Page:Cyclopedia of Painting-Armstrong, George D (1908).djvu/346



Before giving some specimens of letters especially adapted for sign writing, it should be impressed on the sign-painter that all eccentricity in the forms of the letters is for the purpose quite out of place on inscriptions over a store or on a wall, and in the situations where his work is called into requisition, however much the purposes of posters and placards are supposed to be assisted there; in the latter case the object is to catch the eye of the passer-by, in spite of the numerous other announcements by which each may be surrounded. The question in that ease, becomes how to make one more striking than the other, and in this some of the placards succeed admirably. It is in fact impossible to speak too highly of the progress made in this respect by wood-letter cutters, some of whose works may truly be taken as models by the sign-painter. The test of beauty is fitness, and as the inscription of the name and trade of a storekeeper is not likely to be eclipsed by another inscription close to it, that the very architectural members serve as a separation, or, as it were, a framing, and that therefore no expedient is necessary to protect the words from being confused by the proximity or brilliancy of another inscription, but that simplicity, boldness and clearness are the great conditions to be fulfilled by the sign-painter.

The characters shown in Fig. 65 have been called Sans-serif, Celtic and Grotesque, and are well adapted for situations when, owing to distance or other circumstances, fine lines and minute details would be out of place, or would diminish the boldness of the inscription. In Fig. 65 the character is given in its heaviest form, such as would be