''A Tally of Types'' is a book on

typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), and ...

authored by the type designer

Stanley Morison Stanley Arthur Morison (6 May 1889 – 11 October 1967) was a British typographer, printing executive and historian of printing. Largely self-educated, he promoted higher standards in printing and an awareness of the best printing and typefaces o ...

. It was first published in 1953, and showcases significant

typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are list of type ...

designs A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

produced during Morison's tenure at the Lanston

Monotype Corporation Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., founded as Lanston Monotype Machine Company in 1887 in Philadelphia by Tolbert Lanston, is an American (historically Anglo-American) company that specializes in digital typesetting and typeface design for use with ...

for their hot-metal

typesetting Typesetting is the composition of text by means of arranging physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or ''glyphs'' in digital systems representing ''characters'' (letters and other symbols).Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random Ho ...

machines during the 1920s and 1930s in England. According to Brooke Crutchley, University Printer at the

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, the book "first appeared in 1953, when it was issued as a Christmas keepsake to 'friends of the University Printer in printing and publishing'"; only 450 copies were printed and distributed of this original edition. The author, a scholarly British pioneer historian and typographer, was the driving force behind Monotype's dynamic typographic programme of research and revival of representative historical typographic models. The book was compiled and written at Crutchley's request. ''A Tally of Types'', now republished many times, has proven to be an important source of information on typography. In the 1973 edition, three appendices were added, describing typeface designs developed since the original printing. A recent edition includes an introduction by digital-typography pioneer Mike Parker. ''A Tally of Types'' holds a critical account, in Morison's erudite style, of the typeface designs cut under his watchful eye during typography's most influential typeface revival project, turning his detailed insight into the inner workings of early 20th century type design into an enduring record of the practice of typography.

Typeface designs discussed

* Bruce Rogers' Centaur Roman * Alfred Fairbank's

Arrighi Italic Arrighi is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Christine Arrighi, French politician * Ernest Arrighi de Casanova, French Bonapartist politician *Gianluca Arrighi, Italian novelist *Giovanni Arrighi, Italian sociologist * Giuseppe ...

, also called Bembo Condensed Italic * Bembo Italic, based on the work of

Francesco Griffo Francesco Griffo (1450–1518), also called Francesco da Bologna, was a fifteenth-century Italian punchcutter. He worked for Aldus Manutius, designing the printer's more important humanist typefaces, including the first italic type. He cut Roman, Gr ...

for

Aldus Manutius Aldus Pius Manutius (; it, Aldo Pio Manuzio; 6 February 1515) was an Italian printer and humanist who founded the Aldine Press. Manutius devoted the later part of his life to publishing and disseminating rare texts. His interest in and preserv ...

around 1495 * Poliphilus Roman, based on the work of Francesco Griffo for Aldus Manutius around 1495 * Blado Italic, based on the work of

Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi ( Cornedo Vicentino, 1475?–1527?) was a papal scribe and type designer in Renaissance Italy. Very little is known of the circumstances of his life. He may have started his career as a writing master in Venice, ...

Garamond Garamond is a group of many serif typefaces, named for sixteenth-century Parisian engraver Claude Garamond, generally spelled as Garamont in his lifetime. Garamond-style typefaces are popular and particularly often used for book printing and b ...

Roman, thought to be based on the work of

Claude Garamond Claude Garamont (–1561), known commonly as Claude Garamond, was a French type designer, publisher and punch-cutter based in Paris. Garamond worked as an engraver of punches, the masters used to stamp matrices, the moulds used to cast metal ty ...

but now known to be the work of

Jean Jannon Jean Jannon (died 20 December 1658) was a French Protestant printer, type designer, Punchcutting, punchcutter and typefounder active in Sedan, Ardennes, Sedan in the seventeenth century. He was a reasonably prolific printer by contemporary standa ...

Granjon Granjon is an old-style serif typeface designed by George W. Jones around 1924 for the British branch of the Linotype company, and based on the Garamond typeface that was used in a book printed by the Parisian Jean Poupy in 1592. The roman desi ...

Italic, based on the work of Jean Jannon (as above) * Fournier roman and italic, based on the work of

Pierre-Simon Fournier Pierre-Simon Fournier (15 September 1712 – 8 October 1768) was a French mid-18th century punch-cutter, typefounder and typographic theoretician. He was both a collector and originator of types. Fournier's contributions to printing were his cre ...

* Barbou Roman, based on the work of Pierre-Simon Fournier *

Baskerville Baskerville is a serif typeface designed in the 1750s by John Baskerville (1706–1775) in Birmingham, England, and cut into metal by punchcutter John Handy. Baskerville is classified as a Serif#Transitional, transitional typeface, intended as a ...

Roman and Italic, cut for

John Baskerville John Baskerville (baptised 28 January 1707 – 8 January 1775) was an English businessman, in areas including japanning and papier-mâché, but he is best remembered as a printer and type designer. He was also responsible for inventing "wov ...

John Handy John Richard Handy III (born February 3, 1933) is an American jazz musician most commonly associated with the alto saxophone. He also sings and plays the tenor and baritone saxophone, saxello, clarinet, and oboe. Biography Handy was born in ...

Bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...

Roman and Italic, cut by Richard Austin for John Bell * Goudy Modern Roman and Italic, by

Frederic Goudy Frederic William Goudy (, March 8, 1865 – May 11, 1947) was an American printer, artist and type designer whose typefaces include Copperplate Gothic, Goudy Old Style and Kennerley. He was one of the most prolific of American type designers and ...

Perpetua Perpetua and Felicity ( la, Perpetua et Felicitas) were Christian martyrs of the 3rd century. Vibia Perpetua was a recently married, well-educated noblewoman, said to have been 22 years old at the time of her death, and mother of an infant son s ...

Roman, by

Eric Gill Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as ″the greatest artist-cra ...

* Felicity Italic, by Eric Gill * Stanley Morison and

Victor Lardent Victor Lardent (1905–1968) was a British advertising designer and draftsman at ''The Times'' in London. He created the typeface Times New Roman under the artistic direction of Stanley Morison in 1931, which is commonly used in Microsoft Word. Ca ...

Times New Roman Times New Roman is a serif typeface. It was commissioned by the British newspaper ''The Times'' in 1931 and conceived by Stanley Morison, the artistic adviser to the British branch of the printing equipment company Monotype, in collaboration wit ...

Appendices added in the 1973 edition

Jan van Krimpen Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...

's Van Dijk, written by Netty Hoeflake * Ehrhardt, based on the work of

Miklós Tótfalusi Kis Miklós Tótfalusi Kis ( hu, Misztótfalusi Kis Miklós) (1650 - March 20, 1702) was a Hungarian letter cutter, typeface designer, typographer and printer. Kis was one of the first printers and letter cutters of the Georgian type letters. He ma ...

, by Harry Carter * Jan van Krimpen's Romulus, written by

John Dreyfus John G. Dreyfus (15 April 1918 – 29 December 2002) was a British book designer and historian of printing who worked for Cambridge University Press and the Monotype printing company. He was also president of the ATypI trade association. ''Into P ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tally of Types Typography 1953 non-fiction books

Typeface designs discussed

Appendices added in the 1973 edition

Further reading

References