Friday, May 13, 2016

A CASE OF BODONI...

One of my favorite possessions is a lovely  compartmen-talized tray from a newspaper printer’s type cabinet; each tray is a single wooden drawer from a chest that held a variety of typefaces in a variety of sizes used to set type for both news copy and advertising.
          There used to be separate trays—or cases—for capital letters and regular letters (which is why we call them upper and lower case letters today), but that meant two drawers for each size of a particular font; a combined case like this became popular in the 1800s (this shot shows only two of the three sections of the tray).
          
Just as the “qwerty” layout of your keyboard is designed to make typing more efficient, so too were the compartments in a type tray designed for the convenience of the typesetter—the most frequently used letters were set in boxes in the center of the tray while the others were located on the edges and in the corners.
Numbers and oddball symbols ($, @, + and %, for instance) were in the top boxes of the compartments, lower case letters were on the left side of the drawer, upper case on the right.
Punctuation compartments were not always designated—many typesetters placed them in their own preferred locations.
 This tray holds an incomplete set of Bodoni bold type—one of the most commonly used typefaces in the 19th and 20th centuries, mainly because it is so easy to read.

Giambattista Bodoni, the designer, was born in Italy in 1740. His father was a printer, so he grew up in the trade; he apprenticed at the Vatican, and later became a well-known typecutter, engraver and printer.
In 1798, he designed this typeface—a font that blended the thicker lines of older typefaces with the finer, thinner ones of newer designs.


Bodoni gains its gracefulness from a balance between those thick and thin strokes of the letters. If designed well, books typeset in Bodoni can produce that same graceful loveliness on an entire page, especially when the letters have some space between them, which keeps the lines smooth and easy to read.
Many of us read schoolbooks set in Bodoni (easy to read, remember?) and its broad face makes for a quick read on posters and advertising boards.






16 comments:

  1. I can see why you would prize this type tray. Thaks for the information about Bodoni. I've never paid enough attention to type...but this week's theme has opened my eyes.

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    1. It's a very pretty typeface, Helen -- I've even seen hymnals printed in Bodoni...lovely!

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  2. Well dang, I guess I need to try out Bodoni when I get around to doing my book. I love the explanation of why our keyboard looks like it does and how it relates to the old letter trays. Upper & lower case - cool tidbit too.

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    1. Yup.Serif faces are MUCH easier to read than modern sans serif ones. May your book come along well; it can be a frustrating (but wonderful) challenge!

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  3. Well shucks. I looked for the Bodoni typeface on my computer, but don't have it. Bummer. And yes, as Wendy mentioned, that's interesting to find out why upper and lower case letters are called that. Upper drawer, lower drawer. Makes perfect sense now!

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    1. Sometimes it's on computers as something else...and another nice one is Century Schoolbook (guess what they printed in THAT face?)

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  4. What a great posession to have. Do you use the tray for ‘sorting’ anything of your own? It must be wonderful when you look at it to think of the printer taking his type from it.

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    1. No, not really. I had it covered with a piece of clear plexiglass; it was hanging on the wall in my office for years!

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  5. How lovely to own such a interesting piece of "furniture". It makes a great statement with the letters of a time gone by. The arrangement of the letters makes sense when setting a print. Now all is computerized and handwork is getting scarcer and scarcer, all done now by robots!

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    1. I know -- I agree; I miss the graciousness of hand-set type...the type tray looks wonderful hanging on a wall!

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  6. The photo of the type tray is lovely --- and the subsequent description of the type trays and then Bodoni type face was great. Thanks! I learned a lot from this post.

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    1. Thanks, Joan...there are so many different typefaces; the old ones seem best to me! But then, I, too, am one of the old ones!

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  7. I remember beginning to use computers/word processors, and chosing the type fonts. It was such fun, and the results were too. Then I learned about some of the amazing artists who actually made the letters. Definitely an art.

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    1. I've got a couple of old font catalogs from type foundries...amazing art, especially the initial capitals -- swirls and flowers, etc. around a letter! Definitely art...

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  8. Now I will know what those trays are if I ever see them around the traps! :)

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    1. I see a lot of them here in New England, Alex...usually at flea markets. They're pretty -- good for displaying small things.

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