%0 Journal Article %T Technologies of Romance: on the choice of a typeface for a book and the possibilities for technological Romance %A Catherine Dixon %D 2019 %V %N Autumn 2019 %K book %K design %K font %K making %K publishing %K romance %K Technology %K typeface %X This paper offers a rationale for the typefaces chosen for the publication Technologies of Romance: Part II written by Paul O’Kane and celebrated at a symposium held at the Science Museum in November 2018. In setting out this rationale the paper broadens its considerations to reflect on the extent to which typefaces might in themselves usefully be considered as technologies of Romance. It locates the practice of noting in print the typeface used in a given publication both historically and within contemporary practice. The recording of the decisions informing the making of a book starts to hint at the nature of the book itself as a technology, and allows for some discussion of the values of ‘making’ books within both past and present contexts of production, including the challenge of digital readers. Elaboration on the decisions concerning the use of a given typeface for a publication then opens out a discussion of the intention behind selection, and both the functional and emotional ambitions of the typeface choice. The associative aims informing selection of a typeface are explored against an understanding of the associative embedding of meaning within aspects of the terminology of typefaces, as well as the scripts they represent and their designed forms. The paper explores for example the imperial associations embedded in the character shapes of the basic letterforms, as well as the technological implications of the terms such as uppercase and lowercase and the problematic colonial implications of the term ‘Latin’ to describe the script in question. In considering the archival possibilities of typefaces as technologies the paper concludes by reflecting on examples of digital typeface design practice, which have actively sought to re-imagine a previous era of letterpress typesetting technology and the possibilities for investigating ongoing Romantic ideals within this very particular and highly specialised design discipline. %Z The publication of O’Kane’s Technologies of Romance: Part II was celebrated at a symposium held at the Science Museum on 28 September 2018 at which this paper was first presented. %Z Hart’s new rules: the Oxford style guide (OUP, 2014) offers guidance to the information an Imprint page might contain. The term colophon is more typical in the USA, although confusingly it can refer to a publisher’s emblem or mark generally included on the title page of a book as well as to a statement giving information about a book’s printing. The location of the Imprint page or colophon is also inconsistent. Traditionally located at the front of a book these elements can also be found at its end too. %Z The argument for the invisibility of typography is most famously made by Beatrice Warde through her much-debated metaphor of typography as a ‘crystal goblet’, first presented as a talk in 1932 to the Society of Typographic Designers (formerly the British Typographers Guild) and later published in a book of essays. That same year Warde wrote her ‘Inscription for a Printing Office’ linking her ideas and the publicity ethos of the British Monotype Corporation for whom she worked to the ongoing debates on value in fine printing and book production. As Benton argues, ‘in that celebrated declaration she expressed a notion that had crystallized in the years following the First World War, the sense that the printed word represented both the ‘crossroads of civilization’ and that, ‘the more one values those intellectual and cultural traditions preserved by the printed book, the more imperative it was to invest care and quality in its production… More than mere factory workers or machine operators, it proclaimed, printers occupied ground made sacred by their exalted cultural function’ (Benton, 2000, p 33). %Z The Egan ‘Note on the type’ as quoted by Starre (2016, p 75): ‘The text of this book was set in Electra, a typeface designed by W A Dwiggins (1880–1956). This face cannot be classified as either modern or old style. It is not based on any historical model, nor does it echo any particular period or style. It avoids the extreme contrasts between thick and thin elements that mark most modern faces, and it attempts to give a feeling of fluidity and power.’ %Z See the work of Sarah Hyndman in exploring the relationship between some of the larger font personalities and multi-sensory perception in Why fonts matter (London: Virgin Books, 2016). See also the ongoing research of Julie Janet, who is currently studying for her PhD at the University of the Arts, London, exploring the design decisions that inform the meanings of letter shapes at the more micro-level of text typography. %I The Science Museum Group %@ 2054-5770 %B eng %U https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/choice-of-a-typeface/ %J Science Museum Group Journal