Printer's Type on Stamps (1893) - Philatelic Database

The following article was first published in Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal (December, 1893) and it stands as a interesting window into the history of typesetting. Many of the fonts described are now known by other names.

In describing the inscriptions, or the surcharges, upon stamps, it is necessary to state what kinds of letters are used, and as all these different kinds have names, I have asked the printers to set up some of those more commonly employed, and I give the names by which they are known to English printers and type-founders. In America some of them are known by different names to these, and Philatelic writers have, unfortunately, been accustomed to use entirely wrong names in some cases.

It is perhaps unnecessary to slate that the various kinds of type exist (many of them) in numerous varieties of size, from the enormous letters used upon gigantic posters, down to the microscopic type of the smallest Bibles and Prayer-books. These all have their names also, but these are not what I wish to describe here; I would only point out that the so-called large capitals of one size (or fount) may be no larger than the small capitals of another fount, and these can only be distinguished when different natures of letters of the same fount are used together.

The ordinary natures of type exist in five different forms, which belong to one another, so to speak. Three of these are upright, and two are sloping. The three upright are respectively called Large Capitals, Small Capitals, and Small Letters or “Lower Case,” as the last are technically termed. Of the sloping, Large Capitals and Lower Case only are usually supplied by the founders, and if Small Capitals are required they have to be specially made. The origin of the term Lower Case is a very simple one. The cases, or trays, of letters in a printing office are placed upon sloping racks, or desks, for the convenience of those using them. The small letters are in one case (each in their own separate partition), and the large letters are similarly arranged in another case; and the former, being the most wanted, are placed nearer the compositor than the latter; i.e. the small letters are in the lower of the two cases on the desk, and the large letters in the upper. Hence, the small letters have come to be commonly known as lower-case type, and the large are sometimes termed upper-case.

To take an example: The ordinary upright type, in which English books are printed, is called “Roman” ; of this we have “LARGE CAPITALS,” “SMALL CAPITALS,” and “lower case,” the second being of similar form to the first, but of similar height to the third. The sloping letters corresponding to these are called “Italic,” and of these again we have “LARGE CAPITALS” and “lower case.”

The nature of type in which this magazine is printed is called “Old Style.” Two different sizes are employed: Long Primer (10 point), for the Editorial and some of the Principal Articles. Brevier (8 point), for the New Issues and Varieties, and the other Articles, &c. As specimens of large and small type of t his same “Old Style” we may take: Great Primer (18 points) and Pearl.

These are by no means extremes in the way of size ; large type may go up to almost any dimensions, and there are two sizes smaller than Pearl, termed Diamond and Brilliant respectively.

The following are a few varieties of type, of which specimens are given in the Long Primer size, for comparison.

Taking first the types which have serifs, or short horizontal lines terminating the vertical and slanting strokes of the letters, and vertical lines at the ends of the horizontal strokes of capitals “E,” “T,” &c., we have:

1. Old Style.

2. Modern.

Differing from Old Style principally in the letters being narrower, the “C” and the “O” less rounded.

3. Albion.

In which the thick strokes are very much heavier than in the previous types; it is sometimes used abroad for surcharges, as shown in the “N.S.B.” and “Nossi-Bé” in the following illustrations:

All these three have the serifs and the thinner strokes very fine, as compared with the thick strokes.

4. Old Style Antique.

5. Ionic.

6. Extended Clarendon.

7. Antique.

8. Egyptian.

These show a gradually-increasing tendency to make all the lines more nearly the same thickness, with heavy serifs, the latter being slightly rounded where they join the strokes of the letters in Ionic and Clarendon, and quite square at the junctions in Antique and Egyptian.

9. Sans-serif.

10. Grotesque.

These are two forms of type without serifs, as the name of the first implies. Type of this kind has been commonly termed “block” in philatelic works, but this title is unknown, apparently, to printers and type-founders.

11. Grecian.