Printing Type Designs

This discursive account of the development of type design, from Gutenberg's unique moveable types to the digital plethora we have today, deals with the broad sweep of design while at the same time penetrating into some of the byways of typography over nearly 600 years. It deals not only with the design and manufacture of printing types, but also explores some of the social and political implications of being a printer or typefounder at certain periods of history. Duncan Glen has read very widely and honorably acknowledges his sources throughout. Although the book follows an historical sequence, each section explores a particular style through to the present day so that, for example, the chaptern Caslon describes Caslon's original designs, through their revival in the nineteenth century to their recent digitized forms. It does not mention the 1990 font designed by Carol Twombly at Adobe; but observes that Ed Benguat's version, which is good in its own right, owes less to Caslon than the attempt at a 'facsimile' range recently released by ITC.There are times when the detail is in danger of obscuring the general thread of the argument. The discussion and presentation of the research and opinion of various writers into who did what between Garamond, Granjon, Le Be, Augereau et al is so exhaustive that you begin to hear the feet of angels dancing on the end of a six point quad. However this is redeemed by an excellent section on Robert Slimbach's Minion and Matthew Carter's Galliard each of which is in the tradition of Garamond and Granjon. The chapters on Baskerville, the development of 'moderns' and the rich harvest of 'fancy' types in the nineteenth century are all enthusiastically described. The chapter on san serifs has a particularly good section on the Bauhaus which refreshingly draws on wider influences on design.True to his nationality Duncan Glen includes two chapters specifically on Scottish typefounders both of which contain material which will probably be new to many students of typography. The chapter on the first printers in Scotland describes the interplay between Scottish, French and English printers at the beginning of the sixteenth century and gives a glimpse of the importance of power and patronage to the printing trade at that time. Early Scottish typefounders in America is strong on the business relationships between founders and their gradual self-sufficiency from European sources of type. The author points out that these Scottish pioneers have been recognized before by both Stanley Morrison and Berthod Wolpe, but this account gives a more complete picture of Scottish-American printing and typefounding in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This book really comes into its own when it begins to explore more recent developments through photosetting to digital production which have not before been so thoroughly described under one cover.The general impression is of poor photocopies scanned at a relatively low resolution. The legacy of most of the great masters of typography is the marks they left on paper. To have those marks so degraded devalues the text.

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