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author | Norbert Preining <norbert@preining.info> | 2019-09-02 13:46:59 +0900 |
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committer | Norbert Preining <norbert@preining.info> | 2019-09-02 13:46:59 +0900 |
commit | e0c6872cf40896c7be36b11dcc744620f10adf1d (patch) | |
tree | 60335e10d2f4354b0674ec22d7b53f0f8abee672 /usergrps/uktug/baskervi/4_3/reviews.tex |
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diff --git a/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/4_3/reviews.tex b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/4_3/reviews.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..be66961ed7 --- /dev/null +++ b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/4_3/reviews.tex @@ -0,0 +1,173 @@ +\title{Book reviews} +\author[Malcolm Clark]{Malcolm + Clark\\\texttt{m.clark@warwick.ac.uk}} +\begin{Article} +\subsection{Writing \& Illuminating \& Lettering, by Edward Johnston} +This is an interesting book, not least since it is said to have been +continuously in print since 1906. My edition is from 1946 (published +by Pitman), but I note that it is now available from A\&C Black. In +essence this is an account of Calligraphy. What has this to do with +printing, you may ask? A number of typographers would argue that +calligraphic skills are a necessary prerequisite for the adequate +understanding of type. But more than this, I have a soft spot for +Johnston. He taught at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, +alongside Eric Gill (who had been his pupil, and with whom he later +shared rooms). Johnston went on to create the typeface which was used +by London Underground\footnote{at this point I have to say `Frank + Pick'. Frank Pick was the driving force behind the corporate + identity of London Underground, all those years ago -- a corporate + identity which has, up to now, managed to survive.}, and in a +digital form still is used by them. Gill of course created {\em Gill + Sans} (among others), which bears some similarities (well, it's a +sans serif) to {\em Johnston}. The similarity was great enough to lead +one correspondent on {\tt comp.fonts} to consider {\em Johnston} a +derivative of {\em Gill Sans}. Neither are derivatives of the other, +but stemmed from some common beliefs and skills. The really +interesting thing is that Johnston was a calligrapher, while Gill was +a stone cutter. The requirements of the two crafts are rather +different -- and different again from type. {\em Johnston} was +intended as a `signing' face: it was not intended for continuous text +(unlike {\em Gill Sans}). I have however seen the modern variant ({\em + New Johnston}) which was redesigned by Banks\&Miles used for +continuous text. It works up to a point. Of course other signing fonts +have become used for continuous text -- most notably Helvetica +(designed for signs at Swiss airports). + +Obviously the book is primarily about hand lettering: Johnston was +writing to encapsulate the craft, and to encourage others to develop +their skills. It is therefore a rather detailed manual which leads you +through all the practical aspects of the craft. There is an underlying +theme, which may be made explicit from this quote: `The first general +virtue of lettering is {\sl readableness}, the second, {\em fitness} +for a given Use.' Almost everything else stems from this belief. Given +our concern with typography it is arresting to read that `to arrange +letters well requires no great art, but it requires a working +knowledge of letter-forms and of the reasonable methods of grouping +those forms'. So there. + +Given the title, which included `illuminating' it is hardly surprising +that Johnston includes the use of colour. Traditionally, rubrication +(\ie `adding of `Red, or other coloured letters\dots to a MS.~or +Book') was used for title pages, for prefaces and notes, for headings +of columns and pages, for initials, marking stanzas, colophons, and so +on. Johnston seems to have had an especial liking for gold, either +matt or burnished. This is one feature which is unlikely to transfer +to electronic publications. Elsewhere he notes `use a limited number +of pure, bright colours'. + +It may also be interesting that Johnston is quite happy to +`letter-space' in some +circumstances, although the example he gives is upper case and he makes no +obvious linking to letter spacing lower case. + +It is an interesting read: it is very practical and straightforward. He +advises, recommends, but seldom pontificates. He makes it all so reasonable +that I might just sign up for a calligraphy class next term. + +Copies may be obtained from Typobooks, {\sc freepost}, Colchester, Essex +CO3~4JH, for a mere \pounds14.99. This new edition has the advantage that the +plates have been re-originated. Those in my copy lack definition. + +\subsection{Modern Typography, by Robin Kinross} +This is a rather fine volume. It discusses the history of typography since +`Modern' times. That is, since about 1700. This is essentially the same meaning +for `modern' as is found in `Computer Modern'. Kinross chooses this date +since it is around then that there emerges a `readiness to articulate +knowledge and consciousness' (of printing). The book will not tell you how to +create typography. What it discusses are the influences which created the +movements in typography. It does so in a considered and careful way which +was dismissed +as `dry' by one {\tt comp.fonts} correspondent; on the other hand, I found it +erudite and entertaining. + +Kinross describes it as `typographic history', a field he criticizes in general +for its absence of historical skills, superficial notions of design, and ritual +statements of admiration or distaste. He also notes that much previous work +along these lines (citing Stanley Morison) has made the assumption that all +typography is book typography. Adopting this iconoclastic approach, he gives +short shrift to, for example, Baskerville, Bodoni, the Bauhaus, the more +precious private presses and `fine printing'. + +As he wends his way from Moxton to the present day, he throws some light on one +of the ironies of rationality: the standardisation of the point system predated +metrication by only a few years, and a proposal to create a metric point (from +Firmin Didot) failed to be accepted. It is also to France that the origin of +paper sizes in the ratio $1\colon\sqrt2$ belongs, although this did not achieve +prominence until it was adopted in Germany early this century. Kinross has +little time for the argument that greater mechanization in printing led to a +decline in standards. On the contrary, he argues that `standards of press-work +only improved with powered printing'. We are taken through a well-documented +account of printing in England from the times of William Morris, and similarly +shown the influences which crossed the Atlantic, as well as the more +or less autonomous developments taking place in the United States. In the early +years of this century, German typography was a force to be reckoned with. +Within it were debates which hardly affected the english-speaking world, +notably that of the place of `blackletter'. Kinross summarises this crudely +(his own term) as `to prefer roman over blackletter was to be modern\dots to +prefer sanserif roman letters to those with serifs was to be more modern +still'. His background references and discussion shows how much more complex +the question was, placing the debate firmly in its political and social context. + +It is perhaps with the `new typography' that Kinross is at his most excited. +This `movement' is most clearly given form by Jan Tschichold's {\em Die neue +Typographie} published in 1928. Kinross links back to a statement by Lissitzky +in 1923 which might be felt to be prophetic: `The printed surface transcends +space and time. The printed surface, the infinity of books, must be +transcended. The electro-library.' Make of that what we will. Perhaps the +strongest principle of this new typography was that it was related to purpose; +this therefore helped determine the details of the designed object, as well as +placing it in its wider context. It is intriguing that one consequence of this +new typography was `the cult of spiral binding', as well as a tendency towards +unjustified setting -- `more proper to machine composition'. In the midst of +this Kinross deals with the Bauhaus, pointing out that there were never any +fully-fledged typographers there. Later he goes on to suggest that the +reputation of the Bauhaus rested for many years on the exhibition about it held +in New York in 1938, accompanied by the book accompanying the show. In a sense +the Bauhaus reinterpreted itself, at a time when it could be seen as another +symbol of hope crushed under the heel of the oppressive dictator. + +After the war came the rise or identification of `Swiss typography'. One +element of this was the application of `the grid' (possibly partly a result of +the need to accommodate the three official Swiss languages -- they could be +fairly conveniently given three columns on the grid: another consequence was +the tendency to produce square formats). One interesting feature of Kinross's +book is the extent to which he reveals the internal tensions within the +typographic world: tensions which are seldom evident from the outside. + +Developments do not end here, and in his final chapter Kinross does touch on +digital processes, even going so far as to spend some time on \MF, and more +significantly, on PostScript. Post-modernism does appear, but curiously, its +practitioners are not named: I had rather expected to see something about +Spiekermann and Brody, or at least Emigre, but although clearly quite aware of +them, he remains relatively silent. However, an example of Spiekermann's work +does appear in the illustrations. The thirty or so illustrations enlarge and +expand the text, and often represent items other\-wise hard to find (for example +a German book of 1935 where blackletter text is printed in a surprisingly +`modern' form). + +The form of the book is itself interesting. Each page has a wide left +margin and is set ragged right. I was surprised how comfortable I +found this. The wide margin is used for `footnotes'. There is very +little use of type differentiation to denote special features. In +fact, each section starts with a heading in the body type, but offset +by 20 pt or so (and a bigskip). Running heads are in small capitals. I +think I object to the running heads being set to the right on each +page, since they include the page number. I really don't find page +numbers next to the binding edge very useful. Footnotes are in a +slightly smaller face, while chapter titles are slightly larger than +the body type. Apart from that, the only variation is in the +occasional use of italic. This is nicely minimalist. It echoes Richard +Southall's short article many years ago in \TUB\ 5(2), `{\em First + principles of typographic design for document production}'. It will +come as no great surprise that Kinross also came through Reading +University's Department of Typography. + +This is a book I will recommend. I felt much better informed from having read +it, with a better understanding of the movements in typography, and a better +feeling for their limitations. Although it does concentrate +mainly on `bookish' matters to the exclusion of the world of +magazines, newspapers and journals, it does provide useful insights +and provoking conclusions. It is published by Hyphen Press at about +\pounds15. +\end{Article} +\endinput
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