Sunday, March 8, 2015

Illustrations

An example of an illustration reproduced by The Meriden Gravure Company
The Anatomy of the Brain and Nerves by Thomas Willis contains illustrations that were reproduced by The Meriden Gravure Company in 1978, the book's publication date. 

I will not dwell on the history of The Meriden Gravure Company, but what is important to take about is the way this company reproduced these illustrations with such detail. The company was known for its ability to expertly reproduce high quality images which was first established through the use of full-tone collotype printing. This type of printing, however was retired in 1967, which was before the publish date of the book. Although full-tone collotype printing is an effective way of reproducing illustrations, due to the ability of the camera to record every detail of the original and transfers it to the ultimate plate, retaining all of the original's values, this was stopped and replaced by offset printing presses, which also produced high quality pictures. These offset printing presses relied on the use of fine screened 300-line half-tone processes. Half-tone is the reproduction of an illustration in which different tones of gray are made from different sized ink dots. This type of printing seems to match that of the above drawing due to the color of the image. So it would seem more logical to assume that the type of printing used for these illustrations found in my book of study is the offset printing presses using the fine screened 300-line half-tone process. 

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Typography


The Bembo, a Font Type
When I first heard about typography, I did not really see a difference between it and printing. Now, I've come to realize that my initial confusion is primarily due to the two being very intertwined (and, of course, my knowledge at the time greatly lacking). Printing is the actual making of the book, where as typography is the type of print it was produced in; typography is the appearance and style of what was printed. There are many different types of fonts, all of which goes under typography, and publishers have a reason why they use these different styles of word representation. What we will focus on is my book of study's typography, the font type Bembo.

The Bembo was first created in 1495, by Francesco Griffo. Griffo, who was from Venice, Italy, was considered one of the first modern type designers, meaning he created types for the mechanical craft of printing. He created the Bembo, which is considered one of the modern in its appearance compared to all types created in the 15th century.

Francesco Griffo, also known as Francesco da Bologna
The Bembo, after its initial creation, was brought back in 1929, by British typographer, Stanley Morison, along with a few other types. The Bembo is considered one of the best book typefaces ever produced for machine printing, especially when paired with Monotype printing. Each letter in the Bembo type has been altered in a way that the type, whether small or large, would be clearly legible and appealing to the reader, while remaining compact. The Bembo, at its time of creation, only had four weight (thickness of letters relative to height) with no italics, but now, within the Bembo style itselfs, there are many variations (check them out). 

Stanley Morison, the man credited for the revival of the Bembo.

Different Bembo Styles
Different Bembo Styles
Different Bembo Styles
Different Bembo Styles
Different Bembo Styles