Penguin Composition Rules were the guidelines written by typographer
Jan Tschichold
Jan Tschichold (born Johannes Tzschichhold, also known as Iwan Tschichold, or Ivan Tschichold; 2 April 1902 – 11 August 1974) was a German calligrapher, typographer and book designer. He played a significant role in the development of gra ...
for use in composing the pages and typography of
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Eric Gill's
Gill Sans
Gill Sans is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill and released by the British branch of Monotype from 1928 onwards.
Gill Sans is based on Edward Johnston's 1916 "Underground Alphabet", the corporate font of London Underground. ...
typeface, which he was careful to have spaced evenly. According to Tschichold establishing this quality was not immediately embraced by the compositors; “Every day I had to wade through miles of corrections (often ten books daily). I had a rubber stamp made: ‘Equalize letter-spaces according to their visual value.’ It was totally ignored; the hand compositors continued to space out the capitals on title-pages (where optical spacing is essential) with spaces of equal thickness.”Richard Doubleday, Jan Tschichold at Penguin Books: A Resurgance
Bruce Rogers) and Gill's Perpetua (typeface)">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 ...
typeface.
The covers conformed to the golden ratio (4⅜" × 7⅛", 111mm × 181mm). For Penguin's distinctive orange color, Tschichold replaced it with a warmer tone.
Books on the topic
* ''Jan Tschichold: Typographer'', Ruari McLean, David R. Godine, Publisher, 1975.
* ''Jan Tschichold: Master Typographer'', Cees W. De Jong, Thames & Hudson, 2008.
* ''Penguin by Design: A Cover Story'', Phil Baines, Penguin, 2005.
* ''Jan Tschichold, Designer: The Penguin Years'', Richard B. Doubleday, Oak Knoll Press, 2006.
See also
* ''Inspiring Penguins'', An online illustrated essay discussing Tschichold's work with Pengui * ''Jan Tschichold: Penguins, paperbacks and posters'', a Guardian slideshow of Tschichold and Pengui * ''The Jan Tschichold Justification'' at Type Cod * History of Penguin design, online at London's
Design Museum
The Design Museum in Kensington, London exhibits product, industrial, graphic, fashion, and architectural design. In 2018, the museum won the European Museum of the Year Award. The museum operates as a registered charity, and all funds generat ...
br> *
Style guide
A style guide or manual of style is a set of standards for the writing, formatting, and design of documents. It is often called a style sheet, although that term also has multiple other meanings. The standards can be applied either for gene ...