Haarlem, Holland, who is said to have invented types of wood about 1428, and at a later date types of metal, with which he printed several small books. Coster's types are stated to have been stolen by one of his workmen and conveyed to Mainz, Germany, where this workman introduced typography. Among those for whom the honor of the invention is claimed are: Albrecht Pfister, of Bamberg, Germany; Pamphilo Castaldi, of Feltre, Italy; Johannes Mentel, of Strassburg, Germany; and Procopius Waldvogel, of Prague, whose claims are based on unreliable authority. None of the alleged inventors established the art or left worthy successors. It is to Gutenberg that we owe the practical establishment of typography. The facts in Gutenberg's career as a printer are meagre. There is an unsatisfactory record that he experimented with printing at Strassburg in 1439. In 1448 he had a printing office at Mainz; in 1455 he was sued by John Fust (q.v.), who was associated with him in the enterprise, for the recovery of money lent, and judgment being secured against him, Fust seized his printing house equipment. Another printing establishment was started by Gutenberg, who operated it until his death, about 1468, in partnership with Peter Schöffer. Meanwhile Fust had continued the operation of the printing establishment founded by Gutenberg. Upon the sacking of Mainz by the Archbishop Adolf in 1462 the pupils and workmen of these printers were scattered and the art, which had been carefully guarded as a secret, became widely known. Printing was practiced in Rome in 1467; in Paris in 1469; in Spain in 1474; and in England in 1477, the first press in this last country being set up at Westminster Abbey by William Caxton (q.v.). The first press in the New World was established at the City of Mexico in 1540 and this was followed by one in Peru at Lima in 1584. The first press in the British colonies of North America was set up at Harvard College in 1638, and this press still continues under the name University Press.
In a brief review of the development of printing it is impossible more than to allude to the work of such famous printers as Aldus Manutius (q.v.), who, with other members of the same family, published the famous Aldine Editions (q.v.), the Elzevirs (q.v.), whose activities extended from 1583 to 1712, and the Stephens of Paris, famous for their editions of the Scriptures and the classics.
Modern Printing Types. Types of metal are manufactured by a process of founding. (See Type-Founding.) The earliest types used were of the style known as Gothic or black-letter, which was afterwards superseded, except in Germany, Russia and Greece, by the Roman letter. (See Black-Letter.) Printers have a distinct name for each size of type, and use about 16 sizes in different descriptions of book-work; by the older terminology the smallest is called brilliant, the next diamond, and then follow in gradation upward, pearl, agate, nonpareil, minion, brevier, bourgeois, long primer, small pica, pica, English, great primer, and double pica. The larger sizes generally take their names thus—two-line pica, two-line English, four, six, eight, or ten-line pica, etc. Other nations designate many of these sizes by different names. Some of these names were given from the first maker; others from the books first printed with the particular letter. Thus, Cicero is the name of a type in France and Germany, with which Cicero's letters were first printed (Rome, 1467); pica is from the ritual book, termed pica or pie; primer, from Primarius, the book of prayers to the Virgin; brevier, from breviary; canon, from the canons of the Church, etc. The following illustrates the size of the various types named:
| 1—Brilliant, | International. |
| 2—Diamond, | International. |
| 3—Pearl, | International. |
| 4—Agate or Ruby, | International. |
| 5—Nonpareil, | International. |
| 6—Minion, | International. |
| 7—Brevier, | International. |
| 8—Bourgeois, | International. |
| 9—Long Primer, | International. |
| 10—Small Pica, | International. |
| 11—Pica, | International. |
| 12—English, | International. |
| 13—Great Primer, | International. |
At present in Europe and America, generally, printers use a numerical nomenclature instead of the old nomenclature given above and commonly used by the layman. This nomenclature, as adopted by the United States Typefounders' Association in 1886, is as follows:
| OLD NAME | Square of “body” in inches |
New name |
| point | ||
| Excelsior | 0.0415 | 3 |
| 0.0484 | 3½ | |
| Brilliant | 0.0553 | 4 |
| Diamond | 0.0622 | 4½ |
| Pearl | 0.0692 | 5 |
| Agate | 0.0761 | 5½ |
| Nonpareil | 0.0830 | 6 |
| Minion | 0.0968 | 7 |
| Brevier | 0.1107 | 8 |
| Bourgeois | 0.1245 | 9 |
| Long Primer | 0.1383 | 10 |
| Small Pica | 0.1522 | 11 |
| Pica | 0.1660 | 12 |
A complete assortment of types is called a font, which may be regulated to any extent. American founders assort characters by weight and not by count. As types of the same body vary in width (some thin and some wide), a specification by count of single types would be misleading as to weight. The following table shows the relative frequency of the letters in composition:
| e | 1,000 |
| t | 770 |
| a | 728 |
| i | 704 |
| s | 680 |
| o | 672 |
| n | 670 |
| h | 540 |
| r | 528 |
| d | 392 |
| l | 360 |
| u | 296 |
| c | 280 |
| m | 272 |
| f | 236 |
| w | 190 |
| y | 184 |
| p | 168 |
| g | 168 |
| b | 158 |
| v | 120 |
| k | 88 |
| j | 55 |
| q | 50 |
| x | 46 |
| z | 22 |
The types used in printing offices are sorted in different boxes of two shallow trays known as upper and lower case, the latter lying nearest the compositor upon the frame for their support. The lower case is placed
