<html><head><meta name="color-scheme" content="light dark"></head><body><pre style="word-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;">\title{Malcolm's Gleanings}
\author{Malcolm Clark}
\begin{article}
\section{Quotes}
`LaTeX, developed at UCLA\dots' Seybold Report on Publishing
Systems, volume~20, number~7, 1990.

`When I first started using \TeX, I would have said that
if you don't actually need it you should opt for one of
the more friendly alternatives. With the benefit of a few
hours experience behind me, however, I have to say that
I'm becoming hooked. Don't exclude it on the grounds of
perceived user unfriendliness, since you'll be throwing
away the chance of first-class output.'' Computer Shopper,
number~52, June 1992, pages 128 \&amp; 130.


\section{Frame 0, \TeX\ 1}
A recent advertisement from Framemaker claimed that it
`runs on more platforms than any other publishing
program'. This is manifestly incorrect and the
was referred to the Advertising Standards
Authority as an example of an advertisement which was not
`honest and truthful'. The ASA upheld the complaint, as
outlined in their Monthly Report 12 for 1992, released on
May 13th. A consequence of this decision will be that the
offending advertisement will have to be withdrawn or
re-written.

Because of \TeX's public domain nature, we have no
obvious way of combating the misinformation purveyed by
commercial vendors of alternative publishing systems, and
it depends upon the motivation of individuals to
challenge such advertisements. That means you. If you
can't be bothered yourself, forward any misleading
information of this type to me, and I'll take it up.
We've been nice guys for too long.

\section{Book Review}
{\em Books and Printing, A Treasury for Typophiles}, Paul A
Bennett, editor, Frederic C Biel, Savannah, 1991 (reissue
of 1951 edition), 417pp, ISBN 0-913720-72-0

This is a collection of short articles (from many
sources) collected by Paul Bennett. It covers many
aspects of printing and publishing, historical,
aesthetic, discursive and bombastic. Some very well-known
names are present: I picked the book up originally
because it had Beatrice Warde's  famous essay `Printing
should be invisible', where she elaborates her metaphor
of drawing a parallel between wine in a fine crystal
goblet and typography. She also coins the phrase `stunt
typographer' for those who amaze with `vulgar
ostentation'.  As a colleague of Stanley Morison, it is
natural then to skip to Morison's `First principles of
typography'. It is in this prescription for appropriate
typography that Morison expounds his belief that the
average line should contain between 10 and 12 words. But
there is much more here, often stated rather than
demonstrated, but usually with some appeal to a plausible
explanation. The underlying theme however is little
different to Warde's. Eric Gill's article on Typography
contains the recommendation that `using Italics to
emphasize single words should be abandoned in favour of
the use of ordinary Lower-case with spaces between the
letters (l\,e\,t\,t\,e\,r-s\,p\,a\,c\,e\,d)'. Gill,
perhaps the last flowering of the Arts and Crafts
movement, notes that `(it) is not that Industrialism has
made things worse,  but that it has made them different',
and observation that might be applied to the new
publishing of the 90s. Goudy too recounts some of the
thinking and beliefs which he put into action in the
design of his typefaces. Orcutt's The anatomy of a book
identifies the physical structure which is partially
exemplified in SGML and \LaTeX, but fills in some of the
details of the whys. This article is used as the basis of
a symposium which is given here too, discussing whether
there had been any material changes in that structure.

What is missing from this book? It is a very American
view of the world: perhaps one might be gracious and
extend that to `english speaking', but in truth the vast
majority of writers are American. Virtually the only time
that `comptemorary' European typography makes an
appearance is in Updike's round condemnation of
the Bauhaus School, and especially its rejection of upper
case. This illustrates  number of points: typographers,
as exemplified in this book, are conservative -- this is
often stated as a good thing by the writers, and their
reasoning seems valid today. They are essentially book
people, where the function of the typography is to convey
meaning. Advertising typography is something else. But
this conservatism spills over into what appears to be a
total isolation from the political and social context.
Somehow they manage to realise the social impact of
Gutenberg, but not of the Bauhaus' inherent political
statement in removing the distinction between upper and
lower case. (Yes, Gill is more aware of the social
context, but he was English.)  This is therefore a rather
one-sided or even lop-sided view of the world. Recalling
that most of the articles were first published when the
USA was pursuing its policy of isolationism, this is
perhaps not too surprising. I would still have loved to
see but one article by (say) Tschichold.

This quibble aside, there is much to mine in here, from
details of Shaw's relationship with his printers and
publishers (following his strict instructions on word
spacing, they hyphenated \hbox{a-n} and \hbox{t-he}: he
relented), to supposed histories of the alphabet. Besides
the chart from Dwiggens, a rather remarkable feature of
the book is that each article is in a different typeface.
Besides giving the rare opportunity to compare typefaces
when many other factors are held constant, like page
size, paper quality, inking and so on, it has the rather
convenient feature of making it easier to spot when
articles change, if you are flicking through looking for
the start of a particular article.

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