Modern Books Part 7: The Printed Book

The Printed Book by Harry G.
Aldis, M.A.
Cambridge: at the University Press 1916

- The Modern Book Part 7 -

The eye is so much occupied in deciphering the words of the
print that the mind is not at full liberty to grasp the meaning
the words are intended to convey. A book is much pleasanter
to read if the words are sufficiently distinct not to require a
sustained effort to disentangle them, and if the lines do not
crowd upon each other but are clearly enough defined to be
followed with ease. The spacing should correspond in some
degree to the natural intervals observed in reading aloud.
Good spacing, like good punctuation, is an aid to ready
comprehension of the subject matter, and may be likened to
phrasing in music.
Certain established features of the printed book, such as
title page, head-lines, and pagination, which were adopted
in the course of its development, were doubtless the
outcome of considerations of convenience. The printers of

some modern examples of fine printing, besides reverting to fifteenth-century models for their type, have also ignored
these aids to the ready use of a book. Instead of a title page telling us frankly the name and author of the book and
when and where printed, we are fobbed off with a brief title placed in bare isolation at the top of a page; the other
credentials are hidden away at the end of the volume, and not infrequently have to be painfully spelled out from a
maze of capitals. In these books head-lines are generally omitted, giving a decollated aspect to the page, suggestive
of the binder's guillotine. Shoulder notes sometimes take the place of head-lines, though why these excrescences
should be deemed preferable it is difficult to see. With the head-lines gone, the pagination is relegated to the foot of
the page, a singularly inconvenient position. Another affectation which shews signs of creeping in is that of omitting to
indent the first line of a paragraph. This renders the beginning of the paragraph indistinguishable from any other line,
and if the end of the preceding paragraph should happen to occupy the full extent of its line there is nothing to
indicate the break. A craving for doing something different and a certain amount of preciosity may have prompted
some of these deviations from what has been found by experience to be generally convenient. But it is much easier to
criticize than to attain perfection and the best work done in recent years both at private presses and by the leading
business printing houses is worthy to be placed beside the best work of the fifteenth century, and there is little else in
the interval to rank with them.

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