It seems likely, as Theodore de Vinne speculates in The Practise of Typography (footnote, page 141), that in the intervening years Fournier had adjusted his point so that it would fit existing sizes of type as well as possible. By 1764, however, Fournier had dropped the pouce and instead defined his point by a (badly) printed scale. In, 72 points to the pouce (1 pouce was then about 2.707 centimeters or 1.066 inches). first in 1737, and final version in 1764. The French addressed the problem in 1723 with a royal order that the sizes of type be fixed. “English,” for example, meant a typeface in the style called blackface as well as approximately 14 point type. In the nature of printing by letterpress, to get the type on the chase to lock up properly it all has to fit together.Īnother disadvantage was that sometimes a name used to describe a body size was also used as the name of a typeface. The problem with using names was that there was no clear relationship between the names, and they were not related to well-defined linear “Cicero” was a size used to print editions of classical authors “Primer” was used to print religious books ordered by Henry VIII.Īnother class of names were boasts of the type's beauty, such as “Paragon” and “Nonpareil.” Some of the names came from the type of book typically produced in that size. Type sizes were originally named catalogs with such names appeared as early as 1592. In the United States it was formerly 0.013837 inch (72 points = 0.996″), but with the rise of digital typesetting the value 0.013888…, that is 72 points = 1 inch, has become more usual. The size of type is usually measured in points, a unit of length in use sinceġ735, with various values. The length of the type determines how high the printed character can be, and this is the body size. The exact dimensions of an em or en depend, of course, on the length of the type. In England it was billed in ens, an en being half the width of an em. The name comes from its typically being the body of the capital letter “M.” When type was set by hand, in America the quantity set was measured in ems. The width of a square piece of type, one whose face is as wide as it is long. The width depends on which character the piece of type will print. It is important only to the letterpress printer, to whom it is all-important, and is dealt with at the end of this article. The height, called type height, is the distance from the face that touches the paper to the feet. One pound of type, in any point size, covered about 3 square inches. All measurements of type originally referred to the dimensions of a cast piece of metal bearing a single character.
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