Usual widths for side-notes 179 This method extracts in a much clearer manner. will be found of service in giving a neater appearance to the page, especially when the notes are mainly made up of short citations, for they can be kept apart much better than when they have been set to appear in broad measure. 1 Note 1 is distinct, for it stands apart in its own column, and does not seem a part of note 2. 2 Note 2 is equally distinct; it stands apart from note 1, and cannot be confused with it. Half measure should not be used for long lines of poetry, nor for the only note on a page when that note makes but two nearly full lines; but three lines will justify the use of half measure. When long lines of verse are put in a note it is injudicious to break these lines in the middle to accommodate them to the half measure.1 It is a better practice to use the broad measure; but when the verse will not be broken, the half measure will be found more acceptable.2 SIDE-NOTES Side-notes, which add to the expense of composition, are not used as much as they were fifty years ago. The widths oftenest selected are one broad quotation (eight ems of six-point) and two narrow quotations (twelve ems of six-point). Types larger than six-point are seldom selected for explanatory matter in these narrow measures. 1 See notes on page 110. 2 See note on page 52. 180 Types used for cut-in notes Italic lower-case, frequently approved by many authors, is not a good selection; for italic has kerns which are easily broken, and its inclined letters contrast badly with the upright arabic figures that have to be used to specify dates, pages, or years. When permitted, use roman for side-notes. A cut-in note of good form. CUT-IN NOTES Cut-in notes, more troublesome than side-notes, are usually set in roman lower-case at least three sizes smaller than the type of the text. They need less space than subheadings. When set with a broad and clearly defined white line around each note they have distinction enough to compel the notice of a student. A short square of white space in the text is an unusual form which attracts attention, but it does not offend the eye, as does School-book antique type. any kind note in light of bold jobbing type, which spots the page like a blot of ink. Request is often made by publishers, who wish to give to cutin notes the boldness of subheadings, for types of a bolder face, like antique or condensed title-letter. These bold types are not wisely chosen for any standard book. They may be used in school-books, but they carry with them the suggestion of the overbold display of the advertising pamphlet. Italic is objectionable not only for its frailty, but for its weaken Advertiser's cut-in note. Centre- and shoulder-notes 181 ing of the emphasis that may be more needed for the words or phrases of italic in the text. This objection applies with equal force to the selection of italic for side-notes. CENTRE-NOTES Centre-notes are rarely used, although they are unavoidable in pocket editions of the Scriptures, for which pearl or diamond types are required, with still smaller characters in roman and italic for the signs to indicate the references. For this purpose superior letters are preferred to superior figures. SHOULDER-NOTE is the name given to the note that appears in the upper and outer corner only of the page. They are used in law work to define sections or chapters, or for special purposes of cross-reference, as well as in historical work to specify dates. The words SECTION IV. in the upper right-hand corner of the facsimile from Marchand (page 172) show the position and style of the old-fashioned shoulder note. P INDENTION RINTED WORDS need the relief of a surrounding blank as much as figures in a landscape need background or contrast, perspective or atmosphere. Even in a book of solid composition there is invariably more white than black on the page. Much of it may be in the margin, but the amount of white put between the lines and within each letter is greater than is supposed. It is not merely by the selection of suitable types, but by the graduation of blank space about its lines, that a title-page is made attractive or repelling. When these blanks have been removed from a properly spaced title-page, and the lines are huddled, the effect produced will be as unpleasing as that of a squeezed theatrical advertisement in a newspaper. On the contrary, too much relief of white space. Types need relief of blank space 183 may be as unpleasing as too little. If the blanks of the title are too wide, so that the coherence of straggling lines is not apparent at first glance, the effect of good composition is destroyed. What is of value for the title-page is of value also for the page of text. White space is required to make printing comprehensible. A new chapter is identified at once by a larger allowance of blank at the top of that page. A change of importance in the subject-matter of the text, like that of a document, extract, or letter, is more plainly indicated by putting a full blank line before and after the insert. A change of minor importance is indicated by putting a small square of white, known as the em quadrat, at the beginning of a new paragraph. This petty square of white makes a break in the regular outline of the page which arrests attention almost as plainly and more neatly than was done by the To or which were the paragraph-marks of the early printers.1 Much more might be said about the importance of suitable blanks for title-pages and chapter headings, but the relief of white space produced by the quadrats which are most used in the composition of book texts is all that can be considered under this 1 The repetition of these truisms may be of small value to compositors who have had experience in type-setting, but it seems to be sorely needed by the amateurs and the young compositors who are servilely imitat ing methods of huddling words which deservedly have been discarded for centuries. For an illustration of the old methods of pinching space and huddling words, see facsimiles on pages 34 and 173 of this book. |