Illustration of a typometer. The upper edge is marked with millimeters, half centimeters and centimeters; the lower edge is marked with a typographic point scale in groups of three, six and twelve points (one quarter cicero, half a cicero and one cicero)Front and back of an old metal typometer with a hook for manual type setting.Plastic typometers, from the 1980s, with different scales.
A typometer is a ruler which is usually divided in typographic points or ciceros on one of its sides and in centimeters or millimeters on the other, which was traditionally used in the graphic arts to inspect the measures of typographic materials.[1] The most developed typometers could also measure the type size of a particular typeface, the leading of a text, the width of paragraph rules and other features of a printed text. This way, designers could study and reproduce the layout of a document.
One of the domains where the typometer was most widely used was the editorial offices of newspapers and magazines, where it was used along with other tools such as tracing paper and linen testers to define the layout of the pages of the publications, until the 1980s.[2]
Typometers were initially made of wood or metal (in later times, of transparent plastic or acetate), and were produced in diverse shapes and sizes.[3] Some of them presented several scales that were used to measure the properties of the text. Each scale corresponded with a type size or with a leading unit, if line blocks were divided by blank spaces. However, typometers could not be used to measure certain computer-generated type sizes, that could be set in fractions of points.[4]
Due to the technological advancements in desktop publishing, that allow for a greater precision when setting the type size of texts, typometers have disappeared from most graphic design related professions. It keeps being used, even today, by traditional printers who still employ type metal.
History
The idea of organising type sizes according to a particular point system first appeared during the 18th century, in the 1723 book La Science pratique de l'imprimerie, written by French printer and bookseller Martin-Dominique Fertel.[5] In 1737, French engraver and typecasterPierre-Simon Fournier (called Fournier the young) invented a tool in the shape of a square that he called prototype,[6] which allowed him to accurately measure type sizes. He also stablished the Fournier point, that could be used for the first time to set a correlation between a type size and a constant number of points. According to his own words,
Pour faire la combinaison des corps, il suffit de savoir le nombre de points typographiques dont ils sont composés. Il faut pour cela que les points ou grandeurs données soient invariables, de manière qu'il puissent servir de guides dans l'imprimerie, comme le pied de roi, les pouces et les lignes en servent dans la géométrie.
In order to combine type sizes, one only needs to know the number of typographic points that compose them. For that, it's important that the points or measures that are given remain constant, so they can be used as guides in the printing press, in the same way that the king's foot, the thumbs and the lines are used in geometry.
This way, in his Table des proportions (proportions table) published in 1737, Fournier the young proposed a scale consisting in 144 typographic points on which he distributed the type sizes that were commonly used in the printing press, which ranged from the Parisienne (the smallest size, which the exception of the Perle, which was rarely used) to the Grosse nonpareille (Great nonpareil, the largest size).[7]
However, Fournier's prototype presented a major disadvantage, because its system of measures was very difficult to compare with the royal inches (pouces de roi) that were commonly used in France at the time. For this reason, French printer François-Ambroise Didot (1730–1804) created a simplified system, which he called typometer,[8] and that he based on the pied du roi.[7][9] This invention was first described in the book Essai de fables nouvelles, by Pierre Didot, François-Ambroise's son.[10]
Didot's new measuring scale was divided in 288 typographic points, instead of the former 144, and described 12 type sizes, instead of the 20 or 22 listed by Fournier the young. As many of the sizes kept their names, but changed their dimensions, a great confusion ensued among printers, and some of them campaigned for a return to the older system.[7] Nevertheless, the Didot points were progressively adopted until becoming the norm. This way of measuring type based in the mediaeval royal units prevailed even after the French Revolution, when the metric system was adopted by France.
In Germany, the French typographic point system was never properly implemented, which resulted in a wide variability of dimensions for type metal. In order to try to solve this situation, in 1879, German and Prussian printer and businessman Hermann Berthold proposed his own system to standardise typographic points based on the metric system.[11] For that purpose, he divided a meter into 2660 identical typographic points. This measure, which is 0,0076% wider than the Didot point, became the current reference for printing. From 1897 on, German manufacturer A. W. Faber started commercialising sliding rulers that allowed typographers to calculate in a simple manner the measures of their layouts.
Notes and references
↑ Radics, Vilmos; Ritter, Aladár (1984). Make-up and typography. International Organization of Journalists. p.13. ISBN9789630231367. Retrieved 25 November 2016. The typometer is an instrument for measuring typographical denominations: type sizes, column width and depth, slugs, type area, etc.
↑ Salaverría Aliaga, Ramón (2006). "El nuevo perfil profesional del periodista en el entorno digital"(PDF). Actas de las XIII Jornadas de Jóvenes Investigadores en Comunicación - Nuevos retos de la comunicación: Tecnología, empresa, sociedad. Zaragoza, Spain: Universidad San Jorge: 175. Retrieved 24 November 2016. Herramientas como la máquina de escribir con papel de calco, el tipómetro o el teletipo suenan hoy a piezas de museo. Pero debemos recordar que aún en los años 1980 eran el estándar tecnológico en las redacciones de los diarios.
↑ Didot, Pierre (1786). Essai de fables nouvelles dédiées au roi (in French). París: François Ambroise Didot. pp.135–136. Retrieved 21 November 2016. Le typomètre est un étalon pour la mesure du corps des caracteres. C'est une platine d'acier, bordée en saillie par une équerre de même métal: un de ses côtés, mesuré en dedans l'équerre, est de 10 lignes et demie de pied-de-roi; l'autre côté, mesuré également en dedans, a 48 lignes ou 288 metres, la ligne étant divise en 6 metres. Ainsi le typomètre sert à vérifier en même temps le corps des caractères et leur hauteur en papier.
↑ Beinert, Wolfgang (15 January 2015). "Berthold, Hermann". typolexikon.de (in German). Retrieved 22 November 2016.
Typographic units are the units of measurement used in typography or typesetting. Traditional typometry units are different from familiar metric units because they were established in the early days of printing. Though most printing is digital now, the old terms and units have persisted.
Garamond is a group of many serif typefaces, named for sixteenth-century Parisian engraver Claude Garamond, generally spelled as Garamont in his lifetime. Garamond-style typefaces are popular and particularly often used for book printing and body text.
In typography, the point is the smallest unit of measure. It is used for measuring font size, leading, and other items on a printed page. The size of the point has varied throughout printing's history. Since the 18th century, the size of a point has been between 0.18 and 0.4 millimeters. Following the advent of desktop publishing in the 1980s and 1990s, digital printing has largely supplanted the letterpress printing and has established the DTP point as the de facto standard. The DTP point is defined as 1⁄72 of an international inch and, as with earlier American point sizes, is considered to be 1⁄12 of a pica.
Didot is the name of a family of French printers, punch-cutters and publishers. Through its achievements and advancements in printing, publishing and typography, the family has lent its name to typographic measurements developed by François-Ambroise Didot and the Didot typeface developed by Firmin Didot. The Didot company of France was ultimately incorporated into the modern CPI printing group.
Firmin Didot was a French printer, engraver, and type founder.
Joachim Menant was a French magistrate and orientalist.
Pierre-Simon Fournier was a French mid-18th century punch-cutter, typefounder and typographic theoretician. He was both a collector and originator of types. Fournier's contributions to printing were his creation of initials and ornaments, his design of letters, and his standardization of type sizes. He worked in the rococo form, and designed typefaces including Fournier and Narcissus. He was known for incorporating ‘decorative typographic ornaments’ into his typefaces. Fournier's main accomplishment is that he ‘created a standardized measuring system that would revolutionize the typography industry forever’.
Punchcutting is a craft used in traditional typography to cut letter punches in steel as the first stage of making metal type. Steel punches in the shape of the letter would be used to stamp matrices into copper, which were locked into a mould shape to cast type. Cutting punches and casting type was the first step of traditional typesetting. The cutting of letter punches was a highly skilled craft requiring much patience and practice. Often the designer of the type would not be personally involved in the cutting.
Modern typographers view typography as a craft with a very long history tracing its origins back to the first punches and dies used to make seals and coinage currency in ancient times. The basic elements of typography are at least as old as civilization and the earliest writing systems—a series of key developments that were eventually drawn together into one systematic craft. While woodblock printing and movable type had precedents in East Asia, typography in the Western world developed after the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century. The initial spread of printing throughout Germany and Italy led to the enduring legacy and continued use of blackletter, roman, and italic types.
Didot is a group of typefaces. The word/name Didot came from the famous French printing and type producing Didot family. The classification is known as modern, or Didone.
Guy Marchant was a printer of books, active in Paris from 1483 to 1505/1506. He had received a university education as a Master of Arts and is recorded as being a priest. He was succeeded by his nephew Jean Marchant (1504–1516).
Jean Paul Louis François Édouard Leuge-Dulaurier was a French Orientalist, Armenian studies scholar and Egyptologist.
The Imprimerie nationale, known also as IN Groupe brand, is a company specialized in the production of secure documents, such as identity cards and passports, and a supplier of public utility identification applications. Owned by the French state, its history dates back to the Manufacture royale d'imprimerie founded by Cardinal Richelieu. Its Président-directeur général (CEO) is Didier Trutt.
Alphonse Alkan was a French printer, bibliographer, and author. He was a brother of Eugène Alcan but the reason for the difference in the orthography of the family name has never been explained. He first worked as a practical printer, then wrote for various typographical and bibliographical reviews, and subsequently was appointed secretary and proof-reader to the Count de Clarac, keeper of the Museum of Antiquities in the Louvre. Alkan was a prolific writer and the author of many books, pamphlets, and articles, which deal with the art and history of printing and illustrating as well as with bibliography.
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Before the French Revolution, which started in 1789, French units of measurement that were founded on the Carolingian system, introduced by Charlemagne, which in turn were based on contemporaneous Byzantine and ancient Roman measures. Charlemagne brought a consistent system of measures across the entire empire. However, after his death, the empire fragmented and many rulers introduced their own variants of the units of measure.
Théophile de Bordeu was a French physician.
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Typometry was a short-lived relief printing technique developed during the 18th and 19th centuries to compose maps, drawings and other designs, using moveable type to reproduce words, lineworks and map symbols.
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