Figures 6 & 7
Fournier’s perfected Table of Proportions for his Point System
From Fournier’s Manuel Typographique, Paris, 1764
1764
Fournier describes his invention as something “new and unknown.”
To combine the bodies it is sufficient merely to know the number of typographical points in each. To do this, these points or given units should be invariable, so that they will serve as standards in printing-offices, like the pied du roi, the inch, and the line in geometry. To this end I have fixed the exact size which the points should have, in a scale which is at the head of my Table of Proportions, and to insure the invariable exactitude in casting types, I have devised an instrument which I have called a prototype.…
The invention of these points is the first tribute which I rendered into typography in 1737. Obliged since then to start on a long, difficult and laborious career by engraving all the punches necessary to the establishment of my foundry, I found no rule to guide me in fixing the body of the characters which I was obliged to make. I was therefore forced to formulate my own principles, which i have done, and which I have rendered comprehensible by the following table.