Bembo typeface history
![bembo typeface history bembo typeface history](http://www.meaningfultype.com/images/garamond/garamond_characteristics.png)
MORISON knew his task and dedicated himself to perfecting type for mass production. It is from this intention to multiply lettering that printing derives its nature.'' In the inscription, the thing intended is unique, complete in itself in the punch, the thing intended is an instrument for the multiplication of lettering. In his essay ''The Art of Printing,'' Morison is magisterial about the work: ''The cutting of an inscription is a simpler job than the cutting of a punch but, apart from the difference in skill, there is a difference in intention. In his 1924 essay, ''Towards an Ideal Roman Type,'' Morison states his criteria: ''When we ask what it is we are entitled to demand of a typeface before judging that it is satisfactory, we find that at least two things are required: first, that the essential form corresponds with that handed down and secondly, that the letters compose perfectly into words.'' To be certain of his first point Morison sought samples of letters designed by the first masters of printing centuries before and had the punch cutters at Monotype produce several versions of each in metal. Instead of simply revising the latest version of a particulatypeface, Morison researched the ancient originals of typefaces, not only for the thrill of learning but also for inspiration in creating new type. At their request, he presented them with ''a program of typographical design, rational, systematic, and corresponding effectively with the foreseeable needs of printing.'' As a result he became Monotype's typographical adviser. Morison was in his 30's when his work brought him to the notice of executives at Monotype. On his release in 1917, he returned to printing he worked for four years at the small Pelican Press learning layout and design and then for Cloister Press, respected for the quality of its work, as ''typographical artist'' in charge of the composing room. During World War I, he became a conscientious objector, one of the founders of the Guild of the Pope's Peace, and was sent to prison. When the magazine failed, he was hired by a Catholic publishing house dedicated to fine printing. He then worked for a magazine for printers, where he learned machine composition and began to write articles. When he was 16 he went to work as a clerk for a Protestant Bible society, but he was fired when he became a Catholic at 20. Morison's father was a failure as a traveling textile salesman his mother ran a grocery store, and the schools Morison attended resembled Dickensian workhouses. He was a determined and clever researcher, who was as interested in the sequence of strokes forming a letter of the alphabet in an old manuscript as he was in the appropriateness of handwriting exercises being offered to 9-yearolds. His delight in discovering origins, variations, misconceptions and subtle ironies is reflected in his writings.
![bembo typeface history bembo typeface history](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HCWPJFeVwaQ/TOjGOyQn0VI/AAAAAAAABUg/eq9CucWVq0I/s1600/bodoni.poster.jpg)
David McKitterick's collection of them is complete and very gratifying. Until now his essays were not available to most readers. Through 40 years he set down his ideas in essays and memorandums, which circulated among a very small group of designers, printers and press executives these ideas changed the appearance of the words we read in print today. Morison, in his youth, began studying the earliest written and carved forms of letters, and he transformed some of them into eminently readable letters that could withstand the abuse of highspeed presses. Others, influenced by William Morris and John Ruskin, began using elaborate, flowery typefaces, all of them expensive to replace and many of them grotesque.
![bembo typeface history bembo typeface history](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/8a/61/59/8a6159d84ecb3bf6fb3b9b329fc342b0.jpg)
Certain book printers clung to hand-set type for a time. Inevitably, the new method was resisted by some. In the 19th century, the Monotype Corporation in England invented machinery to set type, and this mechanical system quickly changed the printing industry throughout the world. Endowed with good taste and having mastered modern technology, he created typefaces that showed the world how appealing the printed word can be. THE late Stanley Morison, who never attended a university and had no training in visual arts, became the staunchest advocate of legibility a reader could want, the most sensitive and demanding defender of clear letter-form in the world of printing and a universally respected scholar. SELECTED ESSAYS ON THE HISTORY OF LETTER FORMS IN MANUSCRIPT AND PRINT By Stanley Morison.