The Imprint (printing trade periodical)
Encyclopedia
The Imprint was a periodical aimed at the printing trade, published in 9 issues from January to November 1913. The publishers were the Imprint Publishing Company, of 11 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden
, London. Editors were F. Ernest Jackson, Edward Johnston
, J. H. Mason, and Gerard Meynell of the Westminster Press, London, which was also the printer of the journal.
In addition to the editors, several notable printing practitioners wrote for the magazine, including Stanley Morison
.
. This sturdy design, Caslon-like but with more regularity in its letterforms, was produced for the magazine (on a non-exclusive basis) in 1912 by the Monotype Company
as Series 101 for automatic composition on the Monotype caster. When delivered to the journal's printers on December 31, 1912, it was still incomplete — the accents had not yet been made — so the editors asked in the first issue: “Will readers kindly insert them for themselves, if they find their omission harsh? For ourselves, we rather like the fine careless flavour, which their omission gives, after we have recovered from the first shock inevitable to us typographical precisians”.
Perhaps Imprint’s most notable use since then has been for the entire setting of the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary
(1989), 22,000 pages of precisely structured typography in 20 volumes.
It is available today as a digital OpenType
font from Monotype's successor, Monotype Imaging.
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, London. Editors were F. Ernest Jackson, Edward Johnston
Edward Johnston
Edward Johnston, CBE was a British-Uruguayan craftsman who is regarded, with Rudolf Koch, as the a father of modern calligraphy, in the form of the broad edged pen as a writing tool, a particular form of calligraphy....
, J. H. Mason, and Gerard Meynell of the Westminster Press, London, which was also the printer of the journal.
In addition to the editors, several notable printing practitioners wrote for the magazine, including Stanley Morison
Stanley Morison
Stanley Morison was an English typographer, designer and historian of printing.Born in Wanstead, Essex, Morison spent most of his childhood and early adult years at the family home in Fairfax Road, Harringay...
.
Subjects covered
- typographyTypographyTypography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading , adjusting the spaces between groups of letters and adjusting the space between pairs of letters...
- wood engravingWood engravingWood engraving is a technique in printmaking where the "matrix" worked by the artist is a block of wood. It is a variety of woodcut and so a relief printing technique, where ink is applied to the face of the block and printed by using relatively low pressure. A normal engraving, like an etching,...
- lithographyLithographyLithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
- photogravurePhotogravurePhotogravure is an intaglio printmaking or photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is coated with a light-sensitive gelatin tissue which had been exposed to a film positive, and then etched, resulting in a high quality intaglio print that can reproduce the detail and continuous tones of a...
- children's booksChildren's literatureChildren's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
- 18th-century song books
- liturgical books
- offset machineryOffset printingOffset printing is a commonly used printing technique in which the inked image is transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface...
- printers' devices
- printing in Russia
- use of the Linotype machineLinotype machineThe Linotype typesetting machine is a "line casting" machine used in printing. The name of the machine comes from the fact that it produces an entire line of metal type at once, hence a line-o'-type, a significant improvement over manual typesetting....
- artists including Lucien PissarroLucien PissarroLucien Pissarro was a landscape painter, printmaker, wood engraver and designer and printer of fine books. His landscape paintings employ techniques of Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism, but he also exhibited with Les XX. Apart from his landscapes he painted only a few still-lifes and family...
, Paul GauguinPaul GauguinEugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
, Honoré DaumierHonoré DaumierHonoré Daumier was a French printmaker, caricaturist, painter, and sculptor, whose many works offer commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century.... - copyrightCopyrightCopyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
Issues
The issues are dated thus:- Volume 1
- January 1913
- February 17, 1913
- March 17, 1913
- April 17, 1913
- May 17, 1913
- June 17, 1913
- Volume 2
- July 17, 1913
- August 27, 1913
- November 27, 1913
Imprint Old Face
The name of the journal lives on in the typeface Imprint Old FaceImprint (typeface)
Imprint is a typeface commissioned from Monotype by the London publishers of The Imprint, a printing trade periodical from 1913, and which has been digitized for sale today as an OpenType font...
. This sturdy design, Caslon-like but with more regularity in its letterforms, was produced for the magazine (on a non-exclusive basis) in 1912 by the Monotype Company
Monotype Corporation
Monotype Imaging Holdings is a Delaware corporation based in Woburn, Massachusetts and specializing in typesetting and typeface design as well as text and imaging solutions for use with consumer electronics devices. Monotype Imaging Holdings is the owner of Monotype Imaging Inc., Linotype,...
as Series 101 for automatic composition on the Monotype caster. When delivered to the journal's printers on December 31, 1912, it was still incomplete — the accents had not yet been made — so the editors asked in the first issue: “Will readers kindly insert them for themselves, if they find their omission harsh? For ourselves, we rather like the fine careless flavour, which their omission gives, after we have recovered from the first shock inevitable to us typographical precisians”.
Perhaps Imprint’s most notable use since then has been for the entire setting of the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
(1989), 22,000 pages of precisely structured typography in 20 volumes.
It is available today as a digital OpenType
OpenType
OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior...
font from Monotype's successor, Monotype Imaging.