Page:Historic printing types, a lecture read before the Grolier club of New York, January 25, 1885, with additions and new illustrations; by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914; Grolier Club.djvu/83

TYPES OF FOURNIER AND DIDOT. 79 languages, many of the greatest beauty but it does not show many Roman types of decided superiority. 1 The forms of Roman type made in France during the xvmth century, which modern taste calls the best, are those Born 1712. of Pierre Simon Founder, of Paris. His faces are angular, Died nes. but they are firm and clear, well designed and clean cut, not unlike those of Caslon in general effect. Fournier rendered Merit of the types of a great service to typography by the invention of the sys- Foamier, tern of "typographic points," for determining the sizes and the proportions of types, a system which was gradually adopted by all the founders in France. His merit as a type-founder is fairly proved by the two volumes of his "Manuel Typographique," beautifully printed by Barbou, which shows many styles of Roman cut by his own hand. They fully justify the good taste of numerous French pub- lishers who have never abandoned his models. The Didot family has done much for the honor of French Bom 173O typography. Francois Ambroise Didot made great improve- Died ISM. ments in the manufacture of paper, and became famous as the printer of many beautiful editions. He readjusted the 1 The French forms of Roman types both the Roman and Italic of the have been out of favor in England for French school." Many of the smaller more than a century. Hansard says French foundries made types bad (p. 382), " The worst pretender to the enough to justify this severe criticism, art of letter-founding in this country Nor were all the punch-cutters of the needs never light a furnace again were Royal Printing-house of uniform merit, he to show such disproportionate cut- Firmin-Didot cannot refrain from cen- ting, such miserable lining, and such suring the pearl types of Louis Luce, despicable casting as are exhibited in as types that could not be read.