYPOGRAPHY 19th Century & the Industrial Revolution
Brooklyn Nordhausen & Jinell Carslin
table of contents Processes 6-9
Letter Press 06 Linotype & Monotype 07 Chromolithography 8-9
Movements 10-13
Rise of Advertising 10-11 Arts & Crafts Movement 12-13
Types 14-17
Wood Type 14-15 Ornamental Type 16-17
People 18-25 William Morris 18-19 Vincent Figgens 20-21 Robert Thorne 22-23 William Caslon IV 24 Robert Besley 25
Ending 26-27 Extra Fonts 26 Resources 27
LETTER PRESS In the letterpress era, the properly equipped print shop would own large quantities of type sorted into drawers or type cases. Two sets of cases were used for each font- one for capitals, italic or small caps, fractions and lesser used characters, and the other set for figures, points, spaces, ligatures and lower case characters.
duced the first hand press with an iron frame.
the new machinery would put many of them out of work.
Capable of printing 480 pages per hour, it was stronger and allowed for a larger impression. Through a combination of levers, Stanhope’s model used 90% less force and held up longer than the wooden press.
During type setting, the caps case was positioned above the lowercase. This configuration supplied the names upper case and lower case.
Eventually, use of steam power and replacement of the printing flatbed with the rotary motion of cylinders greatly altered the design of the printing press.
The economic impact of all these advances on the type industry cannot be overstated. In the United States, the majority of type foundries escaped bankruptcy in 1892 by merging into a single company, called American Type Founders (ATF). Ultimately twenty-three companies merged into ATF, making it by far the dominant American type foundry.
Gutenberg and his descendants used wooden presses, but in 1800, Charles Mahon intro-
Many printers were not so enthusiastic about these changes, as many believed that
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Linotpye & Monotype
In 1886, the linotype was invented by German born but American raised Ottmar Mergenthaler. It enabled the machine operator to do the work of ten hand compositors by automating the selection, use and replacement of sorts, with a keyboard as input. The linotype produces a solid line of type. It was used for generations by newspapers and general printers. A one-person machine: the operator sits in front with the copy to be set near the keyboard. The machine is adjusted for the required point size and line length and the type metal is heated to about 550 degrees. Pressed keys trigger a mechanism that releases brass pieces in which the characters or dyes are stamped. The matrices travel from the magazine channels on a miniature conveyor belt, into the assembler box--the composing stick of the Linotype. The final result was one full line of type. Unable to be reused, the type was returned to molten metal for new casting.
Ottmar Mergenthaler’s 2nd Linotype machine. Harris & Ewing Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
In 1887, Tolbert Lanston patented the Monotype typesetter, which produced individual characters. The product of a monotype caster was more durable than linotype, and because the letters were individual, could be reused. 7
1872 Chromolithograph of Roadside Inn, E. Sachse & Co., Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
Chromolithography is a method for making multi-color prints. This type of color printing stemmed from the process of lithography, and it includes all types of lithography that are printed in color. Chromolithography became the most successful of several methods of color printing developed by the 19th century.
“Depending on the number of colors present, a chromolithograph could take months to produce by very skilled workers.�
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However, much cheaper prints could be producedby simplifying both the number of colors used, and the refinement of the detail in the image. Cheaper images, like advertisements, relied heavily on an initial black print, on which colors were then overprinted. To make an expensive reproduction print, a lithographer, with a finished painting in front of him, gradually created and corrected the many stones using proofs to look as much alike as possible--sometimes using dozens of layers.w
chromalithography
The process of chromolithography is chemical, because an image is applied to a stone or zinc plate with a grease-based crayon. After the image is drawn onto stone, the stone is gummed with gum arabic solution and weak nitric acid, and then inked with oil-based paints and passed through a printing press along with a sheet of paper to transfer the image to the paper. Colors may be added to the print by drawing the area to receive the color on a different stone, and printing the new color onto the paper. Each color in the image must be separately drawn onto a new stone or plate and applied to the paper one at a time. It was not unusual for twenty to twentyfive stones to be used on a single image. Each sheet of paper will therefore pass through the printing press as many times as there are colors in the final print.
Folding Card, The Old Woman Who Lived in A Shoe, 6 April 1883. Special Collections, University of South Florida Tampa Library
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Rise of Advertising
Until the mid-1800s, little changed in how print advertisments looked. In newspapers, all print ads were usually a single column wide, did not have special type, and usually appeared without illustrations. By the mid-to-late 1800s, a large percentage of advertisements were about patent medicines, and messages focused on public’s health fears. The statements were often dramatic and outrageous, and did little to convince society that advertising was a serious business. The Industrial Revolution, however, brought mass production and rapid increase of advertising. Manufacturures with diverse products needed to advertise nationally to expand their customer base. Companies hired advertisers to secure advertising space in publications and to strategically place ads where consumers would see them.
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By 1870, there were over 5,000 newspapers in circulation which carried advertising and the demand for advertising services was rapidly growing. The rise of advertising in the nineteenth century stimulated demand for large-scale letters that could command attention in urban space. In the beginning, ads were simply lines of text. This became so numerous that the ads had to be “classified� into categories. As products became plentiful, retailers moved from the plain copy ads to more sophistcated methods. This included decorative type styles, and reversed type on black backgrounds. Advertisments began using dozens of different fonts to maximize the scale of letters in the space allotted. Although the typefaces are richly varied, the centered layout is static and conventional.
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Arts & Crafts Movement
James Watt’s improvements to the steam engine, and its subsequent application to manufacturing in the late 18th and early 19th century, resulted in a major societal shift. The new steam engine driven machines replaced the craftsmen system with faster and cheaper production but often greatly inferior results. The critical eye and artistry of the craftsman was sacrificed for speed. In the graphic arts field, punchcutters, type casters, type setters and printers were losing their jobs as the result of mechanized methods of type casting and printing. Paper makers began producing paper from wood pulp--creating an acidic paper 12
prone to yellowing and foxing. Book binding was mechanized and cheapened. The Arts & Crafts Movement was an international design movement that reacted against mass production, both the low quality of design and the demanding conditions under which products were produced. The movement began in England in the late 1800s, and spread to the United States in the early decades of the 20th century. The arts and crafts movement idealistically tried to rejoin art and industry together but the economy worked against their goal of bringing good design to the masses. In the graphic arts field, small private presses, forming
under a model created by William Morris, reawakened fine printing and revivals of classic typefaces. Some contemporary critics deride the typefaces of Morris and his followers as artsy, and not refined enough to be considered serious typography. None can dispute, however, that the private press movement increased appreciation for fine printing as well as revived the field of typographic design.
While the Arts & Crafts movement was laregly a reaction to industrialization, it was neither anti-industrial nor anti-modern.
Morris designed Pimpernel in 1876 and later chose it to decorate his dining room at Kelmscott House in Hammersmith London. With its complex structure and swirling rhythms Pimpernel is available in five stunning colors based on the originals. william-morris.co.uk/
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Wood type
Metal type casting was limited to just a few inches in height due to difficulties of casting larger type, the weight and the cost. When advertising demanded larger type, wood was the answer. Wood, however, had been used for lettering and illustrations dating back to the first printed
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documents in China in 868. In 1827, Darius Wells invented the lateral router, a saw that could cut curved outlines in wood, allowing for the production of a lighter, larger and cheaper letterform. The router combined with the pantograph made the manufacture of wood type practical.
Many wood types have an ‘Old West’ feel, because they are most strongly associated with America in the 1870-1900 period. Wood type is distinguised by strong contrasts, an overall dark color, and a lack of fine lines.
“When advertising demanded larger type, wood was the answer.�
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Ornamental Type
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BLACK LETTER
FAT FACE
The first printed types exemplify what most people think of as medieval, they have ornate capitals, diamond shaped serifs, and thick lines. They evolved from the carolingian by a gradual movement towards the narrowing and thickening of lines.
Fat face typefaces were an offshoot of the modern typefaces, intended for advertising display purposes. The first fat faces appeared from 1810-1820. They further exaggerated the contrast of modern typefaces, with slab like vertical lines and often an emphasis of depth.
SCRIPT
TUSCAN
Scripts are based on the forms made with a flexible brush or pen and often have varied strokes reminiscent of handwriting. Scripts are based on the writings of 17th and 18th century handwriting masters such as George Sickham, George Shelley and George Snell.
Tuscan is a style characterized by contrasted strokes rounded or pointed terminals and serifs that are often bi-furcated or tri-furcated, divided into branches as well as a medial (mid-stem) decoration.
“You can use these ornaments as decorative embellishments in your documents, or as a way to add pictures to text without importing graphics.� 17
Photographed by Frederick Hollyer in 1884. Photograph: © National Portrait Gallery, London
William Morris is regarded as the greatest designer and one of the most outstanding figures of the Arts & Crafts Movement. A true Renaissance man, Morris was an author, artist, poet, philosopher, typographer, and political theorist.
During the final phase of his life Morris combined his love for medieval literature with his craftsman workshop ethic into the Kelmscott Press, the first and most influential expression of the private press movement, and often considered the most celebrated private press in the Unhappy with the quality of history of printing. Morris products available for furnish- studied early books and manuings, Morris worked along with scripts from which he drew infriends to create hand-craft- spiration for manufacturing his ed wallpaper, tapestries and own paper, ink, and type design. furniture demonstrating good craftsmanship and design. At Morris admired the letterthe project’s end, in 1861, they forms of Nicholas Jensen. He joined together to form a busi- photographed and enlarged ness, Morris, Marshal, Faulk- Jenson’s letters and used them ner & Co. After some disputes, as the basis for his own Jenson Morris reorganized the part- adaptation, Golden Type. nership into Morris & Co. Another type design, Troy. Morris gathered his imag- was based upon studies of ery from nature and used nat- manuscript blackletter, and is ural and traditional methods, named after the book in which for example using natural veg- it first appeared. Chaucer type, etable dye for printing on ma- is a smaller version of troy. terial and printing wallpaper and textiles with wood blocks. In seven years of operation 18
the Kelmscott hand-operated press published 53 books in 18,000 copies. Kelmscott books re-awakened the lost ideals of book design and inspired higher standards of production at a time when the printed page was at its poorest. Morris was fascinated not only with the design of books but wrote a number of his own. His fantasy stories were a direct inspiration for C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia and influenced Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
“I do not want art for a few, any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few.”
william morris
Liam Morris, 1834-1896, The Earthly Paradise. 8 vols. Hammersmith: the Kelmscott Press, 1896-1897. Original limp vellum, green linen ties.
“It is the allowing of machines to be our masters and not our servants that so injures the beauty of life nowadays.� 19
Vincent Figgens
Vincent Figgins was the first to use the term sans serif when he designed Two-line Great Primer Sans-serif in 1832. One could argue that the sans serif typeface existed as far back as ancient times- but in reality it was the late 19th
century when designers deliberately decided to design faces that were without serifs. Figgins established his own type foundry and built a reputation for high quality type design. He specialized in mathematical and astronomi-
cal material. He printed specimens showing a full range of modern styles, antiques (Egyptians), and 3-D fonts.
‘Vincent Figgins Type Specimens – 1801 and 1815’
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‘Vincent Figgins Type Specimens – 1801 and 1815’
‘Vincent Figgins Type Specimens – 1801 and 1815’
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Robert Thorne
A B C Thorne Shaded
The first truly fat roman typeface is believed to have been introduced by prominent London type founder Robert Thorne, in 1803. This was a period of invention and discovery, when Europe was experiencing an eneormous expansion of trade and commerce. As innovation in printing technology improved and enterprising new trades began to flourish, so did the demand for print advertising. Thorne’s bold, new, all caps fat face, which looked like a didone on steroids, proved to be wildly successful and was largely responsible for altering the appearance of advertising in this era. Although Thorne never published another book of specimens after 1803, he came very close to completing 22
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one, and he continued turning out bold new fonts at his Fann Street Foundry until his death in 1820.
Antique
Clarendon
Latin/ Antique Tuscans
Tuscans
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William Caslon IV William Caslon IV was born in 1780 to a long line of type designers. In 1807, Caslon IV took over the running of the family type foundry until 1819, when the foundry is bought by Blake, Garnett & Co. The first sans serif font to appear in a type sample book was by William Caslon IV in 1816. This new typeface caught on quickly and began to appear all over Europe and the U.S. under the names “Grotesque” and “Sans Serif.” Soon, bold and slender weights of this type could be found everywhere in newspaper headlines, on posters and brochures. In their basic forms, the sans serif lowercase letters remained quite similar to those in roman type, the vertical strokes retaining a greater thickness compared to the oblique transitions and joints. The use of these new typefaces was limited almost exclusively to typesetting for titles and headlines. The body text remained 24
true to the classic form of roman type. It wasn’t until after World War II that sans serif fonts were to experience a true renaissance and revolutionize the world of text publishing.
Robert Besley Robert Besley was an English typographer and the creator the Clarendon typeface. Besley joined the Fann Street Foundry in 1838, also the home of typographer William Thorowgood, creator of Grotesque. He created Clarendon in 1845 and although he patented it, the typeface quickly became so popular that the great number of knock-offs made the patent virtually unenforceable. It is still remembered as the world’s first patented typeface, and considered the first to design a related bold for emphasizing text. Clarendon was so widely popular because it was extremely useful. It had the attention-getting boldness to highlight a word or phrase, yet at the same time was compact and easier to read than the fat faces and antiques of the period. Becoming a popular wood type, Clarendon is also notable as a common choice on “WANTED” signs of the Old West.
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Thorne TUSCAN
ABRIL FAT FACE Decorative Perspective
CLARENDON BESLEY GROTESQUE
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References Graphic Design History. (2011). 18 & 19 C. Press, Type & Paper. Retrieved from designhistory.org: http://www.designhistory.org/BookHistory_pages/ Letterpress.html Graphic Design History. (2011). Arts & Crafts and the Private Press. Retrieved 2016, from designhistory.org: http://www.designhistory.org/Arts_Crafts_ pages/IndustrialRevolution.html Graphic Design History. (2011). Early Advertising. Retrieved 2016, from designhistory.org: http://www.designhistory.org/Advertising_pages/FirstAd. html Graphic Design History. (2011). Tech Advances in Type Making. Retrieved 2016, from designhistory.org: http://www.designhistory.org/Type_milestones_pages/Panatograph.html Idsgn.org. (2009, August 21). Know your type: Clarendon. Retrieved 2016, from idsgn.org: idsgn.org/posts/know-your-type-clarendon/ Kennard, J. (2014, February 6). The Story of Our Friend, the Fat Face. Retrieved from fontsinuse.com: http://fontsinuse.com/uses/5578/the-story-ofour-friend-the-fat-face Linotype. (2016). Font Designer- William Caslon. Retrieved 2016, from linotype.com: www.linotype.com/348/william-caslon.html Noel Wisdom Chromolithograph Collection, Department of Special Collections, The University of South Florida Tampa Library. Folding Card, The Old Woman Who Lived in A Shoe, 6 April 1883. The Cleveland Museum of Art. (n.d.). William MOrris and the Kelmscott Press. Retrieved 2016, from clevelandart.org: http://www.clevelandart.org/ research/in-the-library/collection-in-focus/william-morris-and-kelmscottpress Vault. (n.d.). Advertising and Marketing. Retrieved 2016, from vault. com: http://www.vault.com/industries-professions/industries/advertising-and-marketing.aspx
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