A Brief History of 557 Years of Letterpress and Typography
Most of us have heard the story about Gutenberg finishing his bible sometime around the year 1455 and the profound effect it would have on the spread and advancement of learning and culture, but there is a great deal more to the story of letterpress.
Not all that much is known about Gutenberg, however he is credited with having printed the first western book using movable type. One of the few things we know about him is that his business partner and financial backer Johann Fust successfully sued him. Fust had apparently become impatient with Gutenberg’s slow progress and lack of return on his investment.The elementary school textbooks generally say Gutenberg built a wooden press based on the wine press being used at the time, and then proceeded to print his famous bible. The complexity in designing, engraving, and finally casting the first movable type is perhaps where the greater genius lies.
Metal type is cast from a very special alloy of lead, tin, and antimony. The tin gives the type strength while at the same time allowing the lead to flow more evenly. The antimony is probably the most important part of the alloy, although very little is used. Antimony forms a crystalline structure and expands as it cools, just as water does when it freezes. Without the antimony, the type would shrink slightly and be uneven and poorly cast. We can’t be absolutely sure of exactly what went into Gutenberg’s type metal, but we can see from his printing that he must have gotten the alloy, among many other things, remarkably right.
The bible was actually not even the first thing Gutenberg printed. He is believed to have begun printing indulgences sometime around 1452. Indulgences were sold by the Catholic Church for the forgiveness of sins. The abuse of indulgences by a few greedy clergymen would become one of the main complaints leading to the Protestant reformation.
Gutenberg’s bible was meant to imitate the hand written manuscripts being produced by the scribes of the day, and great lengths were taken to make a type that looked as though it had been written. Gutenberg used a copious number a ligatures and alternate type characters which allowed him to achieve tightly justified lines, and also added a level of variation to the appearance of the type. The reason for copying the hand writing of the day is fairly strait forward, that’s what people would have expected and been comfortable reading.
However, it is also possible that Gutenberg had no desire for people to know that his bibles were printed. Despite the hand painted decorations and variations in the type, people were initially somewhat suspicions of Gutenberg’s handy work. Some believed that only the devil could have produced two identical bibles. It seems likely that Gutenberg’s partner Johann Fust was used as the inspiration for the fictional story of Faust, a man who sells his sole to the devil.
Despite Gutenberg passing away a poor and unsuccessful man, his invention began to spread and change the world at an unbelievable rate. By the 1470s, a mere decade later, printing had spread to Venice and books were being printed in growing numbers. Most printers, like Gutenberg, had to make their own type. The process was quite elaborate. Steel punches were painstakingly engraved by hand for every letter and then hardened and hammered into a soft piece of copper or brass. The copper was then carefully shaped into a matrix or mold for casting the letter portion of a piece of type. Each letter was cast one at a time by hand by filling the mold with a molten alloy. Next the type was turned upside down and the bottoms were all planed smooth. The finished type could then be put away in specially arranged cases and set by hand into pages for printing. Traditionally the capital letters were kept in the uppercase or drawer of the printer’s type cabinet while the small letters were kept in the lower case, thereby coining the terms we still use today.
Unlike the German printers who based their type on Germanic gothic scripts, the Venetians started to create type based on ancient Roman inscriptions and the humanist formal handwriting popular in Italy. It was during this time period that one of the finest Roman typefaces of all time was designed and used by Nicolas Jenson. William Morris said in the 19th century that Jenson had “carried the development of Roman type as far as it can go.” Not only did Jenson design an impressive type, but he and others began to print non religious texts. They even began printing texts in their own vernacular languages rather than just in Latin as in earlier books. It was at this time that book design and typography began to take the first small steps away from purely imitating the work of scribes. All of this is all the more remarkable because of the speed at which it was occurring.
All the while, many of the wealthiest individuals continued to favor the hand written and illuminated book. Paper was considered inferior and untrustworthy. All important and legal work was done on animal skin made into vellum or parchment. Yet, the speed of production of printed books, especially on paper, meant that more books could be produced at lower prices. Having any books at all, let alone more than one, was still reserved for the very wealthy, but this was beginning to change.
Aldus Manutius is often considered to be the father of the modern paperback. Aldus wanted to produce affordable books of scholarly and classical works. In 1499 Aldus and his punch cutter, Francesco Griffo, designed and began to use the first italic type. Italic, unlike the formal humanist Roman writing style, was a more quickly written script being used in Italy, as the name implies. The first italic types were just lower case and used Roman capitals, but they had the advantage of allowing far more text to fit on a page. Italic typefaces are generally quite compressed, so Aldus was able to print smaller pocket sized books with fewer pages than would have been possible with other types.
Aldus is remembered today for both his contribution to the preservation and distribution of classical and Greek texts as well as his influence on the book. Only a few years before his changes, books had been so valuable that what few libraries existed, chained their books to the shelves, and prayer books were often tied to their owner’s girdles. Still, not every book Aldus produced was designed for the scholar’s pocket. Aldus’ monumental printing of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili used a Roman typeface cut by Francesco Griffo that if printed today on a more modern press and paper, would not look too unfamiliar to us. Indeed, the majority of what are known as old style Roman typefaces used today are directly inspired by either the Jenson or Aldine models. The very popular Bembo and Dante typefaces are good examples of type that uses Aldus as a model.
By the early fifteen hundreds printing had spread to France as well as much of Europe. The printed book had truly come into its own by now. Design was thought about in terms of typography, and the hand ornamentation of printed books was becoming an increasingly rare thing. Famous scribes such as Arrighi even began to dabble in type design. The how to book was invented and scribes such as Arrighi, and Giovanni Tagliente created their own writing manuals using printing to teach hand writing. It was during this time that famous printers and punch cutters such as Claude Garamond and Robert Granjon began to work. Many of you have probably seen Garamond listed as one of the possible typefaces available on your computer. Unfortunately, you may not realize that all but a few of the modern typefaces called Garamond are incorrectly based on a much later and inferior typefaces designed by Jean Jannon.
Although probably not the first to do so, Robert Granjon began to sell either type or matrixes or both that he made using the punches he had engraved. Previously it had been up to the printer to create their own type, now type could be purchased thus further expanding the growth of printing and the variety of typefaces available to any one printer. Granjon alone created nearly thirty different italic typefaces during his life besides Roman typefaces and ornaments.
Granjon seems to be the first to have perfected the use of Arabesque type ornaments. The first use of type ornaments, or cast pieces of type shaped as flowers or other purely decorative motifs, first appeared in Verona in 1478. One of the most common and simple typographic ornaments still in use today is the “vine leaf” of which clear examples can be found in ancient Roman stone inscriptions. Granjon created a number of different type ornaments that would fit together like a puzzle to create a more complex all over pattern.
Previously decorative printed arabesque patterns had to be painstakingly carved in wood. Because of their repeating nature, being able to cast the component parts on demand made a lot of sense. My favorite of Granjon’s designs is his 6 piece Antwerp arabesque pattern. These ornaments are made up of six different designs and first appeared while Granjon was working in Antwerp. Granjon designed the ornaments to be used in a single configuration for an all over pattern, however, almost immediately printers began to rearrange and combine Granjon’s ornaments to create borders, medallions, and head and tail decorations. These ornaments are so versatile that despite having been used on and off since they were designed, new arrangements and configurations are still possible.
By the mid 1500s printing was being done on a grand scale. Christopher Plantin established his press in 1555 in Antwerp where it would become the largest printing house in the world at the time. At its height, Plantin’s workshop consisted of around twenty presses and employed approximately one hundred and sixty men. Plantin is probably best remembered for his massive eight volume polyglot bible, but Plantin’s workshop would produce nearly two thousand books during its existence. This output is staggering considering that at this time the wooden printing presses had evolved little since the time of Guttenberg.
As time passed and printing technology, as well as casting and punch cutting, began to become more refined, there was a push to rationalize the design of type. The need to rationalize type design was especially strong in France. The Dutch and other northern European countries began to develop their own dark robust Roman typefaces, while the Germans stuck to their familiar black letter. The French, however, followed the lead of the Imprimerie Royale that was charged with designing a rationalized typeface for use by the King. Where letters up to this point had been based on the form created by a broad edge pen, now the Imprimerie Royale was drawing with rules and compasses on a contrived grid.
The serifs, which had once been the natural entry and exit points of the ancient Roman chisel and the brush or pen of the Renaissance scribe, were now drawn based on proportions and mathematics. The results were in many ways impractical, the printing and punch cutting technology struggled to keep up, but the new designs had a sensational effect. Despite the King’s attempt to keep the design for himself, punch cutters in France immediately began duplicating and imitating it.
By far the most successful imitator of this new style was Pierre Simon Fournier. Fournier was a skilled and prolific punch cutter and adapted the new style while adding just the right level of personality and life to what had been a very cold and static design. Besides being a skilled type designer, Fournier cut punches for hundreds of ornaments which he skillfully arranged in Baroque opulence. One of the more skilled imitators of Fournier, for there were many poor imitations, was the young Italian Badoni.
Badoni was a punch cutter and printer who today is best remembered for his clean unornamented books and modern Roman typefaces which bear his name. Badoni pushed the letter further than Fournier, creating hair thin serifs that heavily contrasted with the thick vertically stressed lines of the type. Not only was Badoni one of the pioneers of these new modern types, but he helped to develop a new modern style of design. Ornaments, with the exception of the occasional decorative line, were abandoned. The page was simplified, and crisp type was carefully arranged within generous margins; thereby creating a brilliant effect. Sadly, today Badoni’s types are among the most poorly used. They lack the robust readability of older types, and when not handled skillfully, immediately degrade away from any pleasant effect.
Although Badoni’s types were made possible by the refinements in type and printing, the effect would have been lost without changes in papermaking. During the mid 1700s John Baskervill was one of the first to have his paper calendered. Calendered paper is similar to what we might refer to today as hot-press, though modern machine-made papers are universally smoother and more uniform than paper in Baskervill’s time. The rough paper was fed between heated cylinders, plates or some combination that burnishes and smoothes the surface. The rough handmade papers of the day never would have been sufficient for the modern type of Badoni, or even the transitional type designed by Baskervill.
With the start of the 19th century, the technology of printing began to evolve at an increasing rate. Although the design of the press had not changed much since the time of Gutenberg, simple improvements continued to result in greater efficiency. It was at about this time that Lord Stanhope was the first to have an all iron press made which dramatically improved the durability of the press and allowed larger pages to be printed. Before, the amount of pressure needed to print a large page was beyond the limits of even the best wooden presses. This would necessitate that some pages be printed in sections or with multiple pulls of the press, slowing production.
Even with this advance to iron, printing on a hand press was a relatively slow process. The type was placed on the bed of the press and inked by hand. A single sheet of paper was attached to a frisket which was then folded down onto the type. Next the bed and frisket were pushed or cranked under the platen. The platen is a flat plate that is forced down by a screw or similar device into the paper and type by use of a hand lever. The printer would give the lever a hard backbreaking pull, and then the bed could be rolled out and the entire process repeated. Most presses were run by a team of strong men where each man completed one of the steps being careful to make sure that the man who handled the ink did not also handle the clean paper. By 1802 an even better technology for printing large forms was in the early stages of development.
Although probably not the first to come up with the idea, Friedrich Koenig, a German printer, was the first to successfully work to develop a steam powered cylinder press. In a cylinder press, rather than the entire page of type being printed at once, a cylinder carrying a sheet of paper rolls over the type. As the cylinder rolls, only a small section is in contact with the type at any one time. This allows the press to apply greater and more even pressure across the page. Cylinder presses are also much faster as one sheet after another can be run through with less fuss.
Previously, the technology simply did not exist to manufacture a perfect enough cylinder for printing. Variations of just a few hundredths of an inch are the difference between some letters printing, and some not. Koenig sold his first working presses to the London Times in 1814. Certainly much of the success of the newspaper is probably linked to its ability to print quickly and cheaply. The cylinder press, as well as the beginning use of paper making machines, is what really began to make mass-distribution as we know it possible.
You might think that everyone would have been pleased by the improvements in technology, but it was not so. In 1896 William Morris, proprietor of the Kelmscott Press and influential member of the Arts and Crafts Movement, printed The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. This volume would prove to be one of the most influential books ever printed, and was a direct reaction to changes of the time. The Arts and Crafts Movement was basically an aesthetic movement that looked back to historic designs, but it also emphasized the importance of the craftsperson over what had become the somewhat dull monotony of machine made goods. Morris printed his books on an old fashioned hand press and designed his own type based on the type of Jenson. Morris would become the inspiration for the small press movement, and indirectly, the contemporary field of book arts.
Throughout the 19th century, one of the main problems still troubling the field of printing was the time involved in setting type by hand. While press and paper making machines had become automated, type still needed to be set by hand and then put away by hand after printing. Mark Twain invested most of his fortune in the Paige Compositor, an automatic-typesetting machine invented by James Paige in 1872. Unfortunately, the cumbersome machine never worked satisfactorily, and Page died penniless. The true breakthrough would come once a machine that could both set and cast type was invented.
First though, a way was needed to mass-produce the mats, or molds for the letter part of a piece of type. In 1885 the American Linn Boyd Benton, invented the pantographic punch cutting machine. This invention revolutionized both type design and casting. Punches and mats could now be mass produced. Skilled punch cutters were no longer needed, and type design moved from the art of engraving steal punches to drawing letters on paper. With the ability to make an almost unlimited number of mats, the scene was ripe for an entire system that could not only set freshly cast type, but be mass-produced.
The answer came in 1886 when Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of the Linotype machine, produced his first commercial model. In 1890 the Mergenthaler Linotype Company was founded in Brooklyn, NY. Unlike the Paige Compositor, the Linotype was incredibly successful. By 1892 over 1000 Linotype machines had been produced, and are still considered to be among the most complex machines ever mass-produced. Entire lines of type were cast on a single body, hence the name (Line-O’-Type). By eliminating both the needs for hand setting and distribution, the type dilemma seemed solved. Rather than putting away cast type, the Linotype was able to efficiently set mats from an operator’s keyboard, cast a line of type, and then put away the mats. Once the type had been printed, it was simply melted back down and recycled.
At roughly the same time in 1887 Tolbert Lanston patented another mechanical typesetting system, Monotype. Unlike Linotype, the Monotype system was separated into two separate machines, a keyboard and a caster arrangement inspired by the player piano. The operator keyed text into the keyboard that would perforate a paper tape. The paper tape could then be run into a caster that read the holes and cast the desired type.
Unlike the Linotype where mats are dropped down into a line and were then put away, the Monotype arranges the mats in a set grid pattern. Each letter is assigned a set of coordinates and the caster moves the mats above a stationary mold. Additionally, the Monotype system cast and set individual pieces of type, rather than lines, making corrections easier. The Monotype system, though slower than Linotype, overcame many of the technical limitations of Linotype, and was easily adapted to foreign alphabets, accented characters, and setting mathematics. Having the keyboard separate from the caster also allowed keyboarding to be done off site, even in an office setting, and then the paper tape could be sent out for casting.
The invention of the Linotype and Monotype machines were the crowning achievements in letterpress technology. Now type, paper, and print could be mass produced and distributed. Surprisingly, the new technology would also result in a revival and interest in older printing.
The English Monotype Corporation, under the skilled direction of Stanley Morison, began a program of reviving historic typefaces for use on the Monotype. Morison was directly responsible for the Monotype revivals of such typefaces as Garamond, Poliphilus, Blado, Bell, Baskerville, Fournier and many others. He also directed and encouraged the development of new designs based on historic models such as Bembo, Dante and Van Dijck. Morison even commissioned famous designs for new typefaces such as Perpetua designed by Eric Gill and based on his stone carving. Morison himself wrote and designed many books about typography including A Tally of Types, though, today he is best known for designing Times New Roman.
Times New Roman was the first typeface to be commissioned by a newspaper for its private use. The Times of London wanted a new and tasteful typeface that would be condensed enough to allow for large amounts of text to fit on a page. The results were very successful, and Times New Roman is now one of the most popular typefaces in the world. Although it’s condensed nature makes it less suitable for high end book work where no expense is spared, Times New Roman is highly legible, readable, and seems perfectly at home with almost any text making it a popular choice.
Today we have so many typefaces available to us that we don’t give it much thought, but we can thank Stanley Morison and his peers for that. Many of the famous historic typefaces had been lost and others had been totally forgotten. Morison’s revivals coincided with a Renaissance of typography in the early twentieth century. Suddenly printers who had previously only owned a few typefaces in only a few sizes had access to vast quantities of freshly cast type in an array of styles and sizes. This explosion of easily available type would lead to the development of the modern book designer. I don’t want to suggest that books were not designed before, but they generally looked more or less the same and followed design rules specific to each printer or press. Indeed, the way we can tell who printed many early books is by the way they look and the type that was used. The idea that a book should be designed to complement the content was a new idea, one that was fully embraced by Bruce Rogers.
Today Rogers is known as being the foremost book designer in American history, and the reason is partly due to his embrace of the new technology of his day. Rogers designed every book differently to suit the text, something we take for granted today. His books were widely collected, no doubt in part due to the excitement of each having its own typographic treatment and matching bindings. Rogers believed that the typeface and design treatment was most successful when it was in harmony with the text. For example, it might seem novel to perform a play of Shakespeare in modern dress, but once the novelty has worn off, you may be left with just a poor gimmick. So Rogers believed that books too should be in period dress. The typographic treatment was not intended to distract, but to complement the text at hand. Rogers passed away in 1957 with not too much notice, but his Paragraphs on Printing remains a great book for the aspiring topographer as he explains in some depth his approach to design, as well as some basic typographic rules.
The twentieth century had also brought forth the Modernists. The Bauhaus and the emerging Swiss style of type design attempted to strip away all but the bare essentials favoring typefaces such as Helvetica. The serifs of the Roman letter that had lost their reason for existence in the 1700s were now simply cut off and the san-serif became increasingly popular. Unfortunately, in their pursuit of purity, many Modernists disregarded the very functional aspects of classic design and inherent readability of traditional typography. Technology was also changing; letterpress was being threatened by offset lithography. Unlike letterpress, offset is able to print variations in tone and detailed photographs at high speed. Physical type is not used at all, and the printing plates are made photographically. The absolutely smooth glossy surface of the offset printed page was a thing of perfection to the early Modernist.
By the 1970s letterpress was considered commercially obsolete. The efficiency and slick perfection of the offset printed page was unachievable by letterpress. As a result, press and type casting equipment that only a few decades before had been some of the most valuable and expensive machinery produced, were being scrapped or given away. Intrigued with the idea of being able to self-publish, some individuals started collecting letterpress equipment. This is really the beginning of what is today called the book arts.
Most of these early self-publishers were not skilled printers by profession, but poets and artists. They favored the small and easy to operate proof press to the complex and large production presses. Proof presses, especially Vandercook presses made in the US, were designed for precisely printing small numbers of sheets used to proofread and correct type. Sometimes they were used to make prints that would then be photographed and printed by offset because metal type still looked superior. A few people saved type casters, but not as many. The type casters necessitated a highly skilled, or at least a very mechanically savvy operator, along with a great deal of space and related tools. Some of the large production presses found new jobs die cutting or foil stamping, but the vast majority of equipment of all types was lost. Some of these early book artists became involved with universities and began to start teaching, as well as legitimizing, the field and its claim as an art.
Today letterpress and the book arts are enjoying a tremendous explosion of interest. The recent invention of photopolymer printing plates allows letterpress artists to design their work on the computer and have plates made. With type casting equipment, and the people who know how to run it becoming more and more rare, polymer plates seem to insure a bright future for letterpress. There is a tremendous and growing interest in letterpress.
It seems that the further technology gets away from letterpress, the more people feel drawn to it. It is ironic to think that now offset is in the position letterpress was once in as digital printing, and increasingly digital distribution, send offset presses out of business. Still, there is nothing like the quality of real metal type. Digital typefaces lack the crispness and impact of their metal counterparts, and even today, the best printing is done on letterpress from metal type. Despite the scarcity of, and the aging condition of the equipment, the incredible interest people now have is fueling a great modern day renaissance of printing that seems determined to continue and expand.
Most of us have heard the story about Gutenberg finishing his bible sometime around the year 1455 and the profound effect it would have on the spread and advancement of learning and culture, but there is a great deal more to the story of letterpress.
Not all that much is known about Gutenberg, however he is credited with having printed the first western book using movable type. One of the few things we know about him is that his business partner and financial backer Johann Fust successfully sued him. Fust had apparently become impatient with Gutenberg’s slow progress and lack of return on his investment.The elementary school textbooks generally say Gutenberg built a wooden press based on the wine press being used at the time, and then proceeded to print his famous bible. The complexity in designing, engraving, and finally casting the first movable type is perhaps where the greater genius lies.
Metal type is cast from a very special alloy of lead, tin, and antimony. The tin gives the type strength while at the same time allowing the lead to flow more evenly. The antimony is probably the most important part of the alloy, although very little is used. Antimony forms a crystalline structure and expands as it cools, just as water does when it freezes. Without the antimony, the type would shrink slightly and be uneven and poorly cast. We can’t be absolutely sure of exactly what went into Gutenberg’s type metal, but we can see from his printing that he must have gotten the alloy, among many other things, remarkably right.
The bible was actually not even the first thing Gutenberg printed. He is believed to have begun printing indulgences sometime around 1452. Indulgences were sold by the Catholic Church for the forgiveness of sins. The abuse of indulgences by a few greedy clergymen would become one of the main complaints leading to the Protestant reformation.
Gutenberg’s bible was meant to imitate the hand written manuscripts being produced by the scribes of the day, and great lengths were taken to make a type that looked as though it had been written. Gutenberg used a copious number a ligatures and alternate type characters which allowed him to achieve tightly justified lines, and also added a level of variation to the appearance of the type. The reason for copying the hand writing of the day is fairly strait forward, that’s what people would have expected and been comfortable reading.
However, it is also possible that Gutenberg had no desire for people to know that his bibles were printed. Despite the hand painted decorations and variations in the type, people were initially somewhat suspicions of Gutenberg’s handy work. Some believed that only the devil could have produced two identical bibles. It seems likely that Gutenberg’s partner Johann Fust was used as the inspiration for the fictional story of Faust, a man who sells his sole to the devil.
Despite Gutenberg passing away a poor and unsuccessful man, his invention began to spread and change the world at an unbelievable rate. By the 1470s, a mere decade later, printing had spread to Venice and books were being printed in growing numbers. Most printers, like Gutenberg, had to make their own type. The process was quite elaborate. Steel punches were painstakingly engraved by hand for every letter and then hardened and hammered into a soft piece of copper or brass. The copper was then carefully shaped into a matrix or mold for casting the letter portion of a piece of type. Each letter was cast one at a time by hand by filling the mold with a molten alloy. Next the type was turned upside down and the bottoms were all planed smooth. The finished type could then be put away in specially arranged cases and set by hand into pages for printing. Traditionally the capital letters were kept in the uppercase or drawer of the printer’s type cabinet while the small letters were kept in the lower case, thereby coining the terms we still use today.
Unlike the German printers who based their type on Germanic gothic scripts, the Venetians started to create type based on ancient Roman inscriptions and the humanist formal handwriting popular in Italy. It was during this time period that one of the finest Roman typefaces of all time was designed and used by Nicolas Jenson. William Morris said in the 19th century that Jenson had “carried the development of Roman type as far as it can go.” Not only did Jenson design an impressive type, but he and others began to print non religious texts. They even began printing texts in their own vernacular languages rather than just in Latin as in earlier books. It was at this time that book design and typography began to take the first small steps away from purely imitating the work of scribes. All of this is all the more remarkable because of the speed at which it was occurring.
All the while, many of the wealthiest individuals continued to favor the hand written and illuminated book. Paper was considered inferior and untrustworthy. All important and legal work was done on animal skin made into vellum or parchment. Yet, the speed of production of printed books, especially on paper, meant that more books could be produced at lower prices. Having any books at all, let alone more than one, was still reserved for the very wealthy, but this was beginning to change.
Aldus Manutius is often considered to be the father of the modern paperback. Aldus wanted to produce affordable books of scholarly and classical works. In 1499 Aldus and his punch cutter, Francesco Griffo, designed and began to use the first italic type. Italic, unlike the formal humanist Roman writing style, was a more quickly written script being used in Italy, as the name implies. The first italic types were just lower case and used Roman capitals, but they had the advantage of allowing far more text to fit on a page. Italic typefaces are generally quite compressed, so Aldus was able to print smaller pocket sized books with fewer pages than would have been possible with other types.
Aldus is remembered today for both his contribution to the preservation and distribution of classical and Greek texts as well as his influence on the book. Only a few years before his changes, books had been so valuable that what few libraries existed, chained their books to the shelves, and prayer books were often tied to their owner’s girdles. Still, not every book Aldus produced was designed for the scholar’s pocket. Aldus’ monumental printing of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili used a Roman typeface cut by Francesco Griffo that if printed today on a more modern press and paper, would not look too unfamiliar to us. Indeed, the majority of what are known as old style Roman typefaces used today are directly inspired by either the Jenson or Aldine models. The very popular Bembo and Dante typefaces are good examples of type that uses Aldus as a model.
By the early fifteen hundreds printing had spread to France as well as much of Europe. The printed book had truly come into its own by now. Design was thought about in terms of typography, and the hand ornamentation of printed books was becoming an increasingly rare thing. Famous scribes such as Arrighi even began to dabble in type design. The how to book was invented and scribes such as Arrighi, and Giovanni Tagliente created their own writing manuals using printing to teach hand writing. It was during this time that famous printers and punch cutters such as Claude Garamond and Robert Granjon began to work. Many of you have probably seen Garamond listed as one of the possible typefaces available on your computer. Unfortunately, you may not realize that all but a few of the modern typefaces called Garamond are incorrectly based on a much later and inferior typefaces designed by Jean Jannon.
Although probably not the first to do so, Robert Granjon began to sell either type or matrixes or both that he made using the punches he had engraved. Previously it had been up to the printer to create their own type, now type could be purchased thus further expanding the growth of printing and the variety of typefaces available to any one printer. Granjon alone created nearly thirty different italic typefaces during his life besides Roman typefaces and ornaments.
Granjon seems to be the first to have perfected the use of Arabesque type ornaments. The first use of type ornaments, or cast pieces of type shaped as flowers or other purely decorative motifs, first appeared in Verona in 1478. One of the most common and simple typographic ornaments still in use today is the “vine leaf” of which clear examples can be found in ancient Roman stone inscriptions. Granjon created a number of different type ornaments that would fit together like a puzzle to create a more complex all over pattern.
Previously decorative printed arabesque patterns had to be painstakingly carved in wood. Because of their repeating nature, being able to cast the component parts on demand made a lot of sense. My favorite of Granjon’s designs is his 6 piece Antwerp arabesque pattern. These ornaments are made up of six different designs and first appeared while Granjon was working in Antwerp. Granjon designed the ornaments to be used in a single configuration for an all over pattern, however, almost immediately printers began to rearrange and combine Granjon’s ornaments to create borders, medallions, and head and tail decorations. These ornaments are so versatile that despite having been used on and off since they were designed, new arrangements and configurations are still possible.
By the mid 1500s printing was being done on a grand scale. Christopher Plantin established his press in 1555 in Antwerp where it would become the largest printing house in the world at the time. At its height, Plantin’s workshop consisted of around twenty presses and employed approximately one hundred and sixty men. Plantin is probably best remembered for his massive eight volume polyglot bible, but Plantin’s workshop would produce nearly two thousand books during its existence. This output is staggering considering that at this time the wooden printing presses had evolved little since the time of Guttenberg.
As time passed and printing technology, as well as casting and punch cutting, began to become more refined, there was a push to rationalize the design of type. The need to rationalize type design was especially strong in France. The Dutch and other northern European countries began to develop their own dark robust Roman typefaces, while the Germans stuck to their familiar black letter. The French, however, followed the lead of the Imprimerie Royale that was charged with designing a rationalized typeface for use by the King. Where letters up to this point had been based on the form created by a broad edge pen, now the Imprimerie Royale was drawing with rules and compasses on a contrived grid.
The serifs, which had once been the natural entry and exit points of the ancient Roman chisel and the brush or pen of the Renaissance scribe, were now drawn based on proportions and mathematics. The results were in many ways impractical, the printing and punch cutting technology struggled to keep up, but the new designs had a sensational effect. Despite the King’s attempt to keep the design for himself, punch cutters in France immediately began duplicating and imitating it.
By far the most successful imitator of this new style was Pierre Simon Fournier. Fournier was a skilled and prolific punch cutter and adapted the new style while adding just the right level of personality and life to what had been a very cold and static design. Besides being a skilled type designer, Fournier cut punches for hundreds of ornaments which he skillfully arranged in Baroque opulence. One of the more skilled imitators of Fournier, for there were many poor imitations, was the young Italian Badoni.
Badoni was a punch cutter and printer who today is best remembered for his clean unornamented books and modern Roman typefaces which bear his name. Badoni pushed the letter further than Fournier, creating hair thin serifs that heavily contrasted with the thick vertically stressed lines of the type. Not only was Badoni one of the pioneers of these new modern types, but he helped to develop a new modern style of design. Ornaments, with the exception of the occasional decorative line, were abandoned. The page was simplified, and crisp type was carefully arranged within generous margins; thereby creating a brilliant effect. Sadly, today Badoni’s types are among the most poorly used. They lack the robust readability of older types, and when not handled skillfully, immediately degrade away from any pleasant effect.
Although Badoni’s types were made possible by the refinements in type and printing, the effect would have been lost without changes in papermaking. During the mid 1700s John Baskervill was one of the first to have his paper calendered. Calendered paper is similar to what we might refer to today as hot-press, though modern machine-made papers are universally smoother and more uniform than paper in Baskervill’s time. The rough paper was fed between heated cylinders, plates or some combination that burnishes and smoothes the surface. The rough handmade papers of the day never would have been sufficient for the modern type of Badoni, or even the transitional type designed by Baskervill.
With the start of the 19th century, the technology of printing began to evolve at an increasing rate. Although the design of the press had not changed much since the time of Gutenberg, simple improvements continued to result in greater efficiency. It was at about this time that Lord Stanhope was the first to have an all iron press made which dramatically improved the durability of the press and allowed larger pages to be printed. Before, the amount of pressure needed to print a large page was beyond the limits of even the best wooden presses. This would necessitate that some pages be printed in sections or with multiple pulls of the press, slowing production.
Even with this advance to iron, printing on a hand press was a relatively slow process. The type was placed on the bed of the press and inked by hand. A single sheet of paper was attached to a frisket which was then folded down onto the type. Next the bed and frisket were pushed or cranked under the platen. The platen is a flat plate that is forced down by a screw or similar device into the paper and type by use of a hand lever. The printer would give the lever a hard backbreaking pull, and then the bed could be rolled out and the entire process repeated. Most presses were run by a team of strong men where each man completed one of the steps being careful to make sure that the man who handled the ink did not also handle the clean paper. By 1802 an even better technology for printing large forms was in the early stages of development.
Although probably not the first to come up with the idea, Friedrich Koenig, a German printer, was the first to successfully work to develop a steam powered cylinder press. In a cylinder press, rather than the entire page of type being printed at once, a cylinder carrying a sheet of paper rolls over the type. As the cylinder rolls, only a small section is in contact with the type at any one time. This allows the press to apply greater and more even pressure across the page. Cylinder presses are also much faster as one sheet after another can be run through with less fuss.
Previously, the technology simply did not exist to manufacture a perfect enough cylinder for printing. Variations of just a few hundredths of an inch are the difference between some letters printing, and some not. Koenig sold his first working presses to the London Times in 1814. Certainly much of the success of the newspaper is probably linked to its ability to print quickly and cheaply. The cylinder press, as well as the beginning use of paper making machines, is what really began to make mass-distribution as we know it possible.
You might think that everyone would have been pleased by the improvements in technology, but it was not so. In 1896 William Morris, proprietor of the Kelmscott Press and influential member of the Arts and Crafts Movement, printed The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. This volume would prove to be one of the most influential books ever printed, and was a direct reaction to changes of the time. The Arts and Crafts Movement was basically an aesthetic movement that looked back to historic designs, but it also emphasized the importance of the craftsperson over what had become the somewhat dull monotony of machine made goods. Morris printed his books on an old fashioned hand press and designed his own type based on the type of Jenson. Morris would become the inspiration for the small press movement, and indirectly, the contemporary field of book arts.
Throughout the 19th century, one of the main problems still troubling the field of printing was the time involved in setting type by hand. While press and paper making machines had become automated, type still needed to be set by hand and then put away by hand after printing. Mark Twain invested most of his fortune in the Paige Compositor, an automatic-typesetting machine invented by James Paige in 1872. Unfortunately, the cumbersome machine never worked satisfactorily, and Page died penniless. The true breakthrough would come once a machine that could both set and cast type was invented.
First though, a way was needed to mass-produce the mats, or molds for the letter part of a piece of type. In 1885 the American Linn Boyd Benton, invented the pantographic punch cutting machine. This invention revolutionized both type design and casting. Punches and mats could now be mass produced. Skilled punch cutters were no longer needed, and type design moved from the art of engraving steal punches to drawing letters on paper. With the ability to make an almost unlimited number of mats, the scene was ripe for an entire system that could not only set freshly cast type, but be mass-produced.
The answer came in 1886 when Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of the Linotype machine, produced his first commercial model. In 1890 the Mergenthaler Linotype Company was founded in Brooklyn, NY. Unlike the Paige Compositor, the Linotype was incredibly successful. By 1892 over 1000 Linotype machines had been produced, and are still considered to be among the most complex machines ever mass-produced. Entire lines of type were cast on a single body, hence the name (Line-O’-Type). By eliminating both the needs for hand setting and distribution, the type dilemma seemed solved. Rather than putting away cast type, the Linotype was able to efficiently set mats from an operator’s keyboard, cast a line of type, and then put away the mats. Once the type had been printed, it was simply melted back down and recycled.
At roughly the same time in 1887 Tolbert Lanston patented another mechanical typesetting system, Monotype. Unlike Linotype, the Monotype system was separated into two separate machines, a keyboard and a caster arrangement inspired by the player piano. The operator keyed text into the keyboard that would perforate a paper tape. The paper tape could then be run into a caster that read the holes and cast the desired type.
Unlike the Linotype where mats are dropped down into a line and were then put away, the Monotype arranges the mats in a set grid pattern. Each letter is assigned a set of coordinates and the caster moves the mats above a stationary mold. Additionally, the Monotype system cast and set individual pieces of type, rather than lines, making corrections easier. The Monotype system, though slower than Linotype, overcame many of the technical limitations of Linotype, and was easily adapted to foreign alphabets, accented characters, and setting mathematics. Having the keyboard separate from the caster also allowed keyboarding to be done off site, even in an office setting, and then the paper tape could be sent out for casting.
The invention of the Linotype and Monotype machines were the crowning achievements in letterpress technology. Now type, paper, and print could be mass produced and distributed. Surprisingly, the new technology would also result in a revival and interest in older printing.
The English Monotype Corporation, under the skilled direction of Stanley Morison, began a program of reviving historic typefaces for use on the Monotype. Morison was directly responsible for the Monotype revivals of such typefaces as Garamond, Poliphilus, Blado, Bell, Baskerville, Fournier and many others. He also directed and encouraged the development of new designs based on historic models such as Bembo, Dante and Van Dijck. Morison even commissioned famous designs for new typefaces such as Perpetua designed by Eric Gill and based on his stone carving. Morison himself wrote and designed many books about typography including A Tally of Types, though, today he is best known for designing Times New Roman.
Times New Roman was the first typeface to be commissioned by a newspaper for its private use. The Times of London wanted a new and tasteful typeface that would be condensed enough to allow for large amounts of text to fit on a page. The results were very successful, and Times New Roman is now one of the most popular typefaces in the world. Although it’s condensed nature makes it less suitable for high end book work where no expense is spared, Times New Roman is highly legible, readable, and seems perfectly at home with almost any text making it a popular choice.
Today we have so many typefaces available to us that we don’t give it much thought, but we can thank Stanley Morison and his peers for that. Many of the famous historic typefaces had been lost and others had been totally forgotten. Morison’s revivals coincided with a Renaissance of typography in the early twentieth century. Suddenly printers who had previously only owned a few typefaces in only a few sizes had access to vast quantities of freshly cast type in an array of styles and sizes. This explosion of easily available type would lead to the development of the modern book designer. I don’t want to suggest that books were not designed before, but they generally looked more or less the same and followed design rules specific to each printer or press. Indeed, the way we can tell who printed many early books is by the way they look and the type that was used. The idea that a book should be designed to complement the content was a new idea, one that was fully embraced by Bruce Rogers.
Today Rogers is known as being the foremost book designer in American history, and the reason is partly due to his embrace of the new technology of his day. Rogers designed every book differently to suit the text, something we take for granted today. His books were widely collected, no doubt in part due to the excitement of each having its own typographic treatment and matching bindings. Rogers believed that the typeface and design treatment was most successful when it was in harmony with the text. For example, it might seem novel to perform a play of Shakespeare in modern dress, but once the novelty has worn off, you may be left with just a poor gimmick. So Rogers believed that books too should be in period dress. The typographic treatment was not intended to distract, but to complement the text at hand. Rogers passed away in 1957 with not too much notice, but his Paragraphs on Printing remains a great book for the aspiring topographer as he explains in some depth his approach to design, as well as some basic typographic rules.
The twentieth century had also brought forth the Modernists. The Bauhaus and the emerging Swiss style of type design attempted to strip away all but the bare essentials favoring typefaces such as Helvetica. The serifs of the Roman letter that had lost their reason for existence in the 1700s were now simply cut off and the san-serif became increasingly popular. Unfortunately, in their pursuit of purity, many Modernists disregarded the very functional aspects of classic design and inherent readability of traditional typography. Technology was also changing; letterpress was being threatened by offset lithography. Unlike letterpress, offset is able to print variations in tone and detailed photographs at high speed. Physical type is not used at all, and the printing plates are made photographically. The absolutely smooth glossy surface of the offset printed page was a thing of perfection to the early Modernist.
By the 1970s letterpress was considered commercially obsolete. The efficiency and slick perfection of the offset printed page was unachievable by letterpress. As a result, press and type casting equipment that only a few decades before had been some of the most valuable and expensive machinery produced, were being scrapped or given away. Intrigued with the idea of being able to self-publish, some individuals started collecting letterpress equipment. This is really the beginning of what is today called the book arts.
Most of these early self-publishers were not skilled printers by profession, but poets and artists. They favored the small and easy to operate proof press to the complex and large production presses. Proof presses, especially Vandercook presses made in the US, were designed for precisely printing small numbers of sheets used to proofread and correct type. Sometimes they were used to make prints that would then be photographed and printed by offset because metal type still looked superior. A few people saved type casters, but not as many. The type casters necessitated a highly skilled, or at least a very mechanically savvy operator, along with a great deal of space and related tools. Some of the large production presses found new jobs die cutting or foil stamping, but the vast majority of equipment of all types was lost. Some of these early book artists became involved with universities and began to start teaching, as well as legitimizing, the field and its claim as an art.
Today letterpress and the book arts are enjoying a tremendous explosion of interest. The recent invention of photopolymer printing plates allows letterpress artists to design their work on the computer and have plates made. With type casting equipment, and the people who know how to run it becoming more and more rare, polymer plates seem to insure a bright future for letterpress. There is a tremendous and growing interest in letterpress.
It seems that the further technology gets away from letterpress, the more people feel drawn to it. It is ironic to think that now offset is in the position letterpress was once in as digital printing, and increasingly digital distribution, send offset presses out of business. Still, there is nothing like the quality of real metal type. Digital typefaces lack the crispness and impact of their metal counterparts, and even today, the best printing is done on letterpress from metal type. Despite the scarcity of, and the aging condition of the equipment, the incredible interest people now have is fueling a great modern day renaissance of printing that seems determined to continue and expand.
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Rob LoMascolo began studying letterpress and book arts at Wells College, in Aurora, NY. There he studied with Terry Chouinard, Herbert Johnson, Mark Argetsinger, and Michael Bixler. He received his MFA from the University of Alabama. He is currently a freelance letterpress and book arts artist in Union Springs, NY. Some of his clients included The Frick Collection, members of the Grolier Club, Wells College, private book collector, and conservators.
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Dates and particulars taken from:
Argetsinger, Mark, The Digital Book, publication pending, 2011.
Blumenthal, Joseph, Art of The Printed Book 1455-1955, The Pierpont Morgan Library & David R. Godine, New York & Boston, 1984.