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+\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 \ No newline at end of file