Over-decoration a
170
common fault
any new book of
merit, the typography of good editions of similar nature should be studied, and
their
good features should be imitated wherever
imitation promises to be of service. The designing of entirely new styles should be discouraged. It may be assumed by the novice that it will be safer to copy the best features of books of high merit than to attempt the invention of new forms. Over-decoration is a common fault. In no case
should
much ornament be added,
unless especially certain that the type, paper, and presswork of the book to be made will be of the best. Even when ornament is ordered, there
ordered and unless
it is
should be a leaning toward simplicity. Appropriateness should be considered. Eccentricities that
book may be positively tawdry The young compositor is especially
are pleasing in one in another.
warned against the hackneyed decorations of the printers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centu-
They may be used occasionally with advantage when the old designs have been redrawn and recut they will seldom prove of real value if not rieSo
5
mated with
text types of their
own
period.