The earliest types used were in the style known as Gothic or black-letter; which was afterward superseded, except in Germany, by the Roman letter. Sec BLACK-LETTER. The varieties of size of types in the present day amount to 40 or 50, enlarging by a pro gressive scale, from the minutest used in printing pocket-Bibles, to the largest which is seen in postiumbills on the streets. Printers have a distinct name for each size of letter, and use sizes in different descriptions of book-work; the smallest is called bril liant, the next diamond, and then follow in gradation upward, pearl, ruby, nonpareil, emerald, minion, brevier (the type with which this sheet is printed), bourgeois, long primer, email pica, pica, English, great primer, and double pica. The larger sizes generally take their names thus—two-line pica, two-line English, four, six, eight, or ten line pica, etc. Other nations designate many of these sizes by different names. Some of these names were given from the first maker; others from the books first printed with the particular letter. Thus, Cicero is the name of a type in France and Germany, with which Cicero's letters were first printed (Rome, 1467); pica is from the service of the mass, termed pica or plc; primer, from Primaries, the book of prayers to the Virgin; brevier, from breviary; canon, from the canons of the church, etc.
All kinds of types are sold by weight by the founders, the price varying in amount according to the size of the letter. The smallest size, brilliant, costs about 10s. per lb. ; diamond, about Os. per lb. ; brevier, about ls. 6d. per lb.; English, I.s.; and so on in pro portion for all intermediate sizes. Expensive as types thus are, their prices will not appear too high, considering the immense outlay in cutting the punches and the general manufacture. In the diamond size, 2,800 go to a single pound-weight of the letter i, and -of the thinnest space about 5,000.
A complete assortment of types is called a font, which may be regulated to any extent. Every type-founder has a scale showing the proportional quantity of each letter required for a font; and a peculiar scale is required for every language. For the Eug lisfi language, the following is the type-founder's scale for the small letters of a font of types of a particular size and weight: a 8500 f 2500 I k 800 0 8000 s 8000 w 2000 b 1600 g 1700 1 4000 p 1700 t 9000 x 400 c 3000 h 6400 I m 3000 q 500 u 3400 y 2000 d 4400 i 8000 n 8000 r 6200 v 1200 z 200 e 12.000 j 400 I It will be seen from this scale that the letter a is used much more frequently than any -other character.
Type-founding originated in Germany along with printing; as early as 1452, P. Scholfer (see GUTTENBERG) had substituted types of cast-metal for the original wooden types. The earliest and best punch-cutters were in Nurnberg, which continued for a considerable time to supply the type-founders throughout Germany with punches. Bodoni (b. 1740, d. 1813) in Italy, the Didots (q.v.) in France, and Breitkopf (b. 1719, d.
1794) in Leipsic, are the most distinguished names in the subsequent history of type making on the continent. The art made little progress in Great Britain from the time of Caxton, and the types used were mostly imported from Holland, until about the year 1720, when William Caslon, originally an engraver of ornamental devices, turned his attention to letter-cutting, and soon established such a reputation as to not only put a stop to the importation of foreign types, but caused his own to be frequently sent to continental countries. The foundry established by Caslon in London is still in existence. Baskerville (q.v.) is the next greatest name in the history of the art in England. The types produced by Alexander Wilson of Glasgow became the foundation of the fame of the Foulis (q.v.) as printers. The type-foundry of Miller and Richard in Edinburgh has enjoyed a well-merited reputation for a half century and more.
The large letters used in posting and hand bills were formerly manufactured chiefly in London and Sheffield, but are made now also in Edinburgh. In this kind of types very great improvements have also been made in recent times; and the varieties are becoming yearly more numerous and ornamental in character. The letter used in print ing in North America is made principally at New York; and the style of both typogra phy- and press-work in that country is rapidly improving.
Typesetting, or " Composing ."—All the types used in printing offices are sorted in cases, or shallow boxes, with divisions. There are two kinds of cases—the upper and lower case; the latter lying nearest the compositor upon the frame for their support. The lower case is placed immediately under his hand, the upper case directly above in a slanting position, and the under part of the frame is stocked with cases of differ ent fonts. In the upper case are placed all the capitals, small capitals, accented letters, a few of the points, and characters used as references to notes. In the lower ease lie all the small letters, figures, the remainder of the points, and spaces to place between the words. In the lower, no alphabetical arrangement is preserved; each letter has a larger or a smaller box allotted to it, aeeordihg as it is more or less required; and all those letters most in request are placed at the nearest convenient distance to the compositor. By this ingenious and irregular division of the lower case much time is saved to the compositor, who requires no label to direct him to the spot where lies the particular letter he wants. To a stranger nothing appears so remarkable as the rapidity with which a compositor does his work; but habit very soon leads the hand rapidly and mechanically to the letter required. When italic letters have to be introduced, they are taken from a separate pair of cases of the same font.