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/66

 62 HISTOEIC FEINTING TYPES. The Caslon face is cleaner and clearer than that of any French or Dutch founder ; it is nearly as light, and is much The marked more inviting than the best letter of Jenson. The body- features of caeion's types, mark is protracted after the old fashion, as may be seen in the m, t, O; hair lines are frequent in the capital letters, but they are not too thin ; angled serifs are used on the top line of the lower case; the short, flat serif appears more freely on foot lines. The triangular stub of Van Dijck appears in the serifs of the capitals, but it is somewhat rounded in a bracket-like curve. The hard angles and stiff curves in letters like a and g are not the fault of bad taste or of carelessness in drawing. Caslon was more intent on making letters readable than on making them pretty; he had the wit to see that some angularity was really needed to give relief to too much roundness. It must also be remembered that the English reader of 1750 was familiar with Black Letter, and had not entirely outgrown a liking for angles. Caslon's style retained its supremacy in Eng- land for more than fifty years. 1 It compelled the respectful notice of French and Dutch critics, who had heretofore small respect for English types. 1 "Beginning early in life, attaining . . . From 1720 to 1780 few works advanced age, and engraving for him- were printed with the types of any self, he had the advantage of complet- other foundry. Caslon has since been ing his specimen on his own plan, excelled in individual fonts, but . . . For clearness and uniformity, for the no foundry has shown a collection of use of the reader and the student, sizes and styles which equals his in it is doubtful whether it has been ex- congruity, or appears so strongly the ceeded by any subsequent production, result of one mind." Hansard, p. 350.