Figure 275

Portion of Wilson’s Broadside Specimen, Glasgow

From A Specimen of Printing Types (scan)

1783

A specimen in broadside form came out in 1783 and illustrated an article on printing Chambers’ Cyclopædia. It shows a selection only of Wilson’s types, but exhibits fonts of roman and italic from six-line pica to pearl, and five sizes of black-letter. Of Greek types there are five sizes (the double pica being that of the Homer), and there are six sizes of Hebrew. All these fonts (with the exception of the two larger “blacks”) have been made more regular and mechanical than Caslon’s types, and, especially in mass, lack their colour.

See chapter 17