This week, living-on-the-edge meant exploring new numerology in the Dewey decimal system. Out of the E185s and GA201s and upstairs in Fenwick to the Z250s to resources on fonts and typefaces. Recasting a Craft: St. Louis Typefounders Respond to Industrialization by Robert Mullen (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2005) includes an appendix with samples of typefaces and their patent dates between 1851 and about 1923.
My original quest was simply a quick fix on what typefaces were extant
during the nineteenth century, and therefore, what might be appropriate for web pages focusing on the latter years. In fact, there was a typographical
design explosion, particularly after the 1840s and particularly in
advertising. Improvements in the technologies of
typecasting and printing enabled foundries to develop designs and to get them to market more quickly than earlier reliance on handcrafting allowed. Growing literacy rates fed their marketability. "The taste for ornamentation grew
excessive. ...Often many lines of advertising copy, each row set in a
different elaborate face, were used in ads." (77). (See advertisement at left for the Boston Museum, circa 1850)
Type Style Finder: the Busy Designer's Guide to Choosing Type by Timothy Samara (Gloucester, Massachussetts: Rockport Press, 2006) divides type styles into moods, concepts, time and context, and age groups. Color guides and sample color combinations appropriate to the era or the theme accompany font samples. There are 24 Victorian-era typeface suggestions and color guides with CMYK values and the explanation that "Deep violet hues are the cornerstone of Victorian color, especially in combination with rich, dark wood tones...." (184)
So choices abound according to the content and tone of the web pages within the parameters of historical accuracy.
