In a brief review of the development of print ing it is impossible more than to allude to the work of such famous printers as Aldus Manutius (q.v.), who, with other nit-inhere of the same family, published the famous Aldine Editions (q.v.), the Elzevirs (q.v.). whose activities ex tended from 15S3 to 1712. and the Stephens of Paris. famous for their editions of the Scriptures and the (lassies.
ArODERN PRINTING TYPES. Types of metal are manufactured by a process of founding. (See TYPE-FOUNDING.) The earliest types used were of the style known as Gothic or blaek-letter, which was afterwards superseded, except. in Ger many, Russia and Greece. by the Roman letter.
(See BLACK-LETTER.) Printers have a distinct name for each size of type, and use about 16 sizes in different descriptions of book-svo•k; by the older terminology the smallest is called brilliant, the next diamond. and then follow in gradation upward, pearl, agate, non pareil, miniou, brerier, bourgeois, long primer, small pica., pica, English, great primer, and (ton ble pica. The larger sizes generally take their names thus—two-/inc pica, two-line English, four, eight, or ten-line pica, etc. Other nations designate many of these sizes by dif ferent names. Some of these names were given from the first maker; others from the hooks first printed with the particular letter. Thus, Cicero is the name of a type in France and Ger many, with which Cieero's letters were first printed (home. 14(17) : pica is from the ritual book. termed pica or pie: primer, from Primarins, the hook of prayers to the virgin; lircrier, from breviary: cation, from the canons of the Church, etc. The following illustrates the size of the
various types named: At present in Europe and America, generally, printers use a numerical nomenclature instead of the old nomenclature given above and com monly used by the layman. This nomenclature, as adopted by the United States Typefounders' Association in 1886, is as follows: A complete assortment of types is called a font, which may be regulated to any extent. American founders assort characters by weight and not by count. As types of the same body vary in width (some thin and some wide), a specification by count of single types would be misleading as to weight. The following table shows the relative frequency of the letters in composition: The types used in printing offices are sort ed in different boxes of two shallow trays known as upper and lower ease, the latter ly ing 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 different fonts. In the upper case are placed all the capitals, small capitals, and a few of the characters used as references to notes. in the lower case are all the small letters, fig ures, most of the points, and the spaces for blanks between the words. In the lower, alpha betical arrangement is not preserved ; each let ter has a larger or a smaller box allotted to it, according as it is more or less frequently re quired; the letters in most request are placed at the nearest convenient distance to the com positor. See article CASE for illustration.