A note on the type

This book was set in Electra, a typeface designed for Linotype by W.A. Dwiggins, the renowned type designer (1880–1956). Electra is a fluid typeface, avoiding the contrasts of thick and thin strokes that are prevalent in most modern typefaces.

This book was set in Minion, a typeface produced by the Adobe Corporation specifically for the Macintosh personal computer, and released in 1990. Designed by Robert Slimbach, Minion combines the classic characteristics of old style faces with the full complement of weights required for modern typesetting.

The text of this book was set in Linotype Sabon, named after the type founder, Jacques Sabon. It was designed by Jan Tschichold and jointly developed by Linotype, Monotype and Stempel, in response to a need for a typeface to be available in identical form for mechanical hot metal composition and hand composition using foundry type. Tschichold based his design for Sabon roman on a fount engraved by Garamond, and Sabon italic on a fount by Granjon. It was first used in 1966 and has proved an enduring modern classic.

This book is set in the Adobe fonts Berthold Baskerville Book and Bodoni, comtemporary adaptations of fonts created by John Baskerville in the mid–eighteenth century, and by Giambattista Bodoni in the early nineteenth century. The headings are set in Bodoni Poster, Bodoni Poster Compressed, and Bodoni Bold Condensed.

The body typeface used in this book is set in 10 x 14.75 Janson Text. This type dates from about 1690 and was cut by Nicholas Kis, a Hungarian in Amsterdam. The display face used is set in 85 point Diotima RomanSC. This type was designed by Gudrun Zapf-v. Hesse. A light roman with thin, flat serifs and wide letters is shaded to 20 per cent black.

This book was set in a modern adaptation of a type designed by the first William Caslon (1692–1766). The Caslon face, an artistic, easily read type, has enjoyed over two centuries of popularity in our own country. It is of interest to note that the first copies of the Declaration of Indedpendence and the first paper currency distributed by citizens of the new–born nation were printed in this typeface.

The text of this book was set in Requiem, created in the 1990s by the Hoefler Type Foundry. It was derived from a set of inscriptional capitals appearing in Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi's 1523 writing manual, Il Modo de Temperare le Penne. A master scribe, Arrighi is remembered as an exemplar of the chancery italic, a style revived in Requiem Italic.

The text of this book was set in Filosofia, a typeface designed by Zuzana Licko in 1996 as a revival of the typefaces of Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813). Licko, born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, in 1961, is the cofounder of Emigre, a digital type foundry, and publisher of Emigre magazine, based in Northern California.

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Ever since I can remember, the very first thing I've done when settling down with a new book is to read "A note on the type."

It's a way of intellectually limbering up, as it were, or something similar: it just feels good.

As a rule "A note on the type" is on the very last printed page in a book.

Very few paperbacks have this feature and most hardbacks do not either; I went through about 30 books in my "to read" area to get the eight whose notes I reproduced above.

How many books are in my "to read" area, you might be wondering.

About 60 nonfiction titles and an equal or greater number of novels.

If you buy a book then you don't have to read it, I once read somewhere; that's one explanation, anyhow, for the fact that they arrive faster than they depart.

Can't help it: I confess — I am an addict.

While I was compiling these notes it occurred to me that a website consisting of nothing but notes on the type, with the name and author of the book and other details such as year of publication furnished as well, would be an interesting online destination.

I put anoteonthetype.com into the URL box up top and voila, it's taken: it turns out to be the website of one Craig McCaffrey, an artist and designer whose portfolio is displayed thereon.

I'll be sure to email him as soon as this goes up so he has an explanation as to why all of a sudden his traffic spiked.