Notes

Between May 1946 and April 1947 Carl Dair had published twelve monthly articles called ‘Type Talks’ for the Printing Review of Canada. Those articles were combined to make the third booklet in the series on type and paper for The E. B. Eddy Company. The period immediately following the Second World War was a dynamic one for Canada. Thousands of soldiers were returning to civilian life and the economy was surging forward. People were looking towards a bigger and hopefully better future, all they needed were the right tools. In this 24 page booklet Dair provides a solid foundation for the proper understanding of both typefaces and typography. Starting with the basic classification of typefaces, he goes on to carefully explain the meaning of common typographic terms such as texture, spacing, harmony, contrast and copy-fitting. Type Talks, and Type & Paper, were soon republished. – Rod McDonald

Artifact Text:

INTRODUCTION

Excellence of typography is the one method by which a printer can achieve excellence in the graphic arts; it is at once the most noticeable feature of his work and the hallmark of his craftsmanship.

Most standard works on typography are hard to come by; they are either out of print, out of date, or written in other than the English language. When Printing Review of Canada published the series of Type Talks by Carl Dair, the requests that were made for their publication in booklet form gave evidence that they filled a need.

The company was very glad to undertake this project as a part of our efforts to provide printers with aids to better and more effective printing. We therefore commissioned the author to prepare his material in a form which would be complete and yet convenient for reference by printers, advertising agencies and printing buyers. This edition of Type Talks is the result; we hope it will prove a valuable and useful addition to your graphic arts library.

We acknowledge our indebtedness to Printing Review of Canada for permission to use the material, to the author for preparing this presentation, and to those typefounders who so generously cooperated in supplying lines of their type faces.