Category: Print Media

TGO & print media in the digital age

The latest book by Joseph W. Webb, Ph. D. and Richard M. Romano
The latest book by Joseph W. Webb, Ph. D. and Richard M. Romano

In their latest book “This Point Forward: The New Start the Marketplace Demands,” Dr. Joseph W. Webb and Richard Romano offer the following blunt words for printing company representatives: “There is nothing worse than a bald or gray-haired guy standing in front of a bunch of young executives talking about how exciting print is. You’re not a wise elder statesman. You risk being perceived as an old relic who has no clue.”

Webb and Romano are inveighing against print media romanticism, i.e. nostalgic talk about the love of print, how it smells and feels, that it doesn’t require batteries or tech support and that it doesn’t crash or steal your identity, etc. They write “an increasing number of today’s communications and advertising managers do not expect to use print. Why should they? It doesn’t serve their purpose. … Today’s marketing communications managers are highly skilled digital media experts, who are both creative and innovative, and who are fluent in the statistical nature of digital media analytics.”

These are fundamental truths; cultural changes are shaking up the media business and the printing industry is not the only one facing problems. Digital streaming and on-demand have forever disrupted traditional radio and TV broadcast advertising. Any media business that tries to remain some kind of analog island amid the digital ocean is going to be swept under by the next technology or economic tidal wave.

For printing companies, this means morphing away from a print-centric to a digital-centric strategy. Understood as one of many choices that media buyers use to achieve their objectives, print can play a valuable and even critical role. For example, targeted and personalized direct mail­ can be central to a campaign as long it is integrated with a web, email and social media presence where the results are measureable. In short, the future of print depends on its integration into data driven analytics; print needs to be tracked, measured and cost justified or budgets for it will dry up and dollars will be spent on other more effective media forms.

Udi Arieli presenting the Theory of Global Optimization
Udi Arieli presenting the Theory of Global Optimization

While Webb and Romano give an exhaustive review of the strategic reboot that printers require to be successful through 2020, they spend little time on the operational aspects of this transformation. Fortunately, there is someone in the printing industry that has developed a groundbreaking approach to production that makes print a competitive and attractive option for marketers and advertisers for decades to come. That person is Udi Arieli of EFI® and his approach is the Theory of Global Optimization (TGO).

What is the Theory of Global Optimization?

The Theory of Global Optimization is an approach to operational management that responds to all external and internal challenges facing the printing industry today. Its goals are to:

  • improve performance
  • increase throughput
  • accomplish more with diminishing resources
  • increase profitability

It does these things, not with automated and digital equipment although these are critical assets of the printing company of the future, but as a proactive management philosophy. TGO educates the entire organization against the reactive and narrow thinking that predominated in an era when companies could achieve success with limited or no business theory at all.

The two basic concepts of the Theory of Global Optimization are:

  1. Adopt the Global View
    Printing—as well as other custom or “pull” manufacturing businesses—is a chain of independent links. As the complexity of the production process increases and the company grows in size, the need for a global view of the business intensifies. A wider perspective beyond an individual project, client, cost center or machine must guide the decision making on a day-to-day and hour-by-hour basis. The profitability of the business is the result of the sum total of the performance of all jobs, customers, departments and equipment within the company; this is the global view.
  2. Optimize the System
    All areas of the establishment must be synchronized and optimized. The weakest links in the chain—the few constraints within the company that have the most impact on throughput, on-time delivery and costs—must be identified and managed. It is not possible for any individual no matter how talented to comprehend the complex interaction of these variables within the operation. Advanced computerized data collection and scheduling software are required to integrate and automate the critical decision making process.

Evolution of manufacturing theory

For years Udi Arieli has pointed to the relationship of his theory to previous generations of scientific management theory. That the Theory of Global Optimization contains the accomplishments of manufacturing theory going back to the beginning of the industrial revolution—and is also the modern day continuation of those achievements in the digital age—is proven by the following historical review:

  • 1801: Eli Whitney / Interchangeable Parts
    Eli Whitney
    Eli Whitney

    Whitney is known for two related contributions to industrialization: the mechanized of farming (invention of the cotton gin in 1793) and, although he did not originate it, the promulgation of interchangeable parts. Whitney’s name is associated with the concept of interchangeable parts—the production of identical components made to specifications such that one part can freely and easily replace another—because he demonstrated the principle by assembling ten guns from a pile of mixed parts in front of Congress in July 1801. In the later 1800s this method became known as the “American system of manufacturing” as it increasingly utilized machine tools and semi-skilled labor to produce the parts to specified tolerances instead of the manual labor of skilled craftsmen.

  • 1911: Frederick Taylor / Scientific Management
    Frederick W. Taylor
    Frederick W. Taylor

    At the turn of the twentieth century, Frederick Taylor extended the ideas and methods of the American system of manufacturing by studying labor productivity and introducing advanced planning into the production process. What is now known as “Taylorism” introduced ideas of scientific management and process management onto the production floor. Concepts such as “workflow” and “automation” emerged later from Taylor’s breakthrough stopwatch time and motion studies and his analysis of the functions and stages of the manufacturing process.

  • 1913: Henry Ford / Assembly Line
    Henry Ford in 1914
    Henry Ford in 1914

    Both interchangeable parts and scientific management methods were employed by Henry Ford in the startup of assembly line production of the Model T on December 1, 1913 in the Highland Park, Michigan. Also known as progressive assembly, the breakthrough of the assembly line was described by one of Ford’s top executives and engineers, Charles E. Sorenson, as “the practice of moving the work from one worker to another until it became a complete unit, then arranging the flow of these units at the right time and the right place to a moving final assembly line from which came a finished product.” Although this method had been pioneered by Ransom Olds in 1901, Henry Ford is credited with perfecting and sponsoring it by agreeing to the installation of a motorized conveyor belt that enabled a Model T to be assembled in 93 minutes.

  • 1950: W. Edwards Deming / Process Control
    W. Edwards Deming in 1953
    W. Edwards Deming in 1953

    Following World War II, W. Edwards Deming further advanced scientific management theory by demonstrating that organizational cooperation and learning can improve manufactured product quality and reduce costs; that effective process control requires data gathering and measurement; that every process has a range and causes of variation in quality; that production workers should participate in continuous improvement initiatives. Deming gained worldwide notoriety for his pioneering work with the leaders of Japanese industry during what became known as the “Japanese post-war economic miracle” of 1950-1960. At first, Deming’s ideas were eschewed in the US for a host of cultural reasons. But by the 1980s, he was working directly with Ford Motor Company on a top to bottom quality manufacturing initiative and he would go on the become one of the most sought after experts on business management.

  • 1984: Eliyahu Goldratt / Theory of Constraints (TOC)
    Eliyahu Goldratt
    Eliyahu Goldratt

    In 1984, Eliyahu Goldratt wrote a novel called “The Goal,” which tells the story of Alex Rogo the manager of a production plant owned by UniCo Manufacturing. Rogo’s dilemma is that the plant is always running behind schedule and his job is on the line with upper management if he proves incapable of fixing the problems. The book was a clever method for Goldratt to explain his Theory of Constraints. TOC involves the successful management of constraints in the manufacturing process, i.e. focusing on those links in the chain—equipment, people and/or policies—that are preventing the organization from achieving its goal. Much of Goldratt’s TOC approach is derived from Deming’s notion that organizational cooperation and learning are keys to achieving agreed upon objectives; that measurement of indicators is required to gauge the impact of continuous improvement decisions.

  • 1984: Udi Arieli / Theory of Global Optimization (TGO)

    Udi Arieli
    Udi Arieli

    In the 1970s, as the third generation owner/operator of his family printing company in Israel, Udi Arieli realized that printing companies needed two things: a more advance business theory and smart software tools to manage the complex challenges they faced. In 1984, Arieli founded a company dedicated to developing intelligent production management solutions for the printing industry. While working on software, he established the elements of the Theory of Global Optimization. Arieli saw that the modern printing establishment (like many manufacturing businesses) had multiple interdependent processes—some were serial and some were parallel—that made manual- or analog-based decision making nearly impossible. Extending Goldratt’s theories, Arieli recognized that managing constraints in this dynamic environment required that production processes be replicated in a computerized scheduling model such that they could be globally synchronized and optimized. TGO is also derived from Deming’s teachings in that it educates and changes the thought process and culture of the entire business organization.

The future of print production management systems

Today TGO is more than a theory; it has become the foundation science on which EFI builds its management solutions. PrintFlow Dynamic Scheduling, for example, was the first software developed by Udi Arieli and his team based on the Theory of Global Optimization. PrintFlow acts as an operational umbrella for the business, gathering information about jobs, delivery commitments, production plans, resource availability and raw materials—generating run lists based on the best plan, not for an individual job, but for the business as a whole.

PrintFlow uses sequencing and optimization algorithms to maximize throughput while, at the same time, offering “what-if” and “weak-link” analytics to address real-world situations in real-time. PrintFlow is smart software that works with literally thousands of pieces of information to deliver a globally optimized plan that evolves with every new job and every new situation a printing business encounters.

TGO has evolved to become the foundation of EFI’s Automated Intelligent Workflow, bringing the printing industry to new levels of efficiency and savings. Recognizing the value of the Theory of Global Optimization, EFI continues to invest significant resources into its product suite—Digital StoreFront®, its MIS/ERP solutions, PrintFlow, Fiery®, VUTEk® and Jetrion®—so that they operate according to TGO principles.

It is not accidental that Udi Arieli developed the Theory of Global Optimization as a solution to the problems of the printing industry, one of the most complex and largest custom manufacturing sectors of the economy. The great value of Theory of Global Optimization is that it provides a framework for printing company executives to make their way out of the analog world of landline phone call status updates and into the digital world of client dashboard apps, automated text communications and email tracking information. By utilizing TGO, the printing firm of today can begin the practical transition of becoming the integrated media supplier of tomorrow.

By employing sophisticated digital operations management tools, print media suppliers can interact with the young advertising and marketing clients—that Webb and Romano write about—in a manner that fits their lifestyle and habits, i.e. more like their digital media suppliers. If print is going to survive in the digital age, it has to become easier to order, easier to produce, easier to track and easier to cost justify. Now that is the new start that the marketplace demands.

Nicolas Jenson: c. 1420 – 1480

Artist Robert Thom’s depiction of Nicolas Jenson at his engraving bench
Artist Robert Thom’s depiction of Nicolas Jenson at his engraving bench

The term incunabula (Latin for “cradle”) is used to denote the earliest period of printing from its birth in 1450 up to January 1, 1501. The books, pamphlets and broadsides printed with the movable metal type method associated with Gutenberg during these first fifty years are also commonly called incunabulum.

It is estimated that 35,000 editions were printed throughout Europe—over two-thirds from Germany and Italy—during the second half of the fifteenth century. Remarkably, nearly 80% of these volumes still exist today, most of which are held in large public collections such as the Bavarian State Library in Munich, the Vatican Library in Vatican City and the British Library in London.

The Lenox copy of the Gutenberg Bible on display at the New York Public Library. It was the first complete set brought to the US in 1847.
The Lenox copy of the Gutenberg Bible on display at the New York Public Library. It was the first complete set brought to the US in 1847.

The most famous incunabulum, of course, is the 42-line bible printed by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany in the 1450s of which there are 48 copies remaining. Since they were printed in two volumes, many of these copies are incomplete. James Lenox brought the first complete set of the Gutenberg Bible to the US in 1847 after he bought it for $2,500; it now sits on display at the New York Public Library. The last sale of a complete Gutenberg Bible took place in 1978 and went for $2.2 million; it is estimated that one would sell for $25-$35 million today.

The British Library maintains an international electronic bibliographic database of extant incunabulum. Called the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue (ISTC), the database was begun in 1980 and currently contains 27,460 records. The ISTC is an extraordinary merger of modern and Renaissance information technology. That anyone can peruse these records—many of which have links to high-resolution images of 500-year old incunabulum—is a testament to both the lasting achievement of print and the significance of its electronic descendent, the World Wide Web.

* * * * *

Next to Gutenberg himself, Nicolas Jenson is recognized as the most important figure of the incunabula. Despite limited records of his life—his last will and testament, a few book introductions written by others and some document fragments—the legacy of Nicholas Jenson survives through his printed works.

According to Martin Lowry, the printing scholar and author of “Nicholas Jenson and Rise of Venetian Publishing in Renaissance Europe,” the first official biography of Jenson was written in the late 1700s and amounted to “a two-volume potpourri of erudition and fantasy.” While arguing that Nicolas Jenson has become something of a printing cult-figure, Lowry does conclude that Jenson’s “place at the very beginning of the typographic age gives him a special importance.”

It is known that Nicolas Jenson was born in Sommevoire, France, a town about 150 miles southeast of Paris. However, after reviewing Lowry’s research, it is difficult to simply repeat here the many other “facts” that are frequently given of Jenson’s early life: his date of birth, his employment experience and the origin of his metal working skills, the means by which he became familiar with the printing methods of Gutenberg and his route from France to Italy. The things that are repeated in many accounts of Jenson’s life are derived from murky historical anecdotes that are contradicted by other important facts.

An engraving depicting an early Venetian printing shop
An engraving depicting an early Venetian printing shop

Jenson is known to have begun printing in Venice in the late 1460s or early 1470s. Prior to his arrival in Venice, it appears that he spent some time in Vicenza, a mainland town about 30 miles to the west, where he developed his printing skills. Jenson’s arrival in Venice, the first non-German printer in recorded history, coincided with the establishment of several important printing firms in the Italian island city. The most notable of these was the enterprise of John and Wendelin of Speyer who arrived in Venice from Germany in 1468 and were granted a five year monopoly on printing by the city authorities.

Nicolas Jenson’s printer’s mark
Nicolas Jenson’s printer’s mark

The Venetian patrician class of scholar-statesmen considered the arrival of printing a major cultural development. It meant that the works of classical humanist teachings could be reproduced at rates that were inconceivable with the handwritten process of the scribes. The ruling elites encouraged the development of print and by the end of the century there were 150 firms operating in the highly competitive Venetian printing market.

Alongside of print’s cultural impact, there was a considerable business opportunity to be exploited. It was to this side of the incunabula that Jenson devoted most of his efforts. During the ten years that he was a printer in Venice, more than anyone else, Jenson brought investment into the printing industry. His businesses were very successful and he made a considerable fortune before his death in 1480.

However, the most important—and universally recognized—contribution of Nicolas Jenson to the development of printing was his design of an early roman typeface. Prior to Jenson, the style of print typography followed the blackletter example set by Gutenberg, i.e. heavy gothic forms that emulated the dominant pen and ink script of the monks of fifteenth century Germany.

The first page of Eusebius’ "Preparation for the Gospel" printed by Nicolas Jenson in 1470. It is thought to be the first appearance of a roman typeface.
The first page of Eusebius’ Preparation for the Gospel printed by Nicolas Jenson in 1470. It is thought to be the first appearance of a roman typeface.

Such were Nicolas Jenson’s metal working skills that he cut a groundbreaking roman type in 1470. Roman type is distinct from blackletter in that it emulates the square capital letters used in ancient Rome combined with the Carolingian minuscule (lowercase) used during the Holy Roman Empire. The first book to appear with Jenson’s new design was an edition of Eusebius’ Preparation for the Gospel originally written in 313 A.D.

The word roman, without a capital R, has come to denote Italian typefaces used during the Renaissance as well as later fonts derived from them such as Times Roman, for example. Although Jenson’s design was quite different in appearance from Gutenberg’s blackletter, it was also modeled on the scribal manuscript style that was popular in fifteenth century Italy.

A comparison of blackletter script (upper left) with Gutenberg’s blackletter type (lower left) and roman/Carolingian script (upper right) with Jenson’s roman type (lower right)
A comparison of blackletter script (upper left) with Gutenberg’s blackletter type (lower left) and roman/Carolingian script (upper right) with Jenson’s roman type (lower right)

It is a remarkable phenomenon of printing history that the essential forms of Jenson’s roman typeface designed more than 500 years ago are those that we continue to use most often and recognize today as the best and most readable typography. Of course, the characters in the alphabet of the Latin languages are those associated with Jenson’s contribution. But it should also be noted that Jenson designed and cut a Greek alphabet of a similar style.

Throughout the subsequent history of printing, many have noted the beauty and balance of Jenson’s roman type design. In particular, William Morris and the arts and crafts movement of the late nineteenth century focused upon Jenson’s creative genius. According to Lowry, Morris’ romantic affinity for medievalism led to an unjustified elevation of the contribution of Nicolas Jenson alongside those of Johannes Gutenberg and Aldus Manutius.

* * * * *

A search of the British Library’s ISTC for the term “Jenson” results in 113 hits. Many of the items in the database contain links to images of the pages printed by Nicolas Jenson himself on a Gutenberg-style printing press in Venice in the 1470s. A review of these entries shows that—despite language challenges—Jenson’s books appear very similar to those found today in our libraries and book stores. While some of them are adorned with ornate case bound covers and others include hand-illuminated art alongside the printed text, the essential elements of the book are very familiar to any modern reader.

Historians have strictly defined the incunabula as the first fifty years of the printing revolution beginning with Gutenberg. The incunabulum produced by the pioneers of print—including Nicolas Jenson—were devoted to a recreation of scribes’ handwriting such that the reading audience could understand and relate to the new media form.

The questions that arise naturally are: should we consider the early years of the digital revolution to be our modern “incunabula” in which the previous media generation is being replicated in electronic form? Or is the digital age leading to a new media that represents a departure from the forms that were developed and enriched during the Renaissance?

Frederic Goudy: 1865 – 1947

Frederic W. Goudy 1865 – 1947
Frederic W. Goudy 1865 – 1947

Making it through our present-day technology transition is surely challenging. We live and work with one foot in the brave new digital, mobile and touch world while the other foot is in ye olde analog, wired and paper world.

Have you done any of the following lately?

  • Talk or text on your smartphone while letting your landline home phone ring without picking it up.
  • Purchase and download an album only to realize later that you already own the CD.
  • Open every piece of US mail while ignoring or deleting the email cluttering your inbox.
  • Check your Facebook newsfeed constantly while not having time to read or even open the daily newspaper.
King Crimson’s 1969 album “In the Court of the Crimson King” contains the track “21st Century Schizoid Man”
King Crimson’s 1969 album “In the Court of the Crimson King” contains the track “21st Century Schizoid Man”

We are bombarded with so much information and have so many messages and redundant media it’s a wonder we get anything done! Our bifurcated and overloaded culture evokes the title of a 1969 King Crimson song: “21st Century Schizoid Man.”

When looking back through history, however, it becomes clear that our present condition is not entirely unique. Previous generations have experienced disruptive and even devastating change. It is a fact that every age is both cause and effect; a moment in time between past and future with a host of unpredictable retreats, twists and turns.

Some may ask: isn’t the present different because the pace of change is becoming quicker? This is true but, in relative terms, the rate of change has always been logarithmic from one generation to the next. The phenomenon of accelerated development embodied in Moore’s Law (the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles every two years) is frequently applied to all past and present technological progress.

* * * * *

In reviewing the life of Frederic Goudy—the most important American type designer in the first half of the twentieth century—we see a man who thrived during an era of terrific change. Born at the conclusion of the Civil War, Goudy lived through the industrialization of society and two World Wars. Without a formal education, self-taught and often under difficult circumstances, Goudy became a prolific type designer who was known the world over for his accomplishments. Significantly, Frederic Goudy drew his first alphabet at age 30 and began his career as a professional type designer at the age of 46.

Frederic William Goudy was born on March 8, 1865 about 125 miles south of Chicago in a town called Bloomington, Illinois. As a youngster Fred spent time in the Bloomington library reading Mark Twain and browsing the illustrated Harper’s Weekly magazine. He developed the ability to trace and replicate wood engravings in pencil. Although, he did not excel at mathematics, Fred gained an interest in machines such as the lathe and the pantograph.

Fred’s father, John Goudy, was a school administrator and later a real estate man. He moved the family to four different towns in Illinois in the 1870s and early 1880s. In 1883, the family relocated to the Dakota Territory where John started a business in connection with homestead claims. Living in the prairie hamlet of Highmore near an Indian Reservation and with just two years of high school education behind him, Fred went to work as a clerk in his father’s real estate company.

In 1889, Frederic left Highmore and set out on his own. First going to Minneapolis and then Springfield, Illinois, he worked as a bookkeeper in the real estate offices. During these years, Fred gained experience with advertising and layout of newspaper ads. At twenty-eight years old, Fred moved to Chicago and worked for various offices writing advertising copy and designing ads with local printers.

An example of the esthetics of American typography in the late 1800s
An example of the esthetics of American typography in the late 1800s

In the 1890s, there was no such thing as an advertising industry and there were very few advertising agencies. Newspapers and magazines were filled with garish promotional ads with very bad typography and florid graphics. At this time, Fred started swimming against the tide of generally murky and unreadable printing. In 1893, he founded a magazine called “Modern Advertising” as a means of generating business. Although the publication did not last, Fred gained important experience with the type production and printing processes.

Around 1895, Goudy became influenced with the works of William Morris—the English poet, author, craftsmen and designer—and the Arts and Crafts movement. In collaboration with a Chicago English teacher C. Lauron Hooper, Goudy decided to start his own printing business along the lines of Morris’ Kelmscott Press in England. He would later say of this time, “When I became inoculated with printers’ ink, I was never again the same.”

The young Frederick Goudy in the late 1800s.
The young Frederick Goudy in the late 1800s.

As an amateur, Goudy began experimenting with type designs and developed his hand lettering skills. After a short time in Detroit working for a weekly called The Michigan Farmer, Goudy returned to Chicago and worked on advertising for Marshall Field, The Inland Printer, The Pabst Brewery and Hart Schaffner and Marx. He also designed book covers for The Lakeside Press and Rand-McNally. All Goudy’s type designs through this period were for advertising purposes.

By the turn of the century, Goudy wanted to follow Morris’ lead and print the finest books in America. To do so he believed needed to design his own typeface. In 1903, Frederic Goudy made printing history with the establishment of The Village Press in Park Ridge, Illinois and the creation of The Village Type, his first fine book face. The Village Type was the very first American typeface to be cut and caste from free hand, original drawings from a type designer.

Village Type
An example of Village Type, the first American type face to be designed from free hand drawings, designed by Frederic Goudy in 1903

In 1904, Frederic and his wife Bertha moved The Village Press to Hingham, Massachusetts to become part of The Hingham Society of Arts and Crafts and be surrounded by other craftsmen. In 1906, the Goudy’s moved their printing business to New York City. It was during a trip to England in 1909 and then a trip to the Continent in 1910 that Goudy focused himself upon the scholarship and history of typography.

In 1911, according to his own account, Frederic Goudy became a professional type designer with the creation of Kennerley Old Style. Named for his business associate, publisher and Englishman Mitchell Kennerley, Goudy designed the font specifically for the publication of H.G. Wells’ “The Door in the Wall and Other Stories.” Kennerley Old Style was hit in England and through it Goudy suddenly became associated internationally with great type design. It would take some years more for his work to become recognized in America.

Title page to The Door in the Wall
The title page to H.G. Wells’ “The Door in the Wall,” the first appearance of Kennerley Old Style and the beginning of Goudy’s professional type design

From this point forward, Frederic Goudy devoted his energies to type design and his hand lettering and printing work receded into the background. Over five decades, Goudy designed 122 typefaces, an enormous accomplishment in the era of hot metal typography. Among Goudy’s popular typefaces are:

  • Copperplate Gothic (1905)
  • Goudy Old Style (1915)
  • Hadriano (1918)
  • Italian Old Style (1924)
  • Trajan (1930)
  • Berkeley Old Style (1938)

A significant technology factor in the emergence of type design as a profession—making it possible for someone like Frederic Goudy to achieve success—was the invention by Linn Boyd Benton in 1884 of the pantographic engraver. This device, which represented the industrialization of metal type production, enabled foundries to cut matrices from enlarged drawings. Prior to this development, the making of type was largely the work of handicraft punch cutters and not that of designers. At the age of 60, Goudy acquired his own matrix-cutting machine on which he engraved and cast perhaps some of his greatest work.

During his career, Goudy wrote extensively on type design, lettering, typographic style and history. His works “The Alphabet” (1918) and “The Elements of Lettering” (1922) remain important resources, that latter containing explanatory notes on the considerations and influences behind some of his typeface designs. He founded the journal “Ars Typographica” in 1918 and he became the art director for Lanston Monotype Corporation in 1920 where he remained until his death.

Mirtchell Kennerley and Frederic Goudy
Frederic Goudy (right) with publisher Mitchell Kennerley

Frederic Goudy was famous during his lifetime. He was a rugged man, a widely read commentator on design and esthetics and a popular speaker who was approached for his opinion on many topics, some far from his field of expertise. He was known for his larger-than-life personality, as a raconteur and he could be counted on for comments with a punch line. It is said that Goudy was the originator of the statement, “Anyone who would letterspace blackletter would shag sheep,” although he probably used a different word for the Britishism “shag.”

For some of his competitors, Goudy’s self-promotion was a problem. Historically, type designers had never before named their works after themselves; Goudy used his name in about 20 of his typefaces. Goudy’s love for typography is summed up in his favorite broadside designed and produced for a Chicago exhibition in 1933:

I AM TYPE! Of my earliest ancestry neither history nor relics remain. The wedge-shaped symbols impressed in plastic clay by Babylonian builders in the dim past foreshadowed me: from them, on through the hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptians, down to the beautiful manuscript letters of the mediaeval scribes, I was in the making.

With the golden vision of the ingenious Gutenberg, who first applied the principle of casting me in metal, the profound art of printing with movable types was born. Cold, rigid and implacable I may be, yet the first impress of my face brought the Divine Word to countless thousands.

I bring into the light of day the precious stores of knowledge and wisdom long hidden in the grave of ignorance. I coin for you the enchanting tale, the philosopher’s moralizing and the poet’s fantasies; I enable you to exchange the irksome hours that come, at times, to everyone, for sweet and happy hours with books—golden urns filled with all the manna of the past. In books, I present to you a portion of the eternal mind caught in its progress through the world, stamped in an instant and preserved for eternity. Through me, Socrates and Plato, Chaucer and Bards become your faithful friends who ever surround you and minister to you.

I am the leaden army that conquers the world; I am Type! 

Frederic W. Goudy died at his home in Marlboro-on-Hudson, New York on May 11, 1947. He is buried next to his wife Bertha in Evergreen Cemetery in Chicago.