The Corinthian style (Example 93) expresses the preference of many who delight in ostentation and elaboration in ornament. The elaborate, showy acanthus leaf usually forms the chief decoration for the capital surmounting the column, and the entablature (Example 94) is particularly rich in ornamentation.

The Doric pillar has been called masculine and the Ionic feminine, the sturdiness of the one and the grace of the other also being likened to the warlike Spartans who emphasized the development of the body and the artistic Athenians who especially developed the intellect.

This difference in ideals and preferences has come down the centuries to our time. A few years after Cromwell, plain, blunt, and even disapproving of sculpture and painting, was ruling England, across the channel Louis XIV. strutted in corsets and on high red heels amid gilt and glamour in the courts of France.

Monks and nuns lived plainly in the company of bare walls and squarely cut chairs, and dressed in subdued browns and blacks, while at Rome surrounded by the art works of Michelangelo and Raphael the higher dignitaries were clothed in brilliant reds, and gold and white.

Morris loved an old worn-out house, squarely-cut furniture, burlap, and subdued colors; while the Newly-riches boast of the magnificence of their mansions, Louis Quinze ball-rooms and imported tapestry.

Only recently two church buildings were remodeled. In one were placed ornamental brass railings, lectern, pulpit and candelabra, and stained-glass pictorial windows; the walls were covered with gilt fleurs-de-lis on maroon backgrounds, and the entire effect was one of cheap magnificence. The other church had been an old Colonial structure of square proportions. Dignified mahogany furnishings were selected, the walls were ornamented in pure geometric designs, pale gold on tinted backgrounds, and the windows were made of small panes of glass subdued in color, in harmony with the architecture of the building, with a result that spoke good taste and refinement.

Examples 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, present the three divisions of taste—the plain, ornamentless; the slightly ornamental, and the elaborately ornamental—applied to typography and reflected in furniture. The typographer should learn that the arts are related, that the styles of home-furnishings and architecture influence the styles of typography. A few years ago mission furniture was introduced and along with it came architecture that called for exposed roof supports, squarely-cut moldings, coarse fabric wall coverings, subdued green and brown tapestries. And before they knew the reason, printers were using heavy brass rules, rugged type-faces and printing on dark-hued antique papers. Example 96 is a program page produced under these influences. Compare it with the so-called “mission” chair (Example 95) and note the resemblance of motive. Both are rugged, angular and plain.

Now for contrast, compare them with the dainty, elaborately ornamental chair (Example 97) and the title-page (Example 98). Both chair and title-page designs are based upon the frivolous rococo style of the period known as Louis XV. (or Louis Quinze). In that period, shells and leaves conventionalized into graceful, golden curves were blended with a profusion of roses and other flowers. Straight lines were avoided, and furniture and architecture took on curves even to the extent of causing structural weakness.

Because a majority of type-faces are built upon horizontal and vertical lines, rococo type ornamentation is seldom successful in typography. The pen-and-ink border design (Example 98) is a clever adaptation of the Louis XV. rococo style. There is not an absolutely straight vertical or horizontal line in the border, and with the curves and flowers, ribbons, lattice-work and cupids it makes an appeal to women. The type-face combined with the border has similar characteristics—a freedom of line and an abundance of curves.

Examples 99 and 100 show a chair and an announcement page, both slightly ornamented to please those folks who like neither the severely plain nor the elaborately ornamental.

Ornament is secondary to the real purpose of the thing it embellishes; it should not be so lavish as to distract attention from the more important object. A booklet is issued to convey a message, and should the reading matter be overshadowed by ornamentation, this purpose may not be accomplished. A “flowery” oration may entertain and please an audience, but it may not convince. In 1896 Bryan stampeded a convention by his extemporaneous eloquence and metaphor, but when he came to the “enemy’s country” and faced an audience which wanted facts, he read his address from carefully prepared manuscript.

During the Middle Ages, when nations were fighting for existence and necessities of life were barely obtainable, there was little ornamentation except in isolated instances, but when, about the fifteenth century, the Renaissance came, art received an enthusiastic reception. Ornamentation was indulged in to excess, the artists using all the classic forms and inventing new ones. Example 109, showing wall border decoration, looks to the printer like a specimen sheet of type borders. This brings to mind that there is always the temptation to over-ornament when an artistic job is desired, and the necessity of advising printers to restrain themselves and save a few ornaments for other work. Our brethren of the cloth like to repeat the story of the theological student preaching his first sermon before the Seminary authorities. He began at Genesis and took his hearers thru the entire Bible to Revelation. When he had finished an old professor gravely asked what he would preach about the next Sunday.

The famous designer Chippendale, first made his furniture serviceable and then added ornament, from which fact the printer should profit. Have a printed job serve its purpose, and ornament it only so far as is consistent to this end. It is frequently advisable to omit decoration and let the type talk without interruption.

Ornamentation when used for border purposes has two features which may not be apparent to the superficial glance—regularity in repetition and variety in repetition. Example 101 shows repeated strokes of the same length. In Example 102 by alternating the length of the strokes the design is made more interesting. Examples 103, 104 and 105 illustrate this principle in rounded forms. In the first there is monotonous repetition, in the second there is less monotony because the oval form is less regular than the circle, and in Example 105, by contrasting the forms in both size and shape the design acquires new decorative interest. This principle of contrast and variety is exemplified in most border designs. In Example 107 the light scroll lines contrast with the black leaves, and in Example 106 curves are contrasted with angles. Contrast is sometimes obtained with color, as shown in Example 123.

Ornament as used by the printer may be divided into four classes: Ornament based upon geometric lines (Example 111), ornament based upon foliage (Example 112), ornament based upon the inanimate (Example 113) and ornament based upon the animate (Example 114). The center ornament in Example 111 contains the cross and circle, ecclesiastic devices, and its conventionalized pointed leaves would also admit it to the group shown as Example 112—ornament based upon foliage. Leaves and flowers from the beginning have been a prolific source of inspiration to artists. Before the invention of typography the decorator of manuscript books reveled in foliage, as will be seen by Example 117, and today when decoration is added by the process of printing the same liberal use of foliage is evidenced (Example 118). In both examples should be noticed the custom of filling blank spaces with decoration.

The inanimate (Example 113) lends itself better for ornamental purposes than does the animate (Example 114), and the less familiar the subject the better ornament it makes. An ornament based upon the animate is shown in Example 124, and as will be seen it is not as pleasing as the one in Example 121, which is based upon the inanimate.

Initials afford a convenient means of ornamentation (Example 120). An initial well chosen as to tone and appropriateness often satisfies all demands in this line. The mortised Colonial initial indicated by b looks well with Caslon roman and printed on antique paper. The acanthus design a looks well with Washington Text; the Italian design f, with a letter such as Bodoni. Initials are used in a highly decorative manner in Example 115, after the style found in ecclesiastical manuscripts. The possibilities of type and rule are here well set forth.

Sometimes ornaments in the corners of a plain rule border (Example 116) are sufficient decoration. These effects may have been suggested by the corner bolts with which brass plates are fastened to walls.

In the booklet decoration (Example 122) the artist has taken his motive from the word “Washington” making the capitol dome and its supports the central figure in the design, which is Colonial in character. Drawing a line down thru the center of the design it will be found that with a few minor exceptions the right half is a duplicate in reverse of the left half. The effect is frequently found in decorative work, as it gives balance and differentiates between illustration and decoration. An illustrative design, showing an actual scene, would not be effective.

Wall paper and linoleum designs are made in patterns that repeat at intervals and for this reason answer the purpose of decoration.

Example 119 presents a program page, which, while attractive, has but one ornament, an ecclesiastic design. The arrangement of bands above and below the main display assists in forming a decorative effect.

Type decoration in use today shows a preference for forms from Italian sources. Several years ago the Colonial spirit had influenced a preference for Gothic-English forms. The work of Goudy, Cleland and others has had a part in developing taste for the Italian.

In closing this chapter it may be well again to warn the printer not to over-ornament. The relation of ornament to typography is well covered in the caution of an experienced architect to a novice: “Ornament construction, but do not construct ornament.”

The best art is that which is concealed, and which unobtrusively adds effectiveness to a piece of printing.

Good taste, a quality essential to the successful production of all kinds of printing, is of great importance in the typography of books. In the matter of good taste most of us are specialists—we perfect our judgment in some one respect and let it remain erratic in others. A musician or other artist may stand high in his class and yet, perhaps, show poor taste in dress and manners.

A person of good taste is usually conservative. He weighs all new things in the balance of judgment, and allows enthusiastic faddists to push him off the sidewalk rather than join the crowd and shout with it. He knows the fickleness of mobs and remembers that in a week hosannas have been changed to shouts of bitter invective. The merchant catering to the whims of fashion ever has unsalable stock on his shelves. In the days of militant Rome the crowd which one day cheered Sulla, the next day crowned Marius with laurel.

The natural tendency of humanity is radical. The conservatives are in the minority, yet their influence is great because their opinions are generally based upon sure foundations. Of course a person can be progressive and possess a present-day mind without being either radical or conservative. The natural tendency of job printers is radical. Left much to their own whims and fancies they produce printed things which may please only for the moment. The test of gold is not in its appearance when purchased, but in years of wear. Because a job of printing is made for short service is no reason why it should not be as well done as book composition is required to be. All the art-reasons in book typography are equally applicable to job typography. The two methods should not be judged by separate standards—a thing is good, or it is not. At the present time educational work is elevating the standard of job typography, and the designer of job composition, drawing closer to his book brother, is beginning to notice the faults and flaws in the latter’s work.

The book typographer, like the lawyer, is governed by precedent. When the legal man presents an argument he cites Doe v. Doe, and Smith v. Jones, and with each new discovery of precedent is increasingly happy. The common law under which we in America are governed originated in England centuries ago, and the radicals who would dispense with this law catalog themselves as anarchists. The right-thinking man is constructive. When a new thing has been proved good he believes in adding it to what has already been constructed. The radical is destructive in that he would destroy what has been constructed and without always setting some new thing in its place. Attics have been known to hold masterpieces which have been discarded for new, frivolous things that from an art viewpoint are worthless.

William Morris set out to change book typography, and in contrast to the typography of the day his ideas may have seemed radical. What he really offered was the good things found in the works of the old masters of Venice and Nuremberg—typography and decoration that had well stood the test of centuries. Book pages produced fifty years ago by Pickering and Whittingham look well today; not because they are old, but because they were in good taste then, and are in good taste now. Pages set by their contemporaries in condensed roman look abominable now, because they were contrary to true art principles then.

The book industry in America is tremendous—so much so that because of its magnitude quality in typography is likely to be lost sight of. In New York City in one year eight million books are read or consulted thru its public library system! Could the monk, with his mere score of books chained to shelves, have had a vision of this, what would have been his thoughts? Or, Benjamin Franklin, as he founded the first circulating library? Andrew Carnegie, ridiculed when announcing his intention to use his wealth in providing buildings for public libraries, lived to see himself acknowledged a benefactor of mankind.

Next to providing books is the necessity of providing good books and of printing them according to the laws of art and good taste. Continual association develops a taste for the things associated with. If the majority of books are poorly composed or poorly printed, they will unconsciously be taken as standards of book style by the reading public. The style of book typography, averaged in this way, is today far from flattering. It is rarely that the reading pages, title-page and cover harmonize in style and motive. On the average volume the text-pages seem to have been set in any face that chanced to be on the composing machine at the time; the title-page is in some type foreign in style and design to the face used on the body of the book, and the cover (usually the only part of the work given artistic attention) is designed without regard to what is on the inside. The whole effect reminds one of a box of berries with only the healthy members of the family in view. Many a time I have picked up a book in artistic binding, only to lay it down disappointed at the typographical treatment of the inside pages. Even a book should be honestly what it seems, and not a wooden nutmeg.

The book-page reproductions used in connection with this chapter may prove more valuable if each is considered separately in the order of its appearance.

Examples 126 and 127 (Insert).—The title-page and an inside page of a book which in its way is a model. From the viewpoints of art, legibility, good taste, typography, printing, and binding, the book is very satisfactory. The classic restraint of the Italian school and the human interest of the Gothic are here blended harmoniously. These pages will please the lover of lower-case letters, as from the label-title on the cover to the last paragraph of this volume not a line has been set in capitals. The type-face is a handsome old-style roman based upon the Caslon model, and in the book itself is printed upon a hard hand-made paper in a dense and clear black ink. The only decoration used in the book is found in the chapter initials, altho decoration is suggested in the use of brackets on each side of the page numbers. Only two sizes of type are on the title-page, and the chapter headings cling to the type-page in a manner that helps the tone effect of the whole. The reproduced pages are shown in the actual positions of the originals. The margins of a full reading page measure five picas at the fold, six picas at the head, seven-and-a-half picas at the outer edge, and eleven picas at the foot. The type-page covers slightly more than one-third of the surface of the leaf upon which it is printed. The type-page in proportion measures diagonally twice its width, a point illustrated in Example 50 of a previous article.

Example 128.—A reduced facsimile of the title-page of a limited edition of classic poems, produced at the Riverside Press under the supervision of Bruce Rogers. This typographer stands among those in America who are giving themselves to the work of steering the printing craft back to the waters in which it sailed in the days of Aldus Manutius. Bruce Rogers came from Indiana with no technical knowledge of typography, but artistic talent soon enabled him to gather the details, and for a number of years he designed books for the Riverside Press that brought him fame and helped to raise the standard of printing in America.

Example 129.—There is one feature of Bruce Rogers’ work which stands out prominently, and that is his regard for the appropriate. The literary motive of a book gives the cue for its typographic treatment, and he prints as if he were living in the period so presented, and influenced by its tastes. The “John Greenleaf Whittier” title-page suggests a product of the middle nineteenth century, when Whittier lived, and Example 128 is imbued with the spirit of the Greek Theocritus. But two sizes of type are used in the Whittier page, and these are apportioned according to the importance of the wording.

Examples 130 and 131.—Two pages from a book issued by a prominent publishing house and printed by a prominent press. They are reproduced for the purpose of pointing out a fault common to a majority of books of the present day—inharmonious typography. While the text pages are consistent in the use of plain modern roman, the title-page with no regard for the face used on the text pages is composed in Caslon roman and modernized old-style. It would seem that, true to the title, the printer had aimed to present three representative type-faces used during a hundred years. And, to make matters worse, the cover contains an elaborate twentieth century design. Why do not publishers realize that these things are wrong? Why do not printers realize it? After the six hundred pages of this book had been set in modern roman, the cost of setting a title-page also in modern roman would have been ridiculously small. Printers doing work for publishers should provide display faces to match their machine letters, or else when buying matrices of a body face, assure themselves that display faces may also be had. Artists, too, should be cautioned to make their design not only after the motive suggested by the literary contents of the book, but also after the typography (which should of course be based upon the literary motive).

Examples 132 and 133.—Two pages in style composite Colonial and modern. Relation between the reading pages and the title-page is established thru use of type of the same series and also by adapting the flower decoration to the running head. Certain books lend themselves to decoration; this is one of them, because it is of the entertaining sort. Serious books, such as those on the subjects of law, medicine and science, should have no decoration. The wise book typographer will not use decoration unless he comprehends just what he is doing.

Examples 134 and 135.—J. H. Nash, who designed the typography of the book of which these two pages are a part, produced results that are exceptionally good from a typographic point of view. The border as seen in Example 134 was used on the title, introduction and contents pages, and the border in Example 135 was used thruout the text pages. The crossed-line border effect was even adapted to the frontispiece. The title-page is an excellent example of consistent typography; not a line of lower-case is to be found on the page, and prominence is proportionately given the title of the book and the names of author and publishers. The reading matter is set within six points of the rule border, that the page should have but one margin. If the space between type and border were larger it would give the appearance of another margin. The initial letters assist the reader in locating the beginning of each story.

Example 136.—This page is in a style associated with the modern novel and was set on the linotype in eleven-point Scotch Roman; the lines twenty picas wide, leaded with two-point leads. The running head is in capitals of the body letter, separated from the reading page by a half-point rule, and the page number is centered at the foot.

Example 137.—A good example of modern book composition, set on the linotype in twelve-point Caslon Old Style, the lines twenty picas wide, separated by four points. The running head is in a black text letter suited to a book of this kind. An amount of space equal to a line of type and the leading following it, has been placed between the running head and the reading page.

Example 138.—No style of typography is in such good taste as that which is based on the old Italian, in which but one style of type-face, usually the Caslon, is used, and the capitals letterspaced a trifle. This style has been worked into a symmetrical page and an ornament included that because of its Italian treatment blends neatly with the typography. It might be interesting to note that the illustrations in this book were in line, and where emphasis was needed in side headings small capitals were used and the letters separated by slight spacing.

Example 139.—A page from a book for children, written and illustrated by Will Bradley. The type-face is a wide, legible letter and was specially designed by Mr. Bradley. Each chapter is begun with a line of old English black letter, followed by several lines of highly decorative italic. The illustrations are interpreted in the grotesque decorative style that Bradley does so well. The running heads and page numbers are in the italic.

Example 140.—A page notable for the harmony between the tone of the type-face and decoration. The illustration has been treated by Beatrice Stevens in a decorative spirit, and is very effective. The capitals of the body matter are used for the “Chapter III” line, and smaller capitals for the descriptive line under it. The plain initial is more effective than an ornamental one would have been.

Example 141.—A title-page of classic design in Scotch Roman type. The anchor and dolphin, originally the device of Aldus, as enlarged in outline has much to do with the effectiveness of the page. The dignified beauty of this page makes it worthy of close study.

Example 142.—A further demonstration of the beauty of classic typography. Fred. W. Goudy has done many things worth while, but none better than this. He not only designed the smaller type-faces and lettered the large lines in harmony, but arranged the page and, in its original form, printed it. American typography owes much to Mr. Goudy and it is a pleasure to include this page here.

Example 143.—This is a page from one of the Roycrofters’ serious efforts in bookmaking. It was printed in dense black ink on white stock, the large text initials standing forth in pleasing contrast.

Example 144.—This is a page from a book by Theodore L. De Vinne, and probably presented his personal ideas in book typography. Notice the spacing around the subheading, and the treatment of footnotes. The first line under the subheading is not indented.

Examples 145 and 146.—D. B. Updike, of the Merrymount Press, is responsible for the typography of these pages, which are a portion of a book containing the ceremony of marriage as performed in the Protestant Episcopal Church. The type is a special letter based upon early forms. The book was printed in black and vermilion. Mr. Updike, with Rogers, Goudy and others, believes that the way to improve typography in America is to do typography as well as it can be done. He established the Merrymount Press in 1898, and has arranged and printed many fine volumes, in addition to much high-grade small work.

Example 147.—Books of poetry are usually treated in a typographic style that is light and dainty. The typographer who has the spirit of the artist in him puts more into a book than is required by the traditions of the craft and endeavors to express with type and decoration the spirit of the poet’s message. The verses of Edgar Allan Poe, with their suggestion of dark shadows and pathos, make the book designer’s task difficult, but in this example Mr. Nash has given the work a decorative treatment that in its dark tone helps to beautify the sad spirit of the great American poet. Washington Text shows forth admirably as a type for these pages and the decorative panel harmonizes with it in both tone and design. In its original form the book was printed in dull black and dull red inks on a toned hand-made paper. The liberal margins assisted in giving that touch of exclusiveness and taste that is essential in good book-printing.

Example 148.—French title-pages of the eighteenth century are furnishing motives for the designing of cover and title-pages for the uses of publishing and advertising, and to many this page by Bruce Rogers will have considerable interest. The design carries the spirit of an age when decoration was rampant and when architecture and books were festooned and adorned with cupids. The decorative lettering used in the main title shows such influence. This book in its first edition was printed in 1789, and when recently reprinted the typographic spirit of the old volume was incorporated in it. It does not measure up to the recently accepted ideas of tone-harmony and shape-harmony, yet the element of appropriateness is so strong that those shortcomings are not to be held against it.

Custom has developed a law for the arrangement of the several parts of a book. There is first a blank leaf known as the fly-leaf, followed by a leaf with the title of the volume in small type slightly above center or placed toward the upper right corner. The frontispiece, if one is used, is then inserted. The next leaf contains the title-page, which usually gives the title of the work, name of author or editor, place of origin, name of publisher and date of issue. On the back of this leaf, slightly above center, is the copyright notice, and in the lower center or right corner the imprint of the printer. The table of contents and the table of illustrations follow, taking as many pages as are necessary. The preface, or author’s introduction, is next, after which another half-title may be inserted ahead of the first chapter. The dedication, at one time occupying a page in the fore part of the book, is occasionally used. The index is inserted in the rear of the book. This rear-index is not found in novels, but in books on technical subjects and those used for reference purposes.

It is customary to number book pages with Arabic numerals beginning with the first chapter, all pages in advance of the first chapter being numbered with lower-case Roman numerals. The page numbers, when at the foot, should be separated from the type-page by the same amount of space used between the lines. There is tendency among inexperienced printers to place the numbers too far from the type-page.