Lire & Récréer

A register of books as made objects

Section V3 entries
Signatures N · O · P

Setting the type.

Composition

Setting the type is where the page is actually decided: the measure, the word spacing, and what a correction costs. These entries run from letters picked out of a case to lines cast in lead alloy.

A compositor's stick with type in it
The composing stick holds the line at the fixed measure while the compositor justifies it by hand, space by space.CreditMatej / Pexels

Entries in Composition

Filed by fold

  • Hand setting

    Type from the case into a stick, justified by hand with spaces, locked into a forme.

    Signature N
    Composition
  • Hot metal

    Linotype casts a line at a time and changes what a correction costs.

    Signature O
    Composition
  • The Penguin Composition Rules

    Jan Tschichold imposed a single typographic standard on an entire list in 1947.

    Signature P
    Composition

Elsewhere in the register