Page:Historic printing types, a lecture read before the Grolier club of New York, January 25, 1885, with additions and new illustrations; by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914; Grolier Club.djvu/104

 100 HISTORIC FEINTING TYPES. Condensed forms out of fashion. A standard form for type Impracticable. Round and broad faces preferred. as the rough usage they have to receive on rapid printing- machines. The style of type that promised to give the greatest compactness with the greatest apparent clearness was the style most approved by newspaper publishers of forty years ago. These virtues were supposed to be found in the highest degree in types that were tall and condensed. They enabled a publisher to get more letters in a fixed space than could be done with types of the ordinary face; but they did not keep the promise of greater readableness. They wore out sooner, were more slowly composed, and justified compositors in asking a higher price for their work. This form of type is now almost entirely neglected. The varieties of form that have already been shown, the temporary popularity of a novel face and the revival of a disused face, are evidences that it is more impracticable now than ever to fix by general agreement a standard of form. Admirable as any new face may now appear, it will not always be popular. Minor changes may be looked for. The style of types must be adapted to suit new methods of printing and stereotyping as well as to meet the un- ceasing craving for novelty. Hound and open faces are now in favor, of which style the types of this text will serve as an illustration. The bold face of the next page is another favorite for quartos and folios. Faces even broader than this are sometimes used in books, but more commonly in pamphlet work.