JAM TSCHICHOLD

TYPOGRAPHY

THE FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION

of the revolutionary 1928 document

Translated by RUARI MC LEAN

Introduction by ROBIN KINROSS

THE NEW TYPOGRAPHY
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W EIM AR A N D NOW : GERM AN CULTURAL CRITICISM
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JA N TSCH ICH O LD

THE NEW TYPOGRAPHY

A HANDBOOK FOR MODERN DESIGNERS

Translated by Ruari McLean

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ROBIN KINROSS

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORN IA PRESS

BERKELEY LOS A N G ELE S LO N D O N

First Paperback Printing 1998

Published in 1987 as Die neue Typographie:

Ein Handbuch iOr Zeilgemass Schailende.
by Brmkmann & Bose. Berlin
First published in German in June 1928 by the
Bildungs verband der Deutschen Buchdrucker.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles. California
University of California Press Ltd.
London. England
Copyright © 1995 by The Regents of
the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-m-
Publication Data
Tschichold. Jan. 1902-197«,
INeue Typographie. English]
The new typography : a handbook lor modern designers / Jan
Tschichold : translated by Ruari McLean, with an introduction by
Robin Kinross.
p. cm. - (Weimar and now : 8)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 0-520-07146-8 (alk. paper]
0-520-07147-6 (pbk: alk. paper)
1. Printing. 2. Graphic design. I. Title. II. Series.
ZI16.T75I3 1995
6B6.2‘2-dc20 I
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
Translator's Foroword
Ruari McLean

Introduction to tho English-Language Edition

Robin Kinross____ _________________

THE NEW TYPOGRAPHY

Jan T s c h ic h o ld ___
TRA NSLATOR'S FOREWORD
RUARI MCLEAN

Jan Tschichold's first book. Die neue Typographie. was published in Berlin
in 1928. Its design was not only startling, with its famous frontispiece of
solid black facing the title, but also extremely elegant, in a soft black linen
case blocked in silver. This was six years after O. B. Updike's Printing Types
was published in the United States, two years before Stanley Morison's
article 'First Principles of Typography' appeared in The Fleuron 7. and three
years before Eric Gill's Essay on Typography. It was out of print by 1931 and
remained out of print for fifty-six years, until the Brinkmann & Bose facsim­
ile reprint of 1967.
Tschichold was recognized by a few people in Britain and the USA before
1939. A small exhibition of his work was held in the London office of a
forward-looking printer. Percy Lund Humphries, between 27 November and
14 December 1935 (probably at the suggestion of Edward McKnight
Kauffer): an article on his work by Robert Marling appeared in Printing in
January 1936; and in 1937 Tschichold himself read a paper 'A New Ap­
proach to Typography' to the Double Crown Club in London. The design of
the menu for that dinner showed how little Tschichold's ideas, and those of
the modern movement generally, were understood in Britain at that time.
He continued to be supported by Lund Humphries, for whom he designed
the firm's letterhead, in use from 1936 to 1948. and the 1938 edition of the
Penrose Annual.
In March 1947 Tschichold came to England to overhaul the typography of
the fast-growing paperback publisher Penguin Books (founded in 1935D-
where he stayed for three years. But it was not until 1967 that any book of
his appeared in English translation. This was his sixth book. Typographische
Gestaltung, originally published in Basel in 1935 and now appearing under
the title of Asym m etric Typography. It had been translated by the present
writer in 1945. but remained without a publisher until Cooper & Beatty, the
Toronto typesetters, sponsored it for distribution in the USA by Reinhold
and in Britain by Faber & Faber.
In the same year. 1967. Tschichold asked me to translate Die neue
Typographie. He planned it as a second, revised edition. He gave me a copy
of the text with numerous corrections, editorial revisions, and deletions of
matter he considered to be no longer relevant or now out of date: for
example the entire section on standardization was taken out. It should be
remembered that in a speech made to the Type Directors Club of New York
in 1959 (later printed in Print under the title 'Quousque Tandem . .'). he
said: 'What I do today is not in the line of my often mentioned book Die
neue Typographie. since I am the most severe critic of the young Tachichold
of 1925-8. A Chinese proverb says ‘In haste there is error.' So many things
in that primer ere erroneous, because my experience was too small.'
I translated the greater part of Die neue Typographie incorporating all the
revisions, but again no publisher could be found. When Tschichold died in
1974. I placed the draft of my translation in the St Bride Printing Library in
London where it could be consulted by anyone who wished to read it.
Now the University of California Press has enabled the book to appear at
last in English, but in a new translation made exactly from the original text.
It is therefore treated as a text of historical importance rather than the lat­
est publication of Tschichold's thoughts.
All the self-critical comments written by Tschichold on his revised proofs
are printed below, and two of his original pages are reproduced. The orig­
inal passages of text were to stand unaltered. It was not feasible to show
here the cuts and other corrections, which although numerous were not of
serious textual importance. In the second edition which Tschichold had
planned, there would certainly have been typographical changes: para­
graphs were to be indented, and book and magazine titles italicized, in
accordance with modern practice. Indented paragraphs have not been in­
troduced in the present translation, and the illustrations, some of which
Tschichold intended to change or omit, are unaltered.
Tschichold's text was epoch-making when first published. Its fundamental
tenets are still absolutely valid: the book is as well worth reading today as
it ever was.
For helping me at various times with my translation I must express my grat­
itude first to the late Hans Unger, and later to Hans Dieter Reichert. Jost
Hochuli. Robin Kinross, and my Californian copy editor Nicholas Goodhue.
But any grievous errors must be my own.

April 1993 ISLE OF MULL

REVISIONS TO DIE NEUE TYPOGRAPHIE
JAN TSCHICHOLD. 1967.

P. 30: as governing design in general (Gesetze der Gestaltung Oberhaupt*).

•Der Autor. 1967: Das stimmt nicht. Die Malerei kann zwar einen befruch­
tenden Einfluss auf die Typographie ausüben, doch sind die Gesetze der
typographie autonom.
The author, 1967; That is not right. Painting can indeed have a fruitful infiu-
ence on typography, but the laws of typography are its own.

P. 67. and therefore must be inorganic (und darum unorganisch sein

muss*).
•Die Autor. 1967: Dieses Urteil Ober den zentrierten Buchtitel ist reichlich
ungerecht.
The author. 1967; This pronouncement on centered book title-pages is sub­
stantially unjust.

P. 68. Every piece of typography which originates in a preconceived idea of

form, of whatever kind, is wrong (Jede Typographie die von einer vorge­
fassten Formidee - gleichviel welcher Art - ausgeht, ist falsch*).
•Die Autor. 1967: Das ist ein allzu rigoroser Standpunkt. Er würde das
typographische Spiel, an dem wir uns gelegentlich freuen, verurteilen.
The author. 1967: That is altogether too narrow a view. It would contradict
the freedom for typographic jokes which we sometimes enjoy.

P. 71. a fear of pure appearance (indem man ihn ‘ schmückt**).

•Der Autor. 1967: So einfach ist das nicht. Das Bedürfnis nach Schmuck ist
elementar und nicht kindlich-naiv.
The author. 1967: It is not so simple. The desire for ornament is elemental
and not childish-naive.

P. 75. also the classical typefaces (will) disappear, as completely as the

contorted furniture of the eighties (etwa den Muschelmöbeln der achtziger
Jahre zuteil wird**).
‘ •Die Prognose Ober die Zukunft der klassischen Schriften hat sich als irrig
erwiesen.
The forecast about the future of classical typefaces has been proved
wrong.
Р. 76. among whom I expect there must be an engineer Cunter denen sich
wohl auch ein Ingenieur befinden müsste*).
•Oer Autor. 1967: Die Situation ist heute ganz anders. So ist die Univers.
aus der dieses Buch gesetzt ist. eine der besten heutigen Endstriehiosen und
steilt dar. was ich 1928 erträumt habe.
The author. 1967: The situation today is quite different. Univers. in which
this book is set. is one of the best sanserifs, and is what I dreamed of in
1928.

P. 77. Their use for parody, in the sense described above, of course
legitimate (oben bezeichneten Sinne bleibt natürlich offen*).
•Der Autor. 1967: Diese Meinung hat sich ais viel zu streng erwiesen.
The author. 1967: This opinion now seems far too strong.

P. 78. It will remain the exception (eine Ausnahme bilden*).

•Der Autor. 1967: Das war einmal.
The author. 1967: That was in the past.

P. 78. would hardly have brought them back again (kaum wieder ans
Tageslicht gezogen**).
••Der Autor. 1967: Die Assoziation stellen sich nur bei wenigen ein und
stören auch diese nicht.
The author. 1967: The associations have little real influence and do not
harm these types.

P. 80. or an industrial catalogue (oder ein Industriekatalog*).

•Der Autor. 1967: Hier wird das Kind mit dem Bade ausgeschOttet!
The author. 1967: Here, the baby is thrown out with the bathwateri

P. 60. it is totally unsuitable for the 20th century (heute noch zu verwen­
den**).
(Der Autor) ’ ’ Auch hier!
Here tool

P. 96. the luxury-concept of the 'Book Beautiful* belongs to the past (der
Vergangenheit angehört).
Der Autor. 1967: Weich ein Irrtum!
The author. 1967: What a mistake I
 = : vinu- й * » ^ ^ :!. ;. :V. Iwi- ;:;
4.it i
s Rol c-nlsprichl unserer und д!г getei: dsro- ri.ever
r eilen anderen den Vorzug. De s'.e:-l.e Kir.tret!
rz-Weiü kenn dui-ch Minzulrelen des Rul euliercrceniiicn

:s'.ver$l8ndlich isl die Ferbslellung Schwarz-Rol nicht die einzig nibgliche.

.-iclfaeh iiTtünilich angenommen wird. Infolge Ihrer besonders starken
;:silM wird sie aber oll jeder anderen vorgezogen. Oie Farbigkeit der
.jksorle muO im übrigen dem Zweck entsprechen: man wird Besuchs-
: n nicht dreifarbig setzen und sieh bei Plakaten nur selten mit Sch-.varz-
:l begnGgen.
reinen, nicht .mit Schwerz vermischten Farben Rol. Gelb. Blau genießen
. ;tn ihrer Inlensiiai denVorrang, sie schließen aber die übrigen gemischten
• bl6ne nicht aus. .
Sfhriw
\ AHt Scl-.r.flformen deren Wesen durch кии S'nliil hinzutretence Orna-
' '.ie der Antiqua. Raulen und Rüssel bei der Fraktur) ent-
- !i isl. entsprechen nicht unserem Streben nach Klarheit und Reinheit.
''!' allen vorhandenen Schriflarlen isl die sogenannte >^го1се'Л Ц
— I iria h (die richtige Bezeichnung die einzige, die U
rer Zeit geistig gcineß isl. ||
iVei.lamiorung der Grclesk als der Schnl; unserer Zeit isl
«•—"Modeangelegenlieil. ^entspricht iktGSitaus den allgemeinenTendenzeny
—i --iir-n In der Architektur. Oie Zeit isl nicht mehr fern, v.-a nicht nur die H
: -.-гесЬНИеп (die dieses Los zum Teil schon heule trifft) sonaern auch
l.lessischen* Schriften allgemein dieselbe Ablehnung erfahren werden.
!.-.ule etwa den Mus^lmübeln der achlziper Jahre zuteil wirc
^ I keine ■fra ga-daßEe heule vorhandenen Groleskschriflen/Tcn An-
.hi-n. die an eine v<dIkom:ncnf Scl-.rifi gi;sU!lll weixlen müssen, nach
: -t.tnz geiifig.Mi. Oie spezifischen Eigentünilichkeilen dieser Schrift sind
. k.sum herausgcarbeiiet. die Formen insbesondere uer Kleinbuch-
:• sinn nocii Zu sehr von der hiimanislischen Minuskel abhüngig. Oiu
i.-r. und geradedie neuesten künstlerischenGrolcskschriflen(z.B. Erbar
-I. und Kabel) .-eigen, zu ihrem Nachteil gegenüber den na.-nenicsen
:. Grotesken, individuell modifizioiie Bewegungen, die sie grundsülz-
il den andern Künsllerschrifler. stellen. Als BrolschrJten
76

' 2)/*- а'А ы f<c

Pages from Die neue T^ographie showing Tschichokfs hand-written revisions for a planned
second edition.
sein als etwa Mörikes Gedichte oder ein lndustriekelalo(:T Die Gotik hat den
Kirchenvater Augustin aus Textur, nicht aus Unziate gesetzt!
Atles Druckwerk, gleichviel wetcher Art. das in unserer Zeit geschallen wird,
«imflfdie Kennzeichen unserer Zeit tragen und f a rj nicht Druckerzeugnisse
IrOhere." Zeiten^rniitieren. Das gilt inateiilieh nicht blo0.jvon der Schrilt.
sondern von allen Aulbauleilen. auch den Abbildungei^ein Einband.'uul.

iiurea^ haben stets das Vergangene, olt in VNll'r krasser Form, verneint. Das
lehren die Erganzungsbsulen der Dome, die allgemeine Kulturentwieklung
und such die Typographie. Der Slempelsehneider Unger. Schdpler der
. Unger-Fraktur (um laOO), ein bedeutender Typograph, erklärte die Schwa­
bacher lOr eine haOliche Schrill und wurde daderetf zum Erlinder der Aus­
zeichnung des Fraklursalzes durch Sperren (IrOher hatte man Fraktur mit
Schwabacher ausgezeichnet). Er hatte dam» lellaiandig l^aehl. Seine Zeit,
duj Rukuliiv, land die Gotik und Ihre Ausdruckslormen. und damit such die
Sehwsbacher. weil Ihrem Wasen entgegengesetzt, häßlich, und Unger war
nur ihr Sprachrohr aul unserem Gebiete.
fÊin Kunsthistoriker mag die Qualität etwa der alten Schwabacher schillzen
können; auch wir sehen in ihr eine vollkommene Schrill ih re rZeit— aber
wir messen es eblehnen. diese Schrill des IS. Jahrhunderts heule noch zu

■■ »naSSh wir nach einer Schrill suchen, die unser eigener

Ausdruck I t. Unsere Zelt4altgekennzeichnet^aalt ein allgemeines Streben
nach Klarhei^und Wshrheit, nach der reinen Erscheinung. Darum-ist das
Schriltproblem nstnandig ein anderes als IrOher. Wir verlangen von derType
Deullichkeil. Klarheit. Weglassung alles Oborllüssigen. Damit kommen wir
zur Forderung eines geometrischen Fonnaulbaus. In der Grotesk besitzen
wir eine Schrilllorm. die dieser Forderung sehr nahe kommt, und darum ist
diese Schrill die Grundlage aller Weiterarbeit en der Schrill unserer Zeit.
Der Charakter einer Zeit kann sich nicht nur in reichen und ornamenliencn
Formen zeigen. Auch die einlachen geometrischen Formen der Grotesk
drOcken etwas aus: Klarheit und Beschränkung aul das Wesentliche, und
damit das Wesen unserer Zeit. Aul diesen Ausdruck kommt es gewiß an.
Nicht aber kommt es daraul an. Spezialschrillen lOr die AnkOndigungen von
ParIQmlabrikanlen und Modengeschöllen oder lOr lyrische ErgOsse zu
schallen. Nie wa? es A.ufgsbe der Slempelsehneider Irüherer Zeilen, eine
Schrilt mit einem individuellen Ausdruck herzuslellen. Darum sind such die
baslen Schrillen ]bie/die lOr alles brauchbar sind, und H die schlechten,
die man nur lür Visitenkarten oder GosangbOcher verwenden kann.

* 2)«.v /1i7 - tiriri Ho H h. ga

INTROD UCTION TO THE EN GLISH-LA N GUA GE EDITION
ROBIN KINROSS

Significant literary work can only come into being in a strict alternation
between action and writing; it must nurture the inconspicuous forms that
better fit its influence in active communities than does the pretentious, uni­
versal gesture of the book - in leaflets, brochures, articles, and posters.
Only this prompt language shows itself actively equal to the moment.
Opinions are to the vast apparatus of social existence what oil is to
machines: one does not go up to a turbine and pour machine oil over it;
one applies a little to hidden spindles and joints that one has to know.
1928 WALTER BENJAMIN*

Die neue Typographie was published in Berlin in June 1928. The author was
the then twenty-six-year-old German typographer Jan Tschichold. The pub­
lishers were the Bildungsverband der Deutschen Buchdrucker: the educa­
tional association of the German printing-trade union. The book was the
most detailed and best-illustrated exposition of the New Typography. This
was the manifestation in the sphere of printed communication of the mod­
ern movement in art. in design, and - at least this was its aspiration - in
life as a whole, which developed in Central Europe between the two world
wars. To take representative or iconic instences. one could mention the
new architecture built for the city of Frankfurt (under the direction of Ernst
May), the political theatre of Bertolt Brecht end Hanns Eisler. the tubular-
steel furniture of Mart Stam or Marcel Breuer. the cinema of Oziga-Vertov
or Joris Ivens, journals such as HO or Die Form: work in which formal inno­
vation and social concerns were intertwined. The New Typography now
falls into place in the constellation of Central European modernist culture.
Tschichold's book remains unsurpassed as the best single document of and
about the New Typography. But its context and concerns now need consid-
erabie expianation.

TSCHICHOLD BEFORE DIE NEUE TYPOGRAPHIE

Jan Tschichoid (1902-1974) was the son of a Leipzig sign-writer and let­
tering artist.' His early start in - and lifelong preoccupation with - letter­
ing and typography is thus not surprising. Leipzig was one of the centres
for printing and publishing in Germany, and at the heart of the country's
typographic culture. After an informal apprenticeship to his father, he
attended classes at the Akademie für Künste und Buchgewerbe (academy
of art and of the book trade] in Leipzig (from 1919) and then (from 1921)
at the Kunstgewerbeschule [school of arts and crafts] at Dresden. In 1921
he also started to teach an evening class in calligraphy at the Leipzig
Akademie.
In the early 1920s Tschichold worked primarily as a calligrapher, writing out
texts for printed reproduction. Smali advertisements for the Leipzig trade
fairs were a stapie job. The design approach of this eariy work can be
called traditional, although it saems to show a rather eciectic experimenta­
tion with different letterforms and styles of writing.
In Tschichold's own account, two turning-points for him came in 1923.
First, he began to practice 'the previously unknown profession of typo­
graphic designer* with the large Leipzig printing firm of Fischer & Wittig.*
The characteristic, defining activity of the typographic designer was the
instruction of compositors by precisely drawn and dimensioned layouts.
Previously the process of setting type had not been formally directed,
except perhaps by vague sketches drawn by compositors themselves (or
their senior colleagues), or occasionally (since perhaps the end of the
nineteenth century) by the figure that Tschichold refers to. in quotation
marks, as the 'book-artist.'*
The second turning-point was Tschichold’s conversion to modernism, which
he dated from his visit to the exhibition of the Weimar Bauhaus in the sum­
mer of 1923. This was the first full presentation of work done at the
Bauhaus, held just at the point when the school was turning from its initial
handicrafts phase towards a more technically oriented program and an
engagement with the conditions of industrial production. The experience of
visiting this exhibition touched Tschichold at the deepest level.* The first
clearly modern works by Tschichold that have been reproduced are dated
to 1924; a poster for the Philobiblon publishing house in Warsaw, a letter-
heading for Nina Khmelova in Moscow. Before this, in 1922 or 1923. he is
reported to have made the acquaintance of Läszid Moholy-Nag^j. who in
turn introduced him to El Lissitzky; the two artist-designers whose work
most encouraged his turn.* And a significant indicator in this process of
change was his adoption, around 1923/24. of the name 'Iwan Tschichold.'*
His given name had been Johannes Tzschichhold: his father, and mother
also, had Slav origins. Throughout his working life Tschichold tended to
look East - he became an authority on Chinese and Japanese prints - but
at that point in the mid-1920s. this perhaps ancestral inclination took on a
particular ideological charge.* 'Iw an' proclaimed his new allegiance to the
social-artistic ideas of the Russian Constructivists.
 VORZUGS-ANGEBOT

DIE NEUE TYPOGRAPHIE

a^^№.n..db.?d.rBuchdruckreëiZn.,kûmm.». ’ °' ■

njblicify leaflet for Oie neue Typo^epNe

equality of provision; no longer the artist and the privileged sensibility, but
the engineer and the ordinary citizen.
If Tschichold's prose in these opening pages seems excited - especially in
the context of a handbook for printers - it is of its time. One could argue
that it is actually a few years behind the leading formulations. For example.
Tschichold's play with the figure of 'the engineer' — which he sets in bold
type, at a crucial rhetorical moment (p. 11) — is clearly in the same spirit
as Le Corbusier's rhapsodic argument in Vers une architecture, first pub­
lished in book form in 1923:
Not in pursuit of an architectural idea, but simply guided by the
results of calculation (derived from the principles which govern our
universe) and the conception of a living organism, the engineers of
to-day make use of the primary elements and. by co-ordinating them
in accordance with the rules, provoke in us architectural emotions
and thus make the work of man ring in unison with universal order.**
And this is also the spirit of Tschichold's references to automobiles, tele­
phones. electric light-bulbs, boxers, and other icons of the modern age.
Tschichold's argument here gains particular force and authenticity, because
in his publisher (the Bildungsverband) and its readership of printers, he
was directly in touch with real 'engineers.' And for internal evidence of this
contact, one could cite the beautiful detail on page 122. where he advises
that numbers indicating fold-marks on a letter-heading should be made
from brass (rather than the normal predominantly lead alloy), because,
standing isolated in the margin of the sheet, they are subject to greater
pressure and wear. As already noted. Tschichold treats the artist-designer
with considerable disdain. In his account of 'the old typography
(1450-1914),' the artistic and decorative approach is only excused as per­
haps valid in its day. Those who still try to practice such an approach in the
modern world - the 'book artists.' for example - are condemned as out of
touch with the new age and are thus mere formalists:
But the difference between these modern works and their classical
models is that the models really are an expression of their time,
whereas the imitations are the expression of a highly sensitive eclec­
ticism. which is an attitude foreign to the present day. looking for its
ideal in another time and world. (P. 25)
Tschichold's arguments may employ the terms of use. need, and function,
but they are deeply and explicitly infused with the idea that form must be
created and that it must be the form of the new age. In this he was
absolutely typical as a theorist of modernism. The paradox in the argument
lies in the wish for self-effacing, abstract form. A characteristic statement
of position might be quoted from a few pages further on;
Individualistic work, the 'lin e ' of the artist, are the exact opposite of
what we are trying to achieve. Only anonymity in the elements we use
and the application of laws transcending self combined with the giv­
ing up of personal vanity Cup till now falsely called ‘ personality’ ) in
favour of pure design assures the emergence of a general, collective
culture which will encompass all expressions of life - including
typography. (Pp. 28-29)
The political dimension of this view becomes more evident in the section
that deals with ‘ the new art’ (pp. 30-51). Borrowing quite frequently from
the language of Marxism, as then popularly disseminated, Tschichold dis­
cusses the history of art in terms of social class and technical development.
(The atmosphere of a workers’ education lecture is further recalled by his
conscientious footnote translations of foreign terms.) Historical develop­
ment. as he outlines it. points ineluctably to abstract art (perhaps dissolved
into the forms of everyday life, as architecture and industrial design) and to
photography and film.
In these passages, the intimate association between modernism in design
and socialist politics is clear - or. at least, the connection was clear at that
time and in that place. Both strands combined into a single outlook that
might typically be termed ’ progressive." Tschichold was here writing for a
trade-union-associated publisher, and his design work at this time included
work for socialist — or socially oriented — publishers and other clients.••
Tschichold's Marxist rhetoric was made fun of in a review of the book pub­
lished in bauhaus, the journal of the school, which was then (under Hannes
Meyer) at its most committed to the socialist-materialist position.** After
quoting Tschichold’s suggestion that borders around the printing area of a
large advertisement are ‘ a characteristic expression of the earlier individu­
alistic epoch’ (p. 199). the anonymous reviewer remarked that in order to
combat individualism one needs to address not just the appearance of
advertisements but the very existence of such advertising. In this
reviewer’s account, Tschichold’s book discussed and illustrated only formal
matters, and ended up by proposing no more than a new formelism, which
its author mistook for a new conception of the world. Whether or not that
judgment of Tschichold as a ‘ formalist’ was just, there was certainly some
point in the objection to his appropriation of the language of political
change in the discussion of typographic detail.
THE N E W T Y P O G R A P H Y
The New T ypography — as a term, as a movement — is given some e xp la na­
tion by Tschichold in the first half of this book. As he makes clear, it was a
colle ctive endeavour, whic h was fin d in g defin ition step by step. László
M o h o ly - N a g y ’s article entitle d "Die neue Typographie " — ap pearin g in the
pu blic atio n tha t accom panie d the Bauhaus exhib itio n of 1923 — w o u ld have
helped to establish the term, as well as form ulatin g its leading ideas at a
relatively early moment. Tschichold cites this text in his outline of the his­
tory of the New Typography Cp- 58 ], but, as his discussio n suggests, it was
only one of a series of articles and p u blic atio ns of a m ovem ent tha t was
ju s t then O'n 1928] gathering momentum.
One m ig ht see T sch ich o ld ’s b o ok as standin g at the poin t when the New
Typography movement had ju s t taken off, after quite a le ngth y jo u rn e y
along the runways. There was enough w o r k for him to rep rod uce as illu s­
tratio n in the book, but it was of variable quality, and — we can say now -
there w o u ld be w o r k to come tha t w o u ld make many of the thin gs illu s ­
trated here look “ early.”
A go od in dic atio n of the state of this m ovem ent is the history of the semi-
formal association of artists and desig ners w o rk in g in the spirit of the New
Typography: this was the Ring "neue werbegestalter.”27 Evidently foll o w in g
the example of the "Ring" of modern arch itects in Germany (established in
Berlin around 1925], this was a loose gro up of like-m in de d pra ctitioners,
instigate d and c o o rdinated by Kurt S chw itte rs. The Ring “ neue w e r -
be ge sta lter" came into existence tow a rds the end of 1927, and became
public ly evident early in 1928, with nine fo u n d in g members; Willi
Baumeister, Max Burchartz, W alter Dexel, Cesar Dómela, Ro bert Michel,
Kurt Schw itte rs, Georg Trump, Jan Tschichold, Friedrich V o rd em b erge -
Gildewart. (O th er members, jo in in g later, in clu ded Piet Zwart, Hans
Leistikow, Paul Sch uitem a.] The Ring can be characterized as a pressure
group for New Typography: it came t o g e th e r in exhib itio ns of w o r k by m em ­
bers and invited guests, discussed and agitated for these and oth er outlets
for w o r k (for example, an in te rnational magazine]. In the years of its a c tiv ­
ity (1928 to 1931] over tw e n ty exh ib itio ns were held prim arily in German
museums, but also in in stitu tio n s in other countrie s, in clu din g Switzerla nd
and the Neth erlands. If one wants to locate the movement of New
Typography, the Ring was the most convin cin g real em b od im en t of it: a
slightly shaky, in te rm itte n t affair, largely held t o g e th e r and fuelled by the
enthusiasm of Kurt Schw itte rs.
The activities of the Ring "neue w e rb e g e s ta lte r" were ju st startin g when
Tschichold wo uld have been com p le ting D ie neue Typographie. In this c o n ­
x x iv
nection, one could make some observations that may help an u n d e r s ta n d ­
ing of Tschichold and the present book. First, that in this book he had done
as much as any w r ite r could to imagine such a movement into existence.
One of the best in dicatio ns of this is the list of ad dresses on the last page,
wh ic h seems to say: here are the prota gonis ts, you have seen th e ir w o r k
reprod uced in these pages, now w rite to them! And second, the history of
the Ring shows that Tschichold played a m oderately active part in it. but
not a leading one. He was a colleague, on a level with the others.
T schic h old’s distinctio n — and D ie neue Typographie is prime evidence of
this - lay in explaining and d o cum e nting w h a t the others were doing.
It is w o rth notin g also that the Bauhaus, the in stitu tio n that has so d o m i­
nated the histo ry of the modern movement (to the extent of sometimes
being taken as synonymous with it], is seen in Die neue Typographie, as in
all the literature of the period, as ju st one of the c o n trib u tin g com ponents:
one star in a diverse and spreading constellatio n of in stitu tio ns and in d i­
viduals. The Ring "neue w e r b e g e s ta lte r" was another star, if a small and
erratic one, and it is in te restin g to observe the rather wary relatio nship
between the Ring and the Bauhaus: as if the form er was felt by its members
to be in danger of being gobb le d up by the l a t t e r . I n the event, none of
the Bauhaus teachers became members of the Ring, and they pa rticip ated
in its exhib itio ns only as guests. On the questio n of T schic h old’s relations
with the Bauhaus: there is no record of any substantia l contact. This a p p a r­
ent distance may poin t to T schic h old’s capacity as a professional ty p o g r a ­
pher, teachin g at a school for printers, and the lack of typ o g ra p h ic and
p r in tin g - tr a d e expertise at the Bauhaus. even at Dessau in the time of its
greatest id eological com m itm e nt to desig nin g for in dustrial production.®®

D E S IG N PR IN C IP LE S
A lth o u g h Tschichold himself is clear enough about the princip le s that
inform the New Typography in its approach to desig nin g [see especially
"The Principles of the New Typography," pp. 6 4 - 8 6 ] . it may be w o rth p o in t­
ing out certain aspects that are assumed or latent w ith in his discussion.
First, and as already indicated, it is clear tha t the New Typography could
not. for Tschichold, be a simple m atter of ae sthetics: this cate gory was
always dissolved into a larger and more com plex consid eratio n of use and
purpose. This is not to say tha t the New Typography was w ith o u t an aes­
th e tic or formal dim ension: and least of all in the w o r k of Tschichold. whic h
by this time was be ginning to displa y a sure contro l of subtly cho sen and
often self-e ffa cin g means. In the origin al editio n of D ie neue Typographie,
good evidence for this lies in the material substance of the book itself. The
ju s t-fle x ib le boards of the ca se -b in d in g were covered in fin e -gra in black
cloth. The corners of the case were rounded. These features m ig ht have
seemed to en courage its use as a “ h a n d b o o k ” : it m ig ht sit happily In the
po cket of a p r i n t e r ’s w o rk s h o p Jacket. Or one could c o n sid er the "fr o n ­
tis piece " to the book: the page facing the title -p a g e . This is simply a black
page. Should one regard this in fun ctiona l terms - as a device to c o n c e n ­
trate the re a d e r’s atten tion on the title -p a g e ? Or is it a de fia nt assertion of
abstra ctio n, ag ainst the figu rativ e or decorative illu stratio n employed in the
old typo grap hy? Or could one take it more metaphysically - as a statem ent
of the po ssib ility of maximum ink. an extreme of the b o o k ’s sub je ct of
printin g?
A fundam ental theme of the book, whic h tends in evitably to be lost in
English translatio n of German texts of this period, is the charge that the
w ord “ G estalt” and its derivations carried. It means “ design," but design in
a full and complex sense: the process of giving or fin d in g form. [The full
sense of the term is clear In T schic h old’s on e-se nten ce summary of his
approach, qu oted on p. xxxvi below.) The m atter is f u r th e r confused by the
fact tha t the w ord “ d e s ig n ” has since be come so w id e ly used, even to the
extent, in several languages, of dis pla cin g native w o rd s for the activity. But
here, "d e s ig n ” has no thin g to do w ith de cora tion and the mere making of
patterns. The examples that Tschichold rep rod uces Cpp- 8 3 - 8 5 ) to illustrate
a false u n de rsta nd in g of m odern design make the po in t w ith splendid c la r ­
ity and finality.
Aga in st such false decoration. Tschichold proposes a way of desig nin g that
develops “ its visible form out of the fun ctio n of the t e x t ” Cpp. 6 6 - 6 7 ) . From
this assumption come the princip le s that distinguis h the New Typography,
and all branches of modern de sign: asymmetry, the positive de ploym en t of
empty space, the meaningful use of colour, the m eaningful explo itatio n of
contrast and a corre sp o n d in g lack of interest in visual balance.
T schic h old’s discussio n [fo r example, p. 68) recalls a cha racteristic m o d ­
ernist theme: asym metry is a p rincip le of freedom, of ad aptability, ju s t as
the “ free p la n ” of the modern house is a response to new social habits and
desires. These ideas were translated into, or used as s u p p o rt for, the c h a r­
acte ristic visual vocabula ry of the New Typography. As examples one could
cite: the use of axes from wh ic h to range text and oth er elements, and the
renunciatio n of axial symmetry: the use of bold type, perhaps [as in this
bo ok) in marked con tra st to text set in a light w e ig h t of type; acceptance
of constraints, perhaps in the form of an unde rly in g g rid -s tru c tu re , as a
means of bring in g order to the material and also of giving freedom to the
producers [th e diagrams on pp. 210-211 are a classic de m onstration of
this p o in t]. Finally, one can notice tha t nowhere in this book or elsewhere
in his the ory or practice did Tschichold give any sustained attention to the
issue of settin g con tin u ou s text un ju stified or ragged [and w ith equal
w o r d - s p a c e s ]. It was left to others to explore this seemingly logical exte n ­
sion of the p rincip le of asymmetry.

S T A N D A R D IZ A T IO N
Norms and standards play a fundam ental pa rt in the argum ent of D ie neue
Typographie, and this may also be the element in the book that now needs
most explanation. In the modern movement as a whole, the promise held
out by standardizatio n can be briefly summarized: this was a means for
bring in g ord er to in dustrialized societies, for settling some of the f u n d a ­
mental elements of life. Producers, users, and in te rm edia ries w ould be able
to act more freely once these basic factors had been determ in ed. In design,
as T schic h old’s discussion here recognizes, there were some a w k w a r d ­
nesses and paradoxes. Would not standardiz atio n [o f paper sizes, or of the
layout of business statio nery] limit invention and variety? Could s ta n d a r d ­
ization em body good design principles?
The standards describ ed in this book are those of the D e utscher N o r ­
menausschuss, a bo dy whose histo ry reached back into the ninete enth
cen tury.32 Initially Csince 1850] there had been the Verein D e utscher
Ingenieure, whic h form ed a com m ittee on standardizatio n [ N o rm a lie n -
ausschuss der V D I]. During the First W orld War, the need to mobilize
in dustry for maximally effic ie nt p ro d u c tio n gave a strong impulse to the
standards effort. And the c on ditions of im p overishm ent and disorganizatio n
in Germany, follow ing de feat in tha t war, only provid ed fu rth e r stimulus. In
1917, the V D I ’s com m ittee had be come the Norm enausschuss der
Deutschen Industrie, whic h in 1926 had become the D e utscher N o r m e n ­
ausschuss. This genealo gy suggests one gro un d for the attractio n that
standardizatio n held for m od ern is t designers. This really did seem to be the
voice of the engineer, issuing in very exact reco m m endatio ns for the design
of artefacts. Standards seemed to em body a collective wisdom , as against
the w illful arbitrarin ess of individual expression.
The standards for printed matter tha t Tschichold mainly refers to were g e n ­
erated from with in a pa rticular secto r of in te rest: the rationalization m ove­
ment in in du stry and in o ffic e -w o rk . Here one can observe a fam iliar para­
dox in the m odern movement: a system of beliefs tha t often en compassed
revolu tionary socialism and Ccapitalist] theorie s of business-efficiency.^^
The most vivid p re ced ent here was Lenin’s espousal for the Soviet Union of
a Taylorist approach to in dustrial organizatio n. The prime mover behind the
DIN CDeutsche In d u s trie -N o rm e n ] standards for o ff ic e -w o r k and p rintin g
w o uld seem to have been Walter Forstmann, from whose w ritin g s
Tschichold w o uld have drawn most of his k n o w le dg e of the matter.
Forstmann had w r itte n a do ctoral dis sertatio n on m easurem ent systems,
and had also w o rke d as an assistant to the scie ntis t W ilhelm Ostwald,
among whose varied activities was the proposal for paper-siz e stan d a rd iza ­
tion tha t Tschichold describ es in his outline history of the sub je ct Cpp.
96-97].®^ From at least 1917 and th ro u g h the 1920s, Forstmann was an
active pa rticip ant in the developm e nt of the DIN standards tha t were of
im portance to p rintin g and typography.
Of the “ principal categories" discussed in the second half of the book, the
business letter-headin g was the most ubiq uitous and most fundamental item,
and the one most tho ro ug hly affected by standardization. One could also see
it as the ground on which business efficiency and desig n-aesth etics most
clearly come together, or c o n fro n t each other. First, the DIN standard fixed
the size of the le tte r-h e a d in g as its A4 form at (297 X 210 mm]: the size
that has become standard th r o u g h o u t the m etric w o rld (that is, everywhere
except North A m erica]. And then, w ith in the sheet, fields were established
for the dispositio n of categories of in form atio n, as well as a minimum le ft-
hand margin and positio ns for fold -m arks and punch -holes.
As Tschichold makes clear, he did not t h in k tha t a DIN standard was any
guarantee of de sign quality. Flis view of the de sign of p u blic atio ns issued
by the Deutscher Norm enausschuss, and the examples tha t it had desig ned
to illustrate its standards, was that they w ere "of astonis hin gly low quality"
Cp. 112, fo o tn o te ]. Tschichold developed, here and elsewhere in his w r i t ­
ings of this time, a set of terms that he deployed to brilliant p e da go gic
effect.®® The possib ilities form a spectrum from "u nstandardiz ed and u n d e ­
sig ned" (the example on p. 121], “ standardized but unde sig n ed " (p. 123],
"u nstandardiz ed but desig ned" (p. 113], throu gh to the most desired state
of “ standardized and de sig ned " (p. 120]. In particular, the contrast
between the examples facing each other on pages 120 and 121 shows the
order and clarity tha t Tschichold - more than the oth er New Typographers
- was by then able to achieve.

LETTER FO R M S
“A m ong all the types that are available, the so-called ‘G ro te s q u e ’
(sanserif] . . . is the only one in spiritual acco rda nce w ith our time" (p. 73].
Here, as th r o u g h o u t the book. Tschichold gives his argum ent the large st
w o rld -h is to ric a l resonance. But, by com parison w ith his argum ents c o n ­

X X V III
cernin g all the oth er aspects of ty pography, it does seem that his attitudes
to letterforms, and to typefaces in pa rticular, were especially informed by
the rationale of the Z e itg e is t by larger, not stric tly typo grap hic , c o n s id ­
erations. In the Germ an-speakin g w orld , more than in other cultures, the
style of le tterform could be a highly charged issue. A glance at the diagram
on page 75 confirm s this. In Germany, to set text in some variety of black-
le tter scrip t was still normal in the 1920s; though, since the reform ing
movement of the previous few years, it was also on the wane. T schic h old’s
discussion of the typefaces of cu rre n t German newspapers Cp- 21 2] is
in te restin g evidence of this state of affairs; so too is his addendum note
Cp; 233] rep ortin g tha t the B e rlin e r Tageblatt was the first large German
ne w sp ape r to go over entirely to roman {^Antiqua') typefaces. One need only
con sid er the subseq ue nt histo ry of le tte rfo rm s in Germany, d u rin g the
1930s and 1940s. to realize th a t T schic h old’s highly charged argum ents
were of a piece with the raised em otions of his times.®®
On the questio n of letterforms, the demands made by German New
Typography, as expressed in this book, m ig ht be seen in this way: roman as
a minimum demand; sanserif [as a special category of “ rom a n” ] as the p re ­
ferred choice; and then a reform ed o rth o g ra p h y and alphabet as the maxi­
mum demand [dis cussed in the next s ectio n]. Having asserted the a p p r o ­
priateness - the necessity — of sanserif as the le tterform of the modern
world . Tschichold then makes the realistic qualific atio ns tha t w ere always a
feature of his w ritin g , even at its most utopian. Thus: curre ntly available
sanserifs were not really satisfactory, and the recently designed ones, such
as Erbar and Kabel, show the id iosyncrasies of the "a rtis t’s ty p e fa c e s ” :
Futura. desig ned by Paul Renner, is b e tte r in this respect; but the satis fa c­
tory sanserif will probably come only th ro u g h a process of colle ctiv e and
anonym ous design Cp- 74]. It is in terestin g to note T schic h old’s reco m m e n ­
dation of certain anonym ously desig ned [s e riffe d ] roman typefaces. Thus,
he mentions Sorbon ne . N o rdis ch e Antiq ua, and Französische A ntiq ua — all
now fo rg o tte n and out of use — as to be prefe rred over other available
sanserifs and romans, for settin g con tin u ou s text. “They are easily legible:
they are also above all in a technic al sense useful and free from personal
idiosyncrasies — in the best sense of the w o rd, u n in te r e s tin g ” CP- 76]. This
pleasure in the unassuming and the modestly efficient, coupled w ith a hefty
dislike of the s e lf-in d u lg e n tly “ a r tis tic .” was a persis tent motive th r o u g h o u t
T schic h old’s career.
As Tschichold explains Cp- 75]. in choosing a typefa ce for this book, he was
constrain ed by w h at the p rin te r had available. One may guess tha t the

x x ix
p rin te r Cthe "B u c h d r u c k w e r k s ta tte G m bH ”] was simply the printin g office
of the Bildungsverband.®^ The typefa ce used was an “Akzid enz G ro te s k ” : a
“jo b b in g sanserif." desig ned anonymously, probably in the 1900s. For the
reasons already outlined, he w o u ld have prefe rred this over any of the
r ecently desig ned sanserifs, w h ic h Cin the case of Future] w o uld hardly
have been available for purchase at the time the bo ok was being set. On
the evidence of a con te m p o ra ry catalogue, there could be several p o ssib il­
ities for a more exact id en tificatio n of the typefa ce used.®® But. for the p u r ­
pose of characterizin g T schic h old’s preferences, "Akzidenz G ro te sk” in a
light Cas against medium or reg ular] w e ig h t is su fficie n t de scrip tion. He
remarks CP- 75] tha t he wa nted to show that such a type fa ce could be eas­
ily read in con tin u ou s text — ag ainst the common assum ptio n tha t sanserif
is less le gible or readable here than are seriffed letters. A t least one reader
com pla ined about this aspect: “This thin typefa ce — and then printed on
shiny a r t- p a p e r - makes the reading of the bo ok hardly the pleasant exe r­
cise that Tschichold assumes it will be."®® Tschichold was at least aware
tha t readability was a prime issue, if one tha t was com p lica ted by the other
issues with w hic h he was then concerned.
In a later reference to the settin g of his own book Cp- 227]. Tschichold
mentions the c o n stra in t of having a s u ffic ie nt q u a n tity of type w ith w hic h
to set a long text: som eth in g tha t could m ilitate against settin g a bo ok in
sanserif. It is clear th a t he was then still w o r k in g in co n d itio n s where
h a n d -se ttin g of books was common or even usual: in b o ok p rintin g, at
least, if not th r o u g h o u t the industry.^® In this light, it may not be so s u r ­
prising tha t the m echanization of te x t- s e ttin g is not discussed or even
m entioned in this book. Here, as elsewhere in a rch ite ctu re and design,
m od ern is t th e o ry — w h ich w o u ld have prefe rred m a ch in e-settin g , as more
in tune w ith the sp irit of the age — could only run ahead of the real c o n d i­
tio ns of p ro du ction.

ORTHOGRAPHY
For Tschichold. as for some of his visionary a r tis t- d e s ig n e r colleagues, the
questio n of le tterform s could not be sep arated from o rth o g ra p h y and a
reform of the systems of w ritte n and printed language. And. as w ith le tte r-
forms and the debate over black letter, there was a specific ally German-
language dim ension to the matter. He argues for a revised orth o g ra p h y that
wo uld be p h on etic a lly exact and consistent, and for a single set of letters.
The argum ent is shot th ro u g h with the rhe to ric of m odernism : for economy
of means, consistency, speed of action, gre ater com prehensibility, and
(perhaps im p licitly) abolitio n of hierarchy. It is part of the reform of life, and
n o thin g to do w ith mere fashion. Tschichold insists (the advertis e m ent from
Vogue set in lo w er case, rep rod uced on page 80, sums up the em pty fa s h ­
ionable m anner).
In com paris on with oth er language com m unities, o rth o g ra p h ic reform was
more of a live issue in the G erm an-la nguage context, in wh ic h capital le t ­
ters were (and still are) con ventionally used for the first le tte r of every
noun. So the proposal to abolish capitals w o uld have had greater shock
effect in German. As Tschichold points out w ith some evident pleasure
Cp. 81). the best source for these radical ideas was a bo ok written , not by
a p h ilo lo g is t or artist, but by an engineer. This was W alter Porstmann,
already in tro d u c e d here as a princip al p ro p o n e n t of paper-siz e s ta n d a r d ­
ization, whose Sprache und S c h rift was pu blis hed by the Verein Deutsche r
Ingenieure in 1920. Porstm ann’s bo ok is a quite extensive (108 pages. A4
form at) com p en diu m of argum e nt and evidence on these themes, put into
the na rrow ly utilitaria n t y p o g ra p h ic dress tha t was habitual in p u blic atio ns
from standardiz atio n bodies. As w ith paper-siz e standardiz atio n, this
reform was pro po sed by Porstmann and the D e utsche r Norm enausschuss
merely on grounds of e ffic ie ncy and com m ercial expedie ncy: the argum e nt
was then translated into a new sphere of visual and also s o c ial-p olitic al
conscio usness by the a rtis t-d e s ig n e rs who to o k it up.
T schic h old’s advoca cy of lo w er-ca se t y p o g ra p h y (^K/einschreibung'} and a
reformed o rth o g ra p h y was first made in his elem e ntare typo grap hie mani­
festo of 1925: "An extraordinary econom y w o uld be achieved th ro u g h the
exclusive use of small letters - the elimination of a ll capital le tters; a form
of w ritin g and settin g that is reco m m ended as a new scrip t by all in n o va ­
tors in the field.’’^2 He then refers to Porstm ann’s Sprache und Schrift, and
hints at the need to con sid er phonetics. The book was in the air at that
time. Thus, in a le tter to Tschichold in response to elem entare typographie,
El Lissitzky asked; "W hat sort of bo ok is this Sprache und S ch rift (Porst­
mann)? If it is good, can you get it for me, I will send money at once.’’"^^
Several of the a rtis t-d e s ig n e r New T ypographers to o k up the cause of
o rth o g ra p h ic reform: El Lissitzky and László M o h o ly -N a g y had already p u b ­
lished generalized proclamations, but now these demands began to be
w o rke d into visual form. In 1925, the Bauhaus w e n t "low e r case" in its p u b ­
lications and internal com m unic atio ns, as pa rt of a general shift to w a rd s a
more in dustrially oriente d mod ernism (summed up in the move from Weimar
to Dessau).'*'^ The th r e e - p a r t statem e nt at the foot of the s c h o o l’s le tt e r ­

XXXI
heading Creproduced here on p. 1243 w ould have given any c o rre sp o n d e n t
the theoretic al ju stificatio n, com ple te with reference to Porstm ann’s book.
M o h o ly -N a g y argued for "o p to - p h o n e tic " research tow a rds a new scrip t;
Herbe rt Bayer published his essay tow a rds a new alphabet: Joost Schmidt
and Josef Alb ers used the notion of a simplified alphabet in teachin g p r o j­
ects. In 1927, Kurt S ch w itte rs — w ho as a visually conscio us “ s o u n d -p o e t"
had an obvious inte rest in the m atter - published his "S ystem schrift.” ^®
And in 1930, Tschichold too published an essay tow a rds a reformed script,
thus going some way t o w a rd s fu lfillin g his own po stula tion Cpp- 8 3 - 8 4 } of
a truly consis tent and " e c o n o m ic ” system.^®
The de bate over o rth o g ra p h y was not confin ed to the a rtist-de sig ners, as
can be seen in the pages of Typographische M itte ilu n g e n , pa rticularly from
around 1928. The issue of A u g u s t 1929 contain ed a num ber of articles on
the theme and an editorial affirm in g su p p o rt for lo w er-ca se typography.
One culm in atio n came in 1931. A special issue in May in clu ded an e d it o r ­
ial. which is unusual in its emphasis on the political aura of low er-case
typo g ra p h y (as b ring in g equality of status to le tters}. The printers were
asked to read the articles carefully, and then to vote on w h e th e r they p r e ­
ferred Cl} capitals at the start of sentences and for pro pe r names only, (2}
com ple te abolitio n of capital letters, (3} retentio n of present German
orthography. The A u g u s t issue reported the result: 53.5 per cent of the
26,876 votes were for the first option, 23.5 per cent for the second, and
23.0 per cent for the third. Arou nd this time the debate over le tterform s
Cblack le tter or roman} was coming to the fore again, and o rth o g ra p h ic
reform was pushed aside. De spite the result of this poll. Typographische
M itte ilu n g e n never ad opte d the mod erate reform of the first option .

PHOTOG RAPHY
“As a consequence of the purity of its appearance and of the mechanical
pro du ction process, ph o to g ra p h y is becoming the obvious means of visual
representatio n in our time" Cp- 88}. Photography was an essential, c o n ­
stitue nt part of the New Typography, as T schic h old’s consid eratio n of it in
this book shows. His discussio ns here makes some defense of p h otog rap hy
ag ainst the accusatio n tha t it can no t be “ art" [but, given the modern m ove­
m e n t’s attack on conventional notions of art. such a defense w o uld be
rather beside the poin t}. An issue of more immediate m oment was the d is ­
approval of ph oto g ra p h y w ith in printin g, particularly “ fine p r i n t in g ” and t r a ­
dition alist bo ok typo grap hy, wh ic h were then still devoted to hand-
pro du ced means of g e ne ratin g images. Here, Tschichold is unap olo ge tic:
“ We today have recognized ph oto g ra p h y as an essential t y p o g ra p h ic tool of
the present. We find its addition to the means of t y p o g ra p h ic expression an
enric h m e nt, and see in ph o to g ra p h y exactly the factor tha t distinguis hes
our t y p o g ra p h y from everything th a t w e n t b e fo r e ” Cp- 92].
One should po in t out tha t there is a distin ctio n to be made between p h o ­
to g ra p h y used as a means of re p ro d u c tio n in the processes of printin g and
the printed re p ro d u ctio n of p h o to g ra p h ic prints. T schic h old’s discussion,
like many others, blurs the tw o phen omena. He is essentially con cern ed
w ith the second - the evident presence of ph o to g ra p h y in printin g — and
not w ith the first phenom enon, w h ich in cludes fundam ental but hardly vis i­
ble innovations like p h o to lith o g ra p h ic printin g and [th en still hardly devel­
o p e d ] p h o to co m p o sitio n of text.
The argum ent for the p h o to g ra p h ic image paralleled tha t for sanserif
[eq ually disliked by t. a d it io n a lis t s ] ; and the tw o elements could then be
jo in e d in "typo-photo."'*^ This — the con ju nction or ju xta po sitio n of text and
image - was really the defin ing method of New Typography in using
images, and can be regarded as one of its lasting legacies, now so g e n e r ­
ally em ployed as to be unnoticed or called simply "g raph ic design." But. at
this point, the issues surro u n d in g p h o to g ra p h y were still contested.
T hrough the common gro und of t y p o -p h o to . New Typography spilled over
easily into the parallel "new ph o to g ra p h y" movement. Thus Tschichold was
one of a th re e -p e rso n executive com m ittee for the D e utscher W e r k b u n d ’s
seminal "Film und Foto" exhibition, held in S tu ttg a rt in 1929, and for whic h
he also desig ned stationery. He was also the de sig ner and jo in t author,
w ith his frie nd Franz Roh, of the b o ok tha t arose from this exhibition, fo to -
auge.^^

THE N E W B O O K
The last of the "p rin cipa l categories of ty p o g ra p h y " to be consid ered is the
book: apparently the s trong ho ld of tradition alists, but also the sub je ct of
some recent visionary speculation. Tschichold describ es and rep rod uces
examples of w o r k tha t breaks with conventional procedures of book design.
Behind such w o r k lay the hypothesis tha t the form of the book should
ad apt to new needs and new patte rns of life (more active, more visual, a
q u ic k e r te m p o ]. Postulations of this kind were in the air then, and have
resurfaced in various guises since. Certainly books were then becom ing
more visual. The in te gration of pictu res with text was becom ing tech nic a lly
easier, w ith developm ents in lith o g ra p h ic and gravure printin g. The "in t e ­
grate d book," with pictu res placed beside the text relating to them, wo uld

x x x iii
also have been encouraged by the change of attitudes that New
Typography b ro u g h t about. This meant a d isrup tion of ‘‘classical" ideas of
separation and balance, tow a rds a view of the book as a usable carrier of
information.
Tschichold touches on the social and material con text of book pro du ction,
showin g again his deep dislike of bibliop hile attitud es Cpp- 224, 227]. One
can add som ething to his remarks here, and also sug ge st tha t ‘‘new b o o k s ”
were then being pro du ced in Germany, as well as being postula te d in
visionary theory. From the m id -1920s a num ber of book clubs began to
publish books tha t aimed to provide the ir members w ith affordable, w e ll-
produced, in te llig e n t books, w hic h were broadly progressive or socialist in
content.^® The Bildu ngsve rba nd's own B uchergilde G utenberg and the
Bucherkreis, w h ic h had affiliations with the SPD (the German social-
de m ocra tic party], were both la unched in 1925, and may be mentioned
here especially for the t y p o g ra p h ic quality of the ir books. Tschichold
desig ned one bo ok for the Buchergilde Gutenberg, the Fahrten- and
A b e n te u e rb u ch by Colin Ross [re p ro d u c e d on p. 223, with his annoyed
remark about a change in its desig n], wh ic h can be taken as typical of early
exercises in New Typography in this medium: headings in bold sanserif
type, ranged to the left: p h otog rap hs as illustration, printed on the same
paper as the text [th o u g h not on the same pages]; page nu mbers set in
bold sanserif, larger in size than the text ty pefa ce [an un ostenta tio us ser-
iffed typ e ]. Later, from around 1930, Tschichold w o rk e d [as a freelan ce] for
the Bucherkreis: he was responsible for the design of most of the ir books,
as well as for the ir leaflets, stationery, and graphic symbol. These books
show New Typography developing a su b tle r approach — headings are now
in smaller sizes, there is some in te gra tion of pictu res w ith text — and at
least one of these books was entirely set in Future.
T schic h old‘s realism, in this his most extreme book, is evident on the c lo s ­
ing page of its text. His remarks ab out typefa ces for books take into
acco un t availability, readability, and content. Finally, qualifyin g any absolute
com m itm e nt to the DIN sizes, he suggests tha t books to be read while held
in the hand will have to be put into formats oth er than these. In a moment
of seemingly absurd but d e lig htful precision, he suggests tha t at least the
he ight of such bo oks could be standardized at 176 mm: in fact the heig ht
of the B5 form at [see the diagram on the facing page].®® The tension
between the wish to stic k to agreed norms and the urge to design for
human ease is resolved in this aside: ‘‘e.g. 176 mm depth for novels.”
AFTER D IE N E U E T Y P O G R A P H IE
The pu blic atio n of the book came at a m oment when the New T ypography
movement was consolid ating, after a tim e of discovery and in vention; and
the book itself wo uld have played some part in the process of g ro w in g self-
aw areness and se lf-co n fid e n ce among those involved. Tschichold c o n t in ­
ued to teach at the M eiste rsch u le at M unic h, alth ough evidently restless in
this position.®^ He and other N ew Typographers con tin u ed to w rite and
publish, tho ugh the d iffic u lty of doin g so — in a time of recession, g ro w in g
unemployment, and political vio le nce — can be seen and felt in the thin ning
issues of the jo urn als of those years. Typographische M itte ilu n g e n is a case
in point: its editorial com m ent in creasin gly takes on political concerns, so
tha t the "stru g g le " for the New Typography is in divisible from the political
struggle.
Tschichold became, from 1928 and up to the end of his life, a remarkably
prolific author of articles about typ o g ra p h y in the specialist press: a b ib li­
ography lists around 175 such pieces, over almost fifty y e a r s . T h r e e f u r ­
ther books, or in d e pen de nt titles, on typ o g ra p h y by him were published in
Germany, before his em igratio n in 1933. Eine Stunde D ru ckg e sta ltu n g
appeared in 1930: one m ig ht explicate the title as "one hour for most of
w hat you need to kn ow about the sub je ct of desig nin g for print." Tschichold
used the occasion to publish pe rhaps his most com pact and com pelling
statem ent of the princip le s of New Typography, as a preface to an a n th o l­
ogy of examples, whic h follows the themes and methods of the second half
of the present book.®® S ch riftsch re ib e n fü r S etze r [1 9 3 1 ] is a brief [32
pages, la ndscape A5 form at] in tro d u c tio n to le tterform s and to the practice
of formal w ritin g for p r in tin g -c o m p o s ito rs . Typografische E ntw u rfste chnik
[19 32] is an other short [24 pages, A4 form at] manual, also directed at
com positors and typograp he rs. It explains tech niq ue s of d ra w in g p rin tin g -
typefaces on layouts — a t o p ic largely passed over in the lite rature of p ra c­
tical typ o g ra p h y — as well as p ro vid in g de sign in stru ction and useful in fo r ­
mation on the DIN formats. These w o rks assume and dem on stra te the
in tegration of New Typography into the everyday practice of p rintin g: as If
the revolu tionarie s had cap tu re d the key cen tres of control, and it now
remained for the ir ideas to be spread calmly into the lifeblo od of the whole
system.
Some of the other literature of N ew Typography from these years should be
men tioned, as a rem inder th a t the ideas of the movement emanated from
more than one source. Paul R e nn er’s M ech an isie rte G rafik [1 9 3 1 ] makes an

XXXV
inte restin g con tra st w ith Die neue Typographie. A w o r k of theory, rather
than a practical manual, its discussio n is con sis ten tly general, as if from a
level above that of the po in te d spe cific ity of T sch ich o ld ’s w ritin g (even at
its most t h e o r e t i c a l ) . W h i l e of approxim ately the same size and num ber of
pages, the design of the tw o bo oks is m arkedly different. A lth o u g h set in a
sanserif [his own Futura). Renn er’s book still feels conservative: text set in
qu ite a large type-size and well leaded, printed on an uncoated c a rtrid ge
paper, while the pictu res are printed on an a r t- p a p e r section at the end. By
com parison, in c o n te n t and in its own form. D ie neue Typographie is more
severe and more com m itted to a new vision.
Closer in spirit to T schic h old’s bo ok was G efesselter B iick [w hich m ig ht be
translated as "captured glance"), a sequence of “ 25 sho rt m onog raph s"
ed ited by Heinz and Bodo R a s c h . This book contains short in tro d u c to ry
con sid eratio ns of "the im a ge” and "lette rs," follow e d by Its main co n te n t of
the monographs: a s ho rt biog raph y of the designer, a statem e nt [sig ned
w ith a facsimile signatu re), and examples of work. Am on g the tw e n ty -fiv e
particip ants, the Ring "neue w e rb e g e s ta lte r" desig ners w ere all re p re ­
sented, and the bo o k and an accom panyin g exhib itio n in S tu ttg a rt were
arranged w ith the colla b ora tion of the Ring. T schic h old’s statem ent of p o s i­
tion was very brief: "In my graphic design. I attem p t to achieve maximum
pu rposefuln ess [Z w e ckm ä ß ig ke it] and to unite the individual com p on ent
parts harmonically: to design [zu g e s ta lte n ]!' By com paris on with D ie neue
Typographie, in w h ic h Tschichold is the sole m ed ia to r and reporter.
G efesselter Blick, in its an thology or group character, is an even clearer
indicatio n of New Typography as a movement.
The Bildungsverband der Deutschen B u ch dru cker publis hed another h a n d ­
book in 1929: G rundsätzliches z u r neuen Typographie by Philipp Albinus.
This short w o r k [52 pages, ju st smaller than A5 form at) points up, by c o n ­
trast, the qualities of D ie neue Typographie. The book includes some id e o ­
logical references, as well as in stru ction about design, but Alb in us [a
printer) was w ith o u t the formal sensitivity and verbal eloquence that
marked Tschichold. The same can be said of the bo ok M od ern Typography
and Layout [1929) by the Am erican prin te r Douglas M c M u r t r ie : an early,
stray treatm e nt of the subje ct from the English-la nguage world .

T S C H IC H O L D 'S E M IG R A T IO N
Early in M arch 1933, Tschichold was taken into "p ro te ctive custody" by the
recently installed National Socialist au thorities in Germany.®® He was
in cluded in the c ra c k -d o w n , soon after H itle r ’s seizure of power, against
those term ed "cultural bolsheviks" and oth er o p po ne nts of the regime.
There would , for example, have been enough evidence of this “ cultural b o l­
shevism" w ith in the pages of Die neue Typographie, if the new authorities
had chosen to look throu gh its pages. And in his case, as already indicated,
perhaps unrem arkable socially progressive m odernis t views had been
coloured by a specific affiliation to Slavic culture. Tschichold was held for
about six weeks, durin g whic h tim e he was dismissed from his post at the
M eiste rschu le . The con ditions of d e tentio n were lenie nt enough for him to
design a b o o k -b in d in g for the Insel-Verlag, before being released under a
general amnesty of such prisoners. Jan and Edith Tschichold, with their
young son, then immediately made plans to em igrate to Switzerland.
Tschichold secured a pa rt-tim e jo b with the prin te r and pu blis her Benno
Schwabe at Basel, and some te a chin g w o r k at the Gewerbeschule there,
and moved with his wife and child in July 1933.
Since the late 1920s, T schic h old’s typ o g ra p h y had begun to show a greater
subtle ty and sop histicatio n : a d e velopm e nt tha t was con tin u ed and a c c e n ­
tuate d in his first years in Switzerland. The prime d o cum e nt from this
period was his book Typographische G estaitung, published in Basel by
Schwabe C1935), and in fo re ig n -la n g u a g e editio ns: Danish, Swedish (both
1937), and Dutch [1938).®^ The b o o k follows the stru ctu re of D ie neue
Typographie-, a historical review, a statem e nt of the aims of New
Typography, and then de tailed c o n sid eratio n of the elements of ty pography,
ending w ith a section on “ the new book." But the language is more c o n s id ­
ered, with much less in vocation of the “ s pirit of the tim e" and w ith more
emphasis on the details of t y p o g r a p h ic design. This com m itm e nt to details
- always present in his w o rk - w o u ld have been helped in its de velopm ent
throu gh his experience with the p r in te r - p u b lis h e r Schwabe, w h ere the
w o rk w o uld have encompassed editorial, prin tin g -te ch n ica l, and design
considerations.®® The shift away from ideolo gical argum ent can be seen as
a response to “ the times," wh ic h w ere indeed very bad. The political storms
and ruptu res had. as one small side effect, destroyed the con fid e nce with
which Tschichold could publish lists of like-m in de d de signers in Europe:
their addresses had now changed or were uncertain and con tact with them
had ceased. The New Typography as a “ movement" had come to an end.
Tschichold was unusual among émigrés from Germany in the way in w hic h
he was Cafter some years of in security) able to settle and in te gra te into
Swiss society: in 1942, he was gra nted c itiz e n ’s rig hts in Basel; and it was
remarked that he learned to speak flawless Swiss-German dialect.®® The
trauma of 1933, the slide of w o rld po litic s to w a rd s war. the new con text of
a politic ally neutral and cultu rally more stable society, his g ro w in g and
eventually almost exclusive co n ce n tra tio n on book desig n: these are among
the factors tha t can be m entioned in Tschichold's turn to a tradition al
approach to ty pography. A n o th e r factor tha t has been mentioned is his
c o n ta c t w ith the “ new t r a d itio n a lis t" ty p o g ra p h e rs in England CStanley
M orison and Oliver Simon, most notably), whom he w o uld have met p e r ­
sonally on a visit to London in 1937. when he addressed the Do uble Crown
Club in an a fte r - d in n e r speech.®® The change may be dated Con
T schic h old’s own account) to around 1938: from whic h time he w o rked
almost exclusively in the symmetrical mode, w ith typefa ces de riving from
p re -in d ustria l models [th o u g h in versions made for machine com p o sitio n ):
and from being a tireless p ro m oter of m odernism in typography, he became
one of its most acute and sometimes acid critics.®^

A G A IN S T THE N E W T Y P O G R A P H Y
The first pu blis hed statem ent of positio n came in 1946. in a reply to Max
Bill, w h o had made a barely veiled attack on his change of position.®^
T schic h old’s arg um e nt was notable for its moral and political dimension,
especially for its con te m p la tio n of the seemingly inevitable loss of human
values in industrialized labour. A key passage (set in italics) read:
Its [the New T ypog rap hy’s] in to le rant a ttitud e certainly corre spo nds
in p a rticular to the German inclinatio n to the absolute; its military
w i ll- t o - o r d e r and its claim to sole p o w e r corre sp o n d to those fearful
com p on ents of German-ness w hic h unleashed H itle r ’s rule and the
Second World War.®®
This was uttered in the heat of a polemical exchange, and in the immediate
aftermath of the war.
Tschichold maintained this po litic a l-p h ilo s o p h ic a l charge ag ainst the New
Typography for the rest of his life, tho ugh later he put it in less intense la n­
guage. He also came to emphasize a set of more pu rely typ o g ra p h ic o b je c ­
tions to mod ernism in this field. Thus in an exchange with the m odernis t
"Swiss typ o g ra p h e rs" [as they are now term ed ) w h o came to prom in ence in
the late 1950s, he made a num ber of pow e rfu l critic ism s of the New
Typography [or, more exactly, the typ o g ra p h y th a t it had by then led to in
Switzerland).®^ A m on g these o b je ctions were: tha t it was essentially limited
to p u blic ity w o r k and to the sub je ct m atter of the modern wo rld , and could
not deal w ith the com ple xitie s of book de sign: tha t in relying on sanserif, it
used an unbeautifu l le tterform tha t could not be read easily as contin uous
text: tha t the DIN paper-sizes were in a p p rop ria te for many purposes,
books above all: tha t it ten ded to ad op t a rigid formalism tha t failed to
artic ula te the meaning of the text: tha t it lacked grace.

x x x v iii
D IE N E U E T Y P O G R A P H IE IN ITS C O N T E X T
Tschichold was by this time speaking from vast experience, pa rticularly as
a book designer, and in a c o n te x t — the G erm an-speakin g w o rld in the
years of the Federal R e pu blic’s "e conom ic miracle" - very d iffe re nt from
the fresh and un certain years of Weimar Germany, in wh ic h the New
Typography had come into existence. The gap between the tw o moments
con tains a w o rld war. extraordinary devastation and reco nstructio n, and,
although only th irty years in extent, it covers a pro fo und change in the
quality of cu ltu re and society. It was pe rhaps inevitable and unde rsta nd able
that the later Tschichold should have w a nted to modify and sometimes f o r ­
bid the rep ub lica tion of the do cum e nts of his New Typography.
In an obvious and fundam ental sense, he was still the same au thor:
although his views had changed, he had the same traits of a polemical
manner and a passion for detail, the same wish to poin t out faults, wh ic h he
did for anyone whom he saw making errors, inclu din g his you ng er self.
A ltho ug h the change of ap pro ach surp ris ed contem porarie s, the c o n t in u ­
ities of T schic h old’s career may now be seen to ou tw eigh the breaks. Even
at the time of its publicatio n, his old teacher at Dresden, Heinrich Wieynck,
observed tha t D ie neue Typographie was a marker in a de velopm e nt th a t
was not over yet; he w o n d e re d if this de velopm ent could "p erha ps in the
future restore Johannes to a place of honour."®® This was a remarkable p e r ­
ception, although false in the sense tha t the “Johannes" w ho return ed was
not the Johannes of Leipzig or Dresden in 1921, but the "Jan" of Basel in
the late 1930s [and sub se q u e n tly]. In oth er w o rds: a ty p o g ra p h e r w ho had
in corp orated the experience s of his times and contexts, and whose w o r k
evolved into som ething fresh. The con text of the present editio n of D ie
neue Typographie is diffe re nt from any tha t its au thor knew. Equally, the
present edition will have an afterlife in contexts that we can no t imagine.
But we do know something of the first con text of this book, five tho usan d
copies of whic h we re printed and publis hed in Berlin in the summer of
1928.

ACKNOW LEDGM ENT

For help w ith research and in the w ritin g of this in tro du ction. I am grateful
for help and advice given by the foll ow ing people: Andrés Furész, Richard
Hollis. James Mosley, and the Resource Collections staff at the Getty
Center for the History of A rt and the Humanities. An im p ortan t colle ctio n of
Tschichold papers is now in the colle ctio n of the Getty Center, but became
available too late for me to con sult for this work. Except w h ere noted,
translatio ns from German texts oth e r than the present book are by myself.

x x x ix
A fairly com ple te editio n of T schic h old’s w ritin g s has been published as
S chriften 1 9 2 5 -1 9 7 4 {2 vols.; Berlin: Brinkmann & Bose, 1 9 9 1 - 9 2 ] ; refer­
ences to texts re p rin te d there are given as “ S chriften."

* W alter Benjam in. E in b a h n s tr a ß e CBerlin: Row ohlt. 1928). p. 7. The translation quoted here is
very slightly modified from Edmund Je p h co tt's in: W alter Benjam in. O n e - W a y S t r e e t a n d O th e r
W ritin g s (Lon d on : N LB . 1979]. p. 45.
1. Excep t w here noted, b iographical information on Tschichold is taken from the account w ritten
by the su b ject him self: "Jan T sch ich o ld : Praeceptor Typographiae." Th is text w as first published
under the pseudonym "R em in isco r" in T y p o g ra p h is c h e M o n a t s b lä tt e r , vol. 91. no. 4 (A p ril 1972].
on the occasio n of T sch ich o ld ’s seventieth birthday. It w as reprinted as the principal text in the
monograph w hose content and design he determ ined, though it appeared after his d eath: L e b e n
u n d W e rk d e s T y p o g ra p h e n J a n T s c h ic h o ld (D re sd e n : V E B Verlag d er K unst. 1977: [reset and
slig htly altered edition] M u n ich : Saur. 1988: also S c h r if t e n 2 :4 1 6 -4 3 3 ].
2. L e b e n u n d W e rk d e s T y p o g ra p h e n J a n T s c h ic h o ld . p. 16 iS c h r if t e n 2 :4 2 2 ]. The large claim -
perhaps a true one — that Tschichold w as the first typographic d esig n er is quite typical of the
tone of this anonym ous autobiographical F e stsch rift essay.
3. The book-artist (Em il Rudolf W eiss w as a ch a ra c te ristic exam ple] is slig hting ly referred to also
in D ie n e u e T y p o g ra p h ie . Throughout his career, ag ainst figures of that kind. Tschichold worked
as the capable professional who knew his job in all its d etails.
4. “ Er . . . kam a u f g e w ü h lt z u r ü c k " : he cam e b ack all churned up { L e b e n u n d W e rk d e s
T y p o g ra p h e n J a n T s c h ic h o ld . p. 17: S c h r if t e n 2 :4 2 3 ].
5. See Edith Tsch ich old 's contribution to Philipp Luidl. ed.. J . T (M u n ich : Typographische
G ese llsch aft. 1976]. pp. 2 9 -3 3 . T sch ich o ld ’s first letter to Lissitzky. 19 Jan u ary 1925 (reproduced
in facsim ile as a loose in sert in this book], exp lained : "H err M oholy-N agy know s me very w ell and
has given me your ad dress. I am the only typographic C o n stru ctivist in Leipzig.”
6 . Edith Tschichold explained the changes in the names of her (th en] late husband in her co n tri­
bution to Luidl. J.T. When later "Iw an ” proved to be an irritant to the co n servative se n sib ilitie s of
his co lleagues and em ployers at M unich. Tschichold chose "Jan .” as the S lav form of "Johannes."
In his contribution to the same book. W erner Doede quoted a letter to him from Tsch ich old :
’’. . . now J a n ’ instead of ’ Ivan .’ sin ce M unich! ’Ivan ’ is im possible h e re !” (5 Ju n e 1 926]. These
changes and their sig n ifican ce w ere noted at the time by T sch ich o ld ’s teach er at Dresden.
Heinrich W ieynck. in his perceptive review of D ie n e u e T y p o g ra p h ie in G e b r a u c h s g r a p h ik (see
note 16].
7. See. for exam ple, the d iscu ssio n of the Jap an e se n ew sp aper in this book (p. 2 0 6 ]. with its
sid e-b low against “ North A m erican p seud o-culture.” U nlike some of the Weimar m odernists.
Tschichold show ed no rom antic longings for A m erica.
8 . This has been reprinted tw ice , most a cc e ssib ly by the p rinters and p ub lish ers H. Schm idt
(M unich. 198 6 ]. e le m e n ta r e t y p o g r a p h ie w as quite long in prep aration: at E aste r 1925.
Tschichold wrote to Imre K n er that publication had been delayed until Ju ly (le tte r dated
"Pfingsten 1925 ” in the B e ke s County A rchive . Gyula. H ung ary].
9. Tschichold him self sugg ested this in a letter to Piet Zw art. 31 A u g u st 1927 (G etty Center
A rch ive s. Santa M onica: file 8 5 0 8 3 1 ].
10. See the accou n t by Fried rich FriedI in his introductory text to the 1986 reprint.
1 1 . R eferen ces in co rresp o n d en ce from this time sugg est that relatio ns betw een Renner and
Tschichold w ere quite d istant and d ifficu lt. For exam ple. Tschichold advised Piet Zw art to send
exam ples of w ork to him rather than to Renner, adding "R enn er still d o e sn ’ t know who you are.
And he is som eone who has changed sid es [ e in Ü b e r lä u f e r ] “ (14 D ecem ber 1927. Getty Center
A rch ive s. Santa M onica: file 8 5 0 8 3 1 ]. Edith Tschichold d escribed Jan T sch ich o ld ’s years in
M unich, including the situation at the M e iste rsch u le , in an interview published in: D eu tsch er
W erkbund. D ie z w a n z ig e r J a h r e d e s D e u ts c h e n W e r k b u n d s (G ie ß e n : A n ab as. 1982]. pp. 1 83-192.

Xl
12. "Jan Tschichold über die neue Typographie" [signed "N eum eyer CM ünchen)”], T y p o g ra p h is c h e
24. no. 1 (Jan u ary 1927): 22. Th is short p récis of Tsch ich old 's lecture su g g e sts that
M it t e ilu n g e n
most of the ideas of the book w ere already form ulated by this time.
13. I owe this perception to Hans Schm oller. Tsch ich o ld 's su cc e sso r at Penguin Books, who
w ro te: "W hether he w as the perfect teach er may be open to doubt. He rarely wanted to use the
S o cratic method . . (H ans Schm oller. Tw o T ita n s : M a r d e r s t e ig a n d T s c h ic h o ld [N ew York: The
Typophiles. 1 990]. p. 2 6).
14. Letter of 15 Aug ust 1927 (G etty C enter A rc h ive s. Santa M onica: file 8 5 0 8 3 1 ).
15. The sum is in line, for exam ple, with p rices for books published by the Bild un g sverband 's
Büchergild e G utenberg, which w ere kept to a minimum level. In these years, there w as some pub­
lic debate over book p rices in Germany, reflected in T sch ich o ld 's d iscu ssio n here (pp. 230. 2 3 1 ):
see note 48 below.
16. A thorough search has not been attem pted, but two interesting review s are: Heinrich
W ieynck. "Die W andlungen des Jo h an n e s." G e b r a u c h s g r a p h ik b, no. 12 (D ecem ber 1 92 8 ); 7 7 -7 9 :
an untitled and anonym ous review in b a u h a u s 3. no. 2 (1 9 2 9 ): 28.
17. S e e. resp ectively, the lists in T sch ich o ld 's E in e S tu n d e D r u c k g e s t a lt u n g (S tu ttg art: W edekind.
1930) and S c h r if t s c h r e ib e n f ü r S e tz e r (Frankfu rt a .M .: K lim sch . 1931).
18. Letter of 3 February 1929 (G etty C enter A rch ive s. Santa M onica: file 8 5 0 8 3 1 ).
19. Postcard of 28 Septem ber 1930 (G etty C en ter A rch ive s. Santa M onica: file 8 5 0 8 3 1 ).
20. Letter of 16 February 1932 (G etty Cen ter A rc h ive s. Santa M onica; file 8 5 0 8 3 1 ). In the book's
statem ent of copyright, it is stated that “all rights are reserved by the author, in p articu lar those
of translation into other languages, including Russian."
21. Letter of 29 Septem ber 1932. in: El Lissitzk y. P r o u n u n d W o lk e n b ü g e l (D re sd e n : V E B Verlag
der K unst. 1977), p. 138.
2 2 . A second edition, d escribed as such on its title page, w as published in 1987 by Brinkm ann &
Bose in B erlin . A p art from its title and imprint pages, it is a facsim ile reprint.
23. Several of these texts are available in English translation in: Ulrich Conrads, ed .. P ro g ra m m e s
a n d M a n if e s t o e s o n 2 0 t h - C e n t u r y A r c h it e c t u r e (Lon d on ; Lund Hum phries. 1970).
24. Quoted from the English translation by Fre d erick E tc h e lls: Le C o rb u sier. T o w a rd s a N e w
A r c h it e c t u r e (Lond on: Rodker. 1927). p. 33.
25. Notably as d esig ner for the B ü ch e rkre is book club (from around 1930 to 1933). w hich w as
affiliated to the German social-dem ocratic party (S P D ). Tsch ich o ld 's L e b e n u n d W e rk rep rod uces
(illustratio n sectio n , p. 41) a cover for the m agazine S p o r t p o lit is c h e R u n d s c h a u (1 9 2 8 ) that might
stand for "left-w ing g raphic design" of this period : ju st as would the strikin g ly sim ilar cover of a
K A PD m agazine P r o le t a r ie r (1 9 2 7 ). w hich Tsch ich old rep rod uces on p. 217 of the p resent book.
(The K A PD w as a “ le ft-radical" grouping, w h ich broke aw ay from the main German communist
party in 1920.) Tschichold w as not the sort of person who join s p olitical p arties, but such a sso ­
ciatio ns w ere inevitable for someone of his in clinatio ns — and in 1933 it w as equally inevitable
that he should have been detained as a "cultural b olsh evist.”
26. b a u h a u s 3. no. 2 (1 9 2 9 ): 28.
27. The most com plete docum entation of the Ring is provided by a set of four exhibition ca ta ­
logues published under the title T y p o g ra p h ie k a n n u n t e r U m s t ä n d e n K u n s t s e in . S ee. in p articu la r:
R in g "n e u e w e r b e g e s t a lt e r " 1 9 2 8 - 1 9 3 3 : E in Ü b e r b lic k (H anno ver: Sprengel M useum . 1 9 9 0 ): R in g
"n e u e w e r b e g e s t a lt e r ”: D ie A m s t e r d a m e r A u s s t e llu n g 1931 (W iesb aden : Landesm useum
W iesbaden. 1 99 0 ). The other two catalo gu es, both published by the Landesm useum W iesbaden,
docum ent the typographic w ork of Kurt S ch w itte rs and Fried rich V ordem berge-G ildew art.
28. The flavour of the Rin g's activitie s is conveyed in the typew ritten com m unications that
S ch w itte rs circu late d . Those received by Piet Zw art are now in the Getty C enter A rch ive s. Santa
M onica (file 8 5 0 8 3 1 ). and are tran scrib ed and published in R in g “n e u e w e r b e g e s t a lt e r " : D ie
A m s t e r d a m e r A u s s t e llu n g 1 9 3 1 , pp. 1 12 -1 16 .
29. S ee the referen ces in S ch w itte rs' circ u la rs , p articu la rly the m embers' comments quoted in his
"M itteilung 19” (1 9 2 8 ): R in g “n e u e w e r b e g e s t a lt e r " : D ie A m s t e r d a m e r A u s s t e llu n g 1 9 3 1 , pp.
1 1 5 -1 16 .

Xli
30. H erbert Bayer w as the only "m aster" at the B auhaus with a long-term commitment to typog­
raphy: but — by com parison with Renner. Tschichold , or Trump, at M unich — his w ork showed lit­
tle of the ca llig rap h ically trained and h istorically informed typo grap her's se n sitivity to letterform s
or to the handling of text.
31. This w as one of the issu e s raised im plicitly by M ax B ill, w hose "über typografie" Csee note 62
below ] w as set unjustified and w ithout w o rd -b reaks: in his reply. Tschichold pointed to E ric G ill’s
earlier use of it and to the fact that m achine-com position could handle either mode with the same
facility. Ano ther notable explorer of unjustified setting w as the Dutch d esig n er Willem Sandberg,
from the 1940s onw ards.
32. Some accou n t of the German standard s bodies is available in an an n iversary h istory: Bruno
Holm. ed.. F ü n fz ig J a h r e D e u t s c h e r N o r m e n a u s s c h u ß CBerlin: Beuth-V ertrieb. 1967].
33. On the history of Taylorism and "S cie n tific M anagem ent." se e : Ju dith A . M erkle. M a n a g e m e n t
a n d I d e o lo g y CBerkeley. Los A n g e le s. London: U niversity of California Press. 1 98 0 ]. Of p articu lar
relevance here is M e rk le ’s ch ap ter on "S cie n tific M anagem ent and German rationalization." which
outlines the "central role" of the Verein D eu tsch er Ingenieure in introducing Taylorism into
Germany.
34. W alter Forstm ann (1 8 8 6 -1 9 5 9 ] is at p resent an ob scure figure, but he is referred to in Holm.
F ü n fz ig J a h r e D e u t s c h e r N o r m e n a u s s c h u ß , and som ething can be inferred also from the entries
under his name in the National Union Catalog published by the Library of C o n g ress. W ashington.
D .C. Ute Brüning has ch ased him in notes to two a rtic le s : "Zur Typografie H erbert B a ye r.” in
H e r b e r t B a y e r: D a s k ü n s t le r is c h e W e rk 1 9 1 8 - 1 9 3 8 (B e rlin : B au h au s-A rch iv. 1 982]. pp. 118 -1 37 :
"Die neue p lastisch e Syste m sch rift." in " T y p o g ra p h ie k a n n u n t e r U m s tä n d e n K u n s t s e in " : K u r t
S c h w it t e r s . T y p o g ra p h ie u n d W e r b e g e s t a ltu n g (W iesb aden : Landesm useum W iesbaden. 1 990]. pp.
98-107. O stw ald published his view s - and his resentm ent - co ncerning the developm ent of the
German p aper-size standard in an autobiography. L e b e n s lin ie n (B e rlin : K lasin g . 1 9 2 6 -1 9 2 7 ].
3 :3 0 0 - 3 0 8 .
35. See e sp e cia lly his E in e S t u n d e D r u c k g e s t a lt u n g , pp. 14-25.
36. While during the 1930s the National S o cialists predom inantly preferred b lack letter as the
most "Germ an" letterform , the argum ent w as finally settled by H itle r’s d ecree of 1941. w hich out­
lawed black letter as "Jewish." Ju s t as the National S o cia lists eventually opted for n e o cla ssical
g rchitecture. so too in typography, roman becam e the form that fitted the dream s of a world
empire. For some detailed d iscu ssio n , se e : Hans Peter W illberg. "S ch rift und Typografie im Dritten
R eich ." in H u n d e r t J a h r e T y p o g ra p h ie : H u n d e r t J a h r e T y p o g ra p h is c h e G e s e lls c h a f t M ü n c h e n
(M u n ich : Typographische G e se llsch aft M ünchen. 199 0 ]. pp. 8 7 -1 0 3 .
37. They shared the sam e postal d istrict of B erlin . SW 61. and the B u ch d ru ckw e rkstätte w as also
the printer of books published by the Büchergild e Gutenberg (the B ild un g sve rb and ’s book clu b ],
and seem s to have moved with the Bildungsverband from Leipzig to B erlin .
38. See the H a n d b u c h d e r S c h r ift a r te n , com piled and published by A lb rech t Seem an (Leip zig .
1926]. Among the sam ples shown on p. 193. the "G rotesk P. Breite magere" from Berthold clo sely
resem bles the typeface of the book - but so do nine others.
39. W ieynck. "Die W andlungen des Jo h an n e s." p. 77.
40. T y p o g ra p h is c h e M it t e ilu n g e n published regular reports of the number of typesetting
m achines installed in Germ any, taken from the "Jah resb erich t der Zentralkom m ission der
M asch in e n setze r D e u tsch lan d s": these show a steady growth in these ye ars, but the relation to
hand-setting rem ains to be determ ined.
41. For one instance of m odernist co n scio u sn e ss of m achine com position, see note 55 below.
Seven years later, in his second major book. Tschichold did devote some p aragraphs to machine
com position { T y p o g r a p h is c h e G e s ta ltu n g [B a se l: S ch w ab e . 1935], pp. 3 2 - 3 3 ].
42. e le m e n ta r e t y p o g r a p h ie (= T y p o g ra p h is c h e M it t e ilu n g e n , vol. 22. no. 10 [O ctober 1 9 2 5 ]].
p. 198.
43. Letter of 22 O ctober 1925. in Lissitzk y. P r o u n u n d W o lk e n b ü g e l, p. 137.
44. M uch the best source here is: Gerd Fleischm ann. ed.. B a u h a u s T y p o g ra fie (D ü sse ld o rf:
EcUtipn M arzona. 198 4 ]. All the Bauhaus material referred to in this paragraph can be found in
this com pendium .
45. First published in his article “Anregung zur Erlangung einer Syste m sch rift." H O 1. no. 8/9
(A u gu st-Sep tem b er 192 7 ]: 3 1 2 -3 1 6 . See also the article by Ute Brüning (note 34 ab ove].

X lii
46. In an article entitled — as if he w ere co n scio u s of the by then growing list of such e xp e ri­
ments — "noch eine neue s c h rift,” published as an in sert to T y p o g ra p h is c h e M it t e ilu n g e n , vol. 27,
no. 3 CMarch 1930].
47. This idea can be seen reflected in contem porary advertising for Futura. as the typeface "for
photomontage" Cfor exam ple, in T y p o g r a p h is c h e M it t e ilu n g e n , April 1929].
48. Among the literature of the new photography, see: Ute Eskildsen and Jan-Christo pher Horak,
F ilm u n d F o to d e r z w a n z ig e r J a h r e CStuttgart: W ürttem bergischer Kunstverein. 1979]; David Mellor.
ed.. G e rm a n y : The N e w P h o to g ra p h y 1 9 2 7 - 3 3 CLondon: Arts Council of Great Britain. 1978]. Roh and
Tschichold’s f o to - a u g e [Stuttgart: Wedekind. 1929] w as published in facsimile reprint [London:
Thames & Hudson. 1974]. Another result of the Roh-Tschichold collaboration w as the "Fototek”
series, edited by the former, designed by the latter, and published by Klinkhardt & Biermann in
Berlin. Only volumes on Moholy-Nagy and Aenne Biermann appeared [in 1930].
49. S e e : M ichael Bühnem ann and Thom as Frie d rich . "Zur G e sch ich te der B uchg em einschaften
der Arb eiterbew eg ung in der W eimarer R epu b lik." in W e m g e h ö r t d ie W e lt [B e rlin : Neue
G e se llsch aft für Bildende Kunst. 1977]. pp. 3 6 4 -3 9 7 ; Horst Bunke and Hans S tern .
B u c h g e s t a lt u n g f ü r d ie L it e r a t u r d e r A r b e it e r k la s s e 1 9 1 8 - 1 9 3 3 [L e ip zig : D eutsche B ü ch erei.
1982]. The M alik-Verlag has been volum inously ce leb rated , though it is not of sp e cial interest
typographically. But se e : Jo Hauberg et al.. e d s.. D e r M a lik - V e r la g 1 9 1 6 - 1 9 4 7 : C h r o n ik e in e s
V e rla g e s [K ie l: N euer M alik-Verlag. 1 98 6 ]. w hose thorough docum entation in clu d es [pp.
114-119] a rticle s first published in D ie W e lt b ü h n e in 1928 on the theme of the price of German
books ["1st das D eutsche Buch zu Teu er?"].
50. Gerd Fleischm ann in a perceptive e ssa y ["'Kö n n en Sie sich einen Flieg er mit Vollbart
vo rste lle n ?’" in B e ih e f t : D ie n e u e T y p o g ra p h ie [B e rlin : Brinkm ann & B ose. 1987]. pp. 3 3 - 4 6 ) also
rem arks on this "surprising and fascinating" detail [p. 3 3 ]. but does not notice the derivation
from the B5 format.
51. A s is cle ar from his private co rresp o n d en ce of this time [for exam ple in letters to Piet Z w a rt).
There w ere also premature public announcem ents that he had taken jobs in Vienna, presum ably
at the G e se llsch afts- und W irtschaftsm useum , w hich he visited briefly then { T y p o g r a p h is c h e
M it t e ilu n g e n 26. no. 9 [Septem ber 1929]: 2 2 5 ]. and at the Höhere G rap hische F ach sch u le in
Berlin { T y p o g r a p h is c h e M it t e ilu n g e n 30. no. 3 [M arch 193 3 ]: 9 2 ].
52. S c h r ift e n 2 :4 4 4 -4 5 4 .
53. "Was ist und w as will die Neue Typografie." in E in e S t u n d e D r u c k g e s ta ltu n g , pp. 6 -8
{ S c h r if te n 1 :8 6 - 9 4 ]: this text w as published in translation in French and English m agazines, in
1930. Adolf B ehn e's E in e S tu n d e A r c h i t e k t u r [1 9 2 8 ] had also been published by W edekind: su g ­
gesting an "Eine Stunde" se rie s.
54. Renner did w rite a more practical co u n terpart to this book: D ie K u n s t d e r T y p o g ra p h ie
[B e rlin : Frenzei & Engelb recher. 1939; rev. ed.. B e rlin : D ru ckh au s Tempelhof. 1 948]. but by then
his already tem pered modernism had tem pered further.
55. Heinz and Bodo R asch . G e fe s s e lt e r B lic k : 2 5 k u r z e M o n o g r a f ie n u n d B e it r ä g e ü b e r n e u e r
W e r b e g e s t a ltu n g [S tu ttg art: Zaugg, 1930]. The Rasch brothers worked acro ss the whole range of
design d iscip lin es and came to typography w ith a certain untroubled fre sh n e ss. Thus in a note on
the text of their book [p. 2 ]: “. . . machine com position w as used as a matter of p rinciple [n oth ­
ing but lines of equal len g th ]. The lines contain 65-7 0 ch aracte rs, in all of the three type sizes
that are em ployed. This is the longest line that, with this typeface, is still com fortably readable."
56. Edith Tschichold d escribed this, in the co n sid erab le detail with w hich traum atic events are
rem embered, in the interview published in: D e u tsch er W erkbund. D ie z w a n z ig e r J a h r e d e s
D e u ts c h e n W e rk b u n d s , e sp ecially pp. 1 8 8 -1 9 1 .
57. An English-lang uag e edition appeared much later [Lond on: Faber & Faber. 1967]. It show s
the aw kw ard ness that Tschichold found in dealing with his younger se lf: the book's design [by
Tschichold] h esitates betw een symm etry and asym m etry; w arning footnotes are inserted by the
older author: the d iscu ssio n of standard p ap e r-size s is omitted [although these w ere then being
introduced in B rita in ]; and the title of A s y m m e t r ic T y p o g ra p h y represented a revision of his e a r­
lier assum ption, implied in the 1935 title, that New Typography w as not a special category, but
that it provided the obvious central ground for all "typographic design."
58. See the com position rules that he drew up for Benno Schw abe { L e b e n u n d W e rk d e s
T y p o g ra p h e n J a n T s c h ic h o ld , pp. 2 2 -2 3 : S c h r if t e n 1 :2 0 2 -2 0 4 ]. This e xp erien ce, as w ell as his

xliii
w ork for the pub lisher B irkh äu se r Cfrom 194 1). led on to his celebrated reform at Penguin Books
C1947-1949). For an account of the latter, including reproduction of the Penguin composition
rules, see Ruari M cLean . J a n T s c h ic h o ld : T y p o g ra p h e r [London: Lund Hum phries. 1975). pp.
8 6 -1 0 4 .
59. Legislation that deterred the settlem ent of refugees from the occupied co untries w as enacted
in Sw itzerlan d , w hich tended to be a transit zone for them. S e e : Helmut F. Pfanner. "The Role of
Sw itzerland for the R e fu g e e s.” in: Ja rre ll C. Jackm an and Carla M. Borden, e d s.. The M u s e s F le e
H it le r [W ashington, D .C .: Sm ithsonian Institution Press. 1983). pp. 2 3 5 -2 4 8 . M ax F risch 's rem i­
n isce n ce s ["Jan Tschichold als N ach b ar") in Luidl. J . T , pp. 8 1 -8 5 . give an im pression of the older.
S w iss Tschichold .
60. This is one of the sugg estions made by G. Willem Ovink in his thorough and perceptive a rti­
cle "Jan Tschichold 1 90 2 -74 : Versuch zu einer Bilanz sein es S ch affe n s." Q u a e r e n d o 8. no. 3
[Sum m er 1978): 1 87-220.
61. It w as around 1937 that Tschichold began to give away or sell his co llection of m odernist
typography, which would have come to him partly through w ork on books such as D ie n e u e
T y p o g ra p h ie . [Bruno M onguzzi observes this in the co urse of his m eticulous investigation. "Piet
Zw art: L’opera tipográfica 1 9 2 3 -1 9 3 3 .” R a s s e g n a , no. 30 [June 1987]: 4 - 8 8 : see p. 9. note 3 5 .)
But if there w ere emotional reasons for Tschichold to shed this material then, there may have
been financial p re ssu re s too. Among institutions to acquire such w ork from him then w ere the
Museum of M odern Art [N ew York) and the V ictoria and A lb e rt M useum [Lon d on ).
61. Max Bill, "über typ o g rafie.” S c h w e iz e r G r a p h is c h e M it t e ilu n g e n 65. no 4 [A pril 1 946):
1 93 -2 00 : Jan Tschichold . "Glaube und W irklich keit." S c h w e iz e r G r a p h is c h e M it t e ilu n g e n 65. no. 6
[Ju n e 1 94 6 ): 2 3 3 -2 4 2 : an English translation of T sch ich o ld ’s text is given, as "B e lie f and R e ality.”
in M cLean . J a n T s c h ic h o ld : T y p o g ra p h e r, pp. 1 31 -1 39 . B ill's statem ent is a m anifesto for his own
typography, as well as an attack on Tschichold [whom he does not nam e).
63. Tschichold . "Glaube und W irklich keit." p. 234.
64. "Zur Typographie der G eg enw art," B ö r s e n b la t t f ü r d e n d e u ts c h e n B u c h h a n d e l 13 [1 9 5 7 ):
1487 -14 9 0. T sch ich o ld 's article ap pears to have stim ulated a sp e cial issue of T y p o g ra p h is c h e
M o n a t s b lä t t e r [vol. 78. no. 6/7 [Ju n e /Ju ly 1 9 5 9 ]). with contributions from most of the leading
S w iss typographers of that time, including a point-by-point resp onse by Emil Ruder, w hich used
the title of T sch ich o ld ’s original article [pp. 3 6 3 -3 7 1 ).
65. W ieynck. "Die W andlungen des Jo h an n e s." p. 79.

x liv
JAN TSC H IC H O LD

THE NEW TYPOGRAPHY

A H A N D B O O K FOR M O D E R N D E S IG N E R S

BER LIN 1928

PUBLISHER FOR THE EDUCATIONAL ALLIANCE OF GERMAN PRINTERS
CONTENTS
In tro d u c tio n

GROW TH A N D NATURE OF THE NEW TYP O G R A P H Y

__________________________________
The new w o rld v i e w ___________________________ 11
The old t y p o g ra p h y (1 4 4 0 -1 9 1 4 ). retrosp ectiv e view and c r it ic is m — 15
The new a r t _______ _____________________ _ ____________ 30
The history of the new ty p o g r a p h y ________________________________ 52
The princip le s of the new t y p o g r a p h y _____________________________ 64
Photography and t y p o g r a p h y ______ 87
New typ o g ra p h y and s ta n d a r d iz a tio n ______________________________ 9 6

PRINCIPAL TYP O G R A PH IC CATEGORIES

The t y p o g ra p h ic s y m b o l____________
___________________________________ 109
__________________________________ 112
The business le tte rh e a d ____________
The half letterh ead ______________________________________ 127
_______
__________________________________
Envelopes w ith o u t w i n d o w s ________ 131
__________________________________
W ind ow en velope s_________________ 134
The postcard ____________________________________ 136
_______
___________________________________ 144
The postcard with f l a p _____________
__________________________________ 148
The business c a rd __________________
The vis itin g -ca rd _____________ 150
A d ve rtis in g m atter (slips cards leaflets prospectu ses ca ta lo g u e s )__ 151
The ty p o - p o s t e r __________________________________________________ 174
The picto ria l poster _________ __ ________________ 181
Labels, plates, and fram es_________________________________________ 192
A d v e rtis e m e n ts ___________________________________________________ 195
The perio dic al 202
The n e w s p a p e r____________________________________________________ 212
The illustrated p a p e r ______________________________________________ 215
Tabular m atter 217
The new b o o k _____________________________________________________ 217

B ib lio g ra p h y . 229
List of Addresses 235
PIET M ONDRIAN:
For the man of today there exists
only the e qu ilib riu m between nature
and spirit. A t every m om ent of the
past all variations of the old were
"n e w " — but the y were not "TH E"
new. We m ust never forg e t tha t we
are n ow at a tu rn in g -p o in t of civiliza­
tion, at the end of eve rything old.
This parting of the ways is absolute
and final.
IN T R O D U C T IO N
The appearance of my Special Nu m be r of Typographische M itte ilu n g e n e n t i­
tled elem e ntare typo grap hie started a lively discussion of the questio ns
raised there in th r o u g h o u t the p rintin g associations and p r in tin g - tr a d e j o u r ­
nals of Germany. The New Typography, after being vio le ntly attacked and
often decisively condem ned, has now established itself in centra l Europe.
Its manifestations c o n fro n t m odern man at every step. Even its most ardent
oppo ne nts have eventually had to resign themselves to acce ptin g it.
But much remains to be done. Many still regard the New Typography as
essentially a kind of tech nica l-sym bo lica l formalism, wh ic h is the exact
opposite of w h at it really is. This attitud e is his to ric ally un de rsta ndable: the
old ty p o g ra p h y was formal in c on cep t: it has nothin g at all to do with
recent attem pts to turn the bo ok p rin te r into a com m ercial graphic artist,
which wo uld be foreign to the true nature of his profession.
An explanation of the spiritual princip le s of the New Typography is th e re ­
fore an ab solute necessity for all who wish to be succe ssful in the field of
printing. M erely to copy its external shapes w o uld be to create a new f o r ­
malism as bad as the old. We must free ourselves com ple te ly from the rigid
patterns of the past, and train in g in calligraphy or graphics alone will never
achieve this. It will come only from a com ple te reorie ntatio n of the role of
typo grap hy and a realization of its spiritual relatio nship with oth er activities.
The laconic brevity of the procla m atio n of the New has created the need for
a fuller account, whic h it is the purpose of the present volume to provide.
The a u thor also felt it im p ortan t to set down guid elines for the de sign of
the com m onest jo b b in g p rintin g and above all to acquain t printers w ith the
standards of book printin g w h ic h are every day gaining w id e r acceptance.
No book pro vid in g these general guid elines has ever before existed, no
do ub t ow in g to the chaotic appearance still presented by ty p o g ra p h y today.
Despite its many illu stratio ns this is not a copybook. It is inte nded to s t im ­
ulate the prin te r and make him aware of him self and the true nature of his
work. As w ith my Special Nu m be r elem e ntare typographie, a brief le afin g-
throu gh of its pages will lead only to m is u nd erstand in gs and new errors.
The "f orm " of the New Typography is also a spiritual expression of our
w o rld -v ie w . It Is necessary the re fore first of all to learn how to understa nd
its princip le s, if one wishes to ju d g e them c o rre c tly or oneself design
w ith in th e ir spirit.
The illu stratio ns in this book, with few exceptio ns examples of practical
work, prove tha t the con cep ts of the New Typography, in use, allow us for
the first time to meet the de mands of our age for purity, clarity, fitness for
purpose, and totality.
Modem man, whose vision of the w o rld is colle ctive -to ta l, no longer
in d ividu al-sp ecialist, needs no special rem inder of the rig htness of being
closely aware of such related activities as m odern painting and p h o t o g r a ­
phy. I the re fore th o u g h t it desirable to say som eth in g more about this new
way of vie w in g our world , in wh ic h our spiritual con cep tion of the new
forms are linked w ith the wh ole range of human activity.
Thanks are due to the publis hing house of the Educational Associatio n of
the German Printing Trade Union, w hic h has already perfo rm ed a service to
the dissem in atio n of c o n tem po rary typ o g ra p h y by pu blis hing the booklet
elem e ntare typ o g ra p h ie and w hic h fa r-s ig h te d ly and generously has also
made possible the pu blic atio n of this book.

M unic h, June 1928. JAN T SCHICHOLD

GROWTH AND NATURE OF THE NEW TYPOGRAPHY
THE N E W W O R L D -V IE W
The revolu tionary technic al discoveries of the late 19th and early 20th c e n ­
turies have been only slowly follow e d by m an’s ab ility to make use of his
new o p p o rtu n itie s and de velop them into a new patte rn of life. “ Civilization"
and the t o o -r a p id penetration of all classes by these new technic al d is c o v ­
eries have led to co m ple te cultu ral chaos, caused by the failure of the
affected generatio n to draw the rig ht conclu sio ns for a new way of life from
the new facts.
The new generatio n facing this state of affairs is free of the preju dices
against the New tha t obsessed the previous generation. The tech nic a l a d ­
vances in every tool and service used by man have been enthusiastic ally
accepted by the you ng er ge neratio n and have b r o u g h t ab out a com ple te ly
new a ttitud e to th e ir surroundin gs.
The obje cts in use by the new ge neratio n suffer from the fatal com prom is e
be tween a sup posedly “ a r t is t ic ” inte ntio n and the dictates of technic al
man ufacture: from a feeble t u rn in g back to historical parallels; from the
conflict between essence and ap pearance. Instead of recogniz in g and
designing for the laws of machine pro d u ctio n , the previous generatio n c o n ­
tented itself with tryin g anxiously to fo llo w a tra d itio n tha t was in any case
only imaginary. Before them stand the w o rks of today, untain te d by the
past, prim ary shapes which id en tify the aspect of our time: Car A e ro plane
Telephone Wireless Factory N e o n -adve rtisin g New York! These objects,
designed w ith o u t reference to the aesthetics of the past, have been c r e ­
ated by a new kind of man: th e e n g in e e r!
The en ginee r shapes our age. D istingu is h in g marks of his w o rk: economy,
precision, use of pure c o n stru ctio n al forms tha t corre spo nd to the f u n c ­
tions of the object. Nothing could be more ch a racteristic of ou r age than
these witn esses to the inventive genius of the engineer, w h e th e r o n e - o ff
items such as: airfield, de p a rtm e n t store, u n d e rgrou nd railway: or mass-
produced objects like: type w riter, e lectric lig h t-b u lb , m otor cycle. They
have created a new - our own - attitu d e to our surro un din gs. An immense
en ric hm ent of ou r lives comes from the new inventions w hic h co n fro n t us at
every step. The collective wh ole already largely determ in es the material
existence of every individual. The in d iv id u a l’s id entical fundam ental needs
are met by standardized p ro du cts: electric lig ht-b ulb s, gram op hon e
records, Van Heusen collars, Zeiss bookcases, tin n ed milk, tele phones,
office furnitu re, type w riters. Gillette razors. The standardiz atio n and
ele ctro-m e chan iz a tion of the thin gs we use daily will be fu r th e r in creased.
Economies in pro d u ctio n and use of materials will lead to c on stant im ­
provements. But electro-m e chan iz a tion as an end in itself is nonsense: its

11
true purpose, by satisfying basic needs throu gh m ass-p rod uced obje cts of
highest quality, is to make possible for the first time a true and unlim ited
aw akening of all the creative po wers of man.
In some fields, standardizatio n, rationalization, and m echanization have
made great progress, but in most others almost everythin g remains to be
done. Where no tradition existed, and w h ere the re fore there was the least
am ount of restraint on design, record progress was made, e.g. in Rumpler-
Tropfen cars, in giant aircraft, in typ e w rite rs. Further rationalization in the
m anufacture of the parts of these engineerin g p ro d u cts will allow even
more energy to be harnessed tha t today is going to waste. But in most
spheres of human activity, progress tow a rds the shapes expressive of our
time is slow in deed. Thus in the field of housing, the proje cts of Gropius
and Le C o rbu sie r have only very recently been recognized, achieving in an
u n p ro m is in g -lo o k in g area a high degree of standardiz atio n and series-
pro du ction. The de sign and c o n stru ctio n of homes for pe ople w ho live the
same sort of lives can be planned so as to meet the econom ic demands of
our time for ratio nalization and standardizatio n.
M od ern enginee rin g and standardiz ed machine manufacture have of neces­
sity led to the use of precise ge om e tric forms. The final and purest shape
of a p ro du ct is always built up from g e om e tric forms. The new age has c r e ­
ated an entirely new visual world , and has guid ed us to the prim ary e le ­
ments of human expression: g e om e tric shape and pure exact form. Our
sympathy for the shapes derived from geom etry and science is pa rt of our
inborn striving for order, both in thin gs and in events, wh ic h is redouble d
when we are c o n fro n te d by chaos. We, who require the utm ost purity and
truth in our surro un din gs, arrive everywhere at forms whic h do not. as p r e ­
viously, deny the necessary elements of the ir co n stru ctio n , but op enly
reveal and affirm them. Such shapes must by necessity transce nd in d iv id u ­
alism and nationalism in th e ir appearance. The value of an o b je ct is not
measured by its origin, but by its approach to pe rfe ctio n of form, the h ig h ­
est and pu rest de sign. The creato r disappears com p le te ly behind his work.
People of today regard the arro ga nt thru stin g forw a rd of the man before his
w o r k as aesthetic ally embarrassing. Just as every human being is part of a
greater whole, and is conscio us of his con ne ction w ith it. so his w o r k
should also be an expression of this general feeling of whole ness. An anal­
ogy in the field o f spo rt is the excite m ent shared by millions in a vic tory by
Tunney over Dempsey. Every new reco rd means, to the in dividual, a higher
achievement in w h ich all have p a rticip ated; it shows how successfully the
dashing new ge neratio n is replacing m id dle -ag ed stuffiness by movement
and action. Contem pla tiv e introversio n has given way to new realities, the

12
thrills of active modern life. The theatre, an illusion of life, has lost its d r a w ­
ing power, for life itself has become a play: city street, neon signs, stadium!
A few clear heads, the avant-ga rde of all nations, are leading the way here.
Their achievem ents in painting and arch itecture have led to a new vision
and a new activity in all oth er fields of human creativity. Their exemplars
were the w o rks of the engineers, expressing purity and clarity in the ir c o n ­
structio n and appearance. "Beauty" is no longer, to us, an end in itself, an
autocratic entity, but a result, an a ttrib u te of rightness and fitness in c o n ­
struction. Constructio n is the basis of all organic and organized form; the
structure and form of a rose are no less logical than the con stru ctio n of a
racing car - both appeal to us for the ir ultimate economy and precision.
Thus the striving for purity of form is the common denom inator of all en deav­
our that has set itself the aim of rebuilding our life and forms of expression.
In every individual activity we recognize the single way. the goal:
U n ity o f L ife !
So the arbitrary isolation of a part is no longer possible for us — every part
belongs to and harmonizes with the whole. Where slackness is still the rule,
we must make it ou r w o rk to f ig h t against laziness, envy, and n a r r o w ­
mindedness.
Typography too must now make itself part of all the oth er fields of c r e a tiv ­
ity. The purpose of this book is to show these con ne ction s and explain the ir
consequences, to state clearly the princip le s of ty pography, and to demand
the creation of a c on tem po rary style. The c on ne ction be tween ty p o g ra p h y
and all oth er fields of creativity, esp ecially architecture, has been accepted
in all progressive periods. Today we are w itn essin g the birth of a new and
splendid arch itecture , whic h will set its stamp on ou r period. Anyone who
has recognized the deep underly in g sim ilarity between t y p o g ra p h y and
architecture and has un de rsto od the true nature of the new a rc h itecture
can no lo ng er d o u b t tha t the fu tu re will belong to the new typ o g ra p h y and
not the old.
And it is impossible for both the old and the new typ o g ra p h y to con tin u e to
exist together, as some th in k they can. The great period of design that is
coming w o uld not be one if the Renaissance style con tin u ed to exist beside
the modern, in w h ateve r field, w h e th e r of printin g or arch itecture . The
romanticism of the previous generation, however understa ndable, never
hindered the birth of a new style. Just as it is absurd today to build villas
like Rococo palaces or Gothic castles, so people to m o r r o w will smile at
those who contin ue to practise the old typography.
In the battle between the old and the new, it is not a question of creating
a new style for its own sake. But new needs and new contents create new

13
forms wh ic h look utterly unlike the old. And it is ju st as im possib le to argue
away these new needs as it is to deny the need for a truly con tem po rary
style of ty pography.
That is why printers today have a duty to concern themselves with these ques­
tions. Some have forged ahead with energy and creative success: for the rest,
however, it seems that there is still almost
E V E R Y T H IN G
to do !

14
THE O L D T Y P O G R A P H Y ( 1 4 4 0 - 1 9 1 4 )
The history of typ o g ra p h y shows a steady progress from its invention do wn
to about the m iddle of the last century, but after that it is dis tu rbe d by d is ­
organized movements and turne d upside down by new technical inventions
which decisively affected its course.
The typ o g ra p h y of the first period C1A40-1850] is limited almost entirely to
the book. The few broadsheets and newspapers that were produced were
in book formats. The distinctiv e feature, especially since the be ginning of
the I 6th century, was the typeface. The oth er parts of the book seem of
secondary im portance: they are decorative, inessential additions. The basic
form o f the book varied from time to time but did not change decisively.
Gutenberg, who was concerned only to imitate the book of his day - which
was h a n d w ritten - developed his types out of the c on tem po rary bo ok
hand, the go thic minuscule. That type, reserved today for religious and
other ceremonial matter, was at tha t time used for the w ritin g or printin g of
all, even profane, texts. The in vento r also used “ textura," the go thic m in us­
cule, for texts of more than d a y -to -d a y im portance. Beside the go thic
minuscule, there was also the go thic cursive [kno w n in France as
"Bâta rde"] for d a y -to -d a y w riting, notes, and records, wh ic h Schoeffer later
took as a basis for the "S c h w a b a c h e r” type wh ic h he was the first to use.
Between the invention and the be ginning of the I 6th cen tury these were
the only tw o letterform s in use. For the purposes of this historical survey
we may disregard the variations of go thic and Schwabacher, whose c o n ­
tours were similar to the types of Gutenberg and Schoeffer, as well as the
forms of roman type before I 500.
The form of the book as a whole corre sp o n d e d almost entirely, at this time,
with the design of the late go thic h a n d w ritten codex. Its wealth of painted,
go ld -h e ig h te n e d large initials and coloured smaller initials, rubric atio ns,
and margin de corations on openin g pages was taken over by the printed
book. O riginally filled in by hand, these decorative additions were soon
being cut on wood and printed w ith the text, and in expensive w o rks a f t e r ­
wards h a n d -colo ure d. Text was ge nerally in tw o columns. Title -pages were
asymmetric but not arranged very logically. Centred layouts were hardly
ever used and were confin ed to Italy. Harmony of text, initials, and titlin g
was achieved by strong contrasts of colour, shape, and w e ig ht. In this
respect go th ic books can be com pared with the typo grap hic a l expression
of our own day.
Around 1500, the humanistic Renaissance, throu gh the w o r k of Aldus
Manutius, its ch ief exponent, established a com ple te ly diffe re n t visual
ideal, the even silver-grey page, w h e th e r text, title-p ag e, illustrations, or

15
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Page fro m the facsim ile e d itio n of the G u te n b e rg Bible (In se l-V e rla g)
16
o c ( ? a u D i> ir ^
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uicm« eüqmma otu(ua:i qui rä pu -
pujminf .|T tut plügtttt Fr fup mm
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bum bn ’{oßtmorau i^iu. to m Ipi-
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mo1 tbiaoxt^farbiß^pbdampbtt
ttloobnu.|ir;>uüißbmmuibttnri
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fibotpmimß'¿Öimpobftt:i^mlfi
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ornam ents (^Hypnerotomachia P o lip h ili}. The type that now came into use
was “A n tig u a " (rom an]. (The earlier use of a gothic ized roman in Rome, by
Sweynheim and Pannartz, was part of the change of style wh ic h began e a r­
lier in Italy.] The new style origin ated in Italy about 1450, but did not
spread to other countrie s until con sid erab ly later.

A page o f the
H y p n e ro to m a c h ia
P o U p h ili.
Aldus M anutius,
Venice 1499. pro<{:;ci{Tc.i]iiilj ionoqucih' cxUco £g<
ШСПЮprxftjlgidi &amoroitítpcTC.íopcf oíitiiítrgíi ЛшПосо
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jírücRi una frondedclaJÍinKbiuv)ácItüroufc|áclí^cdc Bibreu'n íné-
dio соПосли fiUTc.Nc un<)ückiÍ5ia,cdTaf<:;C hoñíticóa, EtcíiH pcnfita;
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ucjiir^cl uoliiptico 5imc<picb¿lcd^odclono ncdcultro.C^jakhoinb
da fimcc.xarccbáro&tramuldpíici&pitrií<dülirmnc^ dcüjtri ciipi-
á o iiim n n o ín tcg i^ icñ ¿iim aaV d i^ contento, Made
Bulmnainfbf^o.

X A B EIXTSSIM A Ñ Y M P H A А О P O XTPH ILO P E R .-

V E N T A .C V M V N A T A C O L A M E L L A S IN IS T R .A M A
N V С Е В .V L A .E t C V M L Á S O L V T A P R E S O L O Д О Ш
V I T A c v M e s s a -á n d A ^ e t c í v i v i P O L ÍP H I-
LO IM COxM INCI А И V D A p O L C E A M O R E
DECLABl^GÁíTrEDAÑnGEL
L A C O N C A L É F A C T Ó .G L I

AM ARSEM E,

í^ í5 P E C T A N D Ó P R A E S E N T IA L M E N T E E L .
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Ao.&dc uno co p io ío a c^ o З е и т а ст Ы са ^ !^ ’^
^E^grS^deintn^beljíxia Sí íob^fnunáIorhipEta«i£x .
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tinubile deliric,5c opólcndc íídafcmagniEctninc.ad tatito aaioreqtun^^
íó c cp (H .g falicedun <1dccólui che tale Secániro ükfpnj da ampw
ro po fndcrac. Ma noafolamcntc pofleflore falícc.ucnuncntc bcatini moV
dico colüi cWadtntrifui dcEíScinijKrio Humife fucrumbendó dalia f i ■
ra per q^Ыl^nrf^cmodp j»flWuiu íeoL'tcnroyOaltiTimo íbi^
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ma fopra ñute le A grígcuncpüelIeSídclIo otbiШtnb ^nondo;dii(]ií«u;^
abíóí u a рГсДюпе.сбзгиатпйк per EngularcMeplairlo K ar¿b ¿ o p ^ r
ínruíEraocIcfto.I j^qüalcformoiÍA &Gtlícolá Nyroplia.hbraaá йсиЙ

17
Ald us M an utiu s was the first to recognize tha t p rinted books had a ch a ra c ­
ter of th e ir ow n and were diffe re nt from m anuscrip ts. Ald us can there fore
be seen as the b e ginne r of the new t y p o g r a p h ic age in book design;
G utenberg by com paris on was more the im ita to r of medieval m anuscripts.
In the Renaissance and the Baroque and Rococo periods deriving from it.
the types c o rre spo nding to the two go thic faces Ctextura and Schw abacher)
were the so-called M e d ie va l-A n tiq u a Croman] and the cursive Citalic]
developed by A ld us from a cursive version of the roman.
In Germany at the be ginning of the 16th century, Vinzenz Rockner, the
em peror M a x im ilia n ’s private secretary, developed from the textura face a
German Renaissance type: fraktur. It is a partially successful attempt, in the
con text of the Renaissance, to give the clumsy g o th ic letters some of the
fluency and elegance of the new fo rm -w o rld . Just as the latest German
Gothic, by-passing the true Renaissance, led to Baroque, indeed almost

G erm an title -p a g e ,
1741.
Black and red.

ШтШЬШ/M t anb

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(iuff a!fs 'UiiiJ ie k Ш |a it|in
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itr» Sat'Jnjf^t iHeSpit & ■ijofit .5gt»jri<c?^

вкда-чЧ Г«!»

18
already is Baroque CTilman Riem enschneid er), so the types of the German
Renaissance are really baroque. This can be seen in the curly ornam ented
movements of the main stems, the snouts of the capital letters, indeed in
the ha nd w ritin g of the time [w h ich is still today the official German hand!)
with its o ve r-de coratio n of large initial letters.
In the Baroque and Rococo periods foll o w in g the Renaissance, fra ktu r
changed very little: not until the end of the 18th century were attem pts
made to reform it. Fraktur was used alm ost only in Germany: oth er c o u n ­
tries either never used it, or gave it up after a short time.
Books of the Renaissance, the Baroque, and the Rococo, set in fraktur, all
look pretty much alike, and are diff e re ntia te d from the books set in roman
only by the ir type. The dom in atio n of centred setting sometimes gives
German books a stronger, more “co lo u rfu l" appearance because of the
nature of fraktur type. Proportions and general style were the same in
German and La tin-style books. Title -pages of books set in fra ktu r often
looked garish and clumsy because of the use of too many type sizes and
too many lines in red - but this also happened in books set in roman. Not
until the end of the 18th cen tury did a lighte r look come into both kinds of
book, w ith more leading, less com p lica ted headings, smaller sizes of type,
etc.
Towards the end of the 18th century the p u n c h -c u tte rs Didot, Bodoni,
Walbaum, and others com ple te d the transform atio n of the M e d ie val-
Antiqua into the so-called Französische Antiq ua. The success of A ntiq ua
[roman) types on the C ontin ent at this time was due not only to th e ir c la r ­
ity but to the influence of the French Rococo in the so-called c u ltu re -
countries. Under its influence Peter the Great In Russia at the be ginning of
the 18th century caused the c yril lic types to be b ro u g h t closer to the Latin
forms. Leading German typ e c u tte rs already saw the fra ktu r types as old-
fashioned, medieval. The efforts of U n ge r [ U n g e r - f r a k t u r ) and B reitko pf
[the so-called J ea n-P a ul-fraktu r) show how con cern ed the feeling then was
to bring the external appearance of fra k tu r closer to roman. The c h a ra c te r­
istic quality of the Französische A ntiq ua types showed itself in th e ir
increasing depa rtu res from pen forms. If the older romans and th e ir italics
show clearly, in th e ir details, th e ir Imitation of pen and occasio nally chisel
strokes, the types of Didot are the archetype of the engraved le tte r - no
corre spo nding w ritte n or chiselled forms exist. The com p lica ted individual
movements of the M e d ie va l-A n tiq u a are replaced by the simpler, more
"re g u la r” line of the D id o t-A n tiq u a . The letters convey a much clearer
effect, clo ser to the ir essential characters. The new "Empire" style, wh ic h
brought in the Didot types w ith it. led to a certain typ o g ra p h ica l revival, a
 '*--,-X ^ » > r ; T V T lT V T V 'r i i T V T V f » T V 7 V T V T V T V Y X r r ;^ Q

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Ô ’A N T O I N E A E Â ïill
<S^Qc^
• PÉTRONILLE PACKET,
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ilEQüïESCANT ïN PACE,
Ces Painsfi 'bisiribiuront ehe
Caßelain, PinceSair.i Munir.,

L'-« i'îaprimcric de le Vetive F .S. L A L a U , p ç« »'lié-tt'. <

N o t a design b y a "b o o k -a rtis t" of the 20th c e n tu ry -b u t the w ork of a sim ple com positor
in the 18th century. A lso , not an invitation to a garden party but a funeral!

new flo w e rin g of ty p o g ra p h y usually known today in the history of t y p o g r a ­

phy as the “ classical" period.
Bodoni and Didot, like Aldus, developed the ir style of bo ok design from
the ir types and typo g ra p h ica l material; but the greater clarity and t y p o ­
graphic quality of the ir types enabled them to reach still greater perfe ctio n
in book ty p o g ra p h y than that achieved by M anutius.
This last flo w erin g of the typography of the M id dle Ages was followed by a
period of increasing decline which eventually, in the eighties and nineties of
the last century, became quite unbearable. A certain organic development of
classicistic typo grap hy can. it is true, be traced up to about 1850, at a d im in ­
ishing rate; from that time on, one un typographic conception follows another.
It is often overlooked that one furthe r typeface resulted from the develop­
ment of the Französische Antiq ua — the sanserif. Its origins can be found in
the type specimens of the first half of the 19th century. Sanserif is a logical
de velopment from Didot. The letters are free of all extra accessories: their
essential shapes appear for the first time pure and unadulterated.

20
The invention of lith og raph y in fluenced the con stru ctio n of ty p o grap hy:
lith og raph ers' strongly decorate d le tte ring and ornaments were copied by
the p u n c h -c u tte rs ; printers vied with each other in tryin g to copy the styles
of lith og raph y — a totally diffe re n t process — by t y p o g ra p h ic means. The
artificial linear mannerisms of the seventies, the boxes and borders of the
eighties, and the horrib le "a rtistic" p rintin g of the nineties were the last
stages of the decline. Hand in hand w ith this decline in the general a p p e a r­
ance of printed matter w e n t the decline in typefaces. The Französische
An tiq ua and M e d ie va l-A n tiq u a (p o p u la r in the seventies durin g a vogue for
the Renaissance] became insipid, colourless, and formless. Our ordin ary
roman types in use today orig in ated at this time.
There were several reasons for this general decline. The fact tha t its origin
coincides with the be ginnings of the machine age points to its deeper
causes. The inventions of lith og raph y and photography, of p h o to lith o g ra p h y

Exam ple of "fre ie R ich tu ng " ("a rtis tic p r in tin g " )
From the folder of the "International G raphic D esig n-Exch an g e
of the German Printing A sso ciatio n " (1 8 8 9 )

21
and high -spee d presses, all accele rated the decline. The trem endous
po w e r of these in ventions gave contem po rarie s new o p p o rtu n itie s whose
possib ilities were not grasped as quic kly as they occu rred , or perhaps were

Exam ple of "fre ie R ich tu n g " ("a rtis tic p r in tin g " )
From the folder of the “ International Graphic D esig n-Exch an ge
of the German Printing A s s o cia tio n ” (1 8 8 9 )

not recognized at all. A t the same time, new kinds of pu blic atio ns made
possible by the new in ventions, such as magazines and newspapers,
emphasized the confusio n in t y p o g r a p h ic design. W hen finally the process
lin e - b lo c k was invented, and rep rod uctiv e w ood engraving, then at the
highest poin t of its developm ent, had to give way to it. confusio n was c o m ­
plete. This state of affairs in printin g was ho wever only parallel with a g e n ­
eral cultural collapse.
Germany especially, em ergin g vic toriou s from the Franco-Prussian war, was
flooded w ith m achin e-m ad e sub stitutes for craftsm anship , tha t suited its
megalomania w h ic h the v ic toriou s end of a w a r b r o u g h t w ith it. and were

22
enthusiastic ally taken up - indeed, people were actually proud of this t i n ­
niness. Like the profite ers of ou r own p o stw ar period, people of that time
had lost all sense of wh at was genuine; like us, they were blinded by the
phoney g litte r of those horrors.
The wh ole era is characterized on the one hand by a slavishly and en tirely
superficial copyin g of every conceivable old style, and on the other by a c a ­
priciousness in design w ith o u t precedent. A tow n hall, for example, might
be built to look like a p se ud o-G othic palace [ M u n ic h ) or a "Romanesque"
villa.
Similar con ditions flo uris hed in oth er countrie s, th o ugh not nearly to the
same extent. Sickened by them tow a rds the end of the eighties in England,
William M o rris to o k the w ro ng perspective of fig h tin g ag ainst machines and
m a c h in e-pro du ction. M orris visualized the ideal as repla cin g m a c h in e -w o rk
by a rebirth of ha ndic raft and a return to earlier times. By his action he
in te rrup te d natural development, and became the fathe r of the "Arts and
Crafts" movement. He was also the first pro d u ce r of an a rtist-d e sig n e d
type, M o r r is - g o th ic , well known even in Germany. In it he follow e d closely
a go thic model. With his type he printed books in w hic h everyth in g was
made by hand. With this he gave impetus to a movement whose last o f f ­
shoots, the German private presses, were for the most part killed only by
inflation. As crea to r of the first a rtis t-d e s ig n e d typefa ce M o rris is the p r o ­
totype of the "b o o k -a rtis t," who first appeared in the history of bo ok p r o ­
du ction at about the beginning of the present century, chiefly in Germany.
There is no question that book design in the last decades of the 19th c e n ­
tury had become feeble and insipid. The th o u g h tle ss copyin g of a style, for
example the German Renaissance in M unic h, did not provide an answer.
For this reason, M o r r i s ’s views were un d o u b te d ly stim ulatin g. It is chiefly
thanks to him tha t "Jugendstil" [ A r t Nouveau) came into being.
Jugendstil was the first movement to de lib erate ly try to free itself from im i­
tation of histo ric styles. The Arts and Crafts school style of the seventies
and eighties had to be de feated: form must emerge purely from purpose,
constructio n, material. The pro du cts of such logical creation were to fit
harmoniously into the forms of m odern life. The search for new forms finally
extended from objects of everyday use to the in te rio r as a whole, to a rc h i­
tecture, even to a w o rld - v ie w of life. The leaders of this movement were
painters, e.g. van de Velde, Eckmann, Behrens, Obrist, and others in G er­
many, Hoffmann in Vienna, and others all over the rest of Europe. The
movement as we know collapsed shortly after the turn of the century. A
characteristic of the movement was that it trie d to give the new feeling for
life, as it was then believed to be, a sovereign expression. The heroic

23
efforts of these pioneers failed — although in many respects their ideas
were rig ht - because the true needs of the time could not yet be exactly
grasped, and because of the mistaken bo rro w in g of art forms from nature.
The main aim was seen too simply as new forms, a new line Cvan de Velde:
La ligne, c ’est une force - a line is po w e r], in oth er words, an ae sthetic
renewal, a change in ou tw ard shape, instead of the c o n s tru c tio n of ob jects
in obedie nce to th e ir purpose, their materials, and the ir methods of m a n u ­
facture. The ideas of these artists were too much in the future, were by and
large imprecise, and because of lack of o p p o rtu n itie s at tha t time could not
be realized. A fte r a few years the movement lost itself in a J u g en dstil-
influenced new Biedermeier, in oth er w o rds an othe r rep etitio n of an earlier
style.
The school of M orris and Jugendstil had a beneficial effect on the quality of
this latest imita tion-style . Eckmann, an exceptio nally able exponent of
Jug endstil, who sadly died young, gave the printin g trade his Eckmann-type,
a kind of co m bin atio n of fraktur and roman, whose line seems to have been
in flue nced by brush lettering and plant forms. Soon after that, Behrens p ro ­
duced his go thic type for Klingspor. The early W ie ynck types - his bold
po ster-cursive, and Trianon - were ty p o grap hic expressions of the new
Biedermeier. The desig nin g of a book as a whole followed the path of g e n ­
eral developm ent from the revolutionary shapes of Jugendstil to the m o d ­
ernized Bie derm eier style, and from these step by step by way of the w o r k
of such men as Rudolph Koch and Ehmcke to the com ple te acceptance of
the classical style by such personalities as Tiemann and Weiss. The tight,
squ are d-up style of typo g ra p h ic arrangem ent adopte d by Jugendstil was
replaced shortly before the war by a fashion for the so-called "free" style of
setting, in tune w ith the general change towards a renew ed preference for
the classical style. Its most im portant represe ntative was Carl Ernst
Poeschel of Leipzig. S quared-up setting ("Ka ste nsa tz"] as such was really a
new idea, w ith o u t historical precedent. But It was based too closely on p re ­
conceived Ideas o f form, whic h nearly always does violence to the contents.
The "free" style of setting resulted from a new and extremely th o ro ug h study
of the last classical period, the early 19th century. The classical types were
rediscovered by Carl Ernst Poeschel.* The publisher Insel, with Otto Julius

• Long before the w ar, M endelsohn w as wrong lo say that Jaco b Hegner w as the father of this
red iscovery. No one used older types so e xclu sively as Hegner. but he did not begin printing until
after the w ar. The return to the c la ssic a l faces such as U ng er-fraktur. W albaum -Antiqua.
B reitkopf-fraktur. d ates to around 1911.

24
Bierbaum, made an im portant con trib u tio n here. Instead of the po or and
b a ckw a rd-lo okin g types of the late 19th century, true historical forms were
used. The type de signers really studied these forms: after the "Sturm und
Drang" [w ild and viole nt] shapes of Jugendstil, types gradually became
more and more moderate, until they finally reached th e ir high point and c u l­
mination in the nearly totally classical forms of T iem ann-Antiqua. Ratio-
Latein. Tiem ann-gothic. W eiss-Antiqua. Square d-up setting contin ued in the
specimens of the type -fo und rie s, although In a less pronounced form, until
the last years before the war. The increasing use of classical types forced
the use of a classical form of setting, the so-called “ fr e e ” style. Highly
developed examples in this style can naturally only be distinguis hed from
their models by un im p ortant details. It must be adm itte d that a high quality
was achieved; a very cultivated taste indeed was needed to produce results
which so closely rivalled the ir models. But the difference between these
modern works and the ir classical models is that the models really are an
expression of their time, whereas the imitations are the expression of a
highly sensitive eclecticism, whic h is an attitud e foreign to the present day.
looking for its ideal in another time and wo rld . In contrast to the im itators of
Jugendstil, who though they may not have achieved any final success nev­
ertheless tried to bring all expressions of life in the ir time Into harmony, the
Arts and Crafts book-artists, restric tin g themselves to the book, and possi­
bly bo ok-lik e journals, became rigid w ith eclecticism and thus lost all c o n ­
nection with the shapes and appearances of their own time. While the
"Empire bo ok" in all respects fitted its period, the "Arts and Crafts” book
sought to make itself a pretentio us exception. Scarcely any really c o n te m ­
porary solutions of contem porary problems are known. A very well known
dictionary, which appeared recently, looks like an encyclopedia of the
Rococo. It must be freely admitted that the contents of most books regarded
as of high quality at that time almost all consisted of lite rature from the past,
providing themes which must have been in hib itin g to contem porary book-
designers Cthe p a tte rn -b o o k of Hans v. Weber, the Tempel classics].
Nevertheless it is thanks to the w o rk of the a rtis t- b o o k - d e s ig n e r s that the
taste for pure typo grap hy in books was reawakened, and that today most
publishers avoid de coration inside the ir books. That ho wever is not such an
important achievement, since basic form Creine Sachform] is only a m id ­
point be tween decorated and de signed form - a zero between minus and
plus. This more or less de cora tion-free kind of book, in its ou tward ap p e a r­
ance, owing to its use of historical or w o u ld - b e historical types, harking
back to the past, has since shortly before the war become the norm.

25
But as I poin te d out above, books are no longer the only kind of printin g.
M ore and ever more im p ortan t m atter appears tod ay in the form of m aga­
zines. newspapers, advertising, and so on. Here the above -m entio ne d
artis t-de sig ners, because of the ir on e-sided outlo ok, could not perform. A
few of them did, indeed, try to in tro du ce "refo rm s" in this field w ith o u t s u c ­
cess; and there are still a few artists of that ge neratio n who are seriously
talking about the ré in tro d u ctio n of the w o o d b lo c k into newspapers! (That
this is a po sitively atavistic fallacy I need hardly say here. The b o ok-a rtists
of the p re -w a r perio d used to proclaim, and still do. that the ha lftone block
[from p h o tog rap hs] does not harmonize with the clear b la c k - a n d - w h ite of
type. Woodcuts, or at least line blocks, must take the place of halftones. In
practice this is im possible, because neither w o o d c u ts nor line blocks offer

Title -p a g e of an 18 th -ce n tu ry
ty p e specim en.
B ro w n ty p e on p rin te d tin t.

26
 CARL ERNST POESCHEL:
Title -p a g e o f a ty p e specim en.
Black and orange.

anythin g like the rep rod uctiv e accuracy needed today and possessed by
the halftone, nor can the medieval rate of pro d u ctio n of the w o o d c u t
rem otely com pete with modern process block manufacture.)
A p a rt from ne glig ible exceptio ns, restricte d to literary periodicals, the
bo o k -a rtis ts were unable to put the ir theorie s into practice in the im p o rta n t
field of newspapers and magazines. In the great area of advertising they
were shut out from the start.
A wh ole book on its own w o uld be needed to describ e all the d iffe re n t
characters and theorie s of the artists of the advertising w o rld before and
after the war. Their common fault was tha t they always made the ir own p e r ­
sonalities or the ir " h a n d w r itin g ” an effective factor in the ir work. A factual.

27
im personal way of th in kin g was foreign to them. Exceptions, such as Lucian
B ern h a rd ’s posters, only prove the rule.
These artists too, fo r example Lucian Bernhard, were not w ith o u t influence
on book design. Some of them have also desig ned new typefaces, based on
rece nt Am erican designs, w h ic h try to imitate random brush strokes
[B ern hard -. Lo-, Glass- and similar types]).
These various and varied influences make up the p ictu re of to d a y ’s t y p o g ­
raphy. Type pro d u ctio n has gone mad. w ith its senseless o u tp o u rin g of new
" ty p e s ” ; worse and worse variatio ns of historical or id iosyn cratic themes
are constantly bein g drawn, cut, and cast. The tw o main directio ns of
typo g ra p h y before the war. in "b oo ks" and "p osters," have now been jo in ed
by a third, the "Arts and C ra fts” kind, w h ic h playfully covers p rinted matter
with all kinds of pre tty shapes in the belief tha t by doin g so it achieves a
"charm in g" effect. The closer one looks at these three main ten den cie s of
typography, the more one is aware of hundreds of oth e r lesser and lesser
tendencie s, all leading in diffe re n t — and always w ro n g — directio ns.
It is essential to realize today tha t the "form s" we need to express our m o d ­
ern w o rld can never be found in the w o r k of a single pe rsonality and its
" p r iv a t e ” language. Such solutio ns are im possible because they are based
on a false, purely superfic ial grasp of the nature of form. The dom in atio n of
a cultu re by the private d e sig n -c o n c e p ts of a few " p r o m in e n t ” individuals,
in other words an a rtis tic dicta torship, cannot be accepted.
We can only acquire a true general cultu re [fo r a cultu re of the few, as has
existed up till now. is no cultu re but a kind of barba ris m ] if we rem em ber
the natural law of general relationship, the indis solu ble oneness of all men
and peoples, and of all fields of human creativity. Only in degenerate times
can "P e rson ality” [o p p o se d to the nameless masses] be come the aim of
human development.
Printers in the rece nt past - a period of decadence caused by the final c o l­
lapse of a cultu re — had to subm it themselves in the ir w o r k to the whims of
a " b o o k - a r t is t ’s ” private style, if they wished to make any sense in the use
of his types. As a result of this spiritual restraint, they could not achieve
free creativity. To these men today we offer logical, " n o n -p e r s o n a l” work,
using im personal materials, w h ic h alone will make possible a free, im p e r­
sonal creativity, a logical outcom e of truly personal ability and a unified
form of life, a “ style.” Ind iv id ualis tic work, the "lin e ” of the artist, is the
exact op posite of w h a t we are tryin g to achieve. Only anonym ity in the ele­
ments we use and the ap plic atio n of laws tra n sce n d in g self com b in ed with
the giving up of pe rsonal vanity [up till now falsely called “ p e rs o n a lity ” ] in

28
favour of pure design assures the emergence of a general, colle ctive c u l­
ture w h ic h will encompass all expressions of life - in clu din g typography.
Today the old and de cadent, the young and vital, c o n fro n t one another. The
living man. if he does not side with the old and musty, can s u p p o rt only the
new!

29
THE N E W A R T
In ord er to fully u n de rsta nd the new ty pography, it will help to study the
most recent de velopm ents in painting and photography. For the laws g o v ­
erning t y p o g r a p h ic design are the same as those discovered by modern
pain ters as go vern in g de sign in general. The fo llo w in g pages therefore
atte m p t to give in broad outline an acco un t of the recent developm ents in
pa inting.
In the Gothic pe rio d a change to o k place from frescoes or w a ll-p a in tin g s to
movable easel-paintin gs. Painting at tha t time still had a social fun ction, it
was a form of w o r s h ip and an expression of the relig ious ph ilo sop hy of the
times. The de clin e of religion durin g the Renaissance b r o u g h t with it a
change in the c o n te n t of pa inting. The easel- or a lta r-p a in tin g of the Gothic
period had remained basically the same in c o n te n t as the frescoes: despite
certain wealthy b u rg h e r-c la s s ten den cie s it had remained essentially reli­
gious. The feudal life of the Renaissance b ro u g h t w ith it a freeing of art
c o n te n t from the dicta tes of the Church. Even th o u g h religious subje cts
we re used, they be came an expression of a new attitu d e to life, a m irror for
the life of the rulin g classes, the feudal lords. The "a rtist," on ce a retainer
of the Church, was elevated to a higher social sphere. During the
Renaissance and the times w h ic h follow e d, he led the life of the great
lords, and the ir id eo lo g y was refle cte d in his pain tings.
This was the situatio n of all pain ting and " a r t ” until the French Revolution.
The period which fo llo w e d it, in whic h we are still living, was form ed by the
new class which rose to power, the mid dle class, and its id eology. At first.

M AN ET: In the
greenhouse
(Verlag der
Photographischen
G e se llsch aft.
B erlin-C harlo ttenburg 9]

30
PAUL CÉZAN N E: Landscape
(Verlag der Photograph.
G ese llsch aft.
ßerlin -C h arlotten b u rg 9)

m id dle -cla ss art copie d the art of the feudal classes (Classicism: Ingres).
Only around 1830 did it attain a form of expression of its own [the
Romantics: Runge, C. D. Friedrich). But whereas until then the subje ct of
painting had been of purely ideological sig nificance, now pain ting for its
own sake became im portant, and the sub je ct lost more and more of its
im portance.
The invention of ph oto g ra p h y in ab out 1830 had much to do with this
development. Its existence made possible the posing of a new problem.
Previously, tw o main factors had in fluenced pain ting: the purely painterly
one of arrangin g colours: and the subject, the motive, to whic h rep re se n ta ­
tion was subsidiary. The representative, id eological, and narrative fun ctions
of pa inting were in the 19th cen tury taken over by oth er areas of activity.
The path now to be taken by pain ting meant a gradual liberation from s u b ­
ject, a progress to w a rd s the pure use of colour. This way lay clear after
photography had found the means to provide an exact mechanical r e p r e ­
sentation of the material world. For the first time the purely pain te rly p r o b ­
lems co uld be reco gnized.
A comparison between a pictu re by Otto Philipp Runge and a d a g u e r r e o ­
type shows that ph oto g ra p h y could take over from the point whic h painting

31
SEURAT: G irls posing
CVerlag der Photograph.
G ese llsch aft.
B e rlin -C harlo lten b urg 9)

PAUL SIG N A C:
La Rochelle h arbo u r
CVerlag der Photograph.
G e se llsch aft.
Berlin-C harlo ttenburg 9)

s i i
had then reached. The individual motives for the new attitud es of the p r o ­
gressive pa inters had begun a new stage of developm ent.
The rom antic pa in ting of Runge and Caspar David Friedrich was replaced
by the naturalism of Corot and M onet. A close study of nature follow ed the
earlier ge ne ratio n 's rom antic tra nsfig ura tion of subject.
The next phase of developm ent. “ P le in -a ir-is m "* CManet, Degas], tried to

• plein air (Fren ch ) = pure light, natural light

32
achieve new effects by the b rig h t light illu m inating its subjects. The dark,
impure colours of the M id dle Ages were replaced by pure, glo w in g colours.
The o b je ct painted appeared "in a new light." changed and transform ed.
The partly new inte ntio ns of pa inters at this time should not deceive us into
th in kin g tha t the con tents of pain ting had by then been radically altered,
for such was not the case: no r did it happen w ith the Im pressionis ts*
CCezanne). who gave to light an entirely new streng th and power. Their
chief p re occu patio n was with the changes in colo u r of an o b je ct in light
and the open air. The obje ct lost its literary sig nific ance almost entirely, it
became an excuse for pain terly creation. Co lour became more and more
important.
Pointillism** CSeurat. Signac] w e n t fu rthe r: it broke up the o b je ct into s in ­
gle dots of colour, and captured the flicke rin g effect of sunlight. The p h o ­
to g ra p h ic representatio n of an object, w h ic h more or less clearly d is tin ­
guishes the rom antic pain ter and the pain te r of naturalism, is abandoned in
favour of a purer colou r effect.
Perspective too - the a p pa rent space behind the surface of a p a in ting -
disap pea rs more and more. This could be no tice d in the p a in tings of the
Im pressionis ts and the Pointillists, but becam e co m p le te for the fir s t time
in the w o r k of the Cubists. Here " b a c k g ro u n d " and pictu re surface are

' Im pression [Fren ch ) = im pression

'• point (F ren ch ) = point

PABLO PICASSO:
Still life
w ith red w a llp a p e r
(Verlag der Photograph.
G e se llsch aft.
Berlin-C harlottenburg 9)

33
 G IN G SEVERINI: Restless dancer
(Verlag der Photographischen
G e se llsch aft,
B erlin -C harlo tten bu rg 9]

id en tical: the “ s u b je c t" even seems to stand ou t in f r o n t of the p i c t u r e ’s

surface. At the same tim e the su b je c t was so re cklessly de fo rm e d and
g e om e trized th a t th e layman cou ld hardly re co gn iz e it any more. The
tra n sfo rm a tio n a p p lie d eq ually to shape and colour. C u bis m * CGIeizes.
Léger, Picasso, F ein in ger] trie d for the fir s t tim e to create a tr u ly visual
harm ony qu ite in d e p e n d e n t of the sub je ct. W hat was also new in Cubism
was the occasio nal in tr o d u c tio n of tin, paper, w o o d , and o th e r materials
as c o m p o n e n ts of pa in tin g , w h ic h were used ju s t like pain t as c o n s t r u c ­
tional elem ents in the de sign.
As well as Cubism, w h ich was pre do m in a ntly French, Futurism ** in Italy and
Expressionism in Germany appeared co n cu rre n tly before the war. Futurism,
in ord er to achieve a new content, trie d to capture movement in painting.
Differe nt m ethods were em ployed: in some, the ob je ct was partially
repeated several tim es CBalla], or by being broken up into in dividual parts,
so tha t perspective was abolished and the Illusion of several simultaneous

• Cubus (L a tin ] = cube

• • futur (F re n ch ] = future

34
 LYONEL FEININGER:
Church
(Verlag der Photograph.
G ese llsch aft,
Berlin-C harlo ttenburg 9]

views was given [Severini]. Expressionism* also trie d to find a new c o n te n t

for art. It is d ifficu lt to reduce its various ten den cie s to a common g e n e ra l­
ization. In contrast to the greater pre occu patio n w ith shape and form of
French Cubism or Italian Futurism. Expressionism was more spiritua lly
inclined. It attained a metaphysical transfo rm a tio n of the ob ject, w h ic h in c i­
dentally was rarely taken from the w o rld of fact. The o u tsta nding exponents
of Expressionism were the Germans Paul Klee and Franz Marc.
The decisio n to break entirely w ith the sub je ct was not taken by eith er the

’ expression = expression

FRANZ
MARC:
Tw o
cats.
Coloured
dra w in g.

35
Expressionists or the Cubists, or the Futurists, but by the generatio n whic h
followed on after the war.
Though the war was an in te rru p tio n to developm ent, it liberated, at the
same time, the forces of renewal. The general disillusion at first gave birth
to Dadaism.* In Germany this to o k on a political and radical aspect [Grosz,
Huelsenbeck. H e a rtfie ld ]: in Switzerland and in France it was more lyrical
[Arp, Tzara). It was the prelu de to the creation of ab stract art.
By its total denial of the past. Dadaism cleared the way for w h at was to
come. This was achieved by fooling the greedy Philistines and the ir world ,
and destroyin g them morally; and the Philistines actually to o k the cynical
fun of the Dadaists for art [w h ich it was never in tended to be) and we re
vio le ntly outra ged. D a da’s un com p rom is ing shapes had a far-rea ching
in fluence in almost all fields, pa rticularly in advertising.
The disillusio nm e nt w hic h follow e d the war and wh ose expression Dadaism
was. at least b r o u g h t w ith it a clear awareness of the chaos then existing in
all creative fields. The extravagant in dividualism of the p re -w a r years ended
in total negation. In isolated fields came the realization that in all this c o n ­
fusion the only th in g that really belo nged to the present was the w o r k of
the engineers and the technic ians, in dustrial arch ite ctu re and machines.
So a group of in div idual painters then attem pte d to take over from these
thin gs the true and m athe matical logic of the ir con stru ction , and make art
subje ct to laws from elementary principles.
Cubism had freed pa in ting from literature and destro yed the subject. The
movements whic h fo llo w e d denied the sub je ct c om p le te ly and bu ilt a new

• The name is arbitrarily derived from dada CFrench] = little wooden horse.

FRANZ M ARC: -----------------

Horses
CVerlag der Photograph.
G e se llsch aft,
Berlin-C harlo ttenburg 93

36
W. KA N D IN SK Y: In the balance (Schweres S chw eben). W ater-colour.
1924 (N eu es M useum zu W iesbaden)

37
unity in art out of pure forms and colours and con d itio n s governed by laws.
The first to f o llo w this path, startin g before the war, were the Russians
Kandinsky and Malevich. Kandinsky created ab stract harmonies out of
colours and forms — not the d isto rtion s of the Cubists, but w ith synthetic
unities whose effect could be compared to tha t of music. By discardin g
physical ob je cts he conquers para-physical space, like Malevich, who set
his ge om etrical planes in space and created an ascetic crystal w o rld
CSuprematism).* The con sis ten t w o r k of this artis t led the pictu re as a flat
representatio n tow a rds the zero -po in t, to endless wh ite space. "In his lo n g ­
ing for the material, man envelops him self in the flames of ab stra ct idealism
and destroys everyth in g that is material in himself, in o rd er to become pure
for the rece ptio n of the new obje ct. It was here th a t man closed w ith c o m ­
position and w e n t over to co n s tru c tio n " [U le n ]. In 1919 M alevich turne d
from pain ting to architecture.
The Russian El Lissitzky gathered the broken pieces of Suprematism
t o g e th e r and exte nde d th e ir resources into s tereo m etric structures. His
vision, in spired by the beauty and the extrao rdinary possib ilities of modern
science, create d a new art structure . He called It. as the existing names
"p ain ting " and "sc u lp tu re " could no longer be ap plied, by the new w o rd
"Proun" (p ro n o u n ce d p ro -un ).

* supremum (L a tin ! = the highest, the utmost

K. M ALEVICH

38
 'ч'’'^. V'■'>'''^^
^ . V', , \-a-«\’

-' Л-о,игС

ЛЛ”^'1х

1Ш
EL LISSITZKY: Proun. 1919.
(H annover. Provinzial-M useum )

39
The weste rn c o u n te r p a r t of this art form is the Dutch “ N e o -p la s tic is m ,"*
represented by Theo van Doesburg and M ondria n. In co n tra st to the sp a ­
tially dynamic creations of Suprematism. M on dria n avoids all illusion of
space and restric ts himself to the ab solute plane. The tensions of his red,
blue, and yello w areas of colour, always at rig ht angles and always
ho riz o ntal-ve rtical, express a solemn and spiritual monumentality. In his
endeavour to avoid every illusion of space and in o rd er to contain the n a t­
ural dynamic of the colours. M on dria n encloses them inside black lines. By
this means the im possible becomes possible: red, blue, and yello w really do

' N eoplastizism us = Neue G estaltung

PIET M O N D R IAN :
Rhom bic picture
(1926).

40
appear to be in the same plane. In Russia the first step was taken away
from these still pu rely pain terly co n ce p tio n s tow a rds Constructivism. This
movement set itself to give form to the real w o rld [it is w ro n g to call any
kind of movement in pain ting Constructiv ism }. The c o n stru ction of a pictu re
out of basic structura l forms and relatio nships depe nd in g on laws soon led
to the use, instead of the previous illusions created by colour and space, of
real materials such as tin, wire, wool, w ood, glass, etc. What the Cubists,
especially Picasso and Braque, had been tryin g to do since 1913, to in tr o ­
duce into pictures materials previously consid ered foreign to them, was
now carried to extremes. The start of this movement was characterized by
the "K o nterre lie f" of Tatlin. It was still an artis tic experiment, since reality
was not yet created by the mere [un necessary} use of real materials. But
these experiments were at least the prelu de to a practical exposition of
reality. The love of our new material w o rld of machines and apparatus, our
technical era. soon led the Co nstructiv ists along the rig ht path: Tatlin built
a model of his Tower of the Third International, a colossal spiral of glass
and iron. The to w e r was in fact never built, and it was corre ctly said tha t its
author was still in some ways w o rk in g from a too freely artis tic poin t of
view, and fun ction had been kept too much in the ba ckgro und . That did not
ho wever lessen the basic sig nific ance of this achievement. It stands at the
begin ning of a movement tha t is today having its first public successes. A t
almost the same time as in Russia, similar experiments were being made in
Germany: above all at the Bauhaus in Weimar, fou nded by W alter Gropius in
1919, w h ic h became the focus of all conscio usly c on tem po rary design
work. A Bauhaus was also started in Russia at this time [19 18}, the
"W chutemas" Institute [th e abbrevia tio n for the Russian expression for
Higher State W orkshops for A rt} w ith the same aims, the c o o rdinatio n of all
creative activities in bu ilding, w h ere for the first time it wo uld make sense.
In both schools the real problems of ou r tim e were tackle d. By appro aching
every problem creatively from the start, and developing its form honestly
out of function, modern materials, and modern m anufacturing methods,
models were created for in dustrial pro du ction.
From here on, the developm e nt of pain ting in the last hundred years has
contained sense and content, it becomes coherent, no lo nger a loose chain
of apparently con flictin g "ism s” but a decisive in fluence on the visual c h a r ­
acteristics of our times. Im portant as is "a bsolu te p a in tin g ” [by wh ic h term
we can summarize recent tendencie s in ab stra ct art} as a po in t of d e p a r ­
ture for both design and architecture, tha t is by no means the end of its
importance.

41
W. TATLIN : K o n t e r r e lie f

42
A fte r the pa inters themselves had decla red war to the death on the “ p ic ­
ture on the w a ll” and sternly rejected it, we have today got a new attitude
to this problem : we see it no longer as de cora tion but as a necessary and
fun ctiona l part of life. We d o n ’t hang it on any available wall, but d e lib e r ­
ately Integrate it with the arch ite ctu re of our livin g-room s. We can no
lo nger be satisfied with mere accurate representatio n, however perfect: for
mankind must always search for som eth in g more, for a symbol of his s p ir i­
tual vie w of life.

flpo®'*

EL LISSITZKY:
Design fo r a
speaker's
trib u n e
(1920)

43
That the most pow e rfu l con tra d ictio n s exist between the w o rld s of today
and yesterday is shown most clearly in the relatio nship between our art and
that of the past. Our ways of expression are in com ple te co n tra d ictio n to
those of the previous generatio ns: how could we see anything in common
between our art and that of the epochs of individualism? A r t has always
been a subtle form of expression of new intellectual focuses. The art of our
own time also, however strange it may seem to some, is an expression of
ourselves, for it could only have ha ppened in our ow n time.
The value of the art of the past is not dim inished by the art of today: it
w o uld be childish to assume a “ q u a lita tiv e ” de velopm e nt of art, or to
believe that only we had discovered “t h e ” art. But every perio d that is d i f ­
ferent from an othe r — and w h ic h one is not? — creates a new form of
expression peculia r to itself and only to itself. A r t is the sum of all these
in dividual utterances. It follows that one must ad op t a d iffe re n t attitud e
tow a rds the art of our time than to w a rd s tha t of earlier epochs. One does
not, after all, lo ok at Renaissance art from the same s ta n d p o in t as
Romanesque. The basic premiss of all modern art is tha t it can no longer be
representational. Previously art w ith o u t a subje ct Créai or imaginary) was
un thin kable. Today pain ting has cast off these chains: it strives to create a

R ODCHENKO: C o m po sitio n w ith black circle

(Verlag der Photographischen G e se llsch a ft. Berlin-C harlottenburg i
LAJOS KASSAK: Relief in w o o d , paper, and tin

new and elem entary harmony from surface, colour, and form and the ir rela­
tio n ships wh ic h are subje ct to certain laws. The dom in ation of subject,
whic h was the d isting uis h in g mark of naturalism, has been replaced in
m odern painting by the dom in atio n of form and in te lle ct CHildebrandt). In
the art of today, therefore, one will not see a [possib ly d is to rte d ] version of
nature but a genuin ely new creation, not de p e n d e n t on nature but an a d d i­
tion to it, being another kind of nature with its own laws. M ore than all p r e ­
vious art, the art of today demands creative will and strength. Its aim is
utm ost clarity and purity. It makes use of exact ge om e tric forms and so
achieves an aesthetic paraphrase of our te c h n ic a l-in d u s tria l times. Just as
exact g e om e tric forms hardly ever appear in nature, so the colours of the
new pain ting are not derived from nature either, as they largely were in
earlier pa inting. The new pain ting has been developed from its own

45
 WALTER
DEXEL:
Glass
picture
(G la sb ild)
1925-IV

46
au tonom ous laws, wh ic h are in d e p e n d e n t of nature. Is it then surp ris in g
that its representatio ns at first baffle the unsop his tic a ted viewer, w h o is
used to so m eth in g com ple te ly differe nt, or even actually repel him? Lazy
and hostile people are still trying to make it appear co n te m p tib le in the
eyes of others, and describ e it as nonsense. These are the same people
from whose physical attacks M an et's "O lympia" had to be p ro te cted by the
police, a pictu re that is today one of the most precious treasures of the
Louvre. Their prattling is too empty and un im p ortant to be taken seriously.
We have recognized today tha t art does not consist in superfic ially copying
nature, but in the creation of form tha t takes its laws not from the external
appearance of nature but from its internal structure . Nature, the engineer,
builds her stru ctu re s with the same economy, technic al care, and sureness
of de d u ctio n as we of today do in our paintings. In our new art we have
ended the co n flic t between "b e in g " and "seem in g." for both are id entical.
The new pain ting shows clearly w h a t it is: an unrepresentatio nal, pure,
pain te rly harmony.
It appeals above all to the eyes, and rejects the feeble sub stitutes of e m o ­
tional appeal th ro u g h trage dy or joy. These are reserved for the private life
of the in dividual: they are a ba rrie r between him and the pictu re as a cult
form. Here mod ern pain ting shows tha t it has developed out of the c o lle c ­
tive spirit of the time.
It follows from the total p re occu patio n of the pa inters of today w ith th e ir
own times tha t in the creation of the ir pictu res they prefer to make use of
new techniq ues, such as spraying and enamelling. They are often c o n ­
cerned with making a model picture, i.e. a pictu re that, according to its
tech niq ue and form, can be m ass-p rod uced . This is another proof of the
collective a ttitud e to life, wh ic h in this case prefers to do away with the li m ­
itation of the single, unique picture. Co lour and surface are often no lo nger
enough: various new materials are needed to create form, such as wood ,
metal, paper, and so on.
It was the Am erican Man Ray who gave us the photogram , in tech niq ue and
form an entirely new art.
He tried, in the field of photography, the te ch niq ue that is truly of "today."
to create an original art-form that w o uld be in de pen de nt of nature and g o v ­
erned by its own laws. His photogram s, made w ith o u t camera, and a p p e a r ­
ing as if by magic on paper that is merely sensitive to light, are as remote
from nature as they are in the ir own way true and exist in the ir own right.
They are the perfe ct po etry in form of modern man.
That ph oto g ra p h y offers still other possib ilities for art and design is shown
by the co n stru ctio n of Co-op, illu strated on this page. And free Ci-©- not

47
applie d to pu rpo se] photom o ntag e, p h o to d ra w in g , and p h o to -s c u lp tu re
also be long to the tech n iq u e s of m odern design.
The w o r k begun by Man Ray was b r o u g h t to com p le tion in pure film, in
wh ic h the princip le s of the new art w ere applied to film -m a kin g . Viking
Eggeling. Hans Richter, Graf Beaumont. Fernand Léger. Picabia, and Man
Ray himself were the pioneers in this field.

M A N RAY: P ho to g ram . From the fo ld e r "Ch am ps dé licie u x."

48
 M A N RAY: P ho tog ram . From the fo ld e r "Ch am ps dé licie u x."

A new kind of art has appe ared recently called "Verismus," claiming to be
the art of our times. It combines obje ctive representatio n with the attem p t
to make a te c to n ic con stru ctio n . The phrase “ Neue Sachlichkeit" by wh ic h
it is generally describ ed is un fortuna tely a rather unhappy choice. Clearly
“ Reality" has been confused with “ O bje ctiv ity" or “ Realism"; "Sachlichkeit"

49
in painting is the pure creation of colou r and form in "a bsolu te" painting,
not merely the pain ting of "Sachen" [real obje cts ). M o re o ve r the pain tings
of the "N e w Reality” are often so petty and in sig n ific a nt tha t we can hardly
recognize them as the expression of m odern man.
Not to be com pared to this “ New Reality.” w hic h is all too often basically
only the old in new guise, is a new kind of rep rese ntatio n of the human

50
WILLI BAUM EISTER : D ra w in g
From the book W illi B a u m e is te r, A kad em isch er V erlag. Dr. Fritz W edekind & Co.. Stuttgart.

form, and also of inanimate objects, be ing attem p te d by Willi Baumeister

and Fernand Léger, sh owin g the way to a new de velopm e nt of the “ p u r e ”
pictu re w ith o u t a loss of its essential character.
The re p ro d u ctio n s in this bo ok can un fortu n a te ly give only a faint idea of
the be auty of m odern pictures, w h ic h depend so much on colour. Even
rep ro d u ctio n s in c olou r are far infe rio r to the originals.
We can only express the hope here tha t pe ople will familiarize themselves
with m odern art by visiting art exhib itio ns and really experiencing the p h e ­
nomenon of the New Art.

51
THE H IS T O R Y OF THE N E W T Y P O G R A P H Y
A fte r the ju m ble of styles of the eighties, w h ic h affected typ o g ra p h y as
devastatin gly as everythin g else, and after the reaction of the “ Freien
R ic h tu n g ” movement w hic h follow e d it, the Jug en dstil movement at the end
of the 19th cen tury was an attem p t to give expression to a new philosophy
of life. It trie d to discard historicism by going back to the forms of nature
and creating a c o n tem po rary style out of function, c on stru ctio n , material,
and m ethods of m anufacture.
In the field of books the most notable w o r k in search of a new style was
tha t of Peter Behrens. De spite th e ir basically co rre c t theories, however, the
artists of the Jug en dstil did not succeed in creating a tru ly meaningful
style. They placed too great an emphasis on form as a co n c e p t in its own
right, and failed to recognize its depe nd ence on the factors wh ic h really
con tro l design, such as demand, purpose, raw materials, and m anufacturing
methods. J ug en dstil did succeed in fin d in g a tru ly new and origin al style of
decoration to replace historical styles: but a really new attitu d e tow a rds
form, despite countle ss good starts, was not discove red. Nevertheless,
Jugendstil made a great co n trib u tio n in decisively preparin g the way for the
new, w h ic h after years of reaction w o u ld again be reco gnized.
It must now be observed tha t in some of the bo oks desig ned by Peter
Behrens he used sanserif as a text face. The Jug en dstil movement in
Holland, w hic h leads in an unbroken line to Oud, M ondria n, and Doesburg
of today, also used sanserif rig ht from the start as th e ir only typefa ce — at
first, sometim es in a very d isto rte d form. In both cases these de signers
came to sanserif because they were looking for the sim plest form of t y p e ­
face — the "prototype." It was prefe rred by the C o nstructiv ist members of
the Jugendstil, while Otto Eckmann, the leading pain te r in the movement,
made a strange but very in te restin g attem p t to com bin e the forms of frak-
tu r and A ntiq ua [rom an), drawin g the shapes of the le tters w ith a brush.
Eckmann very greatly influenced book design at that period, but we cannot
regard him, as we can Behrens, as the true fore ru n n e r of the m odern m ove­
ment in typography. As Jug en dstil petered out, since it was unable to rea l­
ize its vague aims ow in g to a lack of ap p ro p ria te tasks, there follow e d a
time in bo ok design of revival of historical styles [in itia te d by W ie y n c k ’s
Trianon), alth ough perhaps on a higher plane than before. Its greatest, but
final, triu m p hs were at the Bugra Exhibition of 1914 and the Leipzig In te r ­
national Book Exhibition of 1927.
A solitary gleam of hope came at this time from the Vienna W orkshop
[fo u n d e d in the Jug en dstil pe rio d), w h ic h never gave up a search for a c o n ­
tem po rary style. I have in my possession a very in terestin g little bo oklet

52
from this W orkshop, dated 1905, w hic h I set beside the books of Behrens
and the Jug en dstil typ o g ra p h y of Holland as foreru nn ers of our mod ern
typography. It is a small p u blic ity b o oklet of black card, in the form at of a
cig are tte packet, w ith a wh ite shield bearing the f ir m ’s w e ll-k n o w n symbol.
Inside, we find, as type, the capitals of the “ con stru ctive" so-called Elzevir:
a simple border; a double row of quite small black squares: reversed initials
on solid, unde corate d black squares. In addition there are p h o to g ra p h ic
halftones the w id th of the type area, made from splendid ph otographs.
A lth o u g h , as we can see, ty p o g ra p h y is here still being used in an o r n a ­
mental way. we can give this b o oklet great cred it for its deliberate avo id­
ance of " p e r io d ” ty pography, and its use of simple ge om e tric shapes, p h o ­
tography. and strong contrasts of black and white.
For the same reason I w o uld like to m ention the much later type de signs
and ty p o g ra p h y of C. 0. Czeschka. w h o also came from the Vienna W o r k ­
shop. The type named after him. w h ic h appeared in about 1912, is the only
attem pt, among all the a r tis t-d e s ig n e d decorative typefaces of the pre-and
p o stw ar periods, to produce a de sign not from a historical p ro to type but
from the imaginatio n. It is a sanserif, whose rounded term in als appear to
form small spirals. The accom panyin g ornaments, like the types themselves,
in th e ir ge om e tric accuracy antic ip ate our own ways of thin kin g. Czeschka
made no use of photography.
It is to a "n o n -te ch n icia n ," the Italian poet F. T. M arinetti, the fo u n d e r of
Futurism, that the cred it must be given for provid in g the cu rta in -ra ise r for
the c h a ng e-ove r from ornamental to fun ctiona l typography.
In his book of poems Les m ots en lib e rté futuristes, Milan 1919, he p u b ­
lished the foll ow ing manifesto:

TYPO G R A PH IC REVOLUTION
AND FR EE-EX PR ESSIO N ORTHOGRAPHY
T y p o g ra p h ic R e v o lu tio n
I am startin g a ty p o g ra p h ic revolution, directed above all against the
idiotic, sic k-m a kin g con cep tion of the o ld -fa s h io n e d * Poetry Book,
with its hand-m ade paper, its six te e n th -c e n tu ry style, de corate d w ith
galleons. Minervas. Apollos, great initials, flourishes, and m y th o lo g i­
cal vegetables, with clasps, mottoes, and Roman numerals. The bo ok
must be the fu tu ris tic expression of our fu tu ris tic th o ugh t. Better: my
revolution is against among oth er thin gs the so-called typ o g ra p h ic
harmony of the page, whic h is in com ple te oppo sitio n to the flow of

: e arlier Copposite of futu ristic]

53
 style whic h the page allows. We will, if need be. use 3 or 4 d iffe re nt
colours and 20 diffe re nt typefaces on the same page. For example:
Ita lic for a series of similar and sw ift sensations, B old for the im ita­
tion of heavy tones, and so on. A new co n ce p tio n of the t y p o -
g r a p h ic /p a in te r ly page.
F re e -E x p re ssio n O rth o g ra p h y (O rth o g ra p h e lib re e x p re s siv e )
The historical necessity of Free-Expression O rth o g ra p h y shows itself
in the c o n tin u ou s revolu tions w h ic h have gradually freed the human
race from th e ir chains and restrictio ns.
1. In actual fact the poets used to pour forth the ir drunken lyricism in a
series of rhythm ic gasps, with tones and echoes, chimes and rhymes,
at p re -pla nn ed intervals [ t r a d i t i o n a l p r o s o d y ] . Then they changed
with some freedom the bre athing-sp ace s tha t the lungs of the ir p r e ­
decessors had established.
2. The poets later persuaded themselves tha t the varied moments of
the ir drunken lyricism had to express these peculia r rhythms, of u n ­
expected and com p le te ly various lengths, w ith an absolute freedom
of accentuation. So they quite naturally invented free verse [vers
libre], but they still kept synta ctical* order, so that th e ir lyrical in to x ­
ication could pour over the ir hearers by the logical cha nnels of tha t
co nventional period.
3. Today we do not w a n t the lyrical en cha ntm en t of w o rd s to coincid e
with syntactical order, before it has been created by our own d is c o v ­
eries. So we have Words in Freedom [M o t s en lib e rté ]. In ad dition,
ou r lyrical po w e r must be free to re-form w o rds by abbrevia tio n or
le ng th enin g, to streng then th e ir middle or endings, w h ile the num ber
o f the ir vo w els or consonants can be increased or reduced. That is
how we will keep the new orthography, w h ich I call Free-Expression
O rth og raph y [ O rth o g ra p h e expressive libre]. This in stinctiv e rem o de l­
ling of w o rd s expresses ou r natural love of onom ato poeia . It matters
little if the transfo rm e d w o rd is ambiguous. It coalesces be tte r with
o n o m a to p o e ic * * com paris ons or sounds, and allows us to reach
q u ic kly o n o m a to p o e ic -p s y c h ic accord, the de ep but ab stra ct exp res­
sion of a discovery or a pure idea.
The illustratio n on p. 55 shows a poem from the a b ove -m entio ne d book.
The types have not been chosen for form al-ae sth etic , decorative reasons;

• Syntax = law s of sentence-m aking

• • Onomatopoeia = painting in sound, imitating sound

54
 Lettre d’une jolie femme

à un monsieur passéiste

ÊÈÈÈÈÈÈ èèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèè
+ baisers H-----X -i- + caresses -r fraîcheur
beauté élégance 3000 frs. par mois
---- 1- — X + —1 ^ + bague rubis 8000
vanitéeeeeeeeeeeee + 6000 frs. chaus-
I I sures Demain chez
I ^ toi Je suis serieuse
Hrrrrr dévouée Tendresses

ai
01 F. T. M A R IN E TTI: Poem fro m L e s m o ts e n lib e r t é f u tu r is te s (M ila n 1919)
the ir carefully t h o u g h t- o u t optical im pact expresses the c on tent of the
poem. The types generate a hith erto unknown visual strength. For the first
time typ o g ra p h y here becomes a functional exp ression of its content. For
the first time also an a tte m p t was made in this bo ok to create “ vis ible -
p o e try.” instead of the old “ a u d ib le - p o e tr y ,” to w h ic h in any case nobody
had listened for a long time. It contain ed all the audacity of Futurism, w hic h
at tha t time had had an effect like a bomb; but even this effort, the first s ig ­
nal of the new art tha t was to come, long remained the only one.
The w a r caused these movements of aggression, the revolu tion procla im ed
by Futurism in its manifestos, to have a far stro n g e r effect, in fact stro n g e r
than Futurism itself really wanted. It also b r o u g h t to an end the old scheme
of thin gs and he lped to free us a little from the “ canker of Professors,
A rchaeolo gis ts, Know-alls, and A n t iq u a r ia n s ” on whom the Futurists had
de clared war.
The young generatio n to whom the war had given im portance, and who
were disguste d w ith the rotten in div idualistic cultu re of the p re -w a r period,
threw themselves into the Dada movement as being expressive of the ir own
ideas. The te n d e n cy of this movement, deriving from a few a n ti-w a r in te l­
lectuals who had fled to Switzerland, was negative. Its leaders in Germany
published in June 1917 a prospectu s Neue Ju g e n d [ N e w Youth], whic h is
one of the earliest and most s ig nific a nt docum ents of the New Typography.
We find in it already its most typical cha racteristics; freedom from t r a d i­
tional styles of com position, strong contrasts in type sizes, design, and
colour, type set at all sorts of angles, all kinds of type, and the use of p h o ­
tography. Overheated im p otence ag ainst the c ap italis tic w a r found literary
expression in po litical articles: “ Men must be made of India ru b b e r .” “ Pray
w ith head to the w a ll.” “ W ork w o r k w o r k w o rk: Triumph of Christian
S cie nce .” and so on. The external form of the paper reflects the chaos of
the period. In France, w h ere some of the Swiss Dadaists were hiding, Dada
to o k on a more lyrical character. It made propaganda for “ L’A r t a b s tra it,”
A b s tra c t Art; it had no political aims. In t y p o g ra p h y it broke com ple te ly
w ith tradition and made u n in hib ited use of every kind of typo grap hic a l
material which, like the example shown on p. 57, sometimes made a “c h a ­
rade of dynamic value s” (Kurtz). This in terestin g w o r k can only be a p p r e c i­
ated in a purely pain te rly sense: most genuine printers, un aware of its
strong pain terly qualities, w h ic h of course are utterly u n typog rap hic , can
only vie w it w ith in com prehension.
In the period after the w a r the creato rs of ab stract pain ting and c o n s t r u c ­
tivism w o rke d out the rules for a con tem po rary style of t y p o g ra p h y in p r a c ­
tical work. The same aim that had led to “a b s o lu te ” pain ting — design com -

56
TH ^ t r,
M IC
40
HE!

la grande semaine
a été prolongée a
Juscpa'au 7 juillol?

B e r n h e im J e t in e , 2 5 , B d de la M a d elein e
D u r a n d , 4 , P la c e d e la M a d elein e

G Avi Se
O r
P U ne p la c e de l o g e ...........
F a u te u il d 'o r c h e s t r e ......
F a u te u il de b a lco n
!•« r a n g .......
F a u te u il de b a lc o n .........
P o vo lo zlcy, 1 3 , R u e B o n a p a r te
Au S a n s P a r e i l, z i , A venu e K lé b er
S ix , 5 , A venu e L o v en d a l
30 ir .
2 5 f r. P a u l G u illa u m e , 5 9 , -Rue la B o é tie
L ib r a ir ie M o r a a y , 3 7 , B d M o n tp a r n a s s e
15 f r . P a u l R o s e n b e r g , 2 1 , R u e la B o é tie
12 fr e t en T h é â tr e M ic h e l, T é l. ■ G u t. « d -a O .

TRISTAN TZ A R A : In v ita tio n to a Dadaist even in g

57
ing from basic form and pro p o rtio n — when applie d to our field pro du ced
the new typography. In Germany it was princip ally Willi Baumeister, W alter
Dexel, Johannes Molzahn, Kurt S chw itte rs, and a few others w ho by 1922
had made the New T ypography a reality.
Am on g the im p o rta n t p u blic atio ns of this time I must mention the Dada-
p u blic atio ns of George Grosz, Heartfield, Huelsenbeck, and the perio dical
M e n , publis hed by Kurt S chw itte rs in Hannover, whic h in its 11th num ber
contain ed “ Theses on Typography." The book StaatHches Bauhaus 1919 bis
1923 [The Bauhaus 1919 to 19233 contain ed an article on “ The New
Typography" by L. M oh oly-N ag y, w ho had in the meantime jo in e d the
Bauhaus and w h o in the foll o w in g years co n trib u te d a great deal to the
clarific atio n of ty p o g r a p h ic qu estions.
The /4. Z , A n z e ig e n -Z e its c h rift z u r p fie g e wirkungsvoU er Insertionsreklam e,
R eutlingen in its issue no. 2/3, N o v e m b e r-D e c e m b e r 1925, published an
article on the new ty p o g ra p h y by Willi Baumeister.*
W alter Dexel expressed his views in detail in the F ra n k fu rte r Z e itu n g on 5
February 1927, In an artic le "W hat is the new Typography?"
In Holland, Theo van D o e s b u r g ’s perio dic al De S tijI had already by 1916
published articles on ty p o g ra p h y and was itself desig ned in a style c o m ­
pletely free of ornam ent. The postcard Illustrated on p. 59 shows clearly the
aims o f its desig ner: to p ro du ce a pure typ o g ra p h ic style using only type,
space, and colour. The perio dic al M ecano, published by D oesburg in 1921,
was also an example of the New Typography.
Am ong Russian artists the first name to mention is El Lissitzky, whose w o r k
in our field was pre -em in ent. With the poet Erenburg in 1922 in Berlin, he
published the t h r e e -la n g u a g e perio dical Gegenstand, whose in fluence was
very strong in Russia. Our illu stratio n shows tw o cha ra cte ristic pages from
it. A n o th e r im p ortan t w o r k of his was M a y a k o w s k y ’s b o ok of poems D ija
Gôlossa CFor reading aloud), also publis hed in 1923 in Berlin. It was meant
to be a book fo r reading aloud, if the s pirit moved one. The little book had
a fin g e r-in d e x on its fore-e dg e, like an index file, sho w in g the titles of the
poems. If one wa nted to read a poem, one put a fin g e r at the rig ht place in
the index and im m ediately found the poem w ith o u t having to consult a list
of con tents (w h ic h of course was not included, since it was contain ed in
the index). Each poem is preceded by a title - p a g e c on tain in g a t y p o g ra p h ic

• M ention must also be made of an experim ent by the painter Jo h an n es Itten. who in a magazine
U to p ia CWeimar. 1922) produced "Sym b olist” typography. He attempted by means of choice of
type and arrangem ent to make the type illustrate the text and give visual expression to its feel­
ing. Adm ittedly this has nothing to do with the aims of the new typography, but it rem ains,
b ecause of its contem porary sig n ifica n ce , a valuable docum ent of the birth of our times.

58
 BRI E F K A A R T

P O S T K A R T E
(О (Г 0
CARTE POSTALE
:< ^
5 m
<- W
ÛL ш ш

Ш• Z
0. 2 ^

ш^ о
5 <щ

S-Î
< г |
*ш
Z шh
ш О
Û2 <
ш ш
J о: о:

(Л
ю TH EO V AN DOESBURG: Postcard. Black and red on w h ite .
paraphrase of the p o e m ’s content. Printers also are in clined, w ith o u t j u s t i ­
ficatio n. to reject this sort of thin g out of hand. But it should not be f o r ­
go tte n that we are dealing here w ith a bo ok of poems, whose nature makes
this kind of tre a tm e n t com p le te ly suitable. It must be un de rsto od that only
its general im aginative directio n, not its detailed physical form, should be
consid ered a proto type.
In an issue of the magazine M e n . El Lissitzky published some remarks on
typ o g ra p h y w h ic h can be qu oted here:

TO PO GRAPH Y OF T YPO G R A PH Y
1. On the p rinted page w o rd s are seen, not heard.
2. Ideas are com m u nic a ted throu gh conventional words, the c o n c e p t is
desig ned by means of letters.
3. Economy of expression — visual not phonetic.
4. The spatial arra ng em en t of the book, by means of the type m atter and
according to the mechanical rules of printin g, must express the
strains and stresses of the contents.
5. The spatial arra ng em en t of the book by means of process blocks,
w hic h em body our new visual concepts. The sup e rn a tu ra listic reality
of the perfe cted eye.
6. The c o n tin u ity of p a ge -sequ en ce — the blo sco p ic book.
7. The new bo ok demands the new write r. In k-p o ts and g o o se -quills are
dead.
8. The printed page transcends space and time. The printed page, the
infinity of the book, must be transcended. THE E L E C T R O - L I B R ARY.
Parallel developm ents o c cu rred in some other European countrie s, e sp e­
cially in Czechoslovakia, Hungary. Russia. Poland, and most recently in
France. Today, artists in all these cou ntrie s are pro d u cin g new w o r k in our
field:
In BE L G IU M : P. L. Flouquet, J. Peeters:
In D E N M A R K : Torben Hansen. Harald Landt M om b erg , and others:
In G E R M A N Y : Willi Baumeister. H e rbe rt Bayer. Max Burchartz. Gert Caden.
Walter Dexel. Cesare Dómela, Werner Gräff, John Heartfield, Leistikow,
Hannes Meyer. Robert M ichel, L. M oh oly-N ag y, Johannes Molzahn. Peter
Röhl. Oskar Schlemmer, Joost Schmidt. Kurt S chw itte rs. Franz W. Seiwert.
Jan Tschichold. V o rd em b erge -G ild ew a rt, and others;
In FRANCE: Le Corbusie r-Saugnie r, M. Seuphor, and others;
In H O L L A N D : S. v. Ravesteyn. Schuitema. H. N. Werkman, Piet Zwart. and
others;
In PO LAN D : M. Szczuka and others:

60
 1И С К У С С Т В О
ОБЩ ЕСТВЕННОСТЬ

МЕЖДУНАРОДОЫЙ
и

„ВЕЩ И “

EL LISSITZKY: Tw o pages fro m the periodical G e g e n s ta n d . B erlin, 1922.

In R U M A N I A : M. Jancu and others;

In RUSSIA; Alexey Gan. Klutzis, El Lissitzky, Rodchenko. Syenykin.
G. Stenberg. and others;
In SERBIA; Ljubom ir M icic;
In CZECHOSLOVAKIA : Markalo us. Z d e n e k Rossmann. Karel Teige, and
others:
In HU N G A R Y : Kassak. M oinár-Farkas. and others.
Finally the magazine elem e ntare typ o g ra p h ie [special num ber of Typo­
gra ph ische M itteilun gen '), produced by the au th o r of the present w o r k in
O cto be r 1925, did much to spread kno w le d g e of the New T ypography in
p rin tin g - tr a d e circles. A fte r it had been origin ally critic ized in most d i s ­
paraging terms, and keenly attacked, the success of the New Typography is
now assured, and even its most ou tspoken op po ne nts among the le ading
trade papers have now to accept its validity - with the exceptio n of the
S chw eizer G raphische M itte ilu n g e n , w hic h still clings blindly to the old
w o r n - o u t concepts . They try to cover up this change of mind by phrases
such as that they are taking the “ moderate " point of view [w hich d o e sn 't
exist] and so on. A fte r a series of purely malicious attacks, when they
found that they could not make any serious criticism s of the New
Typography, they had w illy-n illy to acce pt it. In the w o rs t cases they

61
Oi
to

EL LISSITZKY (19 22-192 3):

Tw o pages (po em title s ) fro m M ayakovsky, Dlya golossa (fo r reading alo ud)
 НЕОБЫЧА,
БЫВШЕЕ
г л

ВЛАДИМИРО 1 Ш
кооски М I й I

П НА ДАЧЕ РУМЯНЦЕВА, ПУШКИНО, АКУЛОВА ГОРА.

ЯРОСЛАВСКАЯ Ж. Д.

Oi EL LISSITZKY (19 22-192 3):

U Tw o pages (po em title s ) fro m M ayakovsky, Diya golossa (fo r reading alo ud)
retreated into a silence tha t meant acceptance, because they had no thin g
to say. The outcom e of the stru g g le reveals once more how little w e ig h t is
carried by opin io n s of a few dissenting bigots.
It w o uld be naive and s h o r t- s ig h te d to th in k tha t the New Typography, the
result of the colle ctiv e efforts of a wh ole generatio n of artists, is only a
tem po rary fashion. The break w ith the old typography, made com p le te by
the new movement, means nothin g less than the total discard in g of d e c o ­
rative con cep ts and the turn to fun ctional design. This is the fundam ental
mark of the modern movement; and the New Typography, no less than the
new technology, the new architecture, and the new music, is not a mere
fashion but the expression of a newly opening epoch of European culture.
Its aim. to de sign every jo b as com ple te ly and con sis ten tly as possible with
c on tem po rary means, in tro du ces a fresh attitud e tow a rds all wo rk; since
tech niq ue s and req uirem ents are in a state of con stant change, fossilized
rig idity is unthin kable . This is the s t a r t in g - p o in t for new developm ents:
these are based not so much on artis tic exp eriments as on the new m e th ­
ods of re p rod uctio n wh ic h to g e th e r with social needs created the new
requirements.

THE P R IN C IP LE S OF THE N E W T Y P O G R A P H Y
M od ern man has to absorb every day a mass of printed matter which,
w h e th e r he has asked for it or not. is delivered th ro u g h his le tte r-b o x or
con fro nts him everywhere out of doors. A t first, to d a y ’s prin tin g differe d
from that of previous times less in form than in quantity. But as the q u a n ­
tity increased, the “ fo r m ” also began to cha nge; the speed with w hic h the
m odern consum er of printin g has to absorb it means tha t the form of p r i n t ­
ing also must adapt itself to the c o n ditions of m odern life. As a rule we no
lo nger read quie tly line by line, but glance qu ic kly over the whole, and only
if ou r in te rest is aw akened do we study it in detail.
The old typ o g ra p h y both in feeling and in form was adapte d to the needs of
its readers, wh o had plenty of time to read line by line in a leisurely m an­
ner. For them, fun ction could not yet play any sig n ifica n t role. For this rea­
son the old typ o g ra p h y con cern ed itself less w ith fu n ctio n than with wh at
was called "b eauty" or “ art." Problems of formal aesthetics Cchoice of type,
mixture of typefaces and orn am e nt] dom in ated c o n s id eratio ns of form. It is
for this reason tha t the history of ty p o g ra p h y since M an utiu s is not so
much a developm e nt tow a rds clarity of appearance [the only exception
being the period of Didot, Bodoni, Baskerville, and W alb aum ] as an e m b o d ­
iment of the developm e nt of historical type faces and ornaments.

64
It was left to our age to achieve a lively focus on the problem of “ form " or
de sign. While up to now form was consid ered as som ethin g external, a
p ro d u c t of the "artistic im a gin atio n" [H aeckel even im puted such “ a rtis tic
in te n tio n s ” to nature in his A rt Forms in N a tu re), today we have moved c o n ­
sid erably closer to the reco gn itio n of its essence th ro u g h the renewed
study of nature and more esp ecially to te ch n o lo g y [w h ich is only a kind of
second na ture]. Both nature and t e c h n o lo g y teach us tha t “ f o r m ” is not
in depen de nt, but grows out of fu n ctio n [ p u rp o s e ], out of the materials
used [o rg a n ic or te ch n ica l], and out of how they are used. This was how
the marvellous forms of nature and the equally marvellous forms of t e c h ­
nolo gy origin ated. We can de scrib e the forms of te ch n o lo g y as ju s t as
“o r g a n ic ” [in an in tellectual sense] as those of nature. But as a rule most
pe ople see only the su perficial forms of technology, they admire the ir
“ b e a u ty ” - of aeroplanes, cars, or ships — instead of recogniz in g th a t the ir
perfe ctio n of ap pearance is due to the precise and econom ic expression of
the ir function. In the process of giving form, both te c h n o lo g y and nature
use the same laws of economy, precision, minimum fric tio n , and so on.
Technology by its very nature can never be an end in itself, only a means to
an end, and can there fore be a part of man's spiritual life only in directly,
while the remaining fields of human creativity rise above the purely f u n c ­
tional of technic al forms. But they too. fo llow ing the laws of nature, are
drawn tow a rds greater cla rity and pu rity of appe arance. Thus a rc h itecture
discards the ornamental facade and “ d e c o r a te d ” fu rnitu re and de velops its
forms from the fun ction of the b u ild in g — no lo nger from the outsid e
inwards, as determ in ed by the f a c a d e -o rie n ta tio n of pre -w a rtim e days, but
from the inside outwards, the natural way. So too typo g ra p h y is liberated
from its present superficial and form alis tic shapes, and from its so-called
“ t r a d itio n a l” designs wh ic h are long since fossilized. To us. the succession
of histo ric styles, reactions against Jug endstil, are nothin g but pro of of c r e ­
ative Incompetence. It cannot and must not be our wish today to ape the
typ o g ra p h y of previous centuries, itself c o n ditione d by its own time. Our
age. w ith its very diffe re nt alms, its often diffe re nt ways and means and
highly developed techniq ues, must dicta te new and diffe re nt visual forms.
Though its sig nific ance remains undeniable, to th in k today th a t the
Gutenberg Bible represents an achie vem ent that can never again be
reached is both naive and rom antic rubbish. If we wa nt to "prove ourselves
w o r t h y ” of the clearly sig nific a nt achievem ents of the past, we must set our
own achievemen ts beside them born out of ou r own time. They can only
be come “ cla ssic ” if they are unhistoric.

65
The e sse n c e o f th e N ew T y p o g ra p h y is c la r ity . This puts it into d e lib ­
erate o p p o sitio n to the old ty p o g ra p h y whose aim was "b e a u ty ” and whose
clarity did not attain the high level we require today. This utm ost cla rity is
ne cessary tod ay because of the manifold claims for our atten tion made by
the extraordinary am ount of print, w h ic h demands the gre atest econom y of
expression. The gentle swing of the pendulu m between ornamental type,
the (sup erfic ia lly u n d e rs to o d ] "b ea utiful" appe arance, and "a do rn m en t" by
extraneous ad ditions (orn am e nts] can never produce the pure form we
demand today. Especially the feeble clinging to the bu gb ea r of arrangin g
type on a central axis results in the extreme in flexib ility of c on tem po rary
typography.
In the old typography, the arrangem ent of in dividual units is sub ord in a te d
to the princip le of arrangin g everything on a central axis. In my historical
in tro d u ctio n I have shown tha t this p rincip le started in the Renaissance and
has not yet been abandoned. Its sup erfic iality becomes ob vious when we
lo ok at Renaissance or Baroque title -p a g e s (see pp. 17. 18]. Main units are
arbitrarily cut up: for example, logical order, wh ic h should be expressed by
the use of d iffe re nt type-sizes, is ruthlessly sacrificed to external form.
Thus the princip al line contain s only th re e -q u a rte rs of the title, and the rest
of the title, set several sizes smaller, appears in the next line. Such thin gs
ad m itte dly do not often happen today, but the rig id ity of central-axis s e t­
ting hardly allows w o r k to be carried out with the de gree of lo gic we now
demand. The central axis runs th ro u g h the w hole like an artificial, invisible
backbone: its raison d ’être is today as pre te ntio us as the tall w h ite collars
of Victorian gentlemen. Even in go od centra l-axis com p osition the contents
are sub ord in a te d to “ beautifu l line arrangement." The w h ole is a "form "
wh ic h is p re de te rm in e d and the re fore must be inorganic.
We believe it is w ro n g to arrange a text as if the re were some focal po in t in
the centre of a line w h ich w o uld ju s tify such an arrangem ent. Such points
of course do not exist, be cause we read by startin g at one side (Europeans
for example read from left to right, the Chinese from top to botto m and
rig ht to left]. Axial arrangem ents are illogical because the dista nce of the
stressed, central parts from the beginning and end of the w o rd sequences
is not usually equal but constantly varies from line to line.
But not only the pre conceived idea of axial arrangem ent but also all other
pre conceived ideas - like those of the ps e u d o -c o n s tru c tiv is ts - are d ia ­
metrically opposed to the essence of the New Typography. Every piece of
typo grap hy wh ic h origin ates in a pre conceived idea of form, of w h ateve r
kind, is wrong. T h e N e w T y p o g r a p h y is d i s t i n g u i s h e d f r o m t h e o ld
by t h e f a c t t h a t it s f i r s t o b j e c t i v e is t o d e v e l o p it s v i s i b l e f o r m

66
 BAU-AUSSTELLUNG STUTTGART 1924 E.V.

EINLADUNG
ZUR TEILNAHME AN DER ERÖFFNUNGSFEIER DER
BAU
A u sstellu n g
STUTTGART 1924
AM SONNTAG. DEN 15. JUNI 1924, MITTAGS 12 UHR
IN DER HALLE DES HAUPTRESTAURANTS DER
AUSSTELLUNG (EINGANG SCHLOSS-STRASSE)

V. J E H L E
PRÄSIDENT DES wCiRTT.
LA N D ESO EW ER B EA M TS
ES W IRD H Ö F L.'G EB ETEN .
DIESE KARTE AM EINGANG
V O R Z U Z E IG E N

WILLI BAUM EISTER: In v ita tio n card. Exam ple of reading-orde r.

o u t o f t h e f u n c t i o n s o f t h e t e x t . It is essential to give pure and direct

expression to the contents of w h ateve r is printed : ju st as in the w o rks of
te ch n o lo g y and nature, “ fo r m ” must be created out of fun ction. Only then
can we achieve a typo g ra p h y w h ic h expresses the s pirit of m odern man.
The fun ction of printed text is com m unic atio n, emphasis (w o rd value), and
the logical sequence of the contents.
Every pa rt of a text relates to every oth er part by a de finite, logical rela­
tio n ship of emphasis and value, p re de te rm in e d by content. It is up to the
ty p o g ra p h e r to express this relatio nship clearly and visibly, th ro u g h type
sizes and w e ig ht, arrangem ent of lines, use of colour, photography, etc.
The ty p o g ra p h e r must take the greatest care to study how his w o r k is read
and ou gh t to be read. It is true tha t we usually read from top left to bottom
rig ht - but this is not a law. It is shown at its clearest in Willi Bau m eiste r’s
in vitation card. There is no d o u b t tha t we read most printed matter in s u c ­
cessive steps: first the heading [w h ic h need not be the openin g w o rd ) and
then, if we con tin u e to read the prin te d matter at all, we read the rest bit
by bit acco rding to its im portance. It is there fore qu ite feasible to start
reading a text at a d iffe re nt poin t from the top left. The exact place
depends entirely on the kind of printed m atter and the text itself. But we
must admit tha t there are da ngers in d e pa rting from the main rule of rea d­

67
ing from the top to the bottom. One must therefore, in general, not set a
fo llow ing body of text higher than the pre ced in g one - assuming that the
arrangem ent of the text has a logical sequence and order.
W orkin g th ro u g h a text according to these princip le s will usually result in a
rhythm diffe re nt from tha t of form er symmetrical typography. Asym m etry is
the rhythm ic expression of fun ctional design. In addition to being more lo g ­
ical, asym metry has the advantage that its com ple te appearance is far more
op tic ally effective than symmetry.
Hence the predo m in a nce of asymmetry in the New Typography. Not least,
the liveliness of asym metry is also an expression of our own movement and
th a t of m odern life; it is a symbol of the changin g forms of life in general
when asymmetrical movement in typ o g ra p h y takes the place of symmetrical
repose. This movement must not however de generate into un rest or chaos.
A striving for o rd er can. and must, also be expressed in asymmetrical form.
It is the only way to make a better, more natural o rd er possible, as opposed
to symmetrical form w h ic h does not draw its laws from w ith in itself but from
outside.
Furthermore, the p rincip le of asymmetry gives unlim ited scope for variation
in the New Typography. It also expresses the div ersity of modern life, unlike
centra l-axis typ o g ra p h y which, apart from variations of ty pefa ce Cthe only
e xce p tio n ], does not allo w such variety.
While the New Typography allows much greater flexibility in design, it also
encourages "stan da rdiz a tion " in the co n stru ctio n of units, as in buildin g.

BUCHVERTRIEB
G M B H

»DAS P O L I T I S C H E B U C H .
BERLIN-SCHMARGENDORF

13.12.1926.
B.H./Soh.

Centred la yo u t using lig h tw e ig h t sanserif has no visual efrectiven ess and reaches a
"typographic low" for today [letterhead for a bookshop).

68
The old typ o g ra p h y did the op posite: it recognized only one basic form, the
centra l-axis arrangement, but allowed all possible and impossible c o n s t r u c ­
tion elements [typefaces, ornaments, etc.).
The need for cla rity in com m u nic a tio n raises the questio n of how to achieve
clear and unam big uous form.
Above all. a fresh and origin al in te llectual approach is needed, avoiding all
standard solutions. If we th in k clearly and approach each task w ith a fresh
and determ in ed mind, a go od solutio n will usually result.
The most im p ortan t requirem ent is to be objective. This however does not
mean a way of design in wh ic h everyth in g is om itted that used to be tacked
on. as in the letterhead "Das po litis che Buch" shown here. The type is c e r ­
tain ly le gible and there are no ornam ents whatever. But this is not the kind
of o b je ctivity we are talking about. A be tte r name for it w o uld be m e a ge r­
ness. Incid entally this letterhead also shows the hollowness of the old p r i n ­
ciples: w ith o u t “ orn am ental" typefaces they do not work.
And yet, it is ab solutely necessary to omit everything tha t is not needed.
The old ideas of design must be dis carded and new ideas de veloped. It is
ob vious that functional design means the abolitio n of the "o rnam e ntatio n"
tha t has reigned for centuries.
The use of ornament, in wh ateve r style or quality, comes from an a ttitud e of
childish naivety. It shows a reluctance to use "pure de sign," a givin g -in to
a prim itive in stinct to decorate - w h ic h reveals, in the last resort, a fear of
p u re appearance. It is so easy to employ ornam ent to cover up bad de sign!
The im p ortan t a rch itect A d o lf Loos, one of the first champions of pure form,
w ro te already in 1898: "The more prim itive a people, the more extrava­
gantly they use ornam ent and de cora tion. The Indian overloads everything,
every boat, every rudder, every arrow, w ith ornament. To insist on d e c o r a ­
tion is to put yourself on the same level as an Indian. The Indian in us all
must be overcome. The Indian says: This wom an is beautiful because she
wears golden rings in her nose and her ears. M en of a high er c ultu re say:
This woman is beautiful because she does not w e a r rings in her nose or her
ears. To seek beauty in form itself rather than make it d e p e n d e n t on o r n a ­
men t should be the aim of all mankind."
Today we see in a desire for ornam ent an ig no rant te n d e n c y wh ic h our ce n ­
tury must repress. When in earlier perio ds ornam ent was used, often in an
extravagant degree, it only showed how little the essence of typography,
w h ic h is com m unic atio n, was understo od.
It must be un de rsto od tha t “o r n a m e n t” is not only decora te d rules and
p r in t e r s ’ flo w ers but also includes all com b in atio n s of rules. Even the

69
th ic k / t h in rule is an ornament, and must be avoided. [It was used to d is ­
guise contrasts, to reduce them to one level. The New Typography, on the
other hand, emphasizes contrasts and uses them to create a new unity.]
"A bstract de cora tions" w h ic h some foundries have pro du ced under d iff e r ­
ent names are also ornam ents in this sense. U n fo rtu na te ly many people
have t h o u g h t the essence of the New Typography consists merely in the
use of bold rules, circles, and triangles. If these are merely sub stitu te d for
the old ornaments, nothin g is improved. This error is forgivable since, after
all, all form er ty p o g ra p h y was oriente d tow a rds the ornam ental. But tha t is
exactly why the utm ost care must be taken to avoid replacing the old floral
or other orn am entatio n with ab stract ornaments. Equally the New
Typography has absolutely nothin g to do w ith "p ic to ria l" type setting
CBildsatz) w hic h has become fashionable recently. In almost all its exam­
ples it is the op posite of wh at we are aiming for.
But it is not enough to dispense w ith ornam ent in ord e r to create a m ean­
ingful form. We have already seen tha t even the old form tha t dispenses
w ith ornam ent is ineffective because it is still based on the effect of o rn a ­
mental types. The form of the old ty p o g ra p h y could be taken in at a glance,
even th o ugh this does not corre spo nd with the reading process. Even if I
succeed in recognizin g the outline of the type m atter I have not really read
an ything. Reading presupposes eye movement. The New Typography so
de signs text m atter tha t the eye Is led from one w o rd and one gro up of
w ords to the next. So a logical organizatio n of the text is needed, th ro u g h
the use of diffe re n t type-sizes, weig hts, placing in relation to space, colour,
etc.
The real meaning of form is made clearer by its opposite. We w o u ld not re c ­
ognize day as day if night did not exist. The ways to achieve con tra st are
endless; the sim plest are large/small, lig h t/d a rk , h o riz o ntal/vertic a l,
s qu are /ro un d, s m o o th /ro u g h , c lo sed /o pe n, c o lo u re d /p la in ; all offer many
possibilities of effective design.
Large differe nces in w e ig h t are be tte r than small. The clo ser in size d iff e r ­
ent types are to each other, the w e ake r will be the result. A limit to the
num ber of type sizes used — normally three to not more than five — is
always to be recom m ended. This has the ad ditional ad vantage of being
easier both in desig nin g and in setting. Variations in size should be
emphatic: it is always be tte r for the headline to be very large and the
remaining text notic eably smaller.
It is vital that all contrasts, for example in type sizes, should be logical. For
example, a foren am e should not have a much larger initial le tter if the

70
 STATISTIK DER

EHESCHEIDUNGEN

a
—1
tu
U
EHE-BUCH
ZEIGEN24 FÜHRENDEGEISTERDENAUSWEGAUSDIESERKRISE•
JEDERWIRDINDIESEMWERKAUFDENTIEFENSINNSEINERPER-
StlfNLICHENFRAGEDIEANTWORTUNDEINENRAT FINDEN
I MITARBEITER: GRAF KEYSERLING
MANN • RICARDA HUCH • JACOB WASSERM ANN • HAVELOCK ELLIS • RABIN­
THO M AS

DRANATH T AG O RE« FÜRSTIN L IC H N O W S K Y « A .W .N lE U W E N H U IS « L EO FRO-

Z BENIU S • ERNST KRETSCH M ER • BARONIN LEONIE UNGERN-STERNBERG «
< RICHARD W ILHELM • BEATRICE HIN KLE#H AN S VON HATTINGBERG« MATHILDE
VON KEMNITZ • GRAF T HUN-HOHEN STEIN • MARTA KARLWEIS • ALPH ONS
l
z M AEDER • LEO BAECK • JOSEPH BERNHART • PAUL ERNST • ALFRED ADLER
• C .G.JU NG • PAUL DAHLKE
S
a

preis : halbleinen : 1 2 ^ ( n: l y » r:20?

JA N TSCHICHO LD: Poster 1926, N o rm fo rm a t A

71
beginning of the princip al name is not specially indicated. All form must
corre spo nd with meaning and not c o n tra d ic t it.
In asym metric design, the wh ite ba ckgro und plays an active pa rt in the
design. The typical main display of the old typo grap hy, the title-p ag e,
sh owed its black type on a wh ite ba ckgro und tha t played no part in the
design [see the rep ro d u ctio n s on pp. 2 0 - 2 7 ] . In asym m etric typography, on
the other hand, the paper ba ckgro und con trib u te s to a gre ater or lesser
degree to the effect of the whole. The strength of its effect depends on
w h e th e r it is de lib erate ly emphasized or not; but in asym m etric design it is
always a com ponent. The New Typography uses the effectiveness of the
form er “ ba ckg ro u n d " quite deliberately, and consid ers the blank wh ite
spaces on the paper as formal elements ju st as much as the areas of black
type. In this way the New Typography has enric hed the art of printin g by
giving it a new medium of expression. The pow e rfu l effect in many exam­
ples of the New Typography depends directly on the use of large areas of
white: white is always stro n g e r than grey or black. Strong contrasts
between wh ite and black, in the form of type or rules, emphasize the wh ite
areas and greatly assist the total effect.
A common m isu nd erstand in g of w h at we are about can be seen when the
area of white has been decid ed beforehand and the text com pressed into
it. It is equally w ro ng to suppose that areas of w h ite are ever more im p o r ­
tan t than the w o rds of the text.
When the design of a piece of ty p o g ra p h y is looke d at — and all ty p o g r a ­
phy has a design, of varying nature and quality - modern t y p o g ra p h y is
d isting uis h ed by its formal use of the w h ite and black areas. Of course, lo g ­
ically only the type is im portant.
The pu rsuit of greater effectiveness and clarity in the relatio nship between
black and w h ite areas often leads to a noticeable re d uctio n of margins
(always prom in e nt in the old t y p o g ra p h y ]. In the New T ypography margins
often almost entirely disappear. Of course type can no t in most cases be set
rig h t up to the edge of the paper, whic h w o uld hinder le gibility. In small
items of printed matter, 12 to 24 points are the minimum margin required;
in posters 48 points. On the other hand, borders of solid red or black can
be taken rig ht up to the edge, since unlike type they do not require a white
margin to achieve th e ir best effect. Blocks too can be bled off the page
provid ed the trim is accurate.

C o lo u r
In contra st w ith the old typography, in w hic h c olou r as well as form was
always used decoratively, in the New Typography colo u r is used fu n c ti o n ­

72
ally, i.e. the physiological effect peculia r to each colou r is used to increase
or decrease the im portance of a block of type, a photog rap h, or whatever.
White, for example, has the effect of refle cting light; it shines. Red comes
forward, it seems closer to the reader than any other colour, inclu din g
white. Black on the other hand is the densest colou r and seems to retire
the furthest. Of the oth er colours, yellow, for example, is close to red, and
blue to black. [We do not accept a “ literary" id en tificatio n of colours, for
example red = love, yellow = envy, as not being natural.]
We have today a strong feeling for light, therefore for white, wh ic h explains
its im portance in the New Typography. The liveliness of red c o rre spo nds to
our own natures, and we prefer it to all other colours. The already strong
co n tra st be tween black and wh ite can be greatly enhanced by the ad dition
of red. [This is adm itte dly not a new discovery: but we have perhaps made
sharper use of this com b in atio n than the earlier typo grap he rs, w ho also
much enjoyed using black-red on white, esp ecially in the Gothic and
Baroque perio ds.]
The com bin atio n of black-red is of cou rse not the only possibility, as is
often mistakenly supposed, but it is often chosen because of its g re ater
intensity. Colour should be used, in general, to help express the purpose of
the w o rk: a vis itin g -ca rd does not require three colours, and a po ster g e n ­
erally needs more than ju st black and white.
Pure red. yellow, and blue, unmixed w ith black, will generally be preferred,
because of the ir intensity, but oth er mixed colours need not be excluded.

Type
None of the type faces to whose basic form some kind of orn am ent has
been added Cserifs in roman type, lozenge shapes and curlic ues in f r a k tu r ]
meet our require m ents for clarity and purity. Am ong all the types th a t are
available, the so-called “ G rotesque" Csanserif] or “ block le tter" ("ske le ton
le tters" w o uld be a bette r name] is the only one in spiritual acco rda nce
w ith our time.
To proclaim sa nserif as the typefa ce of ou r time is not a questio n of being
fashionable, it really does express the same ten den cie s to be seen in our
architecture. It will not be long before not only the “ art" typefaces, as they
are sometimes called today, but also the classical typefaces, disappear, as
com ple te ly as the c o n torted fu rn itu re of the eighties.
There is no do u b t that the sanserif types available today are not yet w holly
satis facto ry as a ll-pu rpo se faces. The essential cha racteristics of this type
have not been fully w o rked out: the lo w er-ca se letters especially are still
too like their “ hum anistic" cou nterp arts. M o st of them, in p a rticular the

73
newest designs such as Erbar and Kabel, are in fe rio r to the old anonymous
sanserifs, and have m od ific a tions wh ic h place them basically in line with
the rest of the "art" faces. As b r e a d - a n d - b u tt e r faces they are less good
than the old sans faces. Paul Renner’s Futura makes a s ig nific a nt step in
the rig h t directio n.
But all the attem pts up to now to produce a type for our time are merely
“ im provem ents" on the previous sanserifs: they are all still too artistic, too
artificial, in the old sense, to fulfil w h a t we need today.
Personally I believe th a t no single de sig ner can p ro du ce the typefa ce we
need, w hic h must be free from all personal ch a racteristics: it will be the
w o r k of a group, among whom I th in k there must be an engineer.
For the time being it seems to me tha t the jo b b in g sanserifs, like those from
Bauer & Co. in Stuttg art, are the most suitable for use today, because of
th e ir fun ctiona lism and quie t line. Less go od is Venus and its copies, owing
to the bad design of caps E and F and the lo w er-ca se t w ith its ugly slanted
crossbar. In third place, when nothin g b e tte r is available, come the
"p ain terly " Cmalerischen] block letters CMght and bold, etc.) with the ir
seemingly g n a w e d - o ff edges and rounded finials. Of the roman types, the
bold romans [th e Aldine, and bold Egyptians), w ith th e ir exact dra w in g, are
best, as far as types for emphasis are required.
The essential limitation of this restric ted range of typefa ces does not mean
that printers who have no or too few sanserif faces cannot produce go od
con tem po rary ty p o g ra p h y while using other faces. But it must be laid down
tha t sa nserif is absolutely and always better. I am aw are th a t to lay down
the law like this will offend the rom antic p re dile ctio ns of a large pa rt of the
p rintin g trade and the p u blic for the old "d ecorativ e" faces. These old types
can however from time to time find a new use in m odern typ o g ra p h y: for
fun, for example in o rd er to make a ty p o grap hic a l parody of the “ good old
days"; or as an e ye -catche r — for example by using a bold fra k tu r B in the
middle of sanserif — ju s t as the pom pous uniform s of Vic torian generals
and admirals have been degraded for flunkeys and fancy dress. W hoever is
so attached to fra k tu r — this s ixte e n th -ce n tu ry c le r k ’s type — that he c a n ­
not let go of it, should also not do violence to it by using it in modern
typ o g ra p h y where it can never be com fortable . Fraktur, like go thic and
Schwabacher, has so little to do w ith us that it must be totally excluded as
a basic type for c o n tem po rary work.
The emphatically national, exclusivist cha racter of fra k tu r — but also of the
equivale nt national scrip ts of other peoples, for example of the Russians or
the Chinese - c o n tra d icts pre sen t-d ay transnatio nal bo nds between peo-

74
 ^ ra ftu t
0<^w4ba4>ec
G rie c h is c h
C y rillis c h
( = R u ssisch und B u lg a ris c h )
T ü rk is c h ( = A ra b is c h )
= NATIONALISMUS
C h in e sisc h ( = J a p a n is c h )
Ind isch
S c h rifte n d e r Exoten
(Z u lu k a ffe rn , P ap u as u s w .)

pie and forces their inevitable elim in atio n.* To keep to these types is r e t r o ­
grade. Roman type is the in te rnational typefa ce of the future. These im p o r­
tant changes must come, since they express the actual spirit of ou r age and
are required by the technic al forms of the present and indeed the future.
As un desirable as fra k tu r are those roman types w ith extraordinary forms,
such as scrip t and decorate d, like Eckmann and others. The details of these
faces distra ct from the meaning and thus c o n tra d ic t the essence of t y p o g ­
raphy. whic h is never an end in itself. Their use for parody, in the sense
describ ed above, of course remains le gitim ate.
As a b r e a d - a n d - b u tte r type t o d a y ’s sanserifs are only partially suited. A
bold er face is out of the questio n because contin u ou s reading m atter in
bold sanserif is not easy to read. I find the best face in use today is the so-
called ordin ary jo b b in g sanserif, w h ic h is qu ie t and easy to read. In using it
for this bo ok I w a nted to show how readable it is; but I still have certain
reservations. However it is preferable to all the romans. CIn the p a rticular
choice of type for this book I was limited to w h a t the prin te r held.]
The main reason why sa nserif is so seldom used today for normal text s e t­
ting is that in general there is not enough of it available. So fo r much
printed matter and books like the present one. en tirely set in sanserif, it

• There are movements in R u ssia. Turkey, and China today to do aw ay with nation alistic typefaces
and replace them with roman. In Germany, on the contrary, railw ay-station lettering in roman is
being replaced by gothic — w hich for foreig ners is virtu ally unreadable!

75
will remain the exception. In such cases the text face will be a good roman,
and sanserif will be reserved for emphasis.
Even more than the histo ric typefaces, the "a rtis ts ’ ” typefaces are d is tu r b ­
ing because of the ir strongly individual character, w h ic h is in d irect o p p o ­
sition to the spirit of our age and makes them unsuita ble for properly
desig ned printin g today. No period was so p re occu pie d with individualism
as tha t from the be ginning of the present cen tury up to the ou tbrea k of
war. The “a r tis ts ’ " types of this period reached th e ir lo west point. None are
in any way be tte r than the ir predecessors, w hic h are preferable for the ir
sup erior quality.
Ne vertheless the classic faces like Walbaum, Didot, Bodoni, etc. cannot
serve as b r e a d - a n d - b u tte r types today. In terms of th e ir c on cep tion they
possess rom antic associations, they divert the r e a d e r’s atten tion into c e r ­
tain emotional and intellectual spheres and clearly be long to a past with
whic h we have no connection. A natural developm e nt — not a forced one —
wo uld hardly have bro u g h t them back again.
To my mind, looking at the m odern romans, it is the u n p re te ntio us w orks of
the anonym ous t y p e -d e s ig n e rs that have best served the spirit of the ir age:
Sorbon ne , Nordis che Antiq ua, Französische A ntiq ua, and so on. These
three typefaces and their derivatives are the best designs from the pre -w a r
pe rio d.* They are easily legible; they are also above all in a technical sense
useful and free from personal idiosyncrasies — in the best sense of the
word, unin te restin g. They can there fore be used everywhere, when a roman
type has to be used because no ap pro p ria te sanserif is available.

On the expressiveness of ty p e
Those who claim tha t sa nserif is the typefa ce of ou r ow n age are often told
that it does not express anything.
Do oth er typefaces express an ything? Is it really a t y p e fa c e ’s jo b to express
spiritual matters?
Yes and no. The w idely held belief that every typefa ce has some “ s p ir itu a l”
co n te n t is certainly not true of eith er g o th ic type Ctextura] or sanserif. The
en ormous num ber of typefaces available today, w h ic h express only an
absence of creativity and are the result of the feebly eclectic nature of the
p re -w a r period, may lead to the erroneous con clu sio n tha t go thic type

• In the postw ar period, the type foundries repeated their old m istakes in an even w orse form:
their daily "best se lle rs" have not the slig h test im portance for the future.

76
expresses peace, solemnity and religion, and italic, on the contrary,
expresses cheerfulness and joy. However, all the in num erable thin gs that
can be expressed in w ritin g , of w hatever kind, at any time, are set down in
one — or at most tw o — kinds of le tte ring or type. Yes, the cha racter of
go thic is religious and solemn, tha t of rococo (as far as the w ealthy class is
c o n c e rn e d ] is light-h earted , but the ty p o g ra p h y of those times, even when
expressing something contra ry to the "Z eitg eis t,” is always logical and s ty ­
listically consistent. In the Gothic period even profane texts were set in t e x ­
ture, and in the Rococo period an invitation to a funeral looks in no way
diffe re nt from any lig h t-h e a rte d printed m atter of the same period (cf. illu s­
tration on p. 20].
All le ttering, especially type, is first and forem o st an expression of its own
time, ju st as every man is a symbol of his time. W hat textura and also
rococo type express is not religiosity, but the Gothic, not cheerfulness, but
the Rococo: and w hat sanserif expresses is not lack of feeling but the
tw e n tie th century! There is no personal expression of the designer, nor was
it ever his aim, except in the first years of ou r century. The d iffe re nt kinds
of type get their character from the d iffe re nt ideas of form in every age.
Every p u n c h - c u tte r wished to create the best possible typeface. If Didot
did so m eth in g diffe re nt from Fleischmann, it was because times had
changed, not because he wa nted to pro du ce som eth in g "special." " p e r ­
sonal.” or "u niq ue.” The c on cep tion of w h a t a go od ty pefa ce should look
like had simply changed.
The e clectic nature of the p re -w a r period led pe ople to play with typefaces
of every period, thus revealing th e ir own a rtis tic poverty. A book about the
Thirty Years’ War had to be set in a d iffe re nt face from M o r i k e ’s poems or
an in dustrial catalogue. But St A u g u s tin e was set in textura, not in uncial!
All printed matter of w h ateve r kind tha t is created today must bear the h a ll­
mark of our age. and should not im itate printed m atter of the past. This
applies not only to the typefa ce but of course to every element of the m an­
ufacture: the illustrations, the bindin g, etc. Earlier periods, unlike us ever
conscio us of themselves, always denied the past, often very crudely; that
can be seen in the buildin g of cathedrals, in the general developm e nt of
culture, and in typography. The p u n c h - c u t te r Unger, creato r of U nger-
fra ktu r (c. 1800] and a famous typographer, de clared that S chw ab ache r
was an ugly type and in tro du ced le tte r-sp a cin g for emphasis in fra ktu r
(previously. Schw ab ache r had been used for emphasis in fra k tu r]. He was
absolutely right. His age, the Rococo, found that gothic, and its ways of
expression, in clu d in g Schwabacher. were out of harmony w ith th e ir own

77
times, and hence ugly: Unger was merely its m ou th piece in our field of
typography.
An art historian may prize the good qualities of the old S chw ab ache r type,
and we too can see that it was an excellent face of its period, but we must
not use it today, it is totally unsuitable for the 20th century. So are all the
other historical typefaces.
Like everyone else, we too must look for a typeface expressive of our own
age. Our age is characterized by an all-out search for clarity and truth, for
purity of appearance. So the problem of what typeface to use is necessarily
different from what it was in previous times. We require from type plainness,
clarity, the rejection of everything that is superfluous. That leads us to a
geom etric con stru ctio n of form. In sanserif we find a type that comes very
close to these requirements, so it must become the basis for all future w o rk
to create the typeface of our age. The character of an age cannot be
expressed only in rich and ornamental forms. The simple geom etric forms of
sanserif express something too: clarity and con cen tra tion on essentials, and
so the essence of our time. To express this is important. But it is not im p o r­
tant to create special types for advertising perfume man ufacturers and fash­
ion shops, or for lyrical o u tpou rin g s by poets. It was never the task of
p u n c h -c u tte rs of the past to create a type for a single kind of expression.
The best typefaces are those wh ic h can be used for all purposes, and the
bad ones those which can be used only for v is iting-ca rds or hymn books.
A good le tter is one tha t expresses itself, or rather “ speaks.” with the
utm ost distinctiv e ness and clarity. And a good ty pefa ce has no purpose
beyond being of the highest clarity.
Sanserif, looked at in detail, is adm itte dly capable of im provem ent, but
there is no d o u b t tha t it is the basic form from w h ic h the typefa ce of the
future will grow.
Other in dividual expressive possib ilities of type have nothin g to do with
ty pography. They are in con tra d ictio n to its very nature. They hinder direct
and totally clear com m unic atio n, wh ic h must always be the first purpose of
typography.

O rth o g ra p h y as at present o r all in lo w e r case?

In roman type and its sim pler form, sanserif, we possess faces tha t have
been made out of not one but tw o alphabets. This com b in atio n to o k place
in the 15th century. The one alph abet, the capitals, know n as majuscules,
was made by the old Romans as a form shaped by the chisel, at the b e g in ­
ning of our era. The oth e r alphabet, the small or lo w er-ca se letters, called

78
minuscules, dates from the time of the em peror Charlemagne, about
A .D . 800; the so-called Ca rolingian minuscule, a w r itte n letter made with a
pen, w ith asce nders and descenders. This scrip t too was origin ally c o m ­
plete in itself. The c o n ce p t of “ capital le tte rs ” was foreign to it. It was d u r ­
ing the Renaissance that these tw o forms of letter, the roman capitals and
the Carolingian minuscules, were com bin ed to make one alph abet, the
“A n t ig u a ” or “ roman.” This is the explanation of the dichotom y, especially
noticeable in German, between the capitals and the smaller letters. It is
much less noticeable in oth er languages, especially French and English,
because they use capital letters much less often than in German. Settings
in roman type in English always look be tte r than in German because they
employ few e r accents and in pa rticu la r do not use capitals for the first le t­
ters of nouns.
For a long time now there have been efforts to abolish the use of capital
initial letters for nouns and make German w ritin g conform with the in te rn a ­
tional style. This sig nalling of nouns with capitals started in the Baroque
period and seems to us now no longer useful. The rules governin g our use
of capitals make teachin g at school more difficu lt and also present p r o b ­
lems in later life because of the many exceptions. Jakob Grimm, one of the
founders of German studies, advocated its abolition already a hundred
years ago, and referred to the Old and M id d le High German lite rature in
which capitals were used only for pro p e r names and beginning s of se n ­
tences. Following him, capitals have been used by Germanic scholars only
in this way.
The aesthetic critic finds this m ixture of tw o such differently desig ned faces
unpleasing. For this reason many artists prefer to use capitals only, to avoid
mixing them with lo wer case. In France recently there have been many
examples of the in d e pen de nt use of lo wer case only (see the ad vertis em ent
on this page) - mainly in fashion p u blic ity and the an nouncem ents in fa sh ­
io n-shop w indows. Besides the exclusive use of lower case for text can be
seen the use of capitals alone for headings - and vice-versa, capitals for
text and lo w er case for headings. From this one can see that it is now r e c ­
ognized tha t the tw o alphabets of roman are really tw o diffe re nt styles, and
should be used in parallel, but not mixed.
The New Typography does not accept eith er of these alternatives to the
previous system — ad ju stm e nt to the international w ritin g method, or d iv i­
sion of roman type into capitals and lo wer case and regarding them as se p ­
arate alphabets, even if this is against curre nt opinion. It accepts neither
the view of the Germanists nor that of the artists follow ing the eclectic

79
A d v e rtis e m e n t fro m the French fashion m agazine Vogue.
All w ords are set in lower case .

French fashion. The New Typography demands econom y in type design. To

redesign our le tters com ple te ly - as in shorth and and le tte ring for the blind
- would be quite impractical and unacceptable. So we have to make do
with the type we have, the capitals and the lo wer case. To decid e whic h to
choose is not difficult, because capitals in con tin u ou s text are too difficu lt
to read. Lower-case letters are far easier to read, because of the ascenders
and descenders which make com ple te w ords easier to recognize.
A com ple te ly o n e-type system, using lo wer case only, w o u ld be of great
advantage to the national economy; it w o uld entail savings and sim p lific a ­
tions in many areas; and wo uld also result in great savings of spiritual and
in te llectual en ergy at present waste d; we can m ention here the teachin g of
w r itin g and orthography, a great sim plific ation in ty p e w rite rs and typin g
tech niq ue , a relief for memory, type design, t y p e -c u ttin g , ty pe -ca stin g , and
all com p osition methods - and so on.
A t the same time as eco no m ic advantages, the use of m inuscule w o u ld give
us a stylistically faultless letter, so scie ntific ad vantage w o uld be com bin ed
with aesthetic.

80
So there cannot be any change in o rth o g ra p h y if it means abandonin g the
con cep t of capitals and lower case. We can go on using the small letters,
only the use of capitals is discon tinue d. [A sub seq ue nt con tin u an ce of c a p ­
itals in some special kinds of w ritin g could be consid ered.)
But w h e th e r roman and also m odern sanserif lo wer case can con tin u e to
express the opinions and claims of the present is open to do ubt. Their form
has always too much of w ritin g and too little of type, and the efforts of the
future will be directed tow a rds suppressin g the ir w ritte n cha racter and
bring in g them closer to true print form.
German orth o g ra p h y if it is to be truly c o n tem po rary must see changes,
whic h will un do u b te d ly influence typefa ce design. Above all we must lose
the bu rden of too much heavy philo lo gy in linguistics, and provid e o u r ­
selves w ith self-explanato ry signs for sch, ch. dg, dro p the unnecessary
letters Cz. q. c) and aim at the rule “ Write as you speak!" and its c o u n t e r ­
part “ Speak as you w r i t e ! ” On this basis a new and more practical o r t h o g ­
raphy could be achieved, w ith o u t wh ic h lite rature can no t succeed.
Of course such a revolution in o rth o g ra p h y and type will not happen in a
day, but its time will assuredly come. W heth er conscio usly or u n c o n ­
sciously, cultural deve lopm ents take place and men change w ith them. The
typeface of the future will not come from a single person but from a group
of people.
It is sig nific a nt that one of the best new books on speech, type, and
o rth o gra ph y has been w ritte n not by an a rch ite ct or a p h ilo lo gis t but by an
engineer: Sprache and S ch rift (Speech and w r itin g ] by Dr W. Porstmann.
Anyone interested in these problem s will find this essential reading.
At the same time, while the New Typography regards the removal of c a p i­
tals as desirable, it is not an absolute demand. But it lies, like a more lo g i­
cal design for our orthography, in our path: an unm istakable design for
typ o g ra p h y that is in harmony with the desires and demands of ou r time.

Mistakes ofte n m et
In the beginning, many saw a new formalism in the New Typography: that
is, they ad opte d some of its most ob vious features - circles, triangles,
rules — as geom etrical features and used them as if they were the old kinds
of ornament. The "e lementary ornam ents" (itself a co n tra d ictio n in term s]
bro u g h t out by some foundries under various names fu rth e r helped to
spread this m isunderstandin g. These basic ge om e tric forms w hic h we like
to use must however be fun ctiona l: they must emphasize w o rd s or para­
graphs or be ju stified by the formal harmony of the whole. But instead of

81
this we still find tru ly childish, p s e u d o -c o n s tru c tiv e shapes, which are
totally c o n tra d ic to ry to the spirit of the New Typography.
The newsp ape r advertis em ent shown here is a typical example of pse u d o ­
constructiv is m , found all too commonly. Its form is not natural but comes
from an idea before it was set. The advertisem ent is no lo nger ty p o grap hy
but painting w ith letters, it turns go od typ o g ra p h y into bo rrowed, m is un­
derstood, and tho u g h tle ss shapes.
A similar example is in the t w o - c o lo u r business a n no un cem en t on this
page. Again, a previously conceived and meaningless shape is used, which
has no c on ne ction with the text or its logical a rra ng em en t and in fact c o n ­
flicts with it. A n o th e r serious fault is the lack of con tra st in colour, whic h
emphasizes the bland and borin g look of the whole.
The magazine cover on the facing page is an even worse example. It
attemps to be " te c h n ic a l” but c o n tra d icts the w h ole nature of w h a t actually

MUSIK DER ZEIT

WORT DER ZEIT
TANZ DER ZEIT
BUCHELER.GERFIH
PRINEUI WEOEKIND
LA SAR GALPERMI

2 ■ 4 WTm FEBR., 8 UHR ABENDS

DONNERSTAG, DEN ■
STADT. KAUFHAUS UHT. MiTW. o. schule für tahzkultur

JA N TSCHICHO LD: Typ o g ra p h ic poster fo r a concert. Red and black on silver.

82
is technical. Here we see the m ixing-in
of that “ a r t ” against which we are f i g h t ­
ing — an artific iality which neglects truth
and merely makes a “ pretty s h a p e ” which
fails to express the purpose of the d e ­
sign. Imagination must be used on the 5.9w -
basis of actual purpose, if tru th in design IIS® «2^'
0 (D0CQ-::
is to be achieved. CIn painting it is d iff e r ­ ^C (0 <D

ent: no restric tio ns are laid down, ;f0.

because the w o r k does not have a fixed - n -
£ . Щ® Щc
purpose.) lo (0

One also often finds the use of historical

typefaces CSchwabacher, gothic, fraktur) оaФ
(0 0) r о о с
in the manner of c on tem po rary t y p o g r a ­ (0
phy. But it is w ro ng to use these h is to r i­ хюсо 0-
(^.£^03
cal forms in this way - they are foreign ^ ° (U
|0.^
a -o -|
to our time and should be used only in a ' О) 0 а 5 >
CD <U
manner suita ble to the ir own age. Can 01 О ^
0 CC O
0 (0jOjc (0 a .0 =>
you imagine an airline pilot with a beard? |Еш:^5 om (0 (0| E
<D w
The ju x ta p o s itio n of positive and n e g a ­ £ ^
01 CD I
tive [reversed black to w h ite ) type, first 0 о s,
P CD ^
in tro d u c e d by com m ercial artists, can 7 0) о
0 -о <u
also be found in purely ty p o g r a p h ic ■О 7. -Q
3^ -
w ork. There is no o b je ction to this if it is
Q- iS E
based on lo gic [an im p o rta n t pa rt of a i i E
w ord can be emphasized in this way) - Ф 2£
but tha t is not often the case. A word is 1^t
often broken for purely formal reasons. (II о O)
C ^ Q.
This is not a sign of the New T ypog­ < i- w
raphy. In d e p e n d e n t negative lines can of
cou rse be beautifu l and are usually very
effective.
Equally, settin g in whic h blocks of text
are arranged alternately on the left and
rig ht of an imaginary vertical line usually
has a forced and un satis factory effect.
The resulting uneven spacing and the
violence of the block-sh ape s are merely
un pleasing repetitio ns of old mistakes.
W ro n g!
It looks functional but when
examined more closely we
find it is superficial and
does not express the text. J. H E R R M A N N JUNIOR
In the middle, it is very d iffi­ MÜNCHEN-SCHIu ERSTAASSE 3S • >El SS4 3B'64 386
SCHAUFENSTER- U LADENEINRICHTUNGEN
cult to find where to go on
reading. Certain forms of
Ew h o c h w o h l g e b o r e n
abstract painting, under­
stood only superficially, Wenn Ihre Entwürfe lUr Innenarchitektur geschBft-
have been used in this lich.er Art auegeführt werden sollen, wird Ihnen die
piece, but typography is not Zutammenarbeil mit einer leistungsfähigen Firma
erwünscht sein, die besondere Erfahrung auf diesem
painting!
Spetialgebiel hat und die peinlich bemüht ist, auf
e Wünsch«
Unsere seit dem Jahre 1886 bestehende Firma fa*
bntiert in ihrer modern oingerichtelen Möbelfabrik
in erster Linie alle Arten von LA DEN- UNO ■ (drGeschafts aller Art.Mode-u.
Sie hat durch jahrelange SCHAUFENSTER- Kaufhauscr.Kondiloreien.Fein-
Ptaais wertvolle technische EINRICHTUNGEN koslhandlungen u. Gaststätten
Erfahrungen gesammelt und kann mii lahlreiehen
Einteilungemustern für Spetialschrflnke u. -Tische,
fUr Stellagen und Warenaulbauten aufwarten. Wir
bitten Sie deshalb, sich bei der Ausführung Ihrer
Arbeiten mit uns in Verbindung tu setien oder un­
sere Firma tu empfehlen und sind mit Vergnügen
bereit. Ihnen in diesem Falle besondere Vergün­
stigungen einturtumen. Kostenvoranschiage und
beste Referenten jederieil gerne tu Diensten.

Mil voaOglicher Hochachtung

J. H E R R M A N N JUNIOR

84
But no one will hold the New Typography responsible for all the mistakes
made under its name. The value of the w o r k of printers striving to create
the typo grap hic a l expression of our time cannot be lessened by failures
always inherent in any new movement.

TEC H N ISC H E

K E V lU l
1. J A H R G A N G 1 9 2 5

W rong !
The w ord "Revue" is hard to read because of the com plicated type: and
the a bstract forms are used thoughtlessly, purely for decoration, including
the crossed th ic k -th in rules. The w hite paper background plays no part in
the design. The w hole shows a com plete m isunderstanding of the aims of
the New T y p o g ra p h y-w h ich does not arrange decorative forms, but
d e s ig n s -th a t is. it resolves the given text, w hich itse lf must show the sim ­
plest forms, into a harm onious whole.

85
 A w a y w ith Scheme F!
An ornam ental scheme much loved in w ou ld -b e contem porary
typography. A square is often found instead of the circle shown
at the top. It is considered especially bea u tifu l if the square is
not in the same w eig h t as the "conventional" bold rules but is in
th ic k /th in or some other "more in te re stin g " variety of rule. How
subtle is the blank magic square w here the rules cross!
This schem atic fo rm has n o th in g to do w ith designed
ty p o g ra p h y !

86
PHOTOGRAPHY A N D TYPOGRAPHY
The a rtis tic value of ph oto g ra p h y has been argued abou t ever since it was
invented. First it was the painters, until they realized that it presente d no
threa t to them. To this day, the art historians argue about some of the p r o b ­
lems wh ic h p h o tog rap hy has th ro w n up. Book craftsmen still deny p h o t o g ­
raphy the rig ht to form any pa rt of a "beautiful book." They base th e ir
ob je ction on the alleged aesthetic dicho to m y between the purely graphic
and material form of type and the more visibly "p la stic " but materially
we ake r halftone block. They see the greatest im portance in the outer
appe arance of both printin g surfaces, and find the halftone block not
“ bookish." Their obje ction is really not valid, since the halftone block is
com posed of many little raised dots, to w hic h type is in fact related.
All these theories, however, especially after the war, have been unable to
stop the unique triu m phal progress of p h o tog rap hy into book pro du ction.
Its greatest purely practical advantage is that by a simple mechanical
method — certainly easier than any manual method — a true rep ro d u ctio n
of an ob je ct can be obtained. The photog rap h has become such a re m a rk­
able ch a racteristic of our age that it is now impossible to imagine its n o n ­
existence. The p ic tu r e - h u n g e r of modern man is satisfied today chiefly by
ph o to -illu stra te d newspapers and magazines; and ad vertising, especially in
the USA. in clu din g more and more the poster, is making ever-in creasing
use of photography. The great demand for go od p h o tog rap hy has advanced
p h o to g ra p h ic tech n o lo g y and art to an extraordinary degree: in France and
America there are fashion and advertising ph otog rap hers who surpass
many painters in quality [Paris: Paul O uterbrid ge, O’ Neill. Hoynin ge n-
Huene, Scaioni, Luigi Diaz: Am erica: Sheeler, Baron de Meyer. Ralph
Steiner. Ellis, and others). The w o r k of the mostly anonymous p h o to g ra p h ic
reporters is of the highest standard: the ir pictures, not least in pu rely p h o ­
to g ra p h ic terms, often give more pleasure than the allegedly artis tic prints
of professional po rtra it ph otog ra p h e rs and amateurs.
It would be absolutely im possible today to satisfy the enormous demand for
printed illu stratio ns with dra w in gs or paintings. There wo uld be neither
enough artists of quality to produce them, nor time for the ir creation and
reproductio n. W ithou t ph oto g ra p h y we wo uld never know very much of
what is happenin g in the w o rld today. Such an extraordinary con sum p tion
could never be satisfied except by mechanical means. General social c o n ­
ditions have changed con sid erab ly since the middle of the 19th century,
the num ber of consumers has gro w n enormously, the spread of European
urban cultu re has greatly increased, all means of com m u nic a tio n have
advanced, and these changes demand u p - to - d a te processes. The medieval

87
w o od cut, w o rsh ip p e d as an ideal by book craftsmen, is now obsolete and
can no lo nger satisfy ou r demands for clarity and precision.
The special charm of p h o tog rap hy lies precisely in its great, often m ira cu­
lous, clarity and its in corru p tib ility. As a consequence of the purity of its
appearance and of the mechanical p ro du ction process, p h o tog rap hy is
becoming the obvious means of visual representatio n in our time. That p h o ­
tog ra ph y by itself, even almost accidental photography, is an art, may be
disputed. But does art matter, in every case when ph o to g ra p h y is used?
S traig htforw a rd and often com ple te ly in artis tic ph o to g ra p h y is often all we
w ant from reporters or p h o tog rap hers of objects: because w hat is wanted
is in form ation in visual form, not art. Where higher requirem ents exist, a
way to satisfy them will be found. However little ph oto g ra p h y at the
moment is an art, it contains the seed of an art whic h must of necessity be
different from all other art forms.
On the bo rde rlin e of art is the " p o s e d ” ph otog rap h. The effects of lighting,
arrangement, and com position can come very near to fine art. A simple
example is the w h o le -p a g e advertis em ent in the Paris magazine Vogue
shown opposite. It is remarkable purely as a photog rap h, but also esp e­
cially in te restin g as an advertisem ent, since no lettering is used except that
on the obje cts ph otog ra p h e d — yet the result is pe rfe ct and successful.
There are two forms in wh ic h ph oto g ra p h y can become art: photom o ntag e
and photogram . By p h otom o ntag e we understa nd eith er an assembly of
separate photos w hic h have been mounted together, or the use of a photo
as one elem ent in co n ju n ctio n w ith oth er picto ria l elements (ph oto­
drawin g, p h o to - s c u lp tu r e ]. There are many overlaps between these m e th ­
ods. In photom o ntag e, with the help of given or selected ph otog rap hs, a
new picto ria l unity is created, which, being deliberate and no lo ng er a c c i­
dental design, has an axiomatic claim to the title of art. Natu rally not all
photom o ntag es are w o rks of art, any more than all o il-pa in tings. But the
w o rks in this medium of Heartfield (who invented p h otom o ntag e),
Baumeister, Burchartz, Max Ernst, Lissitzky, M oh oly-N ag y, V ordem berge-
Gildewart, certainly deserve that title. They are not random assemblies but
logical and harm onious c o n stru cte d pictures. An ordin ary ph otog rap h
starts w ith accidental form (grey tonal values, structura l effect, movement
of line) but achieves a rtis tic meaning from the com p osition of the whole.
What differentia te s p h otom o ntag e from previous art is tha t the o b je ct is
missing. Unlike earlier art it is not a statem ent about an ob je ctive fact but
a w o rk of im agination, a free human creation in d e p e n d e n t of nature. The
"lo g ic" of such creation is the irrational lo gic of a w o r k of art. Photo­
montage achieves a really "s u p e r- n a tu r a l” effect t h ro u g h the deliberate

88
W h ole -p age p h o to -a d ve rtis e m e n t (w ith o u t any a d ditional le tte rin g ) fro m the
French periodical V o g u e . 1926.

89
contrast of plastic photog rap hs against an area of dead w hite or colour.
This effect could never have been achieved by drawin g or pa inting. The
possib ilities of co n tra st in size and shape, in closeness and distance of
obje cts represented, and in flat or th ree -dim ension al form, allow in finite
variations in this art-form , making it highly suitable for th o u g h tfu l ad ve rtis­
ing. It is only rarely tha t a "w o rk of art" will emerge th ro u g h the balance
achieved by relating each individual part to equilib riu m in the w hole -
because the restric tio ns imposed by the necessary logical con sis ten cy of
the whole, the logic of size, the given type, etc. can be very in hib itin g. In
any case the commercial a r t is t ’s jo b is not to create a w o r k of art but a
good advertisement. It may, or may not, be both. In the field of advertising
ph otom ontage, among the best examples are the M alik b o o k -b in d in g s by

M A X BURCHARTZ:
Jacket of a fo ld e r fo r
leaflets. S ilver back­
gro u n d , w h ite le ttering
on red. P ho tom o nta ge:
reproductio ns of typical
products o f the Bochum
Association. Format
DIN A4.

90
John Heartfield and the in dustrial advertis em ents desig ned by Max
Burchartz.
We show here a good example: the cover of a fold e r for in dustrial leaflets
desig ned by Burchartz. The illu stratio n sadly gives only a hint of the intense
and rich effect of the original. Further examples of p h otom o ntag e will be
found elsewhere in this book.
Photograms are photos created with the use of light-se nsitiv e paper w i t h ­
out a camera. This simple te ch n iq u e is not new: photogram s of flowers, for
example, made by simply laying the ob je ct on p h o to g ra p h ic paper, have
been known for a long time.
The in vento r of the photogram as an art form is the Am erican Man Ray, now
living in Paris. He published his first w o rks in this field in 1922 in the
Am erican magazine Broom . They reveal an unreal, supernatural w o rld c r e ­
ated purely by photography. These po etic images have nothin g in common
with re p o r te r s ’ or ordin ary p h o to g r a p h e r s ’ work, w ith w hic h they have as
much con nection as poetry has w ith daily speech. It w o uld be naive to call
these p ro du ctions eith er accidental or clever arrangem ents: any expert will
reco gnize the difference. In them, the potentia ls of autonom ous p h o t o g r a ­
phy ( w ith o u t camera] have for the first time been realized in pure form: by
the use of modern materials the photog ram has become the m odern poetry
of form.* •
Photograms, too, can be used in advertising. El Lissitzky was the first to
make photogram ad vertisements, in 1924. A splendid example of his w o r k
in this field is the photogram for Pelikan ink (see op p o site ]. Even the le t­
terin g is p h o to -m e ch a n ica l.• • A lth o u g h the mechanics of making a p h o ­
togram are simple, they are nevertheless too com plicated to describ e in a
few words. Anyone who sets him self such a task will, by his ow n e x p e r i­
ments, find a way to achieve the desired effect. All that is needed is light-
sensitive paper and a darkroom. We may mention here the bo ok M alerei,
P hotographie. Film by L. M oh oly-N ag y, whic h deals with this subje ct at
length and most instructively.
The ty p o g ra p h e r who has to inte grate halftone p h o to g ra p h ic blocks with
given type must ask what typefa ce should be used in these conditions. The
p re -w ar artists who rejected photography, as I describ ed above, trie d to

• Two of Man R ay’s phologram s are shown on pp. 48 and 49.

• • Only an unthinking observer could argue that the use of roman type for one word in this pho­
togram w as illo gical. The d esire to use sim ple means for the design led to the use of a non-
manual standard type - a sten cil letter, w hich had to be in roman becau se sten cil s a n se rif is not
yet available.

91
solve this problem but could not do so because they regarded all c o m b in a ­
tions of type and photos as compromise.
We today have recognized ph otog rap hy as an essential typ o g ra p h ic tool of
the present. We find its addition to the means of ty p o g r a p h ic expression an
enrichment, and see in p h o tog rap hy exactly the factor tha t distinguis hes
our typ o g ra p h y from everything that w e nt before. Purely flat ty po grap hy
be longs to the past. The in tro d u ctio n of the p h o to g ra p h ic block has
enabled us to use the dynamics of three dimensions. It is precisely the c o n ­
trast be tween the ap pa rent three dimensions of ph o to g ra p h y and the plane
form of type tha t gives our typ o g ra p h y its strength.
The question, whic h type should be used w ith photog rap hs, used to be
answered in the most ob vious way by choosing type tha t looked grey or
was even printed in grey: also by using very thin or very in div idualistic
types, and oth er methods. As in other kinds of w o rk, the solutio n was
superficial, reducing everything to one level: everyth in g became a uniform
grey, w h ic h hardly co nceale d the compromise.
U n in h ib ited and so contem porary, the New Typography found the solution
at once. Since its aim was to create artis tic unity out of c o n tem po rary and
fundam ental forms, the problem of type never actually existed: it had to be
sanserif. And since it regarded the p h o to g ra p h ic blo ck as an equally f u n ­
damental means of expression, a synthesis was ach ieved: p h o tog rap hy -i-
sanserif!
A t first sig ht it seems as if the hard black forms of this typefa ce could not
harmonize with the often soft greys of photos. The tw o to g e th e r do not
have the same w e ig h t of colour: the ir harmony lies in the con tra st of form
and colour. But both have two thin gs in common: the ir o b je ctivity and their
impersonal form, wh ic h mark them as suiting ou r age. This harmony is not
sup erficial, as was m istakenly t h o u g h t previously, nor is it arbitrary: there is
only one obje ctive type form - sanserif - and only one obje ctive re p rese n­
tation of our times: photography. Hence ty p o -p h o to , as the colle ctive form
of graphic art, has today taken over from the in div idu alistic form
h a n d w ritin g -d ra w in g .
By ty p o -p h o to we mean any synthesis between t y p o g ra p h y and p h o to g r a ­
phy. Today we can express ourselves be tte r and more qu ickly w ith the help
of p h otog rap hy than by the la borious means of speech or w ritin g . The p h o ­
to g ra p h ic halftone b lo ck jo ins letters and rules in the co m p o s ito r's case as
a con tem po rary but diffe re ntia te d t y p o g ra p h ic ele m ent in design. In a
purely material sense it is also basically similar, since, at least in le tterpress
printin g, it shares the same kind of relief printin g surface and ty pe -h eight.
In the modern printin g processes of gravure and o ffs e t-lith o this is not so:

92
EL LISSITZKY 1924: P ho togram (a d ve rtis e m e n t)

here a com ple te ly opposite kind of material form does not su p p o rt any s u p ­
position of inequality.
The in te gration of halftone blocks in type setting is a con dition of good
typ o g ra p h y and harm onious design. Since we of today do not recognize the
old b o o k - d e s ig n e r s ’ rejection of p h o tog rap hy in book pro d u ctio n and the
l u xu ry-co n ce p t of the "Book Beautiful" belongs to the past, the m odern
book de sig ner sees the p h o to g ra p h ic block as equal in value to type in the
p ro du ction of fine books. A splendid example of t y p o -p h o to in advertising
is shown facing, desig ned by Piet Zwart. Here also is a photogram used for
p u blic ity Cpaper-insulated high -te n sio n cables). The word “ High" begins
with a tall H. the w o rd "L ow" with a small L. The balance of the chosen

93
 p a p e r ;
INSULATED
H IG H T E N S IO N C A B L E S

u IGH I O N I S A T IO N VOLTAGE

OW D IELECTRIC LOSS

N K F
N EDERLAN DSCH E
K A B E L Z FABRI EK
D E LFT (HOLLAND)

PIET ZW ART (H o lla n d ): A d ve rtis e m e n t leaflet. Black and red on w h ite . Form at A4.

94
types and the areas of black and red are superb and the wh ole is a c o m ­
position of en cha ntin g beauty. The tw o red rules show how the e ffe ctive ­
ness of a photo can be increased by the use of colour. Equally, the flat red
area of the bold L contra sts well with the delicate plastic forms of the p h o ­
togram. The typ o g ra p h y and the photo echo each other: the cen tre of NKF
with the centre of the cable cross-se ction , the red lines of type with the
cable circum fe rence, and so on.
It can be affirmed that t y p o -p h o to is one of the most s ig nific a nt means of
gra ph ic expression in t o d a y ’s ty p o g ra p h y and advertising. It will not be
long before the popu la r forms of ty p o -p h o to , pa rticularly in newspapers
and some advertising, by means of conscio us and logical co n te m p o ra ry
design, reach the cultural h igh lig hts of the present time.
The en ormous possib ilities of p h o to g ra p h y itself have so far hardly been
recognized, outside a small gro up of a few specialists, and certainly not
exhausted. There is no d o u b t that the gra ph ic cultu re of the future will
make a far greater use of p h o to g ra p h y than today. Photography will be as
expressive of ou r age as the w o o d c u t was of the M id d le Ages. For this rea­
son it is absolutely necessary for every gra ph ic professional, even today, to
de velop creatively all the tech n iq u e s of ph o to g ra p h y and r e p ro d u c tio n as
far as possible and prepare them for the high er de mands that will surely be
made of them in the near future.

SASCHA STONE:
A d v e rtis e m e n t
(p h o to m o n ta g e )

95
N E W T Y P O G R A P H Y A N D S T A N D A R D IZ A T IO N
The New Typography, in its concern to satisfy the needs of our own period
and to make sure tha t every single piece of printin g is in harmony with the
present, has always taken the greatest interest in every move tow a rds stan­
da rdization. The need for standardization, in w h ateve r area, derives from
the problems of today, whic h it aims to solve.
The use of standard practices in the book trade is therefore an integral
necessity in m odern typo grap hy: no piece of prin tin g can be called satis­
factory if it ignores such an outsta nding element in the organizatio n of
book pro du ction. It is in deed an econom ic necessity.
This applies above all to formats, where for a long time the lack of sta n ­
dardization has been conspicuous. Choice of form at used to be made p r i­
marily on aesthetic grounds, but must now be revised and made on higher
grounds, because of the en ormous increase — in the 19th and especially
the 20th centurie s — in the am ount of printed matter. Until now the ra tio ­
nalization of paper sizes played a m in or role, since the nu m ber of pieces of
printin g was so much less. Each do cum e nt and piece of p rintin g was in d i­
vidually planned: the result, to ou r eyes, often makes them appear to be
a rt-o b je c ts of their time. The personal taste of the author, and chance,
de term in ed the ir format. Sheets of paper were made by hand singly in var­
ious sizes: but pa rchm ent sheets depended en tirely on the size of the skin
and could never be planned in advance.
The resultin g chaos was recognized by f o r w a r d - lo o k in g minds. Already in
1796 the German Lichten be rg recom m ended the in tro d u c tio n of some kind
of standardization. Lichten be rg pro posed a basic rule tha t formats should
always be decid ed by successive halving of the original sheet size.
In the early years of the French Revolution the p rincip le tha t he discovered
was given partial recognitio n, for the French au thorities made a rule about
the formats of official docum e nts and forms that, in mathematical terms,
every page size should be in the pro p o rtio n s of 1 :V2 or 1:1.41. The French
linked this w ith the m etric system they had ju s t in tr o d u ce d , and by o r d e r ­
ing the original size of sheets to be 1 m^ and the p ro p o rtio n s to be 1 :V2.
they arrived at exactly the same scheme as t o d a y ’s A -series in DIN f o r ­
mats.* But the French attem pts to introduce standardiz atio n had no pe rm a­
nent result: it was not until the 20th century that the great research scie n ­
tis t Wilhelm Ostwald. throu gh “ Die B rü cke ” CThe Brid ge ], the in ternational
institu te fou nded by him and K. W. Bührer in 1912 in M un ic h , made a new

• DIN = D e u lsch e Ind uslrie-N orm en

96
advance in regulating form at sizes. Ostwald likewise proceeded from the
Lichtenbergia n princip le of con stant ratio but depended on measuring in
centimetres. The proposed "W orld-form ats," to be adopted w o rld w id e , did
not however win many frie nds; probably because the main form at 230x320
mm Cletterheads] turned out to be rather unpractical. Nevertheless the
w o r k of "Die Brücke," whose w o r k was in te rru p te d by the war, had the very
great merit of making people think. The public atio ns of "Die Brücke" are
among the most interestin g studies in this field.
Soon after the war the German Standards Committee in tro du ced the m e t­
ric -based D IN * 476 paper standardizatio n system. It was evolved after
le ngth y discussions involving go vernm ent departm ents, business Interests,
printers, and paper m erchants and manufacturers. Government and in d u s ­
try agreed that DIN formats were to be the basis for all questio ns of format.
The new DIN system has now for some time replaced the old " f o l io ” system.
The old "q uarto form at" is also disappearin g.
DIN formats are being used not only in Germany but also in many oth er
European countries. Everyone con cern ed in the orderin g or pro d u ctio n of
print should now use only DIN formats, whic h have the fo llow ing a d v a n ­
ta g e s, among others [from the book F orm ate u n d Vordrucke']:
FOR THE USER:
Paper orderin g will be simpler and cheaper.
The storing of all printed matter will be easier and more practical.
Organization in the paper trade will be more sensible, and as the
man ufacture of large quantities will now be easier, paper must
become cheaper.
FOR THE PRINTER:
Paper orderin g will be easier.
DIN formats allow sim ultaneous printin g in d iffe re nt sizes, leading to
be tte r use of machine time - also a saving of time and materials in
the com posing and machine rooms. M ore pro d u ctivity will be
achieved in the bindery owing to repetitio n of id entical sheet sizes.
FOR THE T R A D E S M A N :
Unne cessary investment in seldom -used sizes will be avoided.
Fewer paper sizes will save space in stock rooms: attention to c u s ­
tomers will be speeded up.
Price lists will be simplified.

The specification sheets of DIN 476 and 198 follow, with the approval of the German Stand ards
Committee COIN). The latest authoritative Standard publications are obtainable from Beuthverlag.
Berlin S14. D resdener S trasse 97.

97
PIET ZWART: Page of ad ve rtisin g leaflet. Form at A6. Black and red on w h ite .
(O rig in a l in D utch.)

98
 B I O konomie ist

ORMUNG

PIET ZWART: Page fro m an ad ve rtising leaflet. Form at A6. Black and red on w h ite .
(O rig in a l in D u tch .)

99
FOR THE M A N U FA C TU R E R :
The num ber of un cut sheet sizes and r o ll- w id th s will be decreased.
M a n u fa c tu rin g will be cheapened, storage sim plified. In qu ie t pe riods
storage can be un derta ken [che ape r buyin g).
Price lists will be sho rte r and simpler, c om p lica ted supply c a lc u la ­
tions greatly simplified.
The num ber of d iffe re nt p rintin g and paper machines required will be
less.
Besides a sho w in g of the diffe re n t sizes in the DIN 476 range and the rel­
evant explanations, we give in the fo llow ing pages a red uctio n of the DIN
198 standard w ith in stru ction s for use in the A-ran ge .
In any case, all those w h o m anufacture and use printed m atter w o u ld not
merely make use of the standard formats but also examine, and use. all the
other stan dardiz atio ns in the b o ok trade, on w hic h the second pa rt of this
book gives information. Only then will the stan dardiz atio n program me in the
book trade make sense.
Finally we wo uld like to quote some passages from an essay by Dr Engineer
E. H. Neuhaus. published in no. 23 [N o ve m b e r 1926) of the Z e its c h rift fü r
D eutschlands B u ch d ru cke r: "I feel obliged to give double and treble
emphasis to my prayer to ou r leaders of industry, that they use the full
w e ig h t of th e ir in fluence to in tro du ce the DIN standards in th e ir b u s i­
nesses. We can no longer, in fairness to the rep utatio n of our w ork, put up
with lame excuses of any kind, but must ensure, as German engineers, that
the results of our long and wearisom e efforts come to fru itio n to help
German trade. Production and d is trib u tio n of go ods are not ends in th e m ­
selves. They both make sense only when they make it possib le for every c it ­
izen to receive the goods in the greatest qu an tity and the finest condition.
And standardiz atio n is ju stified when the goods become be tte r and
cheaper. The fact tha t standardiz atio n is a gu arantee for the raising of q u a l­
ity and lo w ering of prices can no lo nger be ignored. “ It depends entirely on
ourselves w h e th e r we w a nt to a cce pt this fully reco gn iz ed p rincip le in our
business.
“ It is useful to observe the in hib itio ns that impede the in tro d u c tio n of these
sound princip le s into our business.
“ First, of course, there are the in hib itio ns arising from the se lf-in te re st that
gains from ignorin g the princip le s of standardiz atio n. Where se lf-in te re st is
enriched by the in creased cost of products, and the re by deceives and mis­
leads people, it must for eve ryon e’s sake be fought. But there are also in h i­
bitions wh ic h come not from an antisocial attitud e but from an instinctive

100
 D IN
Papierformate
476
Reihe Reihe Reihe Reihe
Bezeichnungsbeispiel
Format-
Klasse
А
Vorzugrelhe
в c D
Das F o rm a t 2 1 0 x 2 9 7 , K laaaa 4 d e r Vorzug- mm mm mm mm
re ih e A, heiBt 1000XUU
Format A 4 9 1 7 X 1297
0
841X I189
O ie A bm essu n g en g e lte n als G r ö B t m a B e ,
771 X 1090
T o le ra n z e n sind nach u n ie n zu le g e n und auf
707 X 1000
d a s ä u ß e rs te zu b es c h rä n k e n .
648 X 017
1
594x841
546X771
A ls F e rtlg fo rm a te fUr a lle u n a b h ln g lg a n
P a p ie rg rö fle n . w ie Z e ic h n u n g e n , A k te n , G e ­ 000 X 707
s c h ä ftp a p ie re . B e trie b v o rd ru c k e , K a r te ik a rte n , 458 X 648
2
W e rb s a c h e n , Z e its c h rifte n , Z e itu n g e n . B ü ch er, 420x594
g e lte n d ie
386 X 646
Formate der A* Reihe 353Xeoo
334 X 458
E in ze lh e ite n sind fo lg e n d e n N o rm b iä tte rn zu 3
297x420
e n tn e h m e n ;
373X 386
О I N 1 0 8 P a p ie rfo rm a te — A h w eA epngen der
390 X 353
A -R eihe
339 X 334
D I N 6 7 6 G e s c h ä ftb rle f - Рогл 1а 1 А i 4
210x297
D I N 6 8 2 R eh m en fü r B ild e r u n d T a fe ln
193X 273
D I N 8 2 0 N o rm b la tt - A b m essu n g en und A u s­
I7 0 X 250
g estaltu n g
163X 239
D IN 8 2 3 Z e ic h n u n g e n — F o rm a te , M aß stäb e 5
D IN 8 2 4 Z e ic h n u n g e n — F a ite n a u f A 4 fü rO rd n e r 148x210
1 3 8 X 102
D I N 8 2 5 S c h ild fo rm a te
135x175
D IN 8 2 6 Z e its c h rifte n - F o rm a t A 4, S a tz s p ie g e l,
1 I4 X 162
O ru c k s to c k b re ite
6
D IN 6 2 7 P a p ie r (N o rm a lp a p ie r) - Stoff. F e s tig 105x148
k e it, V e rw e n d u n g 98 X 136
D I N 8 2 9 B u c h fo rm a te e e x 125
8t X 114
7
74x105
68X 06

Für a b h ä n g ig e P a p ie rg rö ß e n , w ie B riefh U lien . 62x68

O rd n e r. M appen, g e lte n die 97X 81
8
52x74
Formate der Zusatzreihen B. C, O
4 8 X 68
E in ze lh e ite n sind fo lg e n d e n N o rm b lä tte rn tu А 44x63
e n tn e h m e n 9
37x52
D IN 678 B rIe fh U lle n fo rm a te 31x44
1А
1и
D IN 660 F e n s te rb rie fh U lle n 26x37
D I N 828 M ik ro p h o to g ra p h is c h e B ilder 33X 31
11 18x20
D IN 829 B u c h fo rm e ta
16X 23
12
13x18

Juli 1925 2 Ausgabe (erweitert)

101
feeling tha t here is a circum sta nce wh ic h will make ou r inner life poorer,
more one-sided and less desirable. But when we look closer into this we
see tha t man can only develop his personality in the present state of civi­
lization and culture if he stops wearin g himself out in an un pro fita ble s t r u g ­
gle ag ainst useless detail but makes himself free to find the time and
means for developing his true personality.
"We must be clear tha t countless thin gs today in th e ir ill-fo u n d e d and
largely Ina ppro pria te com ple xity are not at all the result of an earnest s tr iv ­
ing to form a personality, but simply the p ro d u c t of a fa r-rea ching and a r b i­
trary tho ugh tlessn ess in man ufacturers and consumers. We must fu rth e r
accept that the overw helm ing num ber of obje cts of daily need are easier to
cope with under the law of pure expedie ncy than under the demands of
personal taste.
“All the ob jections tha t make bogeys out of sensible and tasteful discipline
fall apart when we examine them. It is no less than a de cep tion of public
opinion when it is said tha t unplanned pro du ction has more personal value
than the pro du ction of goods on an honest functional basis and by the c o l­
la boration of manufacturers and consumers.”

102
EXPLANATIO NS [to DIN 476 page 2]

B A S IC P R IN C IP LE S

1. FO RM ULA OF HALVING RANGES

Each c o n s e c u tiv e fo rm a t e v o lv e s
th ro u g h d o u b lin g o r h a lv in g th e
p re v io u s o n e.
The areas of both formats relate as I ;2.

2. FO RM ULA OF S IM ILA R ITY IN RANGES

The fo rm a ts are sim ila r to each other.
Nos. I and 2 in the range give, for the tw o
sides of X and y of one format, the p r o p o r ­
tions X:Y = T.V2 —►

Both sides are there fore in pro p o rtio n to

each oth er as the sides of a square are to
its diagonal.

3. FO RM ULA OF CO N N ECTED RANGES

The formats are con ne cte d to the metric
system; the area of the basic norm equals
the area of a square metre, i.e. x X y = i.

103
[C on tin u atio n of explanations to Norm DIN 476]

O R IG IN A L FO R M A T
For the origin al format with sides x and y the same tw o equations app
because of the above 3 princip le s x;y = 1 :^2
XX y = 1
The original format, rectangle with area of 1 m-. has sides of
X = 0.84 1 m y = 1.1 89 m

O R IG IN A L RANGE A (Preferred ra nge)

Following equation 1. the range in original form at contin ues by consecuti\
halving to make original range A.

A D D ITIO N A L RANGES B C D
For con ne cte d paper sizes, e.g. envelopes, bo oklets, wallets, etc., the add
tional ranges B C and D are listed. The B range form ats are the geom etr
means of the A range. The C and D ranges are again the ge om e tric mear
of the A and B ranges.

STRIP FORM ATS

Strip formats are made by halving, qu artering, etc. the main form at lengtf

Abbre­
Format mm
viation

Flalf length A4 V2 A 4 105 X 297

Quarter length A4 ViA4 52 X 297
Eighth length A7 %A7 9 X 105
Flalf length C4 'AC4 114 X 324
etc.

A pp lica tio n s; Envelopes, labels, tickets, coupons, technic al drawin gs, etc,

104
 5ÏB
Papierformate nach DIN 4 7 6
Anwendungen der A-Reihe 198
o> c- O IO
Abmessungen
der Formate
œ
X
i 1
X
0)
IO
X X
O
X
)
d d
X
?
X
O
X X
d C'­ <o
c** IO en d 0
X X X X
en
X Bel Bedarf kann die
O 00 C'­ (0 en 0)
1I S GO
s g s en d Anzahl der vorge*
C
D to d sehenenGrößendurch
Formate der gleichen
Kurzzeichen der Formate AO AI A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 A10Ail A12A13 Reihe vermehrt oder
Abreißkalender, eiock$. . A4 A6 A6 A7 A8 A9 verringert werden.
,, Unterlagen A2 A3 A4 A6 A6 A7
Adreßbücher ................. A4 A5 Schm ale Form ate
Am tsblatt........................ A4 (für Fahrscheine,
Akten............................... A4 A6 Listen, Schilder,
Aktien.............................. A3 A4 A5 Streifen, Zinsscheine)
A nlagem arken............. A8 A9 A10Ail werden durch Längs­
Bescheinigungen . . . . A4 A5 A6 hälften,Längsvierteln,
B e s te llze tte l................. A4 A5 A6 Längsachteln usw der
Besuchskarten.............. A6 A7 A8 A-Formate gewonnen^
Betriebsvordrucke ■ . . A3 A4 AB A6 A7 A8 A9 AlOAil
Brief Elnhellabrlef=Akte . . A4 B rlefh U lle n
AB (Reihen B und C)
BUcher (BroachOren)................. A4 AB A6 A7 A8 siehe OIN 678
Durchschlagpapier . . . . . . A4 AB F e n s te rb rie f*
Einheitsbrief........................... A4 h U llen siehe DIN 680
Fahrplane.............................. AO Al A2 A3 A4 AB A6 A7
FernsprechbUcher................. A4 AB B uchform ate
Fotogramme, technische . - A3 A4 AB A6 A-7 (Reihen A und B)
Geschäftsbücher................. A2 A3 A4 AB siehe OIN 829
Geschäftspapiere................. A3 A4 AB A6 A7
K a rte ik a rte n ........................ A4 AB A6 A7 A k te n d e c k e l,
K a ta lo g e .............................. A4 AB A6 A7 A8 H e fte r und O rdner
K kbem arken........................ A6 A7 A8 A9 A10A11A12A13 werden der C*Reihe
K lebezettel........................... A6 A7 A8 A9 entnommen:
Kostenanschläge................. A4 AB C 4 229X324
Kurvenblätter........................ A3 A4 C 5 162X229
Landkarten........................... AO AI A2 A3 A4 AB A6
Mitteilung Halbbriet.............. AB
Normblatt (•. oin 820) . . . . A4
Notizblocks und Notizzettel A4 AB A6 A7
Paketadressen (xum Autkleban) AB A6
Patent* u. Musterzeichnungen A3 A4
Plakate .................................. AO AI A2 A3 A4 AB
Postkarte.............................. A6
P reislisten ........................... A4 AB A6 A7
Quittungen . ........................ AB A6
Rechnungen........................... A4 AB
Rundschreiben.................... A4 AB
Scheck (a.oiN670)................. A6
Scheckkontenverzeichnisse A4 AB
Schilder (8. OIN 836) . . . . AO AI A2 A3 A4 AB A6 A7 A8 A9 A10Ail A12
Tabellenblätter.................... A4 AB
Taschenbücher .................... AB A6 A7
Versandanzeigen und «zettel A4 AB A6
Vorschriften........................... A3 A4 AB A6
W erbsachen.................... AO AI A2 A3 A4 AB A6 A7 A8 A9 A10Ali A12A13
Zeichnungen («.oin 823) . . . AO Al A2 A3 A4 AB A6
Zeitschriften (t. oin S26) . . . A3 A4 AB A6
Leitungen.............................. Al A2 A3 A4 AB

Oktober 1923

105
CCONTINUATION of explanations to Norm DIN 476]

PADS, IN D EX CARDS, BOOKLETS

With t e a r- o f f pads and d u p lica te -b o o ks, the pages detached must be in
norm size, so the pad or d u p lic a te - b o o k will be taller or w id e r than the
norm.
Index cards w ith o u t tabs are in exact norm sizes CA4, A5, A6, A7). Index
cards with tabs are larger by the size of the tab.
Booklets, wallets, and files are naturally w id e r than the n o rm -fo rm a t sheets
to be inserted in them. Their sizes should as far as possible be chosen from
the four ranges.

FURTHER A IM S FOR NORM FORM ATS

Since for some special purposes no norm sizes are yet fixed, the ranges A
to D define limits for norms for [fo r example] sheets of paper, envelopes,
office furnitu re, type areas, printin g stock sizes, etc. The aim for these c ir ­
cumstances is to establish special norms later.

NORM FO RM ATS A B R O A D
DIN formats agree in general w ith standard formats in the fo llo w in g c o u n ­
tries: Switzerland. Austria. Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Holland, and Belgium.

D IN BO O K 1
For exact derivation and history of form ats and in fo rm atio n on pa per and
printin g technology, see D I N b o o k I. P apie rfo rm ate CBeuthverlag GmbH.
Berlin S14].

106
PRINCIPAL TYPOGRAPHIC CATEGORIES
THE T Y P O G R A P H IC S Y M B O L
A good symbol is usually, but not always, the expression of a unified design
for advertising and m anufacture. It must be origin al and simple in form,
have a very high degree of memorability, and be easily recognized and
noticeable. By no means every symbol has these characteristics, a pro of of
how d iffic u lt it is to design a really good symbol for a firm or a range of
goods. A brisk propaganda for this elementary method of ad vertis em ent
has resulted in a real flood of new symbol designs. So truly effective sym ­
bols are now do ubly rare.
Symbols are mostly desig ned and drawn today by graphic artists. These
drawn designs have no tech nic a l restric tio ns except that as a rule they
must be in black and white, w ith o u t halftones.
A symbol need not be only drawn. It is also possible to design symbols,
sometimes even more effectively, by using ty pography. The advantage of
such "typo -sym bo ls " are: no block costs, the facility for red uctio n and
enlargement, and the streng th in herent in all thin gs whose appearance
comes from a technical m anufacturing process. The means available to the
printer for designin g symbols are the t y p o g ra p h ic con tents of the

KURT SCHWITTERS: S ym bol fo r the w o rd Pelikan

109
HI
JO H A N N ES M O LZAH N :
Typ e -s ym b o l fo r th e W ilh elm H eunert
Soest Iro nw o rk s

IH
co m p o s in g -ro o m : rules, straig ht and curved, geom etrical shapes, letters
and - not least - im agination. W ith o u t that, even the latest materials and
types are of no use.
A symbol eith er brings letters to g e th e r to make a new form, or illustrates
the product, or does both. The effect of the Pelikan symbol depends on the
use of the simplest typ e -fo rm s in strong con tra st and movement. The
"H eun ert" symbol is a representatio n of the f ir m ’s products, made out of
the initials of the f ir m ’s name. With the initial of the forename Piet and the
black square C“ Z w art" is the Dutch w ord for the German "S ch w arz.” black)
an unforge tta ble device is made. Herbert Bayer’s design for a g lass-p ain te r

HERBERT BAYER:
S ym bol fo r a glass-painter/artist

110
represents, like the Heunert symbol, the c lie n t ’s profession with an a b ­
straction of a w in d o w frame.
Altho ug h it w o uld be go od to see printers turning more and more to the
design of symbols, a w a rnin g must be given ag ainst the use of type alone
Ci.e. m onogram s) for this purpose. A symbol is som eth in g com p le te ly d i f ­
ferent and of higher im portan ce than a monogram, and a faulty symbol is
far worse than none at all. Printers today are often tem pte d to use a type
monogram in place of some previous ornament. But in advertising, only a
true symbol is suitable; m onogram s today do not make sense. A mon ogram
as the symbol of a p r o d u c t is always worse than a pro p e r symbol. And a
bad symbol can be disastrous to a product. For this reason it is be tte r not
to sub stitute a m onogram for a symbol, when there is not enough time to
design a symbol, but to use simply type.
In any case the design of a type symbol gives the printer the o p p o rtu n ity of
a fascinating and welc om e job, and the d iffic u ltie s of making a go od sym ­
bol should only be a stim ulus to the ir overcoming.

PIET ZWART: Personal m ark (ty p e -s y m b o l)

111
THE B U S IN E S S LETTER H EA D *
A letterhead is one of the most im p ortan t tasks for the jo b b in g p rinter and
deserves the most careful attention.
Even today most letterh eads are pro du ced in the most varied styles and
sizes. A colle ctio n of c on tem po rary business le tterheads w o uld show most
of them in the old quarto format, some in m isce llane ous "priv ate" sizes, and
a small m in ority in DIN formats. The variation in sizes of the old letterheads
was because no recognized standard sizes existed.
The le tter is not only the most im p ortan t in stru m en t of business c o m m u n i­
cation. M ore than this, it often contains price offers, contracts, and a g re e ­
ments which can make critical its retrieval from the file in w hic h it is placed
after arrival. Thus the le tte r becomes part of a m ultiplicity, i.e. of a c o r r e ­
spondence. W ith o u t order, such a m ultiplicity be comes unmanageable. The
old quarto and the various oth er unique formats, among w h ic h the old folio
form at was an attem p t at standardizatio n, were — because of all th e ir d i f ­
ferent dim ensions - d ifficu lt if not impossible to file and the re fore find.
So the first req uire m en t for the exp ed ie n t de sign of business le tterheads
was the laying down of a single format. This was achieved by the Standards
Com m ittee in the 476 Standard. For business le tte rh ea ds the most suitable
form at is A4 C210 x 297 mm), a practical and ple asant size. The au thorities
have used it for many years for govern m ent docum ents, instead of the old
folio sizes, and businesses are now using it more and more. Even private
in dividuals are now go ing over to it. A4 is a bit de ep er than the old quarto
size and is the same w id th as folio. It fits com fo rta b ly into the old filing
systems.
A letterhead desig ned in the New Typography (in old quarto form at) by
Theo van Doesburg is shown here as an example of a standard but o t h e r ­
wise c o n tem po rary heading. At the time it was made, the standard DIN
sizes were not yet reco gnized, and France, where this letterh ead was o r i g ­
inated, has not yet jo in ed with the oth er European countrie s that have
in tro du ced it.
The old formats will presumably remain in use for some time to come, so
ou r example can be ju stified.

• In Ihe following se ctio n s of this chap ter we are grateful to the German Stand ards Committee
(D IN ) for perm ission to reproduce the illustrations. The latest edition of the DIN forms should be
consulted and is obtainable from Beuthverlag . Berlin S14. D resden er S trasse 97.
The booklet F o r m a te u n d V o rd r u c k e is also available from this p ublisher, providing a useful e xte n ­
sion of the present w ork (p rice 1 .20 ). It is frankly of aston ish in gly low typographic quality and
the exam ples shown should not be used as m odels. But the u se fu ln e ss of both p ublications is not
in question.

112
 CO

A D M IN IS T R A T IE E N R E O A C T IE : K L IM O P S T R A A T 18. D E N H A A G (H O L L A N D)
V E R T E G E N W O O R D IC IN G TE R O M E. P A R IJ S. M I L A A N. A N T W E R P E N.W E I M A R

■0
c
(Q

O
K
3
OQ
lA
UJ
O
o
z
<
>
But the A4 form at [210x297 mm) should be used in all new work. It has the
advantage of being the same size as nearly all new business lite rature,
periodicals, etc., with whic h it will be sent out. It can hardly be t h o u g h t
that the old formats are in any way bette r or more attractive than the new.
When A4 is found to be too large for private use [w h ich is however hard to
ju stify). A5 [148x210 mm) can be used u p rig h t or horizontal.

C o m p o n e n t p a r ts o f DIN le t t e r h e a d s
Besides the format, there are also standards for the placing of the c o m p o ­
nent parts of business lette rheads, e.g. the size of the space for the f ir m ’s
name, and so on.
The au thority for all these standards is DIN sheet 676: we show examples
on the fo llow ing pages.
Standards exist for:
1. The po sition of the address, on the left, because once the le tte r has
reached the addressee, it has served its purpose and can the refore b e ’
placed in a relatively un im p ortant position close to the margin.
2. Position for rece ip t- and trea tm e n t-m a rks [re c e ip t stamp etc.), on the
same level, on the right. This space is more im p ortan t than the address,
and must be easy to find and read.
3. Sequence and po sition for the fo u r main pieces of in fo rm atio n: you r ref.,
you r letter of. ou r ref., date. The ad vantage of the standard over the p r e ­
vious methods is tha t these can all be type d in one line [be neath the
headin gs). Earlier, such in form ation was usually set in a column, r e q u ir ­
ing endless readjustm ents of the typ e w rite r. The standard avoids this
nicely, in tha t neither the heig ht of the line nor the be ginning of the
tre a tm e n t-m a rks is in the way of careful entries. The form also ensures
tha t these items are not overlooked.
4. Sequence and position of the f ir m ’s particulars: s e n d e r ’s address, t e le ­
gra ph ic address, tele phone, business hours, etc. It is a main failing in
most of the old " a r tis tic ” le tterh eads tha t the vis ibility and cla rity of
these details was sacrificed to the “ a r t is t ic ” effect. In many of the old
le tterheads these particulars occu pied several long lines: the in dividual
groups were not clearly distinguis hed from each other; when lo oking for
a pa rticular item one had to read throu gh the whole lot. In standardized
headings these items are clearly arranged in specifie d positions. The
standardizatio n of the sequence is another advantage.
5. Side margin of at least 20 mm. In older le tterh eads this margin was often
ignored. This con tin u ed not to be no ticed because in those days letters

114
 G e s c h ä fts b rie f D IN
F o rm a t A 4 ( 2 1 0 X 2 9 7 ) 676
K ------- 6 2 - y|
r
Ablegewort ’)
Hefirjnd
I------2 0 ~ >■
Firm a
KleiBtlmaß
Erzeugnisse Abbildungen usw

r das Absenders Postanschrift *"1 Drahtwort Fernruf Gaschäftzett Banken

____________I _____________________
Ihre Nachricht vom Unsere Zeiclion

l'illm irke }

-e -.
Leitsätze fä r den Briefvordruck

1 Die Linien deuten lediglich die Abgrenzung der einzelnen Felder » n ; a u f dem
Geschäftsbrief selbst sollen nur der Heftrand (möglichst auch a u f der Rücb^
Seite, dort rechts), Schluß-, Falt- und Lochmarken sowie das Anschriftfeld
durch feine Linien, Echzeichen, Punkte usw kenntlich gemacht werden.

2 Unbedingt einzuhalten sind

ein Heftrand von mindestens 20 mm
Lage und Abmessungen der Felder fü r Anschrift des Empfängers, fü r
Eingangvermerke und fü r des Absenders Postanschrift
die Reihenfolge der Post- und Geschäftangaben (Fernruf, Banken)
die Reihenfolge der Zeichen- und Tagangaben.

3 Nur die unterstrichenen Inschriften sollen wörtlich oder sinngemäß abgedruckt

werden. Die anderen Inschriften haben lediglich erläuternden Zweck.

4 In der Zeile fü r Post- und Geschäftangaben (Fernruf, Banken) können einzelne

Angaben weggelassen oder neue zugefügt werden.

5 Es ist empfehlenswert, die Leiiworte fü r Zeichen- und Tagangaben so zu

setzen, daß die zugehörigen Eintragungen nicht daneben, sondern d a r u n te r
erfolgen, um wiederholtes genaues Einstellen der Schreibmaschine zu ver­
Schlut». _ meiden. Aus demselben Grunde sollte die Jahreszahl bei der Tagangabe nicht
vorgedruckt werden. Unter „Ihre Zeichen" und „Unsere Zeichen" sind Aktcn-
und Ansage- (Diktier) Zeichen zusammenzufassen.

6 (siehe Fortsetzungsblatt)

Dinformat A 4 (210x297) Cicichaftibriefvordnict nich DIN 676

1) Zweckmäßig wird der Schriftwechsel nach den Einheits-ABC-Regeln abgelegt.

Lochabstand 8 0 mm (nach Beschluß der Briefordnerkonvention).
Geschäftsbriefe, Halbbriefe Format A 5 siehe DIN 6 7 7 .
Briefhüllen siehe DIN 6 7 8 . Fensterbriefhüllen siehe DIN 6 8 0

Ausschuß für wirtschaftliche Verwaltung (AV\'V)

Mai 1924 Fachausschuß für Bürowesen Fortsetzung Seite 2

115
 Seite 2

G e s c h ä fts b rie f
F o rm a t A 4 ( 2 1 0 X 2 9 7 )

Fortsetzungsblatt
(zweites Blatt und weitere Blätter)

lag
Heftnad
<---- 2 0 -----> Firm a
KleiaitauO

6 Ist der Absendeort vom Sitz der Firma verschieden, so kann statt des oor~
gedruckten Wortes „Tag" der Absendeort vorgedruckt werden.

7 Der Betreff und Angaben über die Art der Mitteilung (zB Auftragbestitigung)
sind links oberhalb des Textes zu schreiben. Anlagen, Verteilvermerke, sowie
Angaben über die Art der Versendung (zB „einschreiben") sind links unter
dem Text anzugeben. — Die Unterschrift ist rechts unter den Text zu setzen.

8 Die Lochung erfolgt zweckmäßig im voraus, Die Lochmarhe wird dadurch

überflüssig.

9 A u f dem Heftrand können Druckvermerke (Auflagehöhe, Auflagetag), Blatte

gewicht, Felder fü r Gegenzeichnung usw aufgenommen werden.

JO F a llm a r k e n Die Faltmarken sind nur zu drucken, wenn der B rief in Fenster-
hülle verschickt werden soll.

J1 F o r t s e t z u n g s b l a tt Unbedingt einzuhalten ist die R e i h e n fo lg e der A n­

gaben a uf dem Fortsetzungsblatt und zw ar auch dann, wenn fü r die Fort­
setzungsblätter Papier ohne jeden Aufdruck verwendet wird. Bei Anfertigung
eines Vordrucks können die Angaben „Firma", „Betreff** und „Empfänger**
' weggelassen oder neue Angaben zugefügt werden.

12 Dem Werbfachmann und dem Künstler sind alle Freiheiten eingeräumt, die
den Sätzen 2 und 11 nicht widersprechen.

Dtofemm A4 (210x»7) Cwcliaftihriefratdnick njch DIN <76

116
5. Side margin of at least 20 mm. In older le tterh eads this margin was often
ignored. This con tin u ed not to be noticed because in those days letters
did not need to be so systematically organ ized as they are today.
A standardized le tterhead, before it is written , often gives the impression
that not enough room has been left for the le tter itself. This is a deception,
caused by the line of "your ref" etc. People forget that the address of the
addressee goes above: the remaining space for the actual le tter is larger
than in many old lette rheads.

T y p o g ra p h ic d e s ig n o f s t a n d a r d le t t e r h e a d s
Printers must now find a t y p o g r a p h ic form that fits the standards for le tte r-
headings and looks well.
The necessary left-hand margin by itself points to an asymmetric de sign. It
is really ag ainst sense, in ord er to achieve symmetry, to rep ea t the margin
on the right purely for decorative reasons. Why should the details of a le t ­
terhead be made hard to read? If the tw o pu nch -h o le s for filing are
included, symmetry is in any case impossible Cassuming that apart from a
few snobs nobody write s a le tter itself symmetrically. In general, the t y p o g ­
raphy of the old le tterh eads too k no notice of the fact that the le tte r as
received wo uld be written , signed, and folded . Only when it is a com ple te d
whole can it look be au tifu l!].
The margin should not be marked by a fine rule or anythin g else, but should
be left white. The lines of type begin on its le ft-ha nd edge, and aligned
exactly below them the typin g starts. In this way the typed le tter has a
pleasant and prom in ent w h ite strip e [p rovide d that the w ritin g contin ues to
the edge of the paper on the right, and does not stop 2 or 3 centim etres
from it, which is quite unnecessary].
The pu nch -holes can be made in advance, if desired, as the Standard r e c ­
ommends. and it is even possible tha t the holes, as a conscio us part of the
design, can enrich the general effect. I find it de sirable so to position the
le ft-hand edge of the type matter that the holes are exactly in the middle of
the w hite margin. That usually makes a margin of 25 mm necessary.
The space for the firm's name etc. should preferably be filled as com ple te ly
as possible, the white spaces between the lines having the same w e ig h t as
the black lines of type. The print not only can but should extend to the
rig ht-ha nd edge of the paper, leaving only one pica of space there. Only in
this way will the left-hand margin have its full effect. There is also basically
no reason for beginning the design more than one pica down from the top

117
of the page, but it depends on the shape of the main heading and the g e n ­
eral design w h e th e r it is desirable to start so close to the top.
Because the le tter will finally be fold ed Casymmetrically, for standard w i n ­
dow envelopes) it is necessary, to achieve a go od total effect, to relate the
typ e -s e ttin g to the po sition of the folds, i.e. to avoid lines of type in the
heading being on the fold -lines, and other vertical divisions Csee the le tt e r ­
head “A r b e its g e m e in s c h a ft" on p. 120). For letters that are to be put in
w in d o w envelopes this is vital: for letters sent in ordin ary envelopes it is
not vital, but the central fo ld -lin e must be ob serve d. This fold -lin e is also
im p ortan t when we come to the f ir m ’s pa rticulars. It w o u ld be w ro ng , and
ag ainst the w h ole princip le of standardizatio n, to set these details in long
lines, as they used to be in the old letterheads. They should be placed in
groups and in columns, rather than in con tin u ou s lines.
It neither looks well nor is it clear to centre the lines in the individual
groups. In an asym m etric design it wo uld be a c o n tra d ic tio n of style. The
best solution for columns is to align them left, ragged right. These groups
will usually go in tw o lines: the title ( "s e n d e r ’s address," "teleg ra ph ic
address," etc.) comes above, the in form ation in the second line belo w (see
the “ G e b ühre n-R e chn un g" heading by Molzahn, p. 126). The groups can be
separated by fine vertical rules if this seems necessary, but about 1 pica
space between them should make fu rth e r separation unnecessary. For
example:

The main division is shown in the centre of the page by a p ica-w ide wh ite
space that begins either to the left or to the rig ht (b e tte r rig ht) of the c e n ­
tre (see the le tterh eads “A r b e its g e m e in s c h a ft” and “ das bauhaus in
de ssa u ”). The central divid ing line should never be allowed to come in the
middle of the w h ite pica-space.
To show a solutio n for more com plicated groups of this kind, we give here
a design for the letterhead of the Deutsche Werke with the groups in a b e t ­
ter and cle arer form.

Postanschrift: Drahtwort : Deweka Telefon: Banken: Postscheckkonto:

Kiel. Schließfach 152/162 [ABC-Code 5th Ed.) 6300-14 Kiel: Reichsbank Hamburg 36175
Ingenieur-CodeGallane Vereinsbank
Commerz - u.Privatbk.
Berlin: Reichs-Kredit-Ges. AG

A fu rth e r problem is how to define the po sition of the w in d o w space for the
address. The four corners of the space can be shown by angles F or points

118
• unless it is desired not to use these means and in dicate its position less
directly. The la tter is preferable. It is possible, if for example the line c o n ­
taining the s e n d e r ’s address can be con tin u ed to the page centre (whic h
can often be done by abbrevia tio n or ju d icio u s expansion - but also the
next groups, telegraph address, tele phone, etc., may be moved to the left
half of the page) and the group "your com m unic atio n of" can end at the
middle (see the "das bauhaus in dessau" and "A rb eitsg em einscha ft" h e a d ­
ings). The be ginning and end of the address line and the beginning of
"your ref" and end of "your com m u nic a tio n of" will then themselves define
the windo w .
The address of the recipie nt is best w ritte n thus:

An die Büchergilde Gutenberg

Dreibundstr. 5

Berlin SW 61

The tow n name must for clarity be emphasized by a rule. (Do not le tte r-
space; if need be use capitals, not le tterspaced, for emphasis!)
This method has the ad vantage tha t it is cle arer and easier to type than the
older method, in which for every line the carriage must be shifted to the
rig ht and cannot be bro u g h t back automatically. The be ginning of the typed
lines must align with the printed lines, to give an even and satis fa cto ry
appearance.
For the same reason it is not recommended to surround the address area with
a border, which would make perfect alignment of all the lines impossible.
It is generally the case - and especially w ith letterh eads — tha t printed
matter looks be tte r the less use is made of secondary matter such as rules,
points, and so on. A letterhead is already a com p lica ted typ o g ra p h ic jo b
whose clarity should not be hindered by trim m in gs.
With the name of the addressee, the con tents of the le tter begin, alignin g
with the invisible vertical established by the print above. A ty p e w ritte n le t ­
ter looks strong er when the typed lines are "solid." w ith o u t spacing b e ­
tween the lines.
The e n d - p o in t is best marked by a dot (see the "A rb eitsg em einscha ft"
heading) rather than by a rule, w hic h has no meaning and can be c o n f u s ­
ing above or belo w a word.

119
 G. HESTELMAYR.Geheimtal . . _ PrasidcM dcr Akademie der b;:dcndcn KOns:*; _
ArrhitPkl
KARLBERTSCH _______ ___ . . Direklor.der.DcuUchen-WerkslattcnAG----------

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Hf U Pp,rHMANN__ _______

des Bayerischen Kunstgewerbevereins und EfiANZ-MEUBNER___________

aiteLdejL-StädL-HoUbe4/beUungifach;d'A.;o
WIEQESANOERS-O^Sludiendii-
des Münchner Bundes

Fostanschfift: München Akader Fernsprecher 1 2 3 4 5 Postscheckkonto München 1243

Ihre Zeichen Ihre Nachricht >om Unser Zeichen

Betreff

JA N TSCHICHOLD: Design fo r a standard letterhead.

A legible arrangem ent for the many names and titles.
This design w as turned down by the firm and the heading opposite used Instead.

120
 A R B E I T S G E M E I N S C H A F T
BAYERISCHER KUNSTGEWERBEVEREIN UND MÜNCHNER BUND
EntirVotiiiicndtrGehfImr.tG BESTEI.MEYER, AreblirkuPriild.dtr Ak.dtinl»dtrbUd»nd KüniU/ZwdUrVonltiendcr KARLBERTSCH, Dir ä « DtuUchtn
W«VitiIltn/L*jidrietvTerbrr«lJOS LEIPFINGER/Dt PAC’LWENZ. Arch / Prof«ior EDUARD PFEIFFER. Arth./Refltrun«»b«ur»l FRITZ GABLONSKY.
Artblukl/O r Yon PECHMAN N. AbltUiuiciIclitr im Nationklrouirum/Obrrttuditiidirtkuir O. RUCKERT. Mdtr. Lclltr d.Sudo>ch. MftlerftcbicbuJt/FRIEDR.
HEL'BNER.M»ltr/G«ich»/»fubrindtr Virtf4utniio4nn Obtnludltndlrcklor WIEDER ANDERS. ArchJukl, LcUer dtr SUdÜ»cbtn Holtbeirbrllunt.ficbich.iJt
M Ü N C H E N / A K A D E M I E D E R B I L D E N D E N K Ü N S T E r T E L E P H O N 3 1 6 9 0

MÜNCHEN, den

A no nym ous:
Example of a non-standard and poorly designated b usin ess heading. No one could read com ­
fortably the matter below the red rule.
This design w as p rinted, although the design opposite w as offered to the firm!

121
The pu n ch -h o le mark is unnecessary
1. when the le tte r is po sted in an ordinary, not a w indo w , envelope. It will
then be fold ed once across and once do wn, and the middle poin t of the
pa per heig ht [th e pu n ch -h o le mark) does not need to be printed.
2. when the le tte r has been pu nch -h o le d in advance, w h ic h happens only
too rarely.
O th erwise they must be printed, best in the form of a sho rt o n e - p o in t- t h ic k
rule printed on the margin.
Fold-marks need to be printed only when w in d o w envelopes are to be
used. They are usually sho rt and fine dashes p rinted on the margin; but I
find it bette r to use s ix -p o in t fig ures 1, 2. 3. on the fold in g positions. As
these are set r ig h t at the edge of the type matter, u n pro te cte d, it is be tte r
to get them made in brass.
How little t h o u g h t- o u t is the "D eutsche W erke" heading, however t h o r ­
ou ghly co rre s p o n d in g to the standard, is pe rhaps w o rth con sid erin g here.
The formal idea is centred com position. But the le ft-ha nd margin has the
effect of making the central device look pushed over to the right, c o m ­
pletely destroyin g the inte nded sym metry of the whole. The groups to left
and rig ht of the device are not tru ly symmetrical, and the groups beneath
the unsig htly heavy rule, each of w hic h has been set centred, make a ha r­
mony for the wh ole absolutely impossible. To this is added the un needed
in dic atio n of the margin by a do tte d rule, the silly and totally superflu ous
tw o short rules beside "Kiel." the amateurish marking of the address-
w in d o w area, and the unsatis factory end-m ark. And w h y do the w o rds
"D in form a t A4 [210 x 297)" suddenly go across the margin?
Such a defectively desig ned letterh ead of course looks even w orse when
carrying a letter. It is very im p ortan t when desig nin g a letterhead to
remember tha t the recipie nt will see the le tter only when it has been w r i t ­
ten on. It is best to place the layout on a pro of w ith address to test the final
appearance.
In spite of all the restric tio ns placed on the d e s ig ner of a standardized le t­
terhead. it is indeed possible to pro du ce an artis tic ally faultless result.
Anyo ne who does not believe this will not be able to cope w ith any other
problems either. In any case, the letterheads re p rod uced here, and the
num berless co rre ctly standardized le tterh eads in my ty p o g ra p h y evening
classes and courses at the "M e is te rs c h u le für D eutschlands B u c h d ru c k e r.”
prove that despite all limitations, excellent and typ o g ra p h ica lly faultless
solutio ns are possible. And should not d iffic u ltie s be a spur? It is in any
case possible that the rules given here for the t y p o g ra p h ic design of s ta n ­
dard le tterh eads may sometimes be broken, in o rd er to achieve a harmo-

122
standardized b u t no t designed le tterh ead .
Too many suporfluous rules. An unhappy mixture of written and printed forms. The margin is obvi­
ously no longer seen to belong to the letterhead, because otherw ise one would certainly be forced
to abandon the beloved principle of symmetry. Even so. the attempt to follow the principle through
is only successfu l in parts: it proves here again that centred composition is uncontemporary.

123
 das bauhaus in dessau

d e s s a u m a u e r s tr a B e 3 6 • fe r n r u f 2 6 9 6 ciädt krcisspjrh dessau 2634 # Postscheck magdeburg 13701

Ihre nachricht vom untere Zeichen

T*r»ucn «intr varcinfaehltn tchr«)bw«i«*: I. ö in * ichrvibwclM wird von allen neuarern der arhrift al« unaarc rukunftachrift tntofohtan.
rarjt. das buch „sprach# und aehnfr' »ob dr. porstmann, vrrlaf d»s »#r#ina deuUehor incomeurr, barlin 1920. 2. durch klamachraibunf
»arliart unsars Schrift nichts, wird ab#r leichter lesbar, l•lcMcr lernbar, wesentlich wirtachsfilicher. 3. warum für einen laut, i. b. a iwei
Zeichen A und a ? ein laut orn zaichen. warum zwal allabata für aln wort, warum dia doppelte menfe Zeichen, wonn die htllte dasselbe erreicht T

HERBERT BAYER: Standardized letterhead. 1925.

124
nious design. This must be said, to co m fo rt the doub ts of those w ho are
w o rrie d by the new problems they may now be facing.
Invoices and ord er forms are treated also in DIN 676. Example: the invoice
form by Molzahn Con the next pa ge].
Because the DIN formats have proved themselves successful, more and
more firms are goin g over to them. M uch can be done by the p rintin g trade
to help spread the k no w le dg e of them: many firms, especially the smaller
ones, still kno w nothin g abou t them.
A standardized letterhead will ad m itte dly cost more than the ordin ary kind
because of the extra care and accuracy required. Their increased u se fu l­
ness will com pensate for that. U n prin ted stock, in standard sizes, can be
stored and used for later jobs, wh ic h will save money.

125
 F e r n r ^ C o m m e r z - u . P r iv a t - B a n k P o s t s c h e c k :
| n .40514 OEP.-KASSE HASSELBACHPU MAOOEB.1594B

M E H R M Ü S S E N Pj ? OD UKT > OH
ÜNi > HAN OE U A’J C H OSN A U r a A U D E n
P R 6 r» Ä O A N A M i T T E L N A C H D E N
C L E sCHEN CRUN-O SÄTZEN FORDERN
D 1f: f 0 R ü E R G S. S A M T E N ß E T R i E B S
V Ü R & A N C C E L T U N O i TABCN: W: T DE M
G £ R ! N 0 ? T E N AUPWANO cHEfTGE'
n S C H E R UNCi i f i Ä T E R s E L L E i i M i T t S L
G f t ö S S T i Vvi RH uNi TZU E Rs-fHCHtN
MAGDEBURG DEN

Q E B Ü H R E N i ^ J I * ' ’“

R E c H N U N Q R E I C H S M A R K .

I. OIE v e r e in b a r t e OE8ÜHR KsT 6El LIEFERUNG SOFORT ZAML8AR. • S. MlT BEZAHLUNG OER GE­
m- BÜHR GEHT OER ENTWURF MlT OEM RECHT DER VE^IELFÄLTlQUNO ZU OEM VEREINBARTEN ZWECK
UNO IM u m f a n g e d e r VEREINBARTEN AUFLAGE INT)EN BESITZ OES AUFTRAGGEBERS ÜBER. AN
o ni SPRÜCHE WEGEN VERLETZUNG OES URHEBERRECHTES BLEIBEN MIR VORBEHALTEN • 3. FÜR OIE
EINTRAGUNG UNO SCHUTZFÄHIQKEIT OER ENTWÜRFE ÜBERNEHME ICH NUR GEWÄHR NACH BE­
SONDERER VEREINBARUNG. • . 4 VOR HERSTELLUNG DER AUFLAGE SIND MiR PROBEDRUCKE ZUR
KORREKTUR VORZULEGEN • 8. VON OER AUFLAGE SIND MIR UNENTGELTLICH 10 GUTE BELEG
EXEMPLARE ZU LIEFERN. • 6 . DIE ENTWÜRFE GENIESSEN DEN SCHUTZ OES KUNSTSCHUTZGESETZES
VOM«. JANUAR 1907 UNO DÜRFEN EINSCHLIESSLICH DER URHEBERBEZEICHNUNG NICHT VERÄNDERT
UND WEDER GANZ NOCH TEILWEISE NACMQEAHMT WERDEN. • 7. SKIZZEN SIND HONORARPFLICHTlU
ONO BLEIBEN MIT a l l e n »ECHTEN MEIN EIGENTUM. IHRE NACHBILDUNG UND VERWERTUNG IST
02 NICHT STATTHAFT. • B, DIE ENTSCHÄOIQUNO FÜR DIE ERSTE SKIZZE BETRÄGT MINDESTENS > FÜR
mo JEDE WEITERE 'T OER ENTWURFSGEBÜHR. • B. DIE ENTSCHEIDUNG OEl VORSCHLÄGEN ZU WAREN
ZEICHEN IST MIT e WOCHEN BEFRISTET. NACH ABLAUF DIESER FRIST BEHALTE ICH MIR VOR, ÜBER
Z (A OIE RECHTE DARAN ANOERWEITIQ ZU VERFÜGEN * 1 0 . G E R IC H T S S T A N D IST M A G D E B U R G
OlM PTA

JO H AN N ES M O LZAH N : Invoice fo llo w in g DIN 676. G re y and black type on w h ite .

Th e large device is the designer's personal m ark.

126
THE H A LF LETTER H EA D
There is also a standard for the A5 form at [148x210 mm], for use bo th as
u p rig ht and horizontal. Standard 677 covers both, reduced re p ro d u ctio n s of
which are shown on the fo llo w in g pages.
Neither of these alte rnatives is really practical. A5 used vertic ally is similar
in general form to a letterh ead in standard A4. but is obvio usly smaller and
is there fore less easy to find in a file. In horizontal form it has only its w idth
in common with A4. but loses in lu cid ity because the f ir m ’s name and
details seem to be separated.
The space for w ritin g on both is rather small, but since they are in te nded
for shorte r messages tha t is not a fault.
A5 le tterheads are used chiefly for tw o reasons:
1. A short message on an A4 page leaves a large space w h ic h may be
th o u g h t unsightly. But a le tte r is first and forem ost a com m unic atio n,
and aesthetic ap pearances must be less im p ortan t than the purpose of
the docum ent. We said above th a t the purpose of a le tte r is not finished
when it has been received and read. It will be put aside and needed
again, and must therefore be looke d for. The more diffe re nt form ats and
sizes the more labour! One format, one standard!
2. To save paper. But even on longer runs there will be little saved: the
extra cost of paper is negligible. In sho rte r runs the cost of p rintin g the
other half of an A5 sheet will cost as much as an A4 sheet.
It is therefore always be tte r to use A4 rather than A5! As for the ty p o g r a ­
phy of A5 lette rheads, the rules laid down in the sections on A4 are ju s t as
binding. In both kinds of A5 a s tric t observance of the normal rules will
bring an excellent t y p o g ra p h ic result.

127
 G e s c h ä fts b rie fe DIN
H a lb b r ie fe F o r m a t A 5 (1 4 8 X 2 1 0 ) 677
Maße in mm
H a lb b r ie f h o c h Erläuterungen Seile 2

k A
Ableg ewort^)
1
1 Heflrand F irm a
Erzeugnisse, Abbildungen
1 < — 20— X
usw.
1 Kleinstmaß

Drahtwort Fernruf Geschäflzeit Banken

1 ^
1 1 des Absenders Postanschrift |
j ; 1 <------------ 4 3 ------------>
! Anschrift des ! Eingang- und
c Empfängers j Bearbeitung-
t
1 vermerke
1
,
i :r 1
1
j m Ih r e Z e ic h e n Ih r e N a c h r i c h t v o m U n s e r e Z e ic h e n Tag
o >i
B e tr e ff
A Lochmarke

m
o
j S c h lu ß - ___
mai'ke A

o
1
1
1
1 j
Dinformat A5 (148X210) Geschäftsbrlefvordruck nach DIN 677
Y Y Y
-1 4 8 - -^1
1) Nach den Einheits-ABC-Regeln.
Lochabsland 8 0 mm (nach Beschluß der Briefordnerkonvention).
Geschäftsbrief A 4 siehe DIN 6 7 6 . BriefhClIen siehe DIN 6 7 8 . Fensterbriefhüllen siehe DIN 6 8 0 .

Ausschuß für wirtschaftliche Verwaltung (AWV)

April 1927 Fachausschuß für Bürowesen Fortsetzung Seile 2

128
 Seite 2

G e s c h ä fts b rie fe DIN

H a lb b r ie fe F o r m a t A 5 ( 1 4 8 X 2 1 0 ) 677

Leitsätze und E rlä uteru nge n

1. Die Linien deuten iedigiich die Abgrenzung der einzeinen Feider an; auf dem
Halbbrief selbst sollen nur der Heftrand, die Schluß-, Falt- und Lochmarken
sowie das Anschriftfeld durch feine Linien, Eckzeichen, Punkte usw. kennt­
lich gemacht werden.
2. Unbedingt einzuhalten sind :
Heftrand von mindestens 2 0 mm Breite,
Lage und Abmessungen der Felder für Anschrift des Empfängers, Eingangs­
vermerke und des Absenders Postanschrift,
Reihenfolge der Post- und Geschäftangaben (Drahtwort, Fernruf u sw .; das
Wort Betreff kann in den Heftrand hineingerückt werden),
Reihenfolge der Zeichen- und Tagangaben.
3. Nur die unterstrichenen Angaben sollen wörtlich oder sinngemäß eingedruckt
werden, die andern Angaben des Normblattes dienen lediglich zur Erläuterung.
4. In der Zeile für Post- und Geschäftangaben (Drahtwort, Fernruf usw.) können
einzelne Angaben weggelassen oder neue zugefügt werden.
5. Es ist empfehlenswert, die Leitworte für Zeichen und Tagangaben so zu
setzen, daß die zugehörigen Eintragungen nicht daneben, sondern darunter
erfolgen können. Dadurch wird wiederholtes genaues Einstellen der Schreib­
maschine vermieden. Aus demselben Grunde soll die Jahreszahl bei Tag­
angaben nicht vorgedruckt werden. Unter „Ihre Zeichen" sind Akten- und
Ansage-(Diktier-)Zeichen zusammenzufassen.
6. Ist der Absendeort vom Sitz der Firm a verschieden, so kann statt des vorge­
druckten Wortes „Tag" der Absendeort und dahinter das Wort „am “ vor­
gedruckt werden.
7. Anlagen- sowie Verteilvermerke sind links unter dem Text, Angaben über die
Art der Versendung (z. B. Einschreiben, Rohrpost) sind im Anschriftfeld über
der Anschrift anzugeben.
8. Auf dem Heftrand können Druckvermerke (Auflagehöhe, Auflagetag), Blatt­
gewicht, Felder für Gegenzeichnung usw. aufgenommen werden.
9. Beim Halbbrief quer kann die Zeile der Zeichen- und Tagangaben bis an den
oberen Rand gerückt werden, wenn auf die Firmenangabe an dieser Stelle
verzichtet wird. Dadurch wird Schreibfläche gewonnen.

Fortsetzung Seite 3

129
Cd
o
- 2 1 0 ---------

- 6 2 -------
SL
?
iT 9- V
A A Faltmarne 1 Ablegewort ■j
rn F irm a 5‘
O^ z
3 Ih r e Z e ic h e n Ih r e N a c h r ic h t v o m U n s e r e Z e ic h e n Tag SL
3 « Heftrand
?
ä §
-<— 20— V.
Mindestmaß
ff
2^
o O
B e tr e ff
o O
m
00 C^D
(0 CD ^
H8
9- l Faltmärke 2 o O

iS
*■ S-
-O I-•»
Lochmarke
X
N
O

des Absenders Postanschrift

Anschrift des Empfängers Eingang- und Bearbeitungvermerke

Halbbrief quer 01
Drahtwort Fernruf Geschäftzeit Banken
Din677, Dinfor-: NJ
Y Y matA5,148x210: M
EN V ELO PE S W IT H O U T W IN D O W S
For the standard le tter size A4, the envelope size is DIN C6. Besides this
main size oth er sizes are in use, for various reasons, to be seen in Standard
678 [see re p rod uctio n s on the foll o w in g pages].
A c c o rd in g to the latest Post Office rules, the f ir m ’s address, and a d ve rtis­
ing matter, may be placed only on the le ft-hand third of the front, and on
the back, w h ere however a margin of not less than 272 cm must be left at
the top. It is recom m ended tha t about 3 cm be left free on the top margin
on the front, in whateve r size of envelope, to avoid the po stm ark o b lit e r a t ­
ing any of the print. Stamps [in c lu d in g fra n k in g ] and address should be
in corporated in the t y p o g ra p h ic de sign since tha t is how the addressee
receives it. It is there fore de sirable to stic k a stamp down on the layout.
Our re p rod uctio n s show tw o good examples of typo g ra p h ica lly desig ned
envelopes. The envelope by Piet Z w art conform s to German Post Office
rules except for the recom m ended but not ob lig atory 3 cm clear strip at the
top; it is a fine example of an envelope in 06 format. The envelope for
Gerasch, because the design extends over half the front, adm itte dly does
not conform to present Post Office rules, but is inclu ded here only as an
example of design in general.

PIET ZWART: Envelope w ith designer's device (redu ce d). Black and red on grey.
Form at C6 (114x162).

131
 DIN
Briefhüllenformate
678

Bezeichnung einer Briefhülle im Pormat C 6 (П 4 Х IC3I

Hülle C 6

Briefhüllenformat Einlagenformat
Einlagenbeispiele
Kurz­ Kurz­
zeichen mm zeichen mm
C7 8 1 x1 14 A7 74 X 105 Besuchskarten, Giück-
wunschkarten, Karteikar­
ten. Anschriftkarten

C6 1 14 x1 6 2 A6 105x148 Postkarten, gefaltete

Briefe und Akten, Bro­
schüren, Werbsachen,
Karteikarten
C5 1 6 2 x2 2 9 A5 148x210 Briefe, Akten, Broschüren,
Werbsachen, Karteikarten,
A4 210x297 Zeichnungen, Normblätter.
C4 2 2 9 x3 2 4 Aktien

V2C4 1 1 4 x3 2 4 V2 A4 105x297 lang gefaltete A 4-For-

mate
B6 1 2 5 x1 7 6 C6 114x162 A 6-Formate mit C 6-
Deckel, Briefhüllen C 6,
dicke A 6-Sendungen
B5 1 7 6 x2 5 0 C5 162x229 A 5-Formate mit C 5-
Deckel, C 5-Briefhüllen,
dicke A 5-Sendungen
B4 250x353 C4 229x324 Schriftstücke in C 4-
Mappen und -Akten­
deckeln
'/2 D B 4 1 3 6 x3 5 3 V2C4 114x324 lang gefaltete C 4-For-
mate

Bei der Bestellung sind Qualität, Farbe, Art und Ausführung anzugeben.
C 7 ist die kleinste bei der Post aufzuliefernde Briefhülle.
C 6 ersetzt Quart- und Foliobriefhüllen.
Papierformate — Anwendungen der A-Reihe - siehe DIN 198
Papierformate - Metrische Formatordnung - siehe DIN 476
Fensterbriefhüllen siehe DIN 680
Ausführung: Umschlag, Tasche oder Beutel

November 1924 Siehe auch Seite 2

132
 DIN
B riefhüllenform ate
6 7 8 Bl. 2

250^253

229у^32^

85 7 7 6 ^2 5 0

CS 762 < 2 2 9

86 125 <176

C6 11^ < 162

C7 ei <117t

133
JAN TSCHICHOLD: Envelope fo r ad ve rtis in g m atter. Red on w h ite . Reduced.

W IN D O W EN V ELO PE S
To avoid repeating the address on the envelope and to make pu tting a le t ­
ter into a w ro n g ly addressed envelope impossible, w in d o w envelopes are
used, whose sizes are laid down in Standard 680 Csee re p ro d u c tio n ).
The common envelopes w ith rounded w in d o w s should be replaced by w i n ­
dows with square corners.
If the standard le tter is fold ed in the simplest way - once across and once
longways - the c o rre spo nding w in d o w envelope must have a horizontal
w indo w . Since this is not yet agreed by the Post Office, the less convenie nt
trip le fold as shown in DIN 676 is necessary.
The postal address of the sender appears in the standard w indow, so it is not
absolutely necessary to print it on the envelope. But if the sender wishes to
make his envelopes recognizable, the fir m ’s address can of course be printed
outside. Example: Tapetenhaus Ruhl.

134
 EB
Fensterbriefhüllen
680
Maße in mm

Faltung des Geschäftsbriefes Faltung der Halbbriefe

Fensterbriefhüllg
Format A 4 DIN 676 Format A 5 DIN 677

Format C 6 (114x162)

— 163 —
Bereichnung:
Fensterbriefhülle C 6 DIN 680

Format 114x229
A n K h rift I §

UnKhrift

Bezeichnung:
FensterbriefhUlle 114x229 DIN 680

Format C 5 (162 x 229)

r 5 P
\2 0
E
L
■*— — 229 ---------—
Bezeichnung:
Fensterbriefhülle C 5 DIN i

Die Formate C 6 und C 5 sind DIN 476 entnommen, das Format 114 x 229 ist von diesen
abgeleitet
Die Ecken der Fenster können gerundet sei"..
Die Breite der Fensterumrahmung ist nicht festgelegt
Für einwandfreie postliche Erledigung ist beste Durchsichtigkeit des Fensters erforderlich.
Die Rückseite und das linke Drittel der Vorderseite dürfen für Firmen- und Werbeaufdruck
benutzt werden
Freimarken sind in die obere rechte Ecke zu kleben.
Ausführung: Umschlag oder Tasche
Bei Bestellung sind Güte, Farbe, Art und Ausführung anzugeben.
Umschlag
Papiergüten siehe DIN 827
Briefhülien ohne Fenster siehe DIN 678

Oktober 1926 Ausschuß für wirtschaftliche Verwaltung (AWV) □

135
Also on the w in d o w envelope, according to the latest rules of the Post
Office for business addresses and advertising, only the le ft-hand third of
the front may be used, and the back, where not less than 2'A« cm on the top
must be left clear. A b o u t 3 cm is recom m ended to be left clear along the
top on the front, on all sizes, to avoid a postm ark o b lite ratin g any type.
Stamps (in clu d in g fra n k in g ] should be in c o rp orated in the ty p o g ra p h ic
design, since the rece iver usually receives franked envelopes.

(Or O h l
3
<

HI
I"
UJ
0 .

¡2

HERBERT BAYER: Standard w in d o w en velope (redu ce d). W hite paper. P rintin g in

black and red. Form at C6, DIN 680.

THE P O STC A R D
A standard for postcards has been with dra w n, because the M in is try for
Posts raised an obje ction. A new standard is in preparation.
The standard for postcard sizes is DIN A6 (105x148 mm], the largest p e r ­
missible in Germany and also the standard w o rld size. Postcards in A6 can
there fore be sent to any country.

136
The Post Office prescrib es tha t the r ig h t half of the card be left free. The
left half is for the use of the sender. To print the w o rd “ p o stca rd " is
unnecessary.
Since no standard for the la yout of postcards is yet laid do wn, the design
is left almost com ple te ly to the individual. The fo llow ing pages show some
good t y p o g ra p h ic solutions for ordin ary postcards. In the design of a p o s t ­
card. as in letterheads, the w r itin g of the address and the stamp must be
integrated in the design (po stca rds are always received w ritte n ; only the
sender and prin te r see them w ith o u t w r itin g ) . It is be tte r to stic k a stamp
on the actual design. Stamps must not have a bo rde r (for example, a
tw e lv e -p o in t rule) round them, w hic h m ig ht make the postm ark illegible.
The most usual form of laying out the address:

Herrn
Fritz Meyer

Berlin-Charlottenburg 2
Goethestrasse 40

based on ha nd w ritin g, is unsig htly and unsuita ble for the type w riter.
The aligned way:

Herrn Fritz Meyer

Goethestr. 40

Berlin-Charlottenburg 2

is better; it is standard practice in the USA. Its clearer arrangem ent fits
typ o g ra p h ic design far better.
It is advisable to leave a margin of at least 20 mm round both fro n t and
back of the postcard. Like every oth er kind of statio nery it must be capable
of being read in a file w ith o u t having to take it out. In some of our exam ­
ples this recom m ended margin is left free. The up pe r 25 mm of the
(gum m ed) address side is be tte r left unprinted, as the postm ark may make
it unreadable. (The Postal authorities however guarantee tha t in the future
this will not happen, on postcards.) The design of some of the postcards
reproduced here has taken acco un t of that.
The use of bold rules to underline the main address in some of ou r exam ­
ples has not proved to be very functional. It sometim es requires a tim e-

137
wasting ad ju stm e nt of the type w riter. It is be tte r to underline the address
on the type w riter, as shown on the previous page.
Type matter should not be "killed" by the ty p e w ritin g - an othe r reason for
using sanserif, esp ecially in sem i-bold and bold weig hts.
On ordin ary postcards the w ritin g side should be so w r itte n and printed
that it can be read lengthways (with postcards w ith flaps th a t happens any­
way]. Lengthways is the natural way to read: postcards are not book pages.
A pro pe rly w r itte n postcard has the w ritin g as on a book page turne d s id e ­
ways.

FOR POSTCARDS W ITH FLAPS SEE PP. 144-147

138
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JAN TS C H IC H O LD : P o s tc a rd in s ta n d a rd fo r m a t. B la c k t y p e on w h it e p a p e r.
 O

EDITH KRA M ER
PLANEGG BEI M Ü N C H E N
H O FM A R C K S TR A S S E 39

Herrn Ernst Kellner

Milchinsel 4
Leipzig C 1

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JA N TSCHICHO LD: Postcard in standard fo rm a t. In th is exam ple, hole -p unch ed.
O rig in a l in black and red on y e llo w card.
ro

SÄCHSISCHE
SC H U L Z E IT U N G
POSTKARTE
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JO O ST SC H M ID T: P o s tc a rd in s ta n d a r d f o r m a t . B la c k t y p e on w h it e .
 w e r b e - b a u , B o c h u m , K re u zs tra O e IO

3
ff

w e rb e -b a u
M a x B u r c h a r t z / J . C a n is
W e r b e - B e r a tu n g
W e rb e -E n tw ü rfe
W e rb e -D ru c k s a c h e n
W e r b e - F ilm e
W e r b e -O r g a n is a t io n
B a u -B e r a tu n g
B a u -E n tw ü r fe
In n e n r ä u m e
H a u s g e rä t
F o r m g e s ta ltu n g v o n
In d u s t r ie - E r z e u g n is s e n

U
M A X BURCHARTZ and JO H A N N ES CANIS: Postcard in Standard fo rm a t
THE PO S TC A R D W IT H FLAP
offers great advantages in economy of time and effort, especially to firms
w ith extensive corre spo nde nce . The basic DIN A6 C l0 5 x l4 8 mm] gives the
lengthways form at 2 DIN A8 [52x148 mm] [see illu stra tio n ]. The address
can thus be type d on the same side as the message. The flap is fold ed ba ck
and stuck down. This allows the omission of the address on the c o r r e s p o n ­
dence side [w h ic h oth erwise, only because of the carbon copy, must be
in clu d e d ] and enlarges the space available for c o rre spo nde nce , w hic h has
at its head the four main headings and the "subject."

(0) Raum für die Adresse des Empfängers

Ih r e Z e ic h e n Ih r e N a c h r ic h t v o m U n s e r e Z e ic h e n Tag

B e tr e ff

Heftrand
-<— 20 —> Raum für die Korrespondenz (b)
Kleinstmaß

148 ->-1
Size of postcard w ith g u m m e d flap fo r address (in m m ).
Both parts can be typed in one sequence, and then part fa) is folded back and pasted down on
part (b).
Since so much of today's co rre s p o n d e n c e is on postcards, it becomes more
and more ne cessary to follow these general rules.
For the f ir m ’s details on the front of such postcards, the whole left half -
or the u p p e r /lo w e r left qu a rte r Cto be finally stuck d o w n ] of the address
area - can be used. It is exped ie n t to use the lo w er left q u arter fo r the
fir m ’s details. In this way Cprovided the p rintin g is in one co lo u r] only one
printing is require d for both sides of the card (see the L e c h n e r-N o rk a u e r
postcard on the follow ing tw o pages].
On such postcards, which for reasons of economy carry the s e n d e r’s
details belo w left, it is not always easy to make the necessary d istinctio n of
the ad dre ssee’s address quite clear. A simple vertical rule, running only to
the middle, usually looks ugly. The best solution is to put a rule round one
of the halves, as on the L e c h n e r-N o rk a u e r card. This shows the most p ra c ­
tical kind of modern postcard.

145
01

PRO FESSO R THEO LEC H N ER

F R IT Z N O R K A U E R
A R C H IT E K T E N B .D .A .

M ÜN CHEN B R IE N N E R S T R A S S E 55
F E R N S P R E C H E R 26128
BANKKONTO: BA Y ER . V ER EIN S B A N K M ÜNCHEN

JAN TS C H IC H O LD : F r o n t o f p o s tc a r d w it h g u m m e d f la p f o r a d d r e s s . B la ck t y p e o n w h it e .
 IHRE ZEICHEN IHRE NACHRICHT VOM UNSERE ZEICHEN TAG

BETRIFFT

51 Reverse side of above postcard

THE B U S IN E S S C A R D
The business card form at is A7 [74x105 mm]. If business cards were not as
form erly in com p le te ly random sizes, but in this uniform and suitable size,
with a c a tch w o rd heading for filing [see schem e], then the arrangem ent of
an address file — in either alphabetic, subject, or ge og raph ic a l order —
w o uld be made possible, and unlike the present lack of system could eas­
ily be kept in p e rfe ct order, w ith additions or dele tions as needed.
A norm for business cards does not yet exist. It is recom m ended that
besides being made in the uniform size already mentioned, all cards should
have he adings as in this example:

N a m e (,V o r n a m e ) B eru f O r!
o d e r E r z e u g n is

-105 ■ -> i

Size (in m m ) and plan fo r the headings of a business card.

The space beneath the rule is for rem aining inform ation: the full name of firm, town (and street)
teleg raphic ad dress, telephone, b usin ess hours, bank, list of products, tradem arks, agents, etc.

Good solutio ns of every kind, even in the o ld -fash ion ed centre d t y p o g r a ­

phy. must use the specified form at and headings. The business card
“ w e rb e -b a u " shows tha t the require d form at and headings need not spoil
the c a r d ’s effectiveness.

148
 w e rb O *b a u W e r b e * B e r a tu n g B o c h u m , K r e u z s t r . 10
B a u -B e r a tu n g Ruf 3 5 0 3

w e rb e -b a u
M a x B u r c h a r t z / J . C a n is
E s b e s u c h t S ie H e r r C a n is
W e r b e -B e r a tu n g
W e r b e -E n tw ü r f e
W e rb e -D ru c k s a c h e n
W e r b e - F ilm e
W e r b e -O r g a n is a t io n
B a u -B e r a tu n g
B a u -E n tw ü r fe
In n e n r ä u m e
H a u s g e rä t
F o rm g e s ta ltu n g v o n
In d u s tr ie e r z e u g n is s e n

Bitte w e n d e n !

B l!
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e n tw ir ft w e rb e -b a u
Q .S n

M AX BURCHARTZ and JO H A N N ES CANIS:

Front and back of a filin g -a d a p te d business (address) card. A ctual size. Form at A7
(74x105). Black ty p e on w h ite card.

149
In view of the present chaos in bu sin ess-card design — even worse than
that in p re -sta nd ardized business le tterh eads - the recom m endatio ns
made here are most urgently required. Even if the system of headings is not
followed, at least the A7 form at should be adhered to.

THE V IS IT IN G -C A R D
A private v is itin g -c a rd naturally does not carry headings. M o s t im portant;
the prime requisite for a satis facto ry result is to keep the printed in fo rm a­
tion dow n to the barest essentials. Since for various reasons it is most
desirable tha t the dim ensions of business and private cards should be the
same, the form at DIN A7 C74xl05 mm) must be used. The form er d is tin c ­
tions be tw een “ la die s’ cards" and " g e n tle m e n ’s c a rd s ” and countle ss simi^
lar nuances must be forg o tte n : they have now be come stupid and in a d d i­
tion unpractical. Example:

V isiting-card in standard fo rm a t (D IN A7, 74x105). Black ty p e on w h ite . Actual size.

150
A D V E R T IS IN G M A T T E R
SLIPS CARDS LEAFLETS PROSPECTUSES CA TA LO GU ES
It is d iffic u lt to lay down standards for the design of advertising matter
since this appears to c o n tra d ic t the whole essence of the business.
Advertis in g depends on variety, depa rtu re from rules, and surprise. It
would be w ro ng to insist on whole sale restric tio ns in its design.

F o rm a t
The belief tha t form does not have the same im portance in advertising as
the text, the typography, photography, and colour, is not valid. Everyone
who sends advertising matter out into the w o rld hopes th a t it will not be
throw n carelessly away, but read carefully and. where possible, kept for
reference. It will not often lead to a d ire ct sale: but if the subje ct m atter is
of interest, the recipie nt will rem em ber it and when o p p o r tu n ity offers will
come back to it. Advertis em ents, leaflets, and catalogues accum ulate and
begin to acquire a sig nific ance whose purpose is lost if they can no t easily
be stored and a pa rticular item cannot be found when it is wanted. And the
effort to make advertising m atter con spicuou s by means of its form at is
wasted if everything is the same size. W o uld-b e attractiv e smaller formats
disappear beneath larger ones, and giant form ats are a nuisance to those
who must store them. In addition, formats all of d iffe re nt sizes will eve ntu­
ally become torn or otherwise damaged. Sadly today, out of any 100 ad ver­
tising items collected in exhib itio ns or elsewhere. 95 will be in diffe re nt
shapes and sizes. It w ould be a great advantage if standardiz atio n in these
areas could be consistently followed. It w o u ld mean less w o r k for those
who receive advertising matter, and for the m anufacturers it w o uld be a
recommendation and probably profitable.
The in tro d u ctio n of standard formats in advertising will bring with it all the
other advantages of standardiz atio n: greater economy, real organization of
print pro du ction, etc. In addition, advertising items wo uld fit into filing sys­
tems with most business corre spo nde nce , standard form at periodicals,
etc., and this too offers many advantages. Basically, the sizes of A -ran ge
are all that is needed. The main form at here is A4 C210x297 mm] and A5
(148x210 mm].
The artistic possibilities of standard formats, whic h give good page p r o p o r ­
tions, are unlimited. This is shown by the numerous re p rod uctio n s in this
book of matter printed in standard formats. It is usually a sign of in c o m p e ­
tence when a non-stan da rd form at is insisted on “ for a rtis tic reasons."

151
 DIE MÄRCHEN VOM PARADIES sind

DIE MÄRCHEN des 20. Jahrhunderts

URTEILE DER PRESSE:
Für das Märchen bringt Schwitters viel mit. Seine
Märchen sind immer dessen eingedenk, daß Mär­
chen des 20. Jahrhunderts anders sein müssen
als die früherer Zeiten, nicht romantisch-poetisch,
sondern in gewissem Sinne konstruktiv. MAN
TRAUT IHREM SCHÖPFER DAS ZEUG ZU, DAS
MÄRCHEN MODERNEN STILS ZU SCHREIBEN.“
Hannov. Kurier, 25.11. 2 4 .

A P O S S V E R L A G , HANNOVE R

KURT SCHWITTERS:
Advertising slip (actual size). Black type on blue paper.

D e sig n
The gra ph ic design of all advertising depends to a high degree on the
quality of the text. The w ritin g of text should always be entrusted to an
expert; advertising today has become a science, w hic h it is dangerous for
laymen to enter. A de fective text can en da ng er the effectiveness of the
whole.
As regards the type, an effective and original t y p o g ra p h ic form must be
found. The advertising card for the Kubin Exhibition by W alter Dexel
shows the pow e rfu l effect whic h can be obtain ed from type alone. All sec­
ondary m atter [rules etc.] has been excluded. It is in fact often necessary
to use such secondary m atter to obtain a good result, but it must always
belong to the w hole design and not be in tro d u ce d like old orn am entatio n.
Bold borders, rules, points, etc. must be fun ctiona l. The decorations
whic h are typical of old typ o g ra p h y are always w rong. Rules used in the
New Typography are necessary when they provide con tra st and em p ha­
size visual effect.
In the advertising slip by Kurt Schwitters, the vertical black strip is most
necessary because it provides such a strong con tra st to the ho rizontal
lines of type. In this design of c on tra stin g directio ns, the differe nce

152
 KUNSTVEREIN JENA
P R IN ZE S S IN N E N SCHLÖSSCHEN
3. B IS 31. M AI 1925

ALFRED KUBIN
AQUARELLE
ZEICHNUNGEN
LITHOGRAPHIEN

M IT T W O C H S U N D S O N N A B E N D S 3 —5 S O N N T A G S 11—1
A U SSER DER Z E IT FÜHRUNG DURCH DEN H AUSM EISTER

eil
u
WALTER DEXEL: A d v e rtis in g card in standard fo rm a t A6. Black ty p e on blue card.
Vierle und erste Seite
FAG US
SCHAFTMODELLE
 7
F A a U S -S C H A r T M O D E L L E
w e rd s n von o rs tk la o s lc o n . d u rc h a u s or>
fa h re n e n F a c h lo u te n n ac h L a is ia n k o p ia n
W IE BESTELLT MAN
« n tw o rfa n . E in N ic h tp a s s a n is t ausco> F A G U S -S C H A F T M O D E L L E
schlOBsan.
P A Q U S -S C H A P T M O D E L L E
b arO c k s Ic h tIc a n r a ff in la r t a lla M A g tic h -
k a lta n d a r L ad a rars p arn im .
O o
P A G U S -S C H A F T M O D E L L E G a b en S ie m ir d io M o d e lln u m m e r d er g e-
sin d g a s c h m a c k k o ll In L in ia n fO h ru n g und w O n s ch ten L e ls ta n fo rm an .
E in ta ilu n g . S la w a rd a n d a r L a is ta n fo rm W a n n d ie L e is te n n ic h t von m ir M lle ie r t
g a ra c h t. s in d , so sen d en S ie m ir ein e n R E C H T E N
L e is te n d er g ew O n sc h te n L A nge. W ü n ­
P A G U S -S C H A F T M O D E L L E sc h en S ie g a n z e S ä tz e S c h a b lo n e n , so
sin d a u f d a r H A h a d a r Z a iL se n d en S ie m ir 3 R E C H T E L e is te n , und
Ic h b ak o m m a A n re g u n g e n a u s a lla n T e ile n z w a r ein en d e r k le in s te n , ein en d e r g rö A -
d a r W e it un d v e rw e rte s la im In ta ra s s a ten und e in e n d er m ittle re n G iö R e .
m e in e r K u n d s c h a ft.

G e b en S ie m ir Ih r e W ü n s c h e a n bezU
e o3a lie h :
■02
f »0ü a3 a S c h n itt a r l
b S c h a fth A h o
FA O U S -S C H A F TM O D E LLE sind In
Jeder Beziehung richtig; ob Sie feine c k u rz e n o d e r g e w ö h n lic h e n B la tte s
d A u s fü h ru n g m it o d er o h n e B u g .
Modastiefel anfertigen oder derbe
Arbeiterschuhe oder Par.toffel, in
Jedem Falle bekommen Sie die rich­
tigen Schaftmodelle beim
o o •“ c® o « ®
I 3® o «
F e rn e r b itte Ich. u m M it te ilu n g
a m it w e lc h e r U b e rh o lm a s c h in e S ie a r ­

FAGUS-W ERK I ^c ® b eite n

b w e lc h e L ed e rs o rte n S ie v e rw e n d e n ,
—
fll — ^o le ic h t, m itte l o d er s c h w e r
KARL BENS C H E IO T c ob S ie A b s ä tz e v e rw e n d e n , d ie d er
A L F E L D -L C I N E (P R O V .H A N N O V E R )
L e is te n s p re n g u n g n ic h t e n ts p re c h e n .

Zweite und dritte Seite

HERBERT BAYER: Four-page ad ve rtising leaflet. Black and red on w h ite . DIN A5,
h o rizo n ta l. H ole-punched in advance.
between the free forms of the type and the com pact area of black provides
the effect.
The Fagus leaflet by Herbe rt Bayer shows the po werfu l effect of pica-rules
in colour. By themselves of course they do not guarantee the result, but
they are used conscio usly as a means to increase the optical intensity. The
large w hite space on page 2 with the small Fagus trade mark is made
noticeable by the red rig ht-an gle . The arrow on the same page is used lo g ­
ically as well as harm oniously to contrast with the grey of the type; and the
large query sign on page 3. besides by its nature in dic atin g something
im portant, makes a strong and pure visual co n trib u tio n . And the red circle
on page 2 is not decorative but functiona l: it calls atten tion to the firm's
details. To make filing easier the leaflet has been h o le -p u n ch e d : the holes
are in corp orated in the t y p o g ra p h ic design.
The pro spe ctu s by M o h o ly -N a g y (o p p o s ite ] is a n othe r th o u g h tfu l design
w ith great visual impact.
Besides typ o g ra p h ica l con trasts, functional use of co lo u r can increase o p t i­
cal intensity. Contrast between black and w h ite is one of the stro n g e st and
sim plest ways to achieve an effective result. Further effect can be obtained
by the use of colou red papers or card, p rinted in black or oth er colours.
Further e n ric h m e nt can be got from the use of a second as well as a single
colou r on wh ite or coloured paper.
The place of colou r in the New Typography has been dealt w ith in the se c­
tion on basics, and need not be fu rth e r emphasized here.
It is especially in advertising that strong contra sts by every possible means
must be used for the most effective results. If possible these should be
obtain ed by explo itin g the characteristics of type and p h o tog rap hy etc.
Only when these are not enough should secondary sources of contrast
(borders, rules, po in ts ] be resorted to. The inte ntio nally very diffe re nt kinds
of design shown here in the tw o advertising leaflets by Burchartz and Canis
are examples of this. On the "w e rb e -b a u " leaflet the heavy form of the sym­
bol and the f ir m ’s name con tra st with the small type in the open panel
above and the isolated panel in the middle. The broken appearance of the
short lines ju s t above and belo w "w e rb e -b a u " are in effective con tra st with
the tig h tness of the rest of the type. In the "f ä h r t ” leaflet, the angled para­
graph and the rep etitio n of “ lOOo/o" (in green and black] are used as means
to gain effect.
An exceptio nally im p ortan t role is played in m odern typography, and espe­
cially in po ster design, by the use of p h o to g ra p h ic blocks. The invention
has in tro du ced a new epoch in graphic design, in whose beginning we now
first find ourselves. Nearly everything form erly achieved by drawings,

156
 lu B auhausverlag e r s c h e i n e n d e m n ä c h s t oie
81
I PUNKT, LINIE, FLÄCHE von WASSILY KANDINSKY
RUSSLAND von ADOLF BEHNE

B auhausbücher I 88
83
84
REKLAME UNO TYPOGRAPHIE von EL LISSITZKY (RuBland)
NEUE ARCHITEKTURDARSTELLUNG von WALTER GROPIUS
BILDNERISCHE MECHANIK von PAUL KLEE
88 WERKARBEIT DER GESTALTUNGEN von L. MOHOLY-NAGY
I 89 ARCHITEKTUR.MALEREI, PLASTIK von den WERKSTÄTTEN DES |
BAUHAUSES
Von der Erkenntnis ausgehend, daß alle Gestallungsgebiete des Lebens miteinander I 87 OIE NEUEN MATERIALIEN von ADOLF MEYER
eng verknüpft sind, gibt der Bauhaus-Verlag eine Serie von Büchern heraus, welche sich 88 ARCHITEKTUR von LE CORBUSIER-SAUGNIER (Frankreich)
mit den Problemen heutigen Lebens beschäftigen ^ Wenn man sich über den Stand 89 BILDERMAOAZIN OER ZEIT II von JOOST SCHMIDT
I 30 NEUE ARBEITEN OER BAUHAUSWERKSTÄTTEN
neuer Forschungen, neuer Ereignisse eingehend unterrichten will, empfindet man heute
VIOLETT (BÜHNENSTÜCK MIT EINLEITUNG UND SZENERIE) I
oft die Mangelhaftigkeit wortkarger oder oberflächlicher Zeitungsberichte oder illustrierter von WASSILY KANDINSKY
Zeitungen. So werden die Bauhausbücher künstlerische, wissenschaftliche und technische
Fragen behandeln, unter dem Aspekt ihres gegenseitigen Zusammenhanges. Der Bauhaus- Jeder Band eniliali ca. 1 8 Seiten Text und 3 2 bis 4 8 ganzseitige Abbildun­
Verlag versucht mit dieser Serie den in ihrer Speaialarbeit verankerten heutigen Gestaltern gen oder 4 8 bi.s 6 0 Seiten T ext ^ Format 1 8 X 2 3 cm ^ Preis der einzel­
über die Problemstellung, die Arbeitsführung und die Arbeitsergebnisse der benachbarten nen Bande in festem Pappband Mk 4 . — Uoppelband Mk. 7 . —
und verwandten Gebiete Aufschluß zu geben, und ihnen dadurch einen Vergleichsmaß­
stab für ihre eigenen Kenntnisse und den Fortschritt in anderen Arbeitszu-eigen tu schaf­ IM B A U H A U S V E R L A G >St er s c h ie n en
fen. Um eine Aufgabe von diesem Ausmaß bewältigen zu können, hat der Bauhaus-Verlag
bestorientiertc Fachleute verschiedener Länder, die ihre Spezialarbeit bewußt der Gesamt­
heit heutiger Lebenserscheinungen einzugliedern bestrebt sind, zur Mitarbeit aufgefordert.
„STAATLIC HES
Damit erreicht er den doppelten Zw eck: den Bauhaus-Kreis mit wertvollen, geistig ver­ B a u h a u s w e im ar “
wandten Menschen zu erweitern und dadurch der Verwirklichung seiner Ziele, der Syn ­
Das Buch des Staatlichen Bauhauses zu Weimar
these aller schöpferischen Arbeiten näherzukommen ^ Das Programm der ersten Bände
ist in erster Linie Dokument dieser Anstalt;
(Schriftleitung: GROPIUS und M0H0LY-NA6Y) ist folgendes-
es reicht aber, dem Charakter der Anstalt ent­
1-8 INTERNATIONALE ARCHITEKTUR sprechend, weit über eine örtliche oder spezi­
3 PADA300ISCHES SKIZZENBUCH
4 OIE BÜHNE IM BAUHAUS fische Angelegenheit hinaus ins allgemeine,
B NEUE GESTALTUNG von RIET MONDRIAN (Holland) gegenwärtige und zukünftige Gebiet künstleri­
« EIN VERSUCHSHAUS DES BAUHAUSES schen Schaffensund künstlerischer Hrziehung ^
7 GRUNDBEGRIFFE DER NEUEN GESTALTENDEN KUNST von So wie das Staatliche Bauhaus das erste wirk­
THEO VAN DOESBURG (Holland)
liche Zu.sammenfassen der im letzten Jahrzehnt
a A M E R IK A?-EU R O PA ? von GEORG MUCHE
9 KLEINWOHNUNGEN von DER ARCHITEKTURABTEILUNO DES gewonnenen Hinsichten in künstlerischen Knt-
BAUHAUSES wicklungsfragcn bedeutet, so nimmt das Huch
10 MERZ-BUCH von KURT SCHWITTERS spiegelnd Teil an diesen Fragen, und bedeutet
11 BILDERMAOAZIN DER ZEIT I von OSKAR SCHLEMMER jedem, der sich über den Stand dieser Dinge
18 SCHÖPFERISCHE MUSIKERZIEHUNG von H. JAKOBY (Hallorau)
unterrichten will, hierzu ein willkommenes Mit­
ä 13 FILM UND PHOTOGRAPHIE von L. MOHOLY-NAGY
14 DIE ARBEIT DER STIJL-GRUPPE von THEO VAN DOESBURG tel. Darüber hinaus bleibt es ein geschichtliches «
1B KONSTRUKTIVE BIOLOGIE von MARTIN SCHÄFER Dokument. Denn das Bauhaus ist, obwohl zu­
10 DIE HOLLÄNDISCHE ARCHITEKTUR von J. J. P. OUO (Holland) nächst einzigartig, keine insulare Krscheinung, S c
% 17 FUTURISMUS von F.T.MARINETTI und E.PRAMPOLlhJI (Italien) sondern ein kräftiger Trieb, der sich voll ent­
18 DIE ARBEIT DER MA-0RUPPE von L. KASSÄK und E. KÄLLAI
faltet und auch völlig sich ausbrciicn wird. Das
(Ungarn)
' n
18 PLASTIK DER GESTALTUNG von A. BEHNE und M. BURCHARTZ bedeutet für das Buch ein Stück künstlerischer
z
rn
z
SI L. M OH OLY-NA GY: In s id e d o u b le s p re a d fr o m a b o o k p ro s p e c tu s . B lack a n d re d on w h it e . 1 9 2 4 .
w h e th e r engraved, cut. or etched, can now be done better, faster, and usu­
ally more cheaply, by photos and blocks. Sadly the possib ilities of p h o t o g ­
raphy itself and p h o to g ra p h ic techniq ues are still shunned by many, in c lu d ­
ing even printers. My belief tha t ph oto g ra p h y is ju s t as much a part of
ty po grap hy as type and rules has been stro n g ly opposed. Photographs, like
letters, are a means of com m unic atio n. The faster and sim ple r the means of
com m unic atio n the better. The de velopm ent of ou r type from pictures to
w ritin g was intended to increase, as much as possible, understa nd in g
be tween people. Today there is much that we can “ s a y ” more simply with
photog rap hs than with words. And are not p h o to g ra p h ic blocks materially
related to type? Certainly progress will bypass those w ho do not accept the
p h o to g ra p h ic block in typography, or ph otog rap hy in general, and consid er
them a " n o n -a r tis tic form.” [This problem is dealt w ith in the section on
“ Photography and T ypography,” p. 87.] In advertising, at all events, there is
no questio n of an “ artistic re p re s e n ta tio n ” of an object. Of these “ a r t is t ic ”
forms and oil-p a in tin g s that so often were com ple te ly “ u n rea dab le ,” we
have now had enough. The required ob je ct must be shown as clearly, as
perfectly, and as tru th fu lly as possible, and nothing can do this so well as
photography. Because photography, as a b la c k - a n d - w h ite form, when c o m ­
bined with type provides totally new possibilities of design by means of the

M A X BURCHARTZ
and JO H A N N ES CANIS:
Reverse side o f an ad ve rtisin g leaflet,
in DIN A4. Black and green.

158
M A X BURCHARTZ
and JO H AN N ES CANIS: A d v e rtis in g
leaflet in tw o colours. A4.

1 0 0 R.Mk.

con trast between [a p pare nt) plastic and flat, it can be said th a t today's
typo grap hy is com ple te ly d iffe re nt from everything in the past. Typography
has thus become " th r e e - d im e n s io n a l” — an expression of our time, which
seeks to con qu er space.
Photography has the advantage over drawin g that it is free of the often
overwhelm ing "p e rs o n a lity ” of the artist, whose in div iduality is out of h a r ­
mony w ith the spirit of our time. Indeed, every drawing co n tra d icts the aim
of good advertising for greater ob je ctivity and reality. People believe a p h o ­
tograph — a drawing not entirely.
A good example of the in te gration of p h o tog rap hy w ith typ o g ra p h y is p r o ­
vided by the advertising leaflet for the old Bauhaus by Joost Schm idt shown
opposite. The grey tones of the ph otog rap hs combine well with the type.
The apparently un necessary vertical double rule in the middle was needed
as a thin grey form in contrast with the heavier greys of the ph otography.
When the available facilities of type are not exactly w hat is required, p h o ­
tom ontage can offer many possib ilities for effective results in ad vertising
design.
On the tw o follow ing pages the Gerasch fa ir-invitatio n shows a p re m e d i­
tated com position of p h o tog rap hs on the inner pages w h ic h fits in nicely
with the con tin u ity of the whole. [N o t only single pages must be legible

159
unities, but m u lti-pag e booklets must be so desig ned tha t th e ir a rra n g e ­
ment makes the reader un conscio usly read on. Printed m atter of this kind
in the past was ju st a strin g in g t o g e th e r of centred gro up s.] The colour
areas on the inner pages help the “ plastic" form of the ph otographs. It is
perhaps in te restin g to note, in detail, how the com pulsio n to read on was
achieved on the first page of the invitation.
Some jo bs by the ir nature cannot be expressed simply by photography, so
curves, diagrams, and plans may be used. An in terestin g bo rde rlin e case of
this kind is the t y p o g ra p h ic plan by Seiwert for a gallery in Cologne, which
is as effective as the Gerasch invitation already mentioned. Curves, d ia ­
grams. and so on are s ig nific a nt for our s cie ntific age. Their graphic form
can enrich our ty pography, as industrial prospectu ses like B urch artz’s
W eichenbau and M o lz a h n ’s E le ktrodrehbank prospectu ses [b o th on the f o l­
lowing pa ges] show.

160
 STAATLICHES BAUHAUS WEIMAR
~ 1

N E U E c jC H A C H S P IE L E ges.g es c h ü tzt

Das BAUHAUS-SCHACHSPIEL von JOSEF HARTW IG ist ein Spiel mit NEUEN 8RETTSTEINEN. die entsprechend ihrer
Funktion ges ta ltet sind. Sie unterscheiden sich grundsätzlich von den alten illustrierenden Spielfiguren. die oft sehr schön,
aber sehr schwer spielbar und äußerst kostspielig herzustellen waren. Ebenso von den heute aiigeimem gebräuchlichen
g edrechselten Spielen, die als ein Gemisch von B rettsteinen und Figuren ihren Sinn verloren haben.

OiE NEUEN SPiELSTEiNE sind g ebildet aus 3 stereo m etn sch en Grundformen:
W ürfel, Cylinder und Kugel. Einzeln oder kom biniert geben sie durch ihre Form
die Gangart, durch ihr Volumen den W ert an.

unö TURM nohon Winkel-

I fechl ium Brottrand: aus­

gedrückt duren denWüiTel

m
lÖNiG lieht winkoire
lod diagonal. ein kleii

u
DAME die beweglichste Figu«. b<
Cylinder und Kugel. Sie s.<
(Cn. Kontrast zu KOnig. Tun
Bauer, deren ronri ein Wurlei is
Symbol des Schworen und Mas

Der S pielw ert de» Steine ist durch Höhe und Volumert
bezeichnet: König und Dame sind am größten, die Bauern
am kleinsten Läuter und Springer sind gleich groß und
haben je das halbe Volumen des Turmes.
Das bisherige S p ie lb re tt ist ersetzt durch eine G l a STAFEL
Oie quadratischen Folder bilden zusammen mit den
kubischen Figuren eine Form elnheif von au ß erordentlicher
Klarheit.
W ic h tig Ist. daß die SiTElNE m der Ansicht
und noen w ic h tig e r in der DRAUFSICHT
deutlich zu u n terscheiden smd und sich m
ih re r m äßigen Höhe fi'ELlEFARTiG ü b e r die
Spiellafei ausbreiten.
Ihre Großen sind so b erech n et, daß sie. in einem kleinen
Kasten verp ackt, den Raum ganz ausnützen und ihre
Vollzahl klar ersehen lassen. JOSEF H ARTW IG.

JOOST SC H M ID T 1924: A d v e rtis in g leaflet (le tte r fo rm a t)

161
О)
ю
Oi
U
JAN TSCHICHOLD: A d v e r tis in g le a f le t in ty p o g r a p h y a n d p h o to g r a p h y . B lack a n d re d o n w h it e . Second and third pages.
 SCHILDERGASSE

OO
OO
<

X
o
X I

DOM

FWS

FRANZ W. SEIWERT: Plan fo r fin d in g a Cologne g a lle ry

164
A classic sequence of " t y p o - p h o t o s ” [as the com b in atio n of ph oto g ra p h y
with typ o g ra p h y is calle d] has been made by Max Burchartz, the designer,
and Johannes Canis. author of the text, for a po rtfo lio of advertis ing leaflets
for the “ Bochum er Verein für Bergbau und G usstah l-fa b rika tio n " (Boch um e r
M ining and S teelw orks). A re p ro d u c tio n of the cover is shown in the s e c ­
tion on Typography and Photography, p. 90. The r e p ro d u c tio n of some of
the inside pages that follow does not do ju stice to the ir beauty. There are
about a dozen separate pages in A4 showin g the d iffe re n t pro du cts of the
firm. Each sheet is printed in black and a diffe re nt colou r [id e n tific a tio n by
colour). The colou r is used not for decora tion but fun ctio n a lly to express
the form and create c o lo u r -fo r m - c o n tr a s t. I do not he sitate to name this
whole w o r k as an example of the spirit of our epoch. M olzahn achieves an
almost p icto ria l effect in his Ele ktro dre hba nk prospectu s, by means of most
po werful contrasts of colou r and form [p. 171). Here p h o to g ra p h y plays an
im portant pa rt in the com p osition of the whole, but alm ost as strong an

LAJOS KASSAK:
Goods catalogue. 1926

165
Ok
Ok BOCHUMER VEREIN Æ
FÜR B E R G B A ^U N D GU SS6TAH LFABR IKATIO N I
BOCHUM

WEiCHEN UND KREUZUNGEN FÜR

STAATS-, INDUSTRIE- UND KLEIN­
BAHNEN DES IN- U. AUSLANDES
IN NORMAL- UND SCHMALSPUR.

VIGHOLSCI
PlLLCNSCI
2UNOEM9I
ZUNGEMPLA
HAKENPLAI
UNTCPLAOI
KIEMMPLA
WEiCHENSl
QUER&CH«
GEEITSTUHI
VOLLSPITZI
RADLENKER
LA»CHEN
GTAHLQUL
STÜCKE MIT
GEWALZTEN
MIT DCWC<
f Or GRUDCI
EISENZEUQ.

MAX BURCHARTZ and JOHANNES GAÑIS: Four-page Weíchenbau (railway points) prospectus. Fourth and first pages.
Original in black and orange. Design elements: type and photomontage. Format: DIN A4.
 - ■ ■ ' CVi'--
NEUESTE SONDËRAUSFÜHRUNGEN:

2. WEICHEN MtT SEtTLICH GELAGEWTEN PREHZAPFEN

D. R. P. ANGEMELDET

rt;n o r.ge*cf/i.a'-v, T.'T.î,r, u‘.f »•» 1-.» í ;'.- s -cî : <-r,: »;■ nr,. <...

'T :\ \ TÜ - A / ‘ ; 'V ' " " f; r “’ ; . -, T ^

\ r-r^

3 M A X BURCHARTZ and JO H A N N ES CANIS: Four-page W eichenbau (ra ilw a y poin ts) prospectus. The inside double
M
spread. O rig in a l in black and orange . Design elem ents: ty p e and p h o to m o n ta g e . Form at: DIN A4.
Ob
OB
BOCHUMER VEREIN
FÜn UERGUAU UND C U S S S TAH U FABN IK&TIO N g PM-V
BOCHUM
 ' t ''> "\' "■‘i?'' ’ „'/•^'■'.r

M A X BURCHARTZ and JO H A N N ES CANIS:

Ok Prospectus (crankshafts). On facing page, th e title . On this page, inside do uble spread. O rigin a l in black and red.
(0 Type and p h o to m o n ta g e . Form at: DIN A4.
M
o
KATALOG DER AUSSTELLUNG

MÄDCHEN
IM FREIEN
MILITÄRISCHER FILM
TOTENHAND
OBEN UND UNTEN
FRAU M IT KLEINEM KIND
MANN M IT MÄDCHEN
FRAU
MASCHINE
SCHWARZ UND WEISS
KOM MT VON OBEN
IN DER SONNE
ALTE
FÜNF
FAMILIE 1
FAMILIE II
SPITZE
BEI MONDSCHEIN
BROCKEN
ANCEKLEBT
AUFCESCHNÜRT
DAS MÄNNCHEN W
EINER NACH DEM ANDERN H
H
1922 a
L. u
M
1923 SPRINGENDES PFERD N
MANNER UND PFERDE mi
HOLZSCHNITT M IT PFERDEN O
a

NICHT L ART rOUR L ART: WEDER DAS KUNSTWERK

NOCH DAS KÜNSTLERISCHE SCHAFFEN IST SELBST
ZWECKi DIE KUNST IST GESELLSCHAFTLICHE ER
SCHEINUNG NICHT NUR IN IHRER ENTSTEHUNG. IHREN
BESTIMMGRÜNDEN UND BEDINGUNGEN. SONDERN AUCH
IN IHREN ZWECKEN L-ND ALTCABEN. KARL LIEBKNECHT

FRANZ W. SEIWERT: Tw o p a g e s o f an e x h ib it io n c a ta lo g u e
JOHANNES M O LZAH N:
**age from a prospectus. Form at A4. Black and green on w h ite paper.

171
м
го
IPELIKAN TINTE
effect can be pro du ced using only areas of colou r and ordin ary line blocks.
On rough papers wh ic h (exce pt in offset prin tin g ) are not suitable for
halftone blocks, p h o tog rap hy has to be replaced by fun ctiona l ( n o n -a rtis -
tic!) dra win g. The tw o pages oppo site from a Pelikan special num ber show
what a fine result can be achieved in this way.
In the tw o w o rks by Molzahn and S c hw itte rs and the cata lo gue by Kassak
we are moving out of the field of pure typ o g ra p h y and com ing close to
painting. It is dangerous for printers to venture into this area, since such
w ork demands an exceptio nally deep study of the laws of space, p r o p o r ­
tion, colour, and form. It wo uld be be tte r to en trust such w o r k to an artist
With relevant experience.
Just as ph oto g ra p h y is finally only a part of typography, whose effect is
achieved by its harmony with the whole, so it is possible to enrich t y p o g r a ­
phy with, for example, graphic rep ro d u ctio n s or original graphics, as in the
exhibition catalogue by Franz W. Seiwert. Here, to achieve visual balance
on the double spread, the black square belo w left became necessary.
So any available block (even if of little artis tic value) and any ty p o g ra p h ic
element (so long as it is not merely for ornam ent) can be used in the New
Typography: it simply depends on in tro d u c in g them harm onio usly into the
whole.

173
THE T YP O -P O STE R

Format
The official poster sizes laid down since 1 May 1927 are:

2 sheet 84 X 120 cm . Half sheet 42 X 60 cm .

1 sheet 60 X 84 cm . Q uarter sheet 30 X 42 cm .

i
These sizes represent DIN sizes AO. A l . A2. and A3 rounded to cm. Smaller
posters Cas long as they are not in te nded for po ster pillars] should be in
exactly A4 C210 x 297 mm] or A5 (148 x 210 mm].
Label sizes are dealt with in Standard 825 (Label Formats] in a later s e c ­
tion (p. 192].

г
FORTBILDUNGSKURSE d e r S ta d t M ü n c h e n

für Handlungsgehilfen: fürHandiungsgehilfinnen:

I. Allgemeine Kaufmanniscne Kurse:
BacMühruigundKonlokBrrent: '. Buchführung iür Anrängerinnen . . Montag
«I Run I HJr Antln9«r . . . . rrclla«
b) Run It HIr Porlgnchrtltcn* OIrntlag 2. Doppelte Buchführung tnil Abschlusiübungen Oitndag
c| Kur« III lUr hllh*r« Oucbhallung Olanalag
d| BOcberravIalon und Sl*u«rurM*n Olroatag
3. Amerikanische Buchführung . . . Oonnirtlag
Rechnen und Wechsellehre;
Donnardlag
4 Schwierigere Abschlüsse mit Biluikund« Frcilig
II. Kurse für Versicherungswesen;
6. Bank- und Börsenwesen . . . . Freitag
6. Plakalschreibcn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dienstag
III. Kurs fUr Bank- und BOrsenwesen; 7. laufmännisches Rechnen u. Wechsellehri Dienstag
• Kurdd daucro vom I. Oktobor bta MBri cknachUaaslIcb.
icha Kurva hndan an dan («nannlan fajan abandt von I —* Uhr alall
.C h u lja ld lur ladrn balojian Kurt (wochaollich I iiundlji btlrdgr
lui Munchtnai und Obarbayarn . . Mk tbu.
1er andtra Raichsdfulicha........... Mk Í «0 und

n dar Eintchraibunj i

Dir Fjnychraibunj tindal von Monlaj dan П mil fraiiaj dan I4 Sapicmbar jc«a

für Handlungsgehilfen III

III
für Handlungsgehilfinnen
aul dam Oirakloral dar Sladl Kaulmannischan BaruUscllula,
III HtMoj WilnalmilriHa M ZImmar }|l

Pillar poster in con ve ntion al style:

Centred arrangem ent, even where it is obviously senseless; borders: "decoration" in the form of
th ic k /th in rules. Inefficie nt, unfunctional, unpleasing. The th ic k /th in border rules make the
poster look smaller than the redesigned version opposite.

17 4
D e sig n
More than in any oth er kind of printin g, po ster de sign requires the
strongest effect and utmost clarity. U n fo rtu nate ly most of t o d a y ’s posters
have neither. I am far from blaming the com posito rs for this, because I
know the diffic ultie s that militate against the ir efforts to produce good
designs. The tem po in which posters are set and printed in the c it ie s ’ p r i n t ­
ing works are against it. But such diffic ultie s are not insuperable. In the f o l­
lowing pages I try to give some guid elines for the design of ty po -p osters.
A basic fault in nearly all ty p o -p o s te rs is the retentio n of conventional ce n ­
tred typography. In the beginning, posters were m odeled on title -p ag es,
taken from old book-d esig n, and this still happens today. In o rd er to make
a poster stand out from its neig hbours, it was usually given more or less
hideous bo rd e r rules.
By follow ing the still-p re va le n t p rincip le of centred typography, modern
posters cannot be effective — unless by using unusual colou red papers or

FORTBILDUNGSKURSE
DER STADT MÜNCHEN
FOr Handlungsgehilfen: Für Handlungsgehilfinnen:__________
I. Allgemeine Kaufmanniscne Kur euchfühiimg für Aniiogerinnen Monlag
Buchführung und Kontekorrent:
Ooppellt Buchführung mit Abtchlusjübungen Oienslag
Amerikanische Buchlührung . Oonnerileg
Schwierigere Abschlüsse mit Bilanikunde Freitag
II. Kurse für V Bank- und Börsenwesen Freitag
b) Lcbeasvertlcberung '
c) UDlall- und Hallpilicbt
d) Tranaportvanlcbeniog
Plakalschreiben Dienstag

III. Kurs loi Bann- und BOrsenwesen: Kaufmännisches Rechnen u. Wechsellehre Dienstag

t Kura* dauern vom I. Oktober bla M b ri 1926 «Inachllaaallch Dai S ch u lfc ld li 'I Iwochentllch 2ilündlgi beiragi:
Bll. Kura* llndca an den genannten Tagen ebenda von 7— 9 Uhr atalt

Die Einschreibung lindet von Motuic den M mil freilag den 2t September laveiU von i —t Uhr abendt tiall und iwai
für Handlungsgehilfen ( aul dem Olraklorel dar Haulmannuchule. Roienlal 7, Zimmer iBII
für Handlungsgehilfinneni auldemOvekloroldcrSUdl KaulmanniKhen Beruluchule.HeriogWiln

JAN TSCHICHOLD: The same poster redesigned.

Practical, lucid ap pearance. Type used in the e arlier poster has been mostly retained. The effect
is gained chiefly by co n trasts in type size s and the use of space. The large F used as eye-
catcher. It can be seen how unim portant "beautiful type" is.

175
inks: they will have a borin g uniformity. The purpose of a po ster — to
attract — can hardly be achieved in this way.*
In ad dition, to surround the type as usual with borders uses up pa rt of the
space - which leads to smaller sizes of type, wh ic h also, because of the
borders, look smaller. Perhaps originally all t y p o -p o s te rs w ere printed on
wh ite paper, so that their edges had to be marked. The fact tha t today
posters can be disting uis h ed from other matter by the use of diffe re nt-
coloured papers removes the need to use bo rders. A b o u t an othe r im p o r­
tant yet almost never used method to make t y p o -p o s te rs more effective I
will speak later.
Very heavy display lines, cha racteristic of typ o -p o ste rs, lead to strong c o n ­
trasts wh ic h c o n tra d ic t the nature of the old typography. Only the new laws
of typ o g ra p h y allow the rhythm ic setting t o g e th e r of large and small lines
of type. The asymmetric con stru ctio n of the new t y p o -p o s t e r also helps the
pu rpose be tte r because the lines can be gro up ed in such a way as to make
reading easier. The need to use large type for im p ortan t matter, smaller
type for less im p ortan t matter, gives to d a y ’s printers the o p p o r tu n ity for
greater intensity of t y p o g ra p h ic expression. The possib ilities for variety
afforded by asymmetric design are incom parably greater than those possi­
ble in the old sym metrical typography.
It goes w ith o u t saying that for posters the clearest type face, sanserif, is
the only one that is right. A fte r tha t come egyptia ns. bold roman, or Aldine.
Fraktur, gothic, italic, and similar faces are too d iffic u lt to read. They can
sometimes be used to parody a text Cfor Nationalism, g o th ic and fraktur;
for ove r-se n tim e n ta lity perhaps a comic cursive, etc.). These are however
rare exceptions, whose use must be limited to sin gle lines, to show the
contrast with sanserif, the type of our time, w h ic h in general must be used
in all circum stances.
With the given text and clear type a plain, strong ty p o g ra p h ic form can be
obtained. In this way, often type alone can be used successfully, as in the
“ Fortbildu ngsku rse" poster CP- 175). But it may also happen that to achieve
a desired effect, borders, arrows, even circu la r shapes, must be in troduced.
However, circles must never be used as decoration, as one un fortunately
sees so often in pre sen t-d ay w e ll-m e an in g and ap parently simple posters Cl

• The artists of the pre-w ar period produced, as opposed to typo -posters either w ell or badly set.
posters drawn in extravagant letterform s, w hich relied for their effect on unusual kinds of le tte r­
ing. Such p osters depend on the availability of a suitable artist, and the carrying out of the
design is com plicated by the use of lithographic stone or linoleum . The resu lts can rarely be
interesting and hardly ever effective. It is naive and wrong to try to w ork with the pretentious
means of special C= le ss legible) kinds of lettering.

176
once cou nted eight of these on a poster walO. If a circ u la r or other such
"secondary" form is used, it must have a fun ction [as pointer, or for em p ha­
sis). o th erw ise it is purely decorative. In posters especially, decorative ele­
ments and an ything n o n -fu n ctio n a l must be rig orously excluded. The naive

PHOEBUS
PALAST
B N FA N G S Z E ITC N t 4 030
S O N N TA G S : 4 B'^ B^o

DERSCHRECKLICHE

JA N TSCHICHOLD:
Typo g raph ic cinem a poster, 1927. Black and red on w h ite .

17 7
assumption tha t a circle by itself can be an "e ye-catch er," must be d is ­
carded. CWhy are circles so often placed in the least im p ortan t position?)
Even if a circle has once w o rke d as an "e ye-catch er." when contin ually
repeated as de coration it is not eye-catching but repellent.
Effects must be reached w ith other means, for example a large letter, a f ig ­
ure. a special area of black or colour.
Posters can be effective with little or much text. While little text is always
be tte r than the b o o k - le n g th of certain posters, a long text can also be
effective by means of con tra stin g type sizes and w e ll-o rg a n iz e d a rtic u la ­
tion. That is of course nearly hopeless when the client brings in a vast text
and wants to have everything “ big." Good poster designs are often p re ­
vented by unwise decisions. Variety and revue posters for example are
lessons in ignorance abou t advertising in many of those who ord e r them.
Colour in design has much to offer ty p o g ra p h ic expression. The colou r of
the paper itself is im portant. It is best to cho ose a paper tha t provid es the
greatest contrast in colou r to oth er posters In use at the time. Of course
this is often a m atter of luck, since the colours on a ho ardin g can change
com ple te ly overnight. Unusual colours, like pink. English green, light blue,
grey, etc., and mixed shades tha t are not often used, can all be most e ffe c ­
tive. A d m itte d ly papers in most of these uncom m on colours are often more
expensive, but the ir effect can be ove rwhelm ing, as they kill the monotony
of the conventional yellow s and vio le t-red .
Besides the usual black appearance of most posters, a po ster in one or
more colours can be very attractive. Printing a colour, say red. on a
coloured, perhaps green, paper, can give a result rarely seen on hoardings,
whic h will greatly streng then the p o s te r ’s power.
A poster can be d isting uis h ed from its neig hbo urs by the prin tin g of s p e ­
cial colours and use of coloured papers. An additional and most effective
means is in the use of wh ite Cunprinted) paper, a cha ra cte ristic feature of
the new t y p o g ra p h ic poster. This device is eye -catching, since there is
almost no u n printed paper on hoardings or p o ster-pilla rs. The normal typ o -
poster on which every fractio n of an inch is printed can look only chaotic
and is therefore useless. Empty space however helps le gib ility and adds to
the aesthetic effect.
The economy of its p ro du ction gives the t y p o -p o s t e r today an advantage
for the future, w hic h will benefit the co m p o s ito r - and most of all the
p rin te r - when it is in com p etitio n with some of the drawn posters. Such is
its power.

178
 P H O EB U S -P A U S T

CSIME
; 0 M r a NG S ZE t T€ M< 4, 8», 8>o UKR • SONMTAOS; (<<>4. 8» UHR

tLUSMtt lis /ti fOHRl m

A.H0NEG6EB:
PACIFIC 231
«It tUtlA MCiUtlNS

JAN TSCHICHOLD:
Typograph ic cinem a poster. Black and blue on re d -v io le t.

179
 M ü n ch ner Bund
V ortrag STADTBAURAT
mit Film n JB ER NST
Hlk MWi ak -m. m
M a y -Frankfurt
26. Okt 8 Uhr Die zeitgemäße
G a r d e r o b o g e b U h r 7 0 P fg .
Organisation
des Wohnungsbaues
un d d e r k u r z fr is tig e n
Wo h n u n g s b e s c h a ff u n g
A u d ito riu m M a x im u m d e r T e c h n is c h e n
H o c h s c h u ie , E in g a n g 2 , A r c is s tr a ß e

H ow it should no t be done!
W hal looks at first sight like a type-p oster designed on modern lin es, when looked at more
clo sely is quite unreadable. Where does one begin reading? or co ntinue? Ten size s of type are
used when certain ly six at most w ere needed. The u n n ece ssarily enlarged in itials of several words
introduce even more distu rbance to the w hole. Worst of all is the preconceived form-idea [here,
the three colum ns] w hich forces the lines into fixed sh apes and limits the line-lengths.
Even centred design w o u ld have been better!

>0
174
THE P IC T O R IA L POSTER
Whenever advertising is required for an o b je ct whic h can be illustrated, the
pictorial poster is essential, because it is in com parably more meaningful
than any po ster consis tin g only of words. The illustratio n itself must be as
objective as possible: above all. free from the personal "to u c h " of the artist.
Bernhard’s " f a c t - p o s te r s ” [fo r Stiller Boots, etc.] were already a step in this
direction long before the war. and it must be freely adm itte d that they we re
not unsuccessful. But the in div idu ality of the artist in those classic exam ­
ples was a bit excessive and has perhaps now played itself out. The n e r­
vous hand of the pain te r was echoed in the "n ib b le d" le tte ring so charac-
tel-istic of the pre -w a r period, and whic h degenera ted into a mannerism.
The theorie s of the pre -w a r artists still influence many con tem po rary
designers, and resu lt in posters whic h - apart from the few w ith the
extreme linear skill of artists like Bernhard and Hohlwein - may in te rest a
few for the ir aesthetic form but do not please the public wh o really matter.
As no drawn posters of this kind existed at the beginning of the century,
they could be effective. People had more time then than they have today,
and the novel graphic forms led them to look at the posters. Today, c o n d i­
tions for posters are different. A poster, w h e th e r pictorial or lettered, must
be absorbed at the moment of notic in g or walk in g past; or, if a lo ng er text
is necessary, must strike and attra ct by means of its total effect. The poster
today is still a “ f a c t - p o s te r ” Cas Lucien Bernhard p re ach ed], but the obje ct
being advertised must no longer be artis tic ally sim plified C=disto rte d], but
must be shown in the most factual, unmistakable, and impersonal form. All
trim m in gs wh ic h proclaim the hand of a pa rticular artis t c o n tra d ic t the
po ster’s essence. From the mass of posters desig ned in the sp irit of the
earlier poster artists, hardly one stands out: the choice of c o lo u r and
the pain ting or drawin g of these in div id u a l-p a in te rly po sters have become
form ula-based and therefore un inte restin g. The "hand" of the artis t is sim ­
ply superfluous, its purpose a pernicio us waste of the p u b lic ’s time. When
we realize tha t for the poster tha t must be read q u ic kly on a hoarding, only
the sim ple st and cle arest forms can be right, we have to avoid stric tly
everything tha t is individual and unclear, because too s trong ly artistic. The
need for the most objective, in deed the intense ly factual, design is shown
by the appalling qu an tity of in scrip tio ns and posters in modern cities. If a
poster or in scrip tio n is not crystal clear, it is useless.
For type, sanserif has in general the sharpest de fin ition for use in posters.
Pictures however are stro n g e r and qu ic k e r in the ir effect than type, and
here again only the most obje ctive representatio n will com m unic ate the
p o s te r’s contents quic kly and clearly to a passer-by. That is why so many

181
possib ilities exist for the increased use of p h o to g ra p h y in poster design -
although, when it is a questio n of la rger po ster sizes, restric tio ns are
impose d because on the one hand the te c h niq ue s of p h o to - r e p r o d u c tio n
have not yet advanced far enough Cup till now. to my knowle dge, only a few
firms in Berlin can produce posters in 84 x 120 cm form at by rotary p r i n t ­
ing] and on the oth er because the costs of screen exposures are still pretty
high, ad m itte dly s ig nific a nt only when runs are short.
M ore restric tiv e is the blind enmity, or at least hostile prejudice, of many
artists against photography, w hic h can only be explained by lack of im a gi­
nation. The p u b lic ’s taste is of course influenced by the poor quality of
much advertis ing in more or less infe rio r papers, whic h it takes to be good
but wh ic h leaves much to be desired. It is also a fundam ental error of most
artists to suppose tha t the use of p h o to g ra p h y makes artists unnecessary.
By so th in kin g they must believe tha t they are seeing the end of the ir skills
in the te ch n iq u e s of pain ting and drawin g. Even a good ph otog rap h gives
no guarantee of a good poster, and. equally, from only average p h o ­
tog ra ph s good posters can be designed. It Is always picto ria l streng th that
provides the results.
The suggestive po w e r tha t gives p h o to -p o s te rs the advantage over so many
other kinds of poster lies in the extrao rdinary con tra st of the richly
nuanced " p la s t ic ” grey of p h otog rap hs with areas of c olou r Cor indeed pure
w h ite ] wh ic h only the use of ph oto g ra p h y can give. Such a richly varied
means of expression demands, con tra ry to usual opinion, at least as much
imaginative ability as pain ting and drawin g. In any case, a very highly
de veloped feeling for harmony and p ro p o rtio n is needed, when posters or
other printed advertising m atter are being desig ned using these c o n te m p o ­
rary methods.
It is surpris in g how well a small pa rt of a single p h o to g ra p h can sometimes
w o r k as a poster, as in the PKZ poster by Baumberger. It is a p illa r-po ste r
made from a c olou r photog rap h. A p a rt from the label sewn into the g a r­
ment. no le tte ring is used. Since laying do w n a co lo u r ph o to g ra p h on stone
is tod ay virtually impossible, the c olou r separations for lith og raph y had to
be made by hand. Developm ents in re p ro d u ctio n te ch niq ue in the near
future will make mechanical re p ro d u ctio n possible.

182
JAN TSCHICHOLD: Film poster. 1927. O rig inal in dark b ro w n and grey.
183
HERBERT BAYER: S h o p -w in d o w poster in blue, red, and black on w h ite .
Hand-drawn lype. The line "Adler-Compagnie. AG" was added and does nol belong lo Ihe
original composilion.
184
O TTO BAUMBERGER:
PKZ p illa r poster.
O riginal in fu ll colour.

The cig arette poster by H e rbe rt Bayer is also very effective, the design
being de veloped from the obliq ue line of the neck. The line "Adler-
Compagnie. A G ” was added later, presumably at the request of the firm. It
does not belong to the original design [as can easily be seen by coverin g
it up] and distu rbs the dynamic of the whole.
It is really astonishing that the film companies have up to now made so li t ­
tle use of p h o tog rap hy for the ir posters. The few exceptio ns known to me
are gravure posters w ith a single large ph otog rap h, in form at 84 x 120 cm.
but w ith absolutely no prete nsions to any artis tic form. But it is so obvious
to use ph oto g ra p h y for film posters. For the posters w h ic h I was fortun ate
enough to design for the Phoebus-Palast in M un ic h in 1927, I was able
owing to various circum sta nces to make use of only a few of the p o s s ib ili­
ties for com position and tech niq ue . The p ro du ction costs of these posters,
made u n fortuna tely for only one cinema, had to be kept extremely low. As

185
a result I had to be eco nomical with th e size and num ber of ph otographs.
The posters changed every w e ek and as a rule had to be pro d u ce d in from
two to four days C = design and tw o - o r th re e -c o lo u r p rin tin g !), so tha t the
film title [ fo llo w in g the usual film p ra ctice ) could be published from four to
two days before the first showin g. O bviously in such circum sta nces it was
rarely possible to exploit the full possib ilities of design. Nevertheless I
believe tha t the Phoebus posters are the first practical a ttem p t to make
true film posters. M o h o ly -N a g y has also made very in terestin g designs for
film posters. Developments in p h o to g ra p h ic and p rintin g tech niq ue s will
certainly influence po ster desig n.*
In spite of the many possib ilities in p h o to - p o s te r design, the drawn poster
will probably not com ple te ly disappear. A fte r the oil-p a in te rs of the p re ­
war period have played themselves out and today, insofar as they still have
a name from earlier, go on repeating themselves with process blocks, like
Hohlwein, nevertheless the movement tod ay is for exactness and geometry,
as opposed to the bru sh -p a in tin g of the earlier masters. We now have a,
feeling for pure mass and p ro po rtion. The w o rk of the Frenchman A. M.
Cassandre is typical of this new poster design. He has p ro du ced some o u t ­
standin gly drawn posters, full of the s p irit of our times and already w o rth y
to be called classical achievements.
I end this section with statem ents a b o u t the new poster by tw o French
painters, whic h I have taken from the monthly perio dical Q uerschnitt. Both
are fou n d e r members of the Cubist movement. Fernand Lé ger is, insofar as
the expression "C ubism" still has validity, its forem ost exponent.

• That from ihe point of view of the present it is an anachronism to cut posters in lino, like
medieval woodcuts. I need hardly point out.

186
JAN TSCHICHOLD: Film poster 1927. The lo w e r h alf lig h t blue, "C a sa nova" red,
pa rtly o v e rp rin tin g the blue. The picture and the rest of the ty p e b ro w n -v io le t.

187
 .B^^ZHirau^
ENIWURF: JANTSCHICHOtll. PIANEGGB HI JC GESn GBPACHERAHnURCHEN

JA N TSCHICHOLD: Photo-plastic cinem a poster. P h o to lith o g ra p h y and d ra w in g on

stone. Black and red on w h ite .

188
 T S C H IC H O L D

JAN TSCHICHOLD: Film poster 1927. Ring and Phoebus-Palast panel in red,
"N a p o le o n " and ph oto g ra p h in blue; the vertical rule and a rro w in red and blue
o ve rp rin te d .
189
JA N TSCHICHOLD: Film poster 1927

190
FERNAND LÉGER:
The eye, the mistress organ with a thousand responsibilitie s, rules the in d i­
vidual more than ever. From morning to evening it registers w ith o u t s t o p ­
ping. Speed rules in the m odern world . On the other hand the strain of
commercialism has grown so far that a mannequin parade by a tailor may
compete with, if not surpass, the shows of a dozen small theatres. A c ­
cordingly, posters on the street must be be tte r than an exh ib itio n of p a in t ­
ings. Which makes it necessary to organize the street like a theatre. The
street is a lto ge th er too dynamic, it is rapacious and wearin g on the nerves.
Our present life is so anxious and so frig h te n in g that we need quieter, b e t ­
te r-o rd e re d streets, where ou r nerves can be peaceful and not torn apart.
The poster should therefore be t h o u g h t of not as jazz but as orchestral
music.

ROBERT D E LAUNA Y;
A poster is colou r or nothin g. Form is no thing but a dim ension of colour.
From a physical point of view, therefore, the best po ster is tha t wh ic h we
see most often and from farthe st away, like a railway signal. How is the best
result obtained? By each one of us, singly and alone, caring ab out the
rhythm and interrela tion of colours. A n yth in g else can be forg o tte n . We
must there fore stop using colours by cha nce or in tu itio n, in o rd e r to make
something " p r e t ty ” or “ beautiful." We must be scie n tific and make them
vibrate in harmony like music. And we must start from the beginning to
make posters not a c o rru p tio n of the eyes but an in vitatio n or a source of
informatio n. Posters must be treated as such. No more tryin g to make them
more or less seductive rep resentatio ns of objects, but have the aim of m ak­
ing them put us under th e ir spell by th e ir vib ratin g im pressions of greater
or lesser intensity.

P o ster Fo rm ats
Standard sizes for posters are given on p.l7 4 .

191
LABELS, PLATES, A N D F R A M E S
Sizes of labels etc. in card bo ard or oth er materials should be chosen first
of all from the A -range. But it often happens in pa rticular circum sta nces
that these formats do not fit. so standards for long and square shapes must
be found. These standards are shown in DIN 825, with directio ns for holes
and margins.
The Standards A u th o rity has also provided standards for plates and frames,
needed for exhib itio ns and fairs. Because up till recently no such standards
existed, nearly every plate and frame in exhib itio ns etc. was in a different
size, whic h was unsatis factory on both practical and aesthetic grounds.
Directors of exh ibitions, also businesses and schools, should in future make
more use of these standards, for the ir econom ic as well as practical ad van­
tages. There is no longer a need to search always for new shapes and sizes.
The A -ra n g e is naturally the only choice for plates and items to be framed.
Items wh ic h do not fit in one frame must be placed in the next size up.
A n o te w o rth y ad vantage of the standard is the fixing of pu nch -h o le p o s i­
tions. made possible by the standard for ring's.
Of course, the standards for frames and plates are only for practical p u r ­
poses. It is not to be expected that artists should paint the ir pictu res in
standard sizes and put them in standard frames. Pictures in houses will, as
before, be in th e ir own special sizes and frames.

F O R S T A N D A R D D I N 6 8 2 (P L A T E S A N D F R A M E S ) S E E P. 1 9 4

192
 D IN
S c h íld ffo rm a te
825

O hne Rand M it Rand

S c h ild fo rm a t 5 2 X 1 0 5
Höhen a und Breiten b:
6.5 9 13 18 26 37 52 74 105 148 210 297 420 594 841 1189
a und b sind DIN 476 Papierformate, Reihe A, entnommen

R ichtlin ien fü r B e fe s tig u n g s lö c h e r und Rand

Seiten* Schild* L öcher Rand Seiten­ Schild­ LÖ(;h e r Rand

verhalt* format An- 1 Abstand 1Durchgang verhält­ format An­ (batan d Durchgang
nie axb zahl 1 C 1 e 1 f 1 d |«.a«w. nis axb zahl c e 1 f d |«.0aw.
0 ?
37x105 4 25 93 6 3,1 M2,6 2,6
□ 62X148 4 36 132 B 3,6 M3 3
13X 13 2 8 2,5 1.8 M1,4 0,8 1:2^2 74x210 4 64 190 10 3,6 M3 4
18X 18 2 12 3 2,1 M l,7 1 (1:2,82) 106x297 4 79 271 13 4,8 M4 6
26X 26 2 20 3 2,4 M2 1 148x420 4 112 384 18 6,8 M6 6
37X 37 4 ¿0 30 35 2.4 M2 1.2 210x694 4 162 646 24 7 M6 8
B2X 62 4 42 42 6 3.1 FSTS' 1,6
? 4 x 74 ” 4 62 62 é 3,1 Milff 6 L -l - , 1
105x105 4 89 ¿9 8 3.6 M3 3 6,5X 26 “ 5- “ 5Ö" - 5-
146x148 4 128 128 10 3.6 M3 4 9 X 37 2 30 3,6 2,4 Tii2“ " T —
210x210 4 184 184 13 4.8 M4 6 13 X 52 2 44 4 2,4 M2
1:4 “ 64l 6 ¿ .t 1,3
18 X 74 2
□ 26 X10S 2 93 6 3,1 m5;6 2
9 x 13 2 8 2.5 1.8 M1.4 0.8 37 X148 4 21 132 6 M3 2.6
13x 18 2 12 3 2.1 M1,7 1 52 X210 4 36 194 8 3.6 M3 3
18X 26 2 20 3 2,1 M1.7 1 74 X297 4 64 277 10 M4 4
26X 37 2 30 3.6 2,4 M2 1.2 106 X420 4 79 394 Id 6.8 M6 6
1: ^ 2
(1:1,41) 37X 52 4 29 44 4 .A 4_ M2 1.6 148 X694 4 112 "551" 18 7 M6 D
nach 62X 74 4 42 64 5 3,1 M2.6 2
OIN 476 M2.6 3
74X106 4 82 93 6 3,1 L -------------------------
105X148 4 99 192 8 9,6 M3 4 6.6X 37 2 30 ” 3 T 2.4 TO" 1 —
148X210 4 128 190 10 3.6 M3 6 9 X 62 2 44 4 TO" T 5 -
21QX297 _ 4 184 _221_ 13 4.8 M4 6
l:4 r 2 13 X 74 2 64 6 T T "T ?"
297X420 4 Jlf iL _304_ 18 _ 6 J _ M6 8 (1*6 64) 18 X106 2 93 6 ■3T" to ;? " 5 —
420X594 4 372 646 24 7 M6 10 26 X148 2 132 6 ä.ö T O " "23"
37 X210 4 21 194 8 3,6 M3 3
C Zl 62 x297 4 32 277 10 4,8 M4 4
6.6X 13 2 — r 2,6 1,8 lUTTT 74 X420 4 48 394 13 D|8 MD 6
9 X 18 2 l2 3 106 X694 4 69 668 16 7 MS 6
2.1 Ml,7 0,b
13 X 26 2 20 3 2,1 TWTiT “ 1— 1-------------------------------------- 1
18 X 37 2 30 3,6 2.4 IM2
1:2
26 X 62 2 44 4 2.4 M2 1.6 • 9X 74 2 ^4^ a,i M:¿ib
37 X 74 4 27 64 6 3,1 “ 2“ 13x106 2 93 6 3.1 t o ; ? 1.6
62 X I 06 4 40 93 6 3.1 M2,ö 18x146 2 132 8 3,ö T O " 2
74 X148 4 68 132 8 ~ S jT 1 X 5 - 3 1:8 26x210 2 194 8 3,6 T O " 2.6
106 X210 4 86 190 10 3.3 1 X 5 - “ 4------ 37X297 2 277 10 4,6 M4 3
148 X297 4 122 271 13 4.6 IX T - b 62x420 2 394 13 6,8 TO 4
210 x4 2 0 4 174 384 i3 6,8 1 X 5 - -B — _ 74X694 4 38 666 18 7 M6 6
297 X594 4 249 W 34 - 7— M6 ------
1________
9X105 2 93 6 3,1 Mi,6 1.2
6.6X18 2 12 3 "nTTT ö s “ :“ 13X148 2 132 8 3,6 M3 1.6
1:2^2 9 x2 6 2 20 3 2,1 Ml,7 1 1:8l'2 18X210 2 194 8 3,6 M3 2
(1:11,28) 277 10 4,8 M4 2,5"
(1:2,82) 13 x3 7 2 30 3,6 2,4 M2 1.2 26x297 2
18 X62 2 44 4 2,4 M2 1,6 37X420 2 394 13 6,8 M6 3
26 X74 2 64 6 3,1 M2,6 2 2 658 18 7 M6 4
Oie Schilder könmin mit schar(en odler ab|jerundteten Ecleen, mit oder ohne Rand ausgeführt werden.
Oie Rundunelen de r Eckein sinei gleic h Oder klein er als f zu wählen,
Die Schildio rmate könne n queir oder hoch angevrandt weirden.
IT •
Für Schilder in lanigen Formatian körinen lehr al s 2 odei mehr als 4 Schrauben vorgesehen werden.
, B,
Befestigung durch Schraluben, Nägel Niet Klainmorn Older Einstecki
Die Werte fiilr Sch ilder in Krei 9- und Ellipilenforrn sind ei nngemäB der ‘zaTife'ntafel zu entnehmen.
Ausführung, Werkeitoff und Die:ke Sirid frei
Juli 1925

193
 fafeln und Rahmen D IN
für B ild er und M u s te r 682
Maße I

u n gerah m re Tafel Tlohrnen

Beielchnung einer Tafel im Format A 3 in Querlage Beieicnnung eines Rahmens für Einlage A 2 in Querlage
T a fe l A 2 q u e r D IN 6 8 2 ............') R ah m en A 2 q u e r D IN 6 8 2 ............

Format’ ! Rahmen Ösen

der Tafel und Leistenprofil Querlage
Einlage für Hochiage
Rahmen lichteWelte Falz außen Richtmaße Abstand [Anzahl Abstand Anzahl
axb cxd exf gxh P_U 9_
k
1169x1682 1193x1686 10 1440
30
645 X 193 10 1b 960
10 20 720
480

') Werkstoff, Form und nicht angegebene Maße der Leisten sowie Ausführung und Farbe sind
bei Bestellung anzugeben
*) Die Formate der ungerahmten Tafeln und der Einlagen sind DIN 476 Papierformate Reihe A
entnommen.
Bei Rahmen für Tafeln mit schweren Gegenständen sind die Ösen an der Einlage (Holztafel) zu
befestigen.
Dicke der Einlagen sowie der ungerahmten Bilder und Tafeln gleich oder kleiner als q
Deckgläser haben die Größe der Einlage und sind besonders zu bestellen.

B e isp ie l für die H a k e n a n o rd n u n g

Januar 1926

194
A D V E R T IS E M E N T S
What was said about the ty p e -p o s te r applies to advertis em ents: the m ajor­
ity of t o d a y ’s advertisem ents are borin g and ineffective because they have
not yet discarded the in flexible and unsuitable m ethods of o u t-o f- d a te c e n ­
tred typography. This way of w o rkin g has become un conscio usly wearisome
to printers: and ju st as in unloved thin gs som ethin g is expressed of their
makers, so ordin ary advertisem ents betray the c o m p o s ito r ’s lack of joy.
A few years ago one of the reactionary M unic h papers made an attem p t to
produce good ad vertis em ent pages Cin the old ty p o g r a p h y ]. They gave the
design and arrangem ent of these pages to a fairly well known b o ok-a rtist.
The advertisem ents themselves were of course centra lly designed, and the
arrangem ent of each wh ole page was symmetrical. Some parts of the
advertisements, im p ortan t lines of type, were drawn by the artist.
The intentio n of the artis t was actually pre tty well realized, w ith in the p o s ­
sibilities of the chosen form; but it must be said tha t such an attempt, ap art
from being an in te restin g experiment, has no practical value.
Above all, the centre d ty p o g ra p h y of earlier advertis ing is unsuitable for
our times because, being a preconceiv ed external form, it tends to make
reading more diffic ult, or at least does not make it easier, as the New
Typography does. The speed at wh ic h advertis em ents normally have to be
made up makes it nearly always im possib le to get good line settin g on the

Книгоиздательство И. ТУ Р ГЕ Н Е В КАЗНЬ ТРППМЛЫЛ. с рнсувиями М. С л о д к о г о . Цен» 25 к.

П. М УР А ТО В •ТРИ РАССКАЗА. С расупкямя Ф. Вл пм о. ДоиаЗО я.

L’ART RUSSE. Обипр выстяаки русского векусст!» и Парах«. Стлтья Г. Л у ко м с к о г о .

Р о о , ■ др 24 11ллм1г.трацяи ва отлсльпых лвстаж. Обаоахка работы С т е а а ■ д к о гп. Ц. 100 к.

E/IM И. ЭРЕНБУРГ lauctkiiae). Цена ТО м

I Хулио Хурвпмто II LTO yioaHKoa (xuaiio*

Л . РЕМИЗОВ Росс.»

1 лвтаратурнми oxexeca'iiiuK под род. А. Don ого. Пблох1ка работы

»ЭПО ПЕЯ « Зл .Чисицкого

А. б е л ы й Путоа. ЕВ. т. П. (Скцмлвв в Тупно).

н. гоголь 8о с. с илдюстр. В. Мнсютвпа.-

KOH И. ТУ Р ГЕ Н Е В

А. т о л с т о й
Псокь торкестаующвй любви. С яллюстр. В. Ма:

Поаость о многях лроаосхо.лпих вещах. (Ромал).

EL LISSITZKY: Publisher's ad ve rtisem ent 1922. The "a n g le " on th e le ft is the firs t
le tter (G ) of the publisher's nam e, G elikon (= H elikon).

195
KABELS METGEGARANDEERDE

lONISAIIESronNllffi
NEDERLANDSCHE KABELFABRIEK DELFT

PIET ZW ART: A d v e rtis e m e n t (reduced)

old princip le s. Closely spaced lines, esp ecially when follow e d by very short
lines, always look ugly. [On the laborious b lo c k -s e ttin g method, w hic h for
long has been a favourite solution especially for cinema advertising, we
need waste no fu rth e r tim e.] The old typ o g ra p h y always produces a very
"gappy" patte rn of lines, whic h with the pressure of small form ats and the
fixed cop y-re q u ire m e n ts of the custom er make it eith er d iffic u lt or im p o ssi­
ble to use large sizes of type. Now. the New Typography not only makes
possible, but requires, strong contrasts of every kind [in type sizes etc.],
and gives the co m p o sito r freedom to produce in te llige nt layouts.
The sym metry of the com ple te page, practised by the artists, is to be
avoided not only on aesthetic grounds. In practice it is hardly ever possible
to produce a w hole page symmetrically. To achieve that, symmetry not only
of form at but of each adjacent ad vertis em ent w o uld be necessary. It hardly
needs saying tha t this will rarely happen. The op po site is the rule. The var­
ious diffe re n t headings inevitably give an asymmetric effect, w h ic h however
need not be inharmonious.
Even a single advertisem ent gains in effect when the centred arrangem ent
is discarded. It will look more attractive, and the lines of type, as in the
Baumeister example shown earlier Cp. 67]. can be more logically po sitioned.
Besides discardin g centred design, a more in tensive use of bla ck-a n d -
white effects is required. There are endless possibilities, th ro u g h enlarged

196
EUGEN RENTSCH VERLAG • ERLENBACH • ZÜRICH • MÜNCHEN UND LEIPZIG

Im ^ j|| D E R P Y B A M I D E N R O C K
* “ ^ D E R P Y R A M I D E N R O C K
D E R P Y R A M I D E N R O C K
D E R P Y R A M I D E N R O C K
D E R P Y R A M I D E N R O C K
D E R P Y R A M I D E N R O C K
D E R P Y R A M I D E N R O C K
_ D E R P Y R A M I D E N R O C K
J f D E R P Y R A M I D E N B O C K G E B U N D E N G M 3.5 0

FN DEN GROTESIiEN STROPHEN VON HANS ARP STEHT DAS GESAMTE BILD DER W ELT IM ZEICHEN
EINER PHANTOMATISCHEN VERWANDLUNG. GLEICH EINEM GAUKLER MISCHT ER DIE SUBSTANZEN
DER. WORTE, DINGE. W ERTE DURCHEINANDER. WORAUF ER DIESES SCHEINBAR SINNLOSE GEWIRR
ZU EINEM MÄRCHENHAFTEN ORNAMENT VERDICHTET, IN WELCHEM SICH DIE WILLKÜRLICH GE­
WÜRFELTEN ERSCHEINUNGSFORMEN IN SELTSAM HINTERGRÜNDIGEN BEZIEHUNGEN, IN SYMPATHE­
TISCHEN ZUSAMMENKLÄNGEN UND IN OKKULTEN NACHBARSCHAFTEN ZUEINANDER FINDEN. DIESER
METAMORPHOTISCHE HUMOR HANS ARPS, DER VON DER SPRACHE SELBST BESITZ ERGREIFT, IST MEHR
ALS EINE SPIELENDE ARTISTENLAUNE. REICHEN DOCH SEINE WURZELN BIS ZUM TIEFEN GRUND DES
MYTHISCHEN UND MAGISCHEN BEWUSSTSEINS. AUS DEM IN LÄNGST VERJÄHRTER ZEIT DAS RÄTSEL,
MÄRCHEN UND DER ZAUBERSPRUCH ERWACHSEN SIND.

EN 1924
UNST EN 1923
EN 1922
EN 1921
EN 1920
EN 1919
EN 1918
EN 1917
EN 1916
EN 1915
UNST EN 1914
H E K A IIS O E G E B E N T O N E E E I S S IT Z K T UND HANS ARP
DIE KUNST-ISMEN IST EIN BILDERBUCH (21:27 cm), DAS DIE PLASTISCHEN GESTALTUNGEN DES ALLER
„ISTISCHEN" KUNSTDEZENNIUMS 1914-24 DARSTELLT. KEIN SCHREIBTISCH PRODUKT EINES KUNST­
KRITIKERS. 15 ISMEN, 13 LÄNDER UND 60 KÜNSTLER SIND HIER MIT IHREM CHARAKTERISTISCHEN
SCHAFFEN VERTRETEN. EINE REIHE WENIG BEKANNTER WERKE DER BEKANNTEN KÜNSTLER. DIE
EINLEITUNG (IN DEUTSCHER, FRANZÖSISCHER UND ENGLISCHER SPRACHE) IST EIN ZWIEGESPRÄCH
VON DEN HERREN + UND — .
GEH EFTET G M 4.50 • G E B U N D E N GM 5.50

EL LISSITZKY (1925): Page fro m a book pub lishe r's catalogue

197
 { { О В Ы Е К Н И Г И
ЛждрвЗ Б ед ы Б , „Оарвв ^гпепого пкряарстав“ (ао воводу квагв Взчвсдввв а
Иввповв) Цена 12 мар. (4 фр.)
Адвксв11 Р е м в а о в . .С вбврсвяБ сква. ((ева 18 мар. (8 4 Р ) <0
Л Т е р в в (О. О ора), „Раввн*: пьеса в трех деИствяях. Цеоа 24 кар (8 4р-1
Л. 1 ^ с п н о в . .А ла Баррам*; цена 9 мар. (3 фр;)
Яа Л а с в ц х о Б , .Нро дав квадрата - Всем, асем ребатиам.* Худояестасвяое
вадаове. иова 40 мар. (12 4 р )
c/),

ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО о
c

07
CO ■

О
со

Н О В Ы Е ЦГ . Н Ы ( С 2 0 М А Р Т А 19 2 2 г)
Апевеавдр Б л о к , .Сквфм“ „Двевадчать** цева 12 мар. (4 фр.)
Алевсввдр Б д о к , „Россяя а Иотеалвгевцаа" цева 12 мар, (4ф р)
E
Адедсдвдр Б а о х , „О лпбвв, созвав в государствеивой службе сова б мар
0
Лсдрей Б ел ы й в • Ж . . . . , „Росспж в Пвоппя“ пепа 12 мар. (4 фр.)
И в д в о в - Р а а у м в в в . „О смысле ж ва вв“ С мар. (2фр)
И а а в о в - Р а а у м в в в . .Ооое лвпо* цена Омар. ( . гр) c
И в а в о в - Р а а у и и в в , „Что такое Нителлагевивд" Омар. (2 фр)
11. К лю ев, .П абхвыв с есв в“ сева Омар. (2ф р)
0)
U. К лю ев „Несвь солоцеаосца“ neue 6 мар. ^2 фр.) Л
С. Е с е н в в . „Трвотп** цепа Омар. (2ф р)
А. Шрейдер, .Респ тблува Советов* tieua 18 мар. (2 фр.| s;
И Ш то й ы б ер г, „От февраля со октябрь 1917 г.“ цоиа 18 кар. (6 фр.) ж
И. М ай о р о в , „Земля в Хлеб“ цева 15 нар. (.5 Фр.) 0
IN D B U T S C H E K S P R A C H E
Eugen L u n d berg, „Merracbkowski und eein neues Cbristentujn*. Preis 25 Mark. bo
J Ü N G S T E R U S S I S C H E L I T E R A T U R : e
Alexander D lock, .Gedichte*. Übertragen von Reinbold v Walter. Gebunden TI
Preis Ы. 8 , - 4)
Alexandcr B lo c k , .Sk>4hen* .D ie Zwöit*. Übertragen und eingeleltet топ
Reinhold v. Walter. Gebunden Preis M. 8. >
W ia ts c b e s la w -Iw a n o w , .Klüfte* Essays. Übertragen von Wolfgang В. Gröger.
Preis U. 8 . -
O rü ssow und B a lra o n t, .Gedichte*. Cbertragen von Wolfgang В. Gröger.
Preis Ы. 12.—

D I B P O L I T I S C H B O R G A N I S A T I O N S 0 W J B ,T - R U S S L A N D S :
Alexander S c h r e id e r , .D as Rbtesystem*. Preis M. 12.—
IN U N G A R I S C H E R S P R A C H E ;
Alexander B lo ck , .Oroszorszag*. Preis M. 13.—
Buchhiodlerrabatt S3'/i^/« und 11/10
Auslieferung bei CARL FR. FLEISCHER, LEIPZIG

EL LISSITZKY: Publisher's a d ve rtisem ent on back cover of a jo u rn a l.

The main line "Skify" (name of publisher) is drawn.
The axial arrangement of some of the paragraphs is due to the compositor. This example is
shown only on account of the whole composition. The arrangement of the small paragraphs is
poor.

198
letters, words, accom panyin g heavy rules, and so on, to heig hten an a d v e r­
t is e m e n t’s effect. The effect can be fu rth e r en riched by flat tin t-b lo c k s , as
in Bau m eiste r’s Tietz-ad vertis e m ent Cp- 205], or throu gh p h o tog rap hy and
colour, as in B u rch a rtz’s advertis em ent for "Vierradbrem se Poulet" Cp- 206].
Alm ost more im p ortan t than these generalities is the qu estion of how
advertisements are placed in relation to each other. No one wo uld agree
that the universally used fin e -ru le separations are pa rticularly beautiful, but
they are often essential. They should however be avoided when n e ig h b o u r ­
ing advertisem ents themselves use rules or similar devices wh ic h m ig ht
lead to confusion.
In sm aller advertisem ents in New Typography a rule Cas in Baum eister] is
often useful. But often, especially in ho rizontal ha lf-page advertisem ents, a
plain ho rizontal rule is enough - and Is preferable. See Lissitzky’s p u b ­
lisher’s catalogue, p. 197. In larger ad vertisements, borders — wh ic h are in
any case a cha racteristic expression of the earlier in div idu alistic epoch —
should be avoided. In newspapers with the usual half- and q u a rte r-p a g e
arrangement, the use of fine rules for separation is nearly always un n e ce s­
sary. since the advertisem ents are usually separated by w h ite margins.
The great econom ic advantages tha t w o uld result for the advertis em ent
from a universal acceptance of standards for formats and type areas in
newspapers is describ ed in the foll o w in g section.
There are a few newspapers tha t adop t a con sis ten t style for the design of
all th e ir advertisements. That is of cou rse the ha ppie r solutio n for this d i f ­
fic ult problem. Many Dutch arch itectura l magazines have for long used only
sanserif, and the Prague jo urn al Stavba uses only Sorbonne as typeface for
advertisements. In both, except for bold rules, all ornam ent Cand rule-
c om b in atio n s] are com p le te ly excluded. The advertising pages of these
papers make a very good impression.
It seems, above all, to be exceptio nally difficu lt to deal harm oniously with
"small advertisements." The only practical way is to limit type sizes to one

199
fixed size of an ordin ary face [roman or sanserif] and at most three sizes of
a fixed heading type [bo ld sans or bold roman]. In order to get a good
result, the often childish demands of ad vertisers may be ignored. These are
the more un reasonable since small advertisem ents do not compete with
each oth er but are read like a book. It is w o rth notic in g that the small
advertisem ents in G artenlaube are up till now the best laid out, although in
fraktur.
A ju stifiab le com p la in t made ag ainst German newspapers and jo urnals is
tha t the ir advertis ing pages, with the ir great patches of black, are very
ugly, and com paris on is made with North America, whose newspapers by

N ew spaper ad ve rtise m e n t
{ M ü n c h e n e r N e u e s te N a c h ric h te n )
Bad, because;
unnecessary ornaments. K a u fm ä n n iis c lie
loo many kinds of type and type sizes C7)
centred design. A u i s b l l d u n ^
which makes reading difficult and is P r iv a te k a u fm ä n n is e h e K u rs e
unsightly.
Dr. S ab e l
Inh. Therese S abel
Mändient Kaufingerstr, 1412
Telefon 91064
Inhroehur^p^^ ^ schulentlassene Knaben
j a n r e s R U r s e ^.Mädchen . Beginn: lö .Ä p r it
Halbjahreskurse : Beginn: 1. M ai
Unterricht in Einzelfächern. Anmeld, täglich.
Angenehme Zahlungsbedingung. ♦[18767J2-2

The same a d ve rtisem ent, redesigned

(Jan Tschichold)
Good, because:
no use of ornament, Kaufmännische
clear type, few sizes.
Cin all. only 5 different types) Ausbildung
good legibility, P riv a te k a u fm ä n n is c h e K u rs e
good appearance.
D r. Sabel In h . T h e r e s e S a b e l
München, Kaufingerstraße 14,2 Tel. 91064

J a h r e s k u r s e für schulentlassene Knaben

und Mädchen Beginn 16. A p r il
H a lb ja h r e s k u r s e Beginn 1. M a i
Unterricht in Einzelfächern. Anmeld, täglich.
Angenehme Zahlungsbedingung. *[l8767]2-2

200
 u ^tJ U’lnirtMtU«

"Pr ÜÄi ipaliftlf, !■». ^«k iSc o"

f,i. í^ii in« « I iih «
°~°SA iwrtr a n ftita afc- ktlt ik sUl tu.m

OCHEIttENDE
WÄÄtakf".l4M 1B'“*“" 1500
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I 1280 6 |J*«oh«>fl*^ol^ho g90 0 bor4i«ntd mW tt9H i A*}*“ OT,?P.,.,. 378
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Sfrasaalsna

WILLI BAUM EISTER : Store ad ve rtis e m e n t (1926)

avoiding strong b la c k -a n d -w h ite contra sts are b e tte r-lo o kin g . We Euro­
peans however have good reason to defend our European culture against
the invasion of American ‘‘c lic h é -c u ltu re ," and must, if we wish to keep our
end up, devise a good de sign style of our own. In general, it is not the
heavy b la c k -a n d -w h ite contrasts in and among the advertisements t h e m ­
selves tha t create a bad impression, it is the low qu ality of advertising
design in general, and above all how it is arranged on pages.
That advertisem ents diffe ring greatly in size and form can be arranged
to g e th e r in a really pleasing way is shown here by two pages from a
Japanese newspaper. Its de sign shows paradoxically tha t Japanese cultu re
is clo ser to the European than is the North Am erican pseudo-cultu re. In

201
any case, some of the Japanese advertis em ents are remarkable for their
t y p o g ra p h ic design. The m a n y -th o u s a n d -y e a r-o ld colle ctive mental attitud e
of the East reveals itself in the astonishing sim ilarity of this ty p o g ra p h y to
our own. The Japanese, for long masters in the use of space, have also In
this area much to teach us. In a book Japanische Reklam e in der
Tageszeitung [Japanese advertising in daily papers) Dr Anna Berliner has
w ritte n extrem ely well abou t this.

THE P E R IO D IC A L
Whoever reads and has to w o r k w ith many perio dic als knows well the ir
main failing: the lack of any unity in th e ir formats. Since until recently no
standard existed for them, they could be pro d u ce d in any size. Everyone
knows how in convenient this is for th e ir storin g and arrangement.
The German Standards Co mmittee has now provid ed standards for p e r io d i­
cals and pu blis hed the relevant details in Standard 826 [re p ro d u c e d on
p. 204 overleaf).
The form at is A4: it fits in with the form at of business letters, advertising
matter, illustrations, etc. From this come advantages for distribu tion, s t o r ­
ing. and ca talo guin g.
In addition, type areas and block sizes are standardized. This makes it po s­
sible to move entire articles from one perio dic al to another. And special
inserts have a unified appearance and can be colle cte d to g e th e r and put in
order. Blocks in standard sizes can be moved to diffe re nt positions w ith o u t
trouble. The exchange of illu stratio ns is simplified.
There are advantages, in the standardizatio n of column w id th s and type
areas, for all the firms who advertise in several periodicals.
While in the past diffe re nt block sizes were required for every periodical,
now only one is needed, whic h will fit all standard periodical pages. This
represents an often consid erable economy in costs. The o ften -desired in d i­
vid uality of appearance in a pa rticular periodical, seen from a higher po int
of view, is now undesirable. Standardization in perio dicals is an im portant
and ne cessary step on the way to a higher economy in intellectual work.
A large num ber of all technic al perio dic als have already gone over to sta n ­
dardization. All in dustrial booklets and technic al lite rature should finally
decide to follow.
The o b je ction to be expected here, that the form at will be too small, is not
based on fact. The D eutsche D ru c k e r and the Typographische Ja h rb ü ch e r
are both in approxim ate DIN sizes: similarly, the Am erican P rinters Ink and
Western A dve rtisin g, and the English C o m m ercia l A rt [L o ndo n), are very
nearly the same. All five have frequ en t sup plem en ts and large Illustrations.

202
Ш ï

203
 Entwurf
Z e its c h rifte n PIN
F o rm a t A 4 S a tz s p ie g e l D r u c k s t o c k b r e it e 826
Das F o r m a t f ü r te ch n isch e Z eitschrifte n ist A 4 ( 2 1 0 x 2 9 7 )

-2 I0 -
Format der beschnittenen Zeitschrift 210x297
Satzspiegel Breite 167-:-171
Höhe 250
Spaltenzw.schenraum 5
Druckstöcke Breite zweispaltig 167
„ einspaltig 81

Die Millimelerangaben gellen als Richtmaße, die durch typographische,Einheiten möglichst

einzuhalten sind.
26. Juni 1924 Deutscher Verband technisch-wissenschaftlicher Vereine
 N

U
N
a.
>
‘iS
■0
n
c
c
a
E
V
M
r
«

and give the impression that a smaller form at brings no dis advantage for
the cla rity and design of supplem ents or illustrations. Very often a firm has
to place a sup plem ent in. for example, every single relevant perio dical. This
used to mean adapting to the sizes of the smallest and largest perio dicals,

205
often vA^idely different, from w h ic h follow e d com prom is es
u n pro ductiv
ju c tiv e additional costs in paper. This in now u n n e c e s '^ and
There are also great advantages in standardized formats f o "
3rt rnagazines

P o u le V *

•irhr swurn.ng bcm HM<rn «nd m

H R«.innusion" driStruecungdriWagr«»

* “ vtin'. ..a «...«.n..™

» V — ..... « - » . . a
FU, Personeaw.grn mU »..mswommeldu.chmo«« xon. ^

B o c h u m e r V e r e in
•Ur a c ro b a u ....rf Q u B s t o h » -*»'* * »"»»" '

M A X BURCHARTZ and JO H A N N ES CA N IS: W h ole -o ane ...■

red, w ith p h o to m o n ta g e . 1925. Page w id th o f o rig in a l 3 o T m *"'*"*'
206
Of the art and similar magazines that appear in
standard formats, I know of bauhaus [Dessau], llJ S ü
n o [A m ste rd a m ], Das Werk [Z ü ric h ], and D ie
Form [B e rlin ]. All four magazines [and there
are certainly more] show that despite s ta n ­ ml
da rdization ty p o g ra p h ic design can be fa u lt ­
less.
All new magazines and perio dicals should c e r ­
tainly adop t standard sizes for type area and
format. It is not least the du ty of the print firms
to acquain t themselves with the standard sizes:
most publishers and au thors know nothing
ab out them.
It is much to be regretted that articles which
are often of great im portance have eventually
no effect, because the fin din g of a pa rticular
article a year or so later is virtually impossible.
The only remedy for this is to flag every issue,
as for example the Z e its c h rift fü r O rganisation
[Berlin, Spaeth & Linde] has done. Their in d i­
vidual articles, flagged with cards in DIN A6
size, provide a systematic index of subje cts and
authors, whic h makes it possible to find, years
later, an article on a pa rticular sub je ct or by a
particular author, w ith o u t much difficulty. Here
there fore is an im p ortan t task for periodical
pu blishers, for example the Börsenverein der
Deutschen Buchhändler. With ap propria te s ta n ­
dardization a crying need w o uld be met.

m n
ÜJßä

Zizj
On th e typ o g rap h ica l design o f p eriodicals
The prime require m en t for the appe arance of perio dicals is a good t y p e ­
face. Am ong those suitable are the good ordin ary romans of the present
day, for example Nordis che Antiq ua, Französische Antiq ua, Sorbonne, but
also the purely classical faces, for example Garamond, Baskerville, Didot,
Bodoni, as well as good c uttin gs of ordinary Medieval and Antiqua.
Fraktur, now for long out of date, must be avoided, and also w ith o u t e x c e p ­
tion the "artistic" types.
For display faces, for titles, page numbers, etc., bold or sem i-bold sanserif
is recom m ended, with its clear and plain appearance con trastin g strongly
w ith the text.
A rtic le headings should no lo nger be centred, but set full out to the left.
This also of course applies to figures like "1" and subtitles w ith in an article.
Asym m etry must never be distu rbe d by centred titles or form s.*
Page num bers should always [as is normal practice tod ay] be placed on the
ou tside of the page. The use of sanserif for emphasis is good. The very ugly^
use of rules separating columns must be avoided. An em gu tte r or more is
all tha t is needed to separate columns clearly.
Just as unattractive are the stars, always in mysterious gro up s of three, at
the ends of articles. A p a rt from usually being ugly, they are quite u n ne ces­
sary. Just a small space between tw o articles is enough to separate them;
every kind of decoration, especially one so questio nable , is superflu ous. If
in special cases for any reason a strong separation is needed between
short pieces of text, a single round six-p o in t spot may be used.
Centred running heads above columns must be avoided: they will not go
with asym metric article titles. The best way is to place them on the outside
- w ith o u t any rules beneath! - set in sanserif. If a rule is used, do not use
t h ic k /th in or double rules. Simple fine rules, up to six -poin t, are the best.
Any in te llige nt person can only w o n d e r at the impossible effects on b lo c k ­
making wh ic h result from the folly of centred typography. In the two exam­
ples shown here I have trie d to show the differe nce between the old strait-
ja cket and a sensible arrangem ent of blocks. I have inte ntio nally shown
blocks of diffe re nt and "a ccid ental" widths, since that is w h at usually has to
be con tend ed with Calthough in the future, w ith standard block-sizes, it will

• Absolutely to be avoided are the drawn titles for articles, to be seen so often today. They are
expensive and neither good-looking nor appropriate. A periodical that is type-set requires type­
set headings. Although there is no standard for all headings, an infinite variety of typographic
headings can be thought of.

208
 NEW YORK
1922
NO

в a
R
о
VOL.

10Л

о о
w
ON
M
Z Z 6 1

Ш О А / А Ш

EL LISSITZKY 1922:
C over of an A m erican m agazine (reduce d)

209
H ow blocks used to be arra ng ed in m agazines.
Schematic, thoughtless centring of blocks. "Decorative.” impractical, uneconomic (= u g ly ).

happen less often). Standard-size blocks will make the problem much sim ­
pler. The le ft-ha nd example shows clearly to w hat com plicated lengths the
old desig ner had to go. The centred illu stratio ns are cram ped and require
costly and ugly narrow ing of the measure. The redesign on the rig ht speaks
for itself: it is obvious how much sim pler and so more beautiful the new
form is. The mostly dark blocks con tra st well with the grey type, and the
blocks wh ic h do not fill the measure leave pleasant w h ite spaces, whereas
form erly the type round the blocks, often of only dictio n a ry-co lu m n width,
gave an im pression of meanness.
Where possible, blocks should be placed close to their relevant text.
Like article headings, captions beneath illu stratio ns Cas in this book) must
no lo nger be centre d but must range left. To set them in bold or sem i-bold
sanserif will streng then the general appearance of the page. That they can
also often be set at the side of a block is in accordance with our modern
practice.
As regards the blocks themselves, they must not be s urro un ded with
unsig htly rules. Blocks trim m ed flush look better. The remarkable ‘‘clo uds"
[uneven dot patte rns in halftone blocks) on w h ic h not only small items but

210
The same blocks, correctly arranged in the same typ e -a re a .
Constructive, meaningful, and economical (= b e a u tifu l).

even heavy machines try to float, are to be avoided both on aesthetic and
practical printin g grounds.
M agazine covers today are mostly drawn. That ju st as effective results can
be obtained by purely t y p o g ra p h ic means is shown by the examples of
B room and Proletarier.
Broom is typical of the only kind of symmetrical design possible in the New
Typography. We leave behind the tw o -s id e d symmetry of old title -p a g e s as
an expression of the past in div idu alistic epoch. Only com ple te quadrilate ral
symmetry can express our aims for totality and universality.
The cover of the magazine P ro le ta rie r is an in te restin g example of the
dynamic effect that comes from oblique type setting. Both examples have
achieved the ir strong effects w ith o u t any use of trim m in gs such as rules or
points.
The enormous im portance of magazines today requires us to give them the
most careful attention. Since today more magazines are read than books,
and much im portant matter appears only in magazines, there are many new
problems, of whic h the most im p ortan t is how to find a con te m p o ra ry style
for the ir pro du ction. This c ha pter attem pts to show the way.

211
THE N EW SPA P ER
A lth o u g h n e w sp ape r typ o g ra p h y is. in general, cha ra cte ristic of our time,
and. at least in princip le , shows how good t y p o g r a p h ic org anizatio n can be.
there are also many examples w h ere ne w sp ape r settin g could be raised to
a level really expressive of our times.
A p a rt from ou r now much heavier headlines, modern newspapers are not
very d iffe re nt from those of. say. 1850. The first newspapers were like the
flysheets and pam phlets of the 17th century, w h ic h themse lves were set
like book title s and pages. Newspapers remained even until today in their
original de pe nd ence on book typography. But as the tem po of reading
became faster, greater or lesser emphasis in parts of the text became n e c ­
essary. This is done today by varied type sizes, le tte r-sp a cin g , heavier
w e ig h ts of type, leading, and other uses of space. M any of these methods
are much overused, but this is not ou r sub je ct here. Such m ethods are
based on sensible con sid eratio ns with whic h we have no quarrel. They
make it possible today for a newsp aper, whose contents are about equal tO:
a m ediu m -sized book, to be “ read" in a few minutes, i.e. to find and absorb
w h at the individual reader himself wants. This is w ith o u t d o u b t the way of
our time.
But in the past, what all newspapers had in common was the typefa ces they
used. We find, when we look at old issues, the staple type of the political
pages, the broadsheets, and ad vertis em ent pages was always fraktur. One
has to look only once at the trade part of a paper Cnormally set in rom an],
for example the B e rlin e r Tageblatt, and lay it beside the po litical pages of
the same paper, and com pare them, to see im m ediately how much plea san­
ter roman looks and reads. The supposed lesser le gib ility of roman in
German, com pared w ith fraktur. is a national old wives' tale. All progressive
papers should take the first step and set the wh ole pa per in roman. How
splendid , for example, the Dutch ne wspapers look! They use sanserif for
headlines and oth erw ise normal roman. Indeed the trade pa rt of nearly all
German newspapers is set in roman; and in oth er parts, chiefly the more
modern parts, the technical, sport, film, and lite rature pages, fra ktu r is
being more and more pushed out by the Latin type — greatly to the pages'
advantage! It is to be hoped that soon all the rem aining pages will be set
in roman — sanserif will no do ub t eventually follow as the normal reading
face. For the time being we have no really suitable a p p ro p ria te face. But for
headings, sanserif is o u tsta n d in g ly suitable. Many sectio ns of the
F ra n kfu rte r Z e itu n g use it w ith excellent results. Headlines set in caps must
be avoided, they are much too hard to read. For this pu rpose I find that

212
A N O N Y M O U S : M agazine cover

213
bold sans is more suitable than s em i-bold: the la tter is not diffe re nt enough
from the grey of the text.
In the fraktur pages of newspapers. Bernhard or similar fra k tu r types are
most com m only used for im p ortan t lines. The only o b je ction to this is the
basic one. It is com p le te ly in com prehensible , however, when the F rank­
fu rte r Z e itu n g uses the an tiq uated and hardly more legib le go thic for its
title masthead. It really is d iffic u lt to d e c ip h e r these hierogly phs! It is
astonis hin g to see this in a paper tha t has trie d hard, often w ith success,
to present a really go od t y p o g ra p h ic appearance.
I believe that it is not rig h t for a ne w sp ape r set in type to have a drawn
masthead. Our ty p o g ra p h y has enough variety to meet all exceptio nal
requirem ents. That applies also to the n e w s p a p e r ’s masthead. Its design,
pa rticularly in the case of old papers, should not be changed, even to
roman, for it is the "trade m a rk ” of the paper. Of course everythin g tha t is
not the actual title can be set in roman or sanserif, but the main title or
masthead, for example B e rlin e r Tageblatt, should keep its origin al form
unchanged. It does not fo llo w that new newsp ape rs must set the ir m ast­
heads in some kind of fra k tu r - sanserif alone is right. On a newsp ape r
stand it w o uld hit the countle ss oth er mastheads in fra k tu r like a bomb!
It is time to give up the centred headings in herited from the 19th century
[be fo re that, there were hardly any], and in tr o d u ce ranged left headings,
w h ic h express the spirit of our time, as in this book. The w h ite space f o l­
lo win g most ranged left headings has a go od effect, and by its so to speak
au tom atic allusion to ne ig hb o u rin g he adings gives a b e tte r org anizatio n of
the text. Today centred headings make a d is tu rb in g grey; the black type is
mixed up with the s u rro un din g white, instead of s tre n g th e n in g the page by
pure separation.
Das Technische Blatt, a s up plem en t of the F ra n kfu rte r Z eitung. has ranged
left headings and has be come a very handsome newspaper.
Vertical rules between columns should be abandoned; they are as u n n e c ­
essary as they are ugly. A newsp ape r page looks really lighte r w ith o u t
them. In place of the still m uch-used t h ic k /th in rules beneath the title and
above news and ad vertisements, simple bold rules [a b o u t fo u r- or six-
poin t) should be used. T h ick/th in rules are obtru siv e and a sup erflu ous
unbeautifu l ornament.
Halftone blocks in newspapers look much be tte r w ith o u t the usually
inevitable surro un din g rule. Also pictu res in gravure papers should be cut
flush. All rules and especially borders should be discarded.
The design of advertising pages is dealt with in the section on advertising.
It w o uld be a great advantage for newsp ape r formats and type areas to be

214
sta n d a rd ize d : many m istakes arisin g out of to d a y ’s form at ch ao s w ould be
avoided.
The two pages from the Ja p a n e se paper Osaka A s a h i Cpp. 203. 204J show
how beautiful a n e w sp ap e r can look. Our n e w sp a p e rs n atu rally look d iffe r­
ent. but do not achieve the a e sth e tic effect of the Ja p a n e se paper. In any
ca se , the beauty of the paper of the fu tu re w ill m eet the n eeds of our time
by strivin g to w ard s better cla rity and a fa r-sig h te d , c o n scio u sly planned
de sig n .

THE ILLU ST R A TED PAPER

In re cen t years the num ber of illu stra ted papers has in cre ase d enorm ously.
This im p resses on us the need of modern man fo r p ictu re s, b e cau se la ck of
time m akes reading the daily pap ers more tro u b leso m e. B e sid e s satisfyin g
genuine cu rio sity , illu strated p apers often give real p leasu re from th eir
te c h n ica lly and v isu ally e xc e lle n t re p o rte rs ’ ph o to g rap h s. If the lite rary
level of most papers of th is kind is low. it is p ro bably due to the sim ilarity
of the lite rary so u rce s on w h ich n early all th ese p apers depend . It is c e r ­
tain ly true that the la ck of d iffere n ce betw een th e se s o u rce s is more and
more evid en t. This problem h o w ever is not one for us to co n sid e r here.
It m ust be said that the o ptical a p p e aran ce of th ese p a p e rs, although a
phenom enon of our tim e, does not fully e x p re ss its sp irit. Illu strate d p apers
are still co m p aratively you n g ; as far as one can ju d ge from th e ir extern al
ap p e aran ce , they are very little depen d en t on "trad itio n al" c o n ce p ts. Su ch
a dep en d en ce can be seen only in th eir actu al typ o g rap h y: the a rra n g e ­
ment and com position of th eir p ictu res is by and large co ntem po rary.
M ost of the article h eadin g s and all the pictu re ca p tio n s are still in the old
cen tred typography, w h ile on the co n trary the p ictu re arran g em en t is co m ­
pletely asym m etric. Sym m etry in the p ictu res n e v e rth e le ss does som etim es
o ccu r, and may even be o rig in ally alw ays in ten d ed, but the d im en sio n s and
siz e s of the p ictu res make this hardly p o ssib le . The in trin sic asym m etric
form of the pictu res is very much d istu rbed by ce n tred ca p tio n s. If a h a r­
m onious design is w an te d , the ca p tio n s too m ust be asym m etric. They
should be set flush left, but th ere are plenty of o th er p o ssib ilitie s.
For d isplay faces [h e ad in g s and c a p tio n s], s a n s e rif [bold or sem i-b o ld ] is
the most su itab le type. Its clarity and pre cisio n make it the co n tem p o rary
type to be used above all in th ese docum ents of everyd ay use and activity.
A cle v e r and im aginative typ o g rap h e r can find d elig h tfu l so lu tio n s for every
kind of title by purely typ o g rap h ic m eans. The use of draw n h ead in g s must

215
be avoided, as out of date and u n typ o g rap h ical. H ead in gs do not have to
e xp re ss the nature of the co n ten ts, but say w h at they have to say as clearly
and sim ply as p o ssib le , nothing more.
U n fo rtu n ately frak tu r is still the alm ost u n iv e rsa l text type in use. The
Illu s trie rte B la tt [F ra n k fu rt] has set a good exam ple and gone o ver to
roman. This has made a great im provem ent in the p a p e r’s a p p e a ra n ce . For
the need to use s a n s e rif for d isp lay p u rp o ses, one can cite the fu rth e r re a ­
son that it is the only face that tru ly m atch es ph otograp hy, and has the
sam e e sse n tia l o b je ctivity. The hooks and te n d rils of frak tu r. the type of
1 6th-cen tu ry o fficia ls, do not belong to our tim e and cann o t eve r be s u it­
able in such uncom prom ising e x p re ssio n s of the p re se n t as illu stra ted m ag­
azin es and n e w sp a p e rs. B e c a u se at p re se n t a re ally good s a n s e rif for
everyd ay use does not yet e xist, the next most sim ple fa c e , rom an, has to
be used. The factu a l-im p erso n al roman fa c e s . G aram ond. Bodoni. Fra n ­
z ö sisc h e A n tiq u a. N o rd isch e A n tiq u a. S o rb o n n e, and o th ers, are better
than all the art and jo bb ing fa c e s : th e ir outer form [u n like the latter fa c e s ]
does not dom inate th eir co n ten t.
Ph o to graph ic b locks are im proved w hen used w itho u t ugly bord er ru le s.
The b o rd ers, often ce n tim etre s th ick , to be seen in many n e w sp a p e rs, must
ab so lu te ly be avoided. They are n eith e r a ttractiv e to our eyes nor helpful to
the effe ct of the p ictu re s, but u n sym p athe tic.
T here are no law s for the placing of p ictu re s on the page. Stro ng co n tra sts
in size and form [la rg e -sm a ll, tig h t-lo o se, d a rk-lig h t, v e rtica l-h o riz o n ta l,
d e e p -sh allo w , e tc .] are easy to ach ieve and attra c tiv e . Photom ontage can
be used e ffe ctive ly in many w a ys. In vie w of all th e se rich p o ssib ilitie s, it is
asto n ish in g how poor is the design of most of our illu stra te d p a p ers. The
a p p earan ce of even the most im portant of them is really p ro vin cial.
S po rtspie ge l and D e r W eltspiegel have made good effo rts to im prove th eir
arran g em en t of p ictu re s.
A s w ell as the ab ove-m entio ned item s, the to tally u n n e c e ss a ry fram ing of
pictu re pages must take part of the blam e. T h e se fram es should be d is ­
ca rd e d , m aking the p ictu re s larger and more effe ctive .
A fu rth er ad van tag e for our time is the unified form at, w h ich w a s pre vio u sly
la ckin g . The DIN form at A3 [297 x 420 mm] should be co n sid e re d h ere, as
most su itab le for this p u rpo se.
Finally w e m ust mention the printing te c h n iq u e s of illu stra te d p a p ers. We
can ce rta in ly e xp e ct an e v e r-in cre a sin g use of ro tary g ravu re. It is u n d o u b t­
edly the most su itab le p ro ce ss for illu stra ted p a p e rs. O ffset-lith o . b e cau se
of the la ck of depth in its printed im ages, can n o t co m p are w ith it: in this
co n n ectio n it is in the sam e c la ss as o rdin ary ro tary le tte rp re ss , w h ich also

216
can no longer com pete with g ra vu re. The rich depth and general effe ct of
gravu re are enticing to cu sto m e rs. D o u b tle ss more and more illu strated
p ap ers w ill go over to it, u n le ss, as is p o ssib le , a new , p erh ap s more b e au ­
tiful and eq ually rational p ro ce ss is d isco ve re d .

TA B U LA R M ATTER
In tab u lar m atter, the usual th ick /th in and fine double ru le s, and indeed all
kinds of rule co m b in atio n s, must at last be got rid of. With sim ple ru le s,
from fine to tw e lve-p o in t size , even the n arro w e st co lu m n -sp a cin g s can be
made cle a r and better than with the old ru le -co m b in atio n s.
T ab le -h ead in g s, as long as they are o utside the table itself, must not be
cen tred but positioned left or right. S m aller h ead in g s in sid e tab u lar m atter,
on the o ther hand, should u sually as an excep tio n be ce n tre d , b e cau se o th­
e rw ise they tend to look untidy.
To ach ieve the g re ate st cla rity it is again s a n s e rif that must be used in ta b ­
ular m atter for em p h asis.
O ld -style [n o n -ran g in g ] fig u res m ust never be u sed . They are an u n p ra c ti­
cal and o ut-of-d ate h isto rica l form . En-body fig u re s w itho u t a sc e n d e rs or
d e sc e n d e rs are the only right ones for tab u lar m atter — and e lse w h e re .
A s gu id elin es for han dw ritten e n tries fine ru le s are more p ra ctica l and b et­
ter-lo o kin g than dotted ru le s. S in c e th ese e n trie s are today u su ally ty p e ­
w ritte n , g u id elin es are often u n n e c e ss a ry and d istu rb in g .
Tabular m atter need no lo nger be a rath e r u n p le asan t job to d e sig n , if one
can be free of rigid ru le s; on the co n trary, it can becom e a really charm ing
and a rtistic e x e rc is e , in no w ay le ss in terestin g than any other area of jo b ­
bing settin g .

THE NEW BO O K
In the area of book d e sig n , in the last few y e a rs a revolution has taken
p lace , until re cen tly reco g n ized by only a few . but w h ich now begin s to
in flu e n ce a much w id e r range of actio n .
It m eans placing much g re ate r em p h asis on the a p p earan ce of the book
and a w holly co n tem po rary use of typ o g rap h ic and p h o to grap h ic m eans.
Befo re the invention of prin tin g, literatu re of th at time w as sp read around
by the mouth of the autho r h im self or by p ro fe ssio n al bard s. The books
of the M iddle A g es - like the "M a n n e s sisc h e L ie d e rh a n d sc h rift" - had

217
m erely the fu n ctio n of being a copy of the sp o ken w o rd . Printing h o w ever
had the im m ediate re su lt of tra n sfe rrin g the sp read of lite ratu re from being
spo ken to being re ad .*
The man of the 15th ce n tu ry stood e re ct in front of the d e sk and read
aloud. That w as the reason for the large le tte rs c h a ra c te ris tic of most
g o th ic bo o ks. It w a s not until late r that the tem po of reading ac ce le ra te d
and made sm alle r type p o ssib le and n e c e s sa ry .
R ead ing aloud slo w ly, “fe e lin g ” each se p a ra te le tte r and w o rd , has now
given w ay to skim m ing the text. M odern reading te ch n iq u e o w es its nature
to the w ay n e w sp a p e rs are se t. th e ir large and sm all lin e s, th e ir d ifferent
w e ig h ts of ty p e s, the sp acin g of sin g le w o rd s and w ho le p a ss a g e s , the
m aking p a ssa g e s prom inent by w id e sp acin g and lead in g , and so on. The
o p tical a p p e a ra n ce of n e w sp a p e rs Is e vid en ce of to d a y ’s sp eed of life.
In lite ratu re itself, sim ilar ch an g e s have taken p lace . The w rite r of today no
lo nger d e sc rib e s at ep ic length, like the poet of the 19th ce n tu ry, the fe e l­
ings of his h ero es and the la n d sca p e s of his sto ry. The sp eed and u rg e n cy
of film s has also in flu e n ced lite ratu re in the d irectio n of se co n d -b y-se c o n d
actio n . The novel has been re p laced by the sh o rt sto ry. In th eir se a rch for
new w ays of exp re ssio n som e w rite rs of today have tu rn ed to typ og raphy.
They have tried to tra n sfe r the w a ys of e xp re ssin g m odern pro se from
a c o u stic to visu al e ffe cts.
The Fran co -Po le G uillaum e A p o llin aire w rote his "C a llig ra m m e s” in "co n ­
c re te ” form. His ve rse d e sc rib e d the o u tlin es of s p e c ta c le s , c lo c k s , b ird s,
flo w e rs, h o rse s, men. etc. Its pu blicatio n w as d e p en d en t on pho to m echan-
ically repro du ced h an d w ritin g .
The Italian fu tu rist F. T. M arinetti took a fu rth e r step in the total typ o ­
g rap h ic design of poetry in his book Les m ots en lib e rté fu tu riste s C l9 1 9 ).
By using d ifferent w e ig h ts of type and d iffere n t typ e s, by placing them in
sp e c ia l p o sitio n s, by repetition of co n so n an ts and vo w e ls and a novel use
of typ o g rap h ic sig n s, he tried to give a ph o n etic effe ct to the spo ken word
by the in cisive optical effe ct of typ o g rap h ic form s. The printed word as the
m eans of exp re ssio n w as en rich ed by the sp e c ific a lly o p tical effe ct of his
typ o g rap h ic d e sig n . All e a rlie r books count on reading aloud or le isu re ly
reading w ell d istan ced from the w o rld . The book of to d a y ’s active man.

• The speaker did not d isapp ear suddenly. Only in the last few years has the p ub lic’s interest in
him dim inished.
For such w orks of literature, depending on aco u stic effect - in w hich the spoken word is e s s e n ­
tial - the gram ophone record is still a relatively perfect p o ssib ility: Kurt S ch w itte rs and Joachim
R ingelnatz have co nsequently spoken some of their "acoustic" creations on record s.

218
EL LISSITZKY (1922-1923):
The Mayakovsky book shown open (photo by Lissitzky)

w h o se eye is his most valued in stru m en t of re ce p tio n , has been desig n ed

for the first time by M arin etti.
B e sid e s the pure "le tte r-b o o k," a new book-form has arrived , the "p ictu re-
book." i.e. a com bination of both form s. M odern man has found in illu s ­
trated n ew sp ap e rs and m agazines a new so u rce of d elig h t. The im perso nal
cla rity and pre cisio n of ph o to g rap h ic reporting often co m m un icates far b e t­
ter and fa ste r than an a rticle dealing with the sam e su b je ct. In many papers
photographs are alread y more im portant: text has taken a step b ack. The

219
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s s

JOHN HEARTFIELD: Double spread of a book jacket. 1925.

 FEUERSTEIN-KREJCAR-
SIMA-TEIGE:
Cover of an almanac
(1922)

"a S it O H \ I K \ O V K K n A S 1 r*

tory of art. the p ictu res are the m ajor part of the book: in large p ictu re-
books about G erm any and many other c o u n trie s, illu stra ted w ith pho­
to graphs COrbis Terra ru m ], the only text is a sh o rt fo rew o rd .
A fte r the Fu tu rists, the D ad aists explo red the p o ssib ilitie s of typ o g rap h ic
tech n iq u e in th eir m ag azin es. Ku rt S c h w itte rs in his m agazine M e rz used
typ o g rap h ic and varied ph o to g rap h ic co m p on en ts w h ich w e re unified by
his typ o g rap h ic d esig n . In D a d a istic d e sig n s the previo u s ap p arent incom ­
patibility of re p ro d u ctio n s in book design has d isa p p ea red and b lo cks,
w h e th e r from photographs or d ra w in g s, have becom e an integ rated part of
the bo o k.* The sp ecial [fo r exam ple ap p are n tly p la stic] form of a halftone

• The artists of the pre-w ar period denied the p ossibility of a rtistic unity in books using halftone
b locks. This is in contradiction to the needs of our own tim e; and now also handmade paper and
hand-coloured w oodcuts belong to the past.

221
b lock is no h in d ran ce to its use. On individual p ag es, and in the book as a
w h o le, harm ony in design com es from the use of larg er and sm aller “ p la s ­
tic" and flat elem en ts, varied lines of m ovem ent [v e rtic a l, ho rizo ntal, s la n t­
in g ). and not least the p o sitive value of unprinted sp a ce , w h ich form erly
m eant nothing and now is as much a proper elem ent as printed m atter.
Th e se ideas co in cid e with the p rin cip le s of "abso lu te" painting, w h o se in i­
tiato rs are co n tem po rary with the o rig in ato rs of the N ew Typography.
The R u ssian El L issitz k y , one of the most im portant p re se n t-d ay a rtists in
R u ssia , has also done varied and sig n ifica n t w o rk in the field of typ o g ra ­
phy: in 1922 in B erlin in the R u ssia n /G e rm a n /F re n ch m agazine Gegenstand,

NA VLNACH
T S F
^ 0 es i e J a r 0 s l av a S e i f e r t a

T y p o g r a f ickä
Ciprava a Obalka
K a rla T e lg e h o

E D IC E
JH O S T A
s V a z e k I.
4^edlguJeFr. G

NAKLADATELSTVi VÄCLAVA PETRA

PRAHA-BUBENEC Socharska, 334
Tiskem R Obziny ve Vyskove Morava
PRAHA 1925
KAREL TEIGE:
Imprint of a
poetry book

222
JAN TSCHICHOLD: Title-page of Colin Ross, F a h rte n - u n d A b e n t e u e r b u c h
CPermission lo reproduce the originally intended frontispiece shown here was refused by the
owner of the photography — another publisher - and it had to be replaced by a much worse
photograph)

223
in 1923 in an edition of poetry by M a yako vsky, the R u ssia n Fu tu rist, “ For
reading aloud" {^Dlya golossa^, from w h ich w e have alrea d y re p ro d u ced two
double sp re a d s CPP- 62. 63. and 2 1 9 ). The firs t pages of the poem s are
d esig n ed as picto rial p a ra p h ra se s of th eir co n te n ts, as an o ptical e x p re s ­
sion of the spo ken w o rd . By m eans of a thumb in d ex, as in a le tte r-file , a
p a rticu la r poem can be q u ickly found.
A n o th e r R u ssia n , R o d ch e n ko , in the book Pro eto by M ayako vsky, in 1923.
w as the first to illu stra te the text by m eans of ph otograp hy. With sin g le
photos in d iffere n t s iz e s a new p icto rial unity has been cre ate d Cphotomon-
ta g e ]. The stren g th of design of the artist is h ere no lo n ger e x p re sse d by
the ind ividual line of a d raw in g , but by the harm onio us com bination of v a r ­
ious truly o b je ctive (p h o to g ra p h ic) related elem e n ts. The D ad aist pho ­
tom ontages w e re p re d e c e s s o rs of th ese illu stra tio n s. The M alik pub lishin g
firm , founded in the Dada period, has made sp e c ia l use of th ese p h o ­
to m ontages on th eir co v e rs. With them , th e ir cre a to r Jo h n H eartfield has
provided m odels for co n tem p o rary b o o k -ja ck e ts. He is the in vento r of pho ­
tom ontage b in d in g s. His M alik-b in d in g s are the first of th e ir kind.
S im ilarly, som e m o dern-thinking a rtists in C z e ch o slo v a k ia , e sp e cia lly K arel
Teige, have made a s e rie s of rem arkab le b ind in gs for som e Prague p u b lish ­
ers and d esig n ed the books th em selves.
In G erm any. L. M o ho ly-N agy has becom e know n as a typ o g rap h ic d e sig n e r
through the B au h au s bo oks.
Th e re is an im portant sectio n of book pro d uctio n w h o se bo o ks, by nature
of th e ir text, like M a rin e tti’s Les m ots en lib e rté fu tu riste s or L is s itz k y ’s “ For
reading a lo u d ,” are not su itab le for being d e sig n ed . W hile th ere the typ o ­
g ra p h ic form is an in d ep en d en t (b u t in se p a ra b le ] part of the w h o le w o rk of
art, typ og raph y in th ese books fills a purely su b se rv ie n t role.
To talk of “ Neue S a c h lic h k e it” (N e w O b je ctiv ity ] in th eir co n ce p tio n is here
quite w rong , b e ca u se o b je ctivity in book design is by no m eans a new p rin ­
cip le . With books of th is kind (i.e . n o vels, and most s c ie n tific lite ra tu re ] it
is not a qu estio n of m aking a really new kind of book (in a te c h n ica l s e n s e ],
b e ca u se the old book-form is p e rfectly su itab le for th is kind of book, and
w ill rem ain so until a b etter form is d isc o v e re d . There is ab so lu te ly no need
for ch an g e, w h ich w ould only be ju stifie d w hen a re ally new form is found.
In co n n ectio n w ith typ o g rap h ic form, only m o d ificatio n s in trad itio n al book
d e sig n are p o ssib le . H o w ever little s ig n ific a n c e they may have for the
actu a l co n ten t, they still seem to us to be im portant en o u g h ; ju s t as the
c h a ra c te ris tic bo ok-form s of the G o th ic. B aro q u e. R o co co , and W ilhelm -
enian eras rem ained v irtu ally u n changed te c h n ica lly , so our own time must
cre a te its own e xp re ssio n in the typ o g rap h y of the book.

224
 (0
*0

tv)
I
IV)
U1
E L LIS S IT Z K Y a n d KURT SC H W ITTER S: D o u b le -p a g e s p r e a d fro m t h e " N a s c i" is s u e o f M e r z 8/9. 1 9 24.
 Entwurf
D IN
B u c h fo rm a te
829

Fo rm a te d e r gehefteten beschn itten en B ü c h e r

iT l7 i.tO S )

~s},7<4

Die Buchformate sind DIN 4 7 6 - Papierformate - entnommen.

Die Formate der A-Reihe, nach der Geschäftspapiere, Werb­

sachen, Akten, Karteikarten festgelegt sind, sind auch für
Bücher zu bevorzugen.
Für G e s c h ä f t s b ü c h e r werden alle Formate der A-Reihe von A 2 bis A 7
verwendet.
Für Fälle, in denen sich die A-Formate nicht verwenden lassen, sind die For­
mate der B-Reihe zulässig.
Die Formate können hoch und quer verwendet werden.
G e h e ft e t e b e s c h n it t e n e Bücher (und Zeitschriften) haben genau Norm­
format.
Bücher mit austrennbaren Blättern sind um den Blockrand breiter als Norm­
format; das ausgetrennte Blatt muß Normformat haben.
Ist beim B in d e n ein weiterer Beschnitt notwendig, so werden die Blätter
etwas kleiner als Normformat. Dafür steht der Deckel entsprechend über. Die
Höhe des Deckels muß genau dem Normformal entsprechen, die Breilä ist
durch das Bindverfahren bedingt.
Über Rohbogen und Satzspiegel liegen noch keine Normen vor, sie sind so zu
wählen, daß das geheftete Buch auf Normformat beschnitten werden kann.

Oktober 1926

226
S in ce to this form of a book its type is p a rticu la rly sig n ifica n t, one ch an g e,
nam ely the d iscard in g of h isto rica l and h isto rica l-se e m in g ty p e fa c e s, must
be striven for. W hile in all o ther are a s th ere are sig n s of movem ent to w ard s
m o dernization, our modern books on the co n trary are still using the h isto r­
ical form s of fraktu r and roman.
The p resen t u n iversal and exag g erated o b e d ie n ce to the pre-1914 w a tc h ­
word “ m aterial qu ality!" has m eant, among o th er th in g s, that Germ an books
are the most exp e n sive in the w o rld . So fo r som eone of even average
incom e, the Germ an book has becom e an alm ost u n attain ab le lu xu ry o bject.
It follow s that we w ant today:
1. a contem po rary Ctherefore not h isto rica l] typ o g rap h ic form ;
2. in e xp en sive books for people, not luxury books for sn o b s.
C o n cernin g the letterform of the text typ e fa c e , one can refer to the sectio n
in the pre se n t book that d e als w ith this to p ic. But ce rta in ly one w ill be
thinking of a roman designed not by any one p e rso n ; a c la s s ic typ e fa ce —
say G aram ond — or a co n tem p o rary typ e face su ch as N o rd isch e A n tig u a.
This w ill be so as long as one canno t get hold of a s a n s e rif in q u antities
that make its use as a text face p o ssib le . It is o bvio usly not good to set a
w hole book in bold or sem i-bold sa n s e rif, s in c e th ese typ es in quantity are
not e a sily legib le. For everyd ay u se. light or o rdin ary s a n s e rif should be
used, and the p resen t book sh o w s that s a n s e rif can be read as ea sily as
any other typ eface. For disp lay, sem i-bold and bold s a n s e rif, Eg yp tian s and
bold roman are the most su ita b le . The text of travel books or novels can
also be organized v isu ally w ith larg e r and sm alle r bold s a n s e rif for h ea d ­
ing s. The pho to grap hic block is being in tro d u ced into the book as a new
elem ent.
The R e n a issa n ce ideal - a book page of even grey - is fin ish e d ; instead
we have harm ony from co n trastin g typ o g rap h ic and ph o to g rap h ic elem ents
using b rig h tn e ss, s p a ce , and d ire ctio n . C o n tem po rary bindings and book-
ja c k e ts sim ilarly show an in cre a sin g use of photography.
It is alread y cle a r today that a new form of book e x ists.

Book form ats

The stan dard book form ats on the facing page are not su itab le for im ag ina­
tive literatu re - for novels and sim ilar books w h ich are held in the hand for
reading , they are too w ide and th erefo re u n co m fo rtable - but they ce rta in ly
are for larger books, s c ie n tific w o rk s, ca ta lo g u e s in book form , handbooks
(the p resen t book is in A 5 ], and are also su itab le for sm aller books CA6].
The form at A4 is very good for art books, m ono graphs, etc.

227
It seem s n e c e s sa ry to find a stan d ard form at also for n o vels, co rre sp o n d in g
w ith the w ay they are u sed . The D IN -fo rm at page proportion is not su itab le
for th e se bo oks. Perhap s w e should sta n d ard ize only th e ir page d ep th s,
e.g . 176 mm depth for n o vels.

228
B IB LIO G R A P H Y
In ch ro n o lo g ical o rder w ithin the d ifferent language gro u ps.

The bold le tte rs follow ing in d ica te :

b = w h o lly illu strated books
d = poetry
t = included only for th eir typ og raphy
Books m arked w ith • are e sp e cia lly recom m ended for the reader.
Inform ation on p rice s can be obtained from the p u b lish e rs and b o o k se lle rs.

Periodicals fo r m o d e rn design (in alphabetical order]

A B C . Beiträge zum Bauen. B ase l, A u g u stin e rg a sse 5.
D E R A R A R A T . G lo sse n , S kizzen und Notizen zu r Neuen K u n st. G o ltzverlag,
M ünchen, 1 9 1 9 -1 9 2 1 .
D E R S T U R M . H erau sg e b er H erw arth W aiden. B erlin , Potsdam er S tr. 136a.
DE S T IJ L . Z e itsch rift für Neue G estaltu n g . H e rau sg e b er Theo van D o esburg .
Kom m issio nsverlag für D e u tsch la n d : Ern st W asm uth A G , B erlin .
•G Q .Z e itsc h rift für elem entare G estaltu n g . H erau sg e b er Hans R ich ter,
B erlin -G ru n ew ald , T rab e n erstraß e 25.
• G E G E N S T A N D . In tern ation ale R u nd sch au der K u n st der G eg en w art.
H erau sg e b er El Lissitz k y und lija Eren b urg . Verlag S kyth en , B erlin -
G ru n ew ald , K arlsb a d e r S traß e 16. Only nos. 1/2 and 3 [19223 ap p eared .
L’E S P R IT N O U V EA U . Revue Internationale illustrée de l'activité contem poraine.
D irecteurs: Ozenfant et Jeanneret. Paris. Jean Budry et Cie, 1921-1925.
MA. Zeitschrift für aktive Kunst. Herausgeber L. Kassak. Wien X III. A m alien­
straße 26.
• M E R Z . H e rau sg eb er Kurt S c h w itte rs. Hannover, W ald h au sen straß e 5. II.
PA SM O . H e rau sg eb er A rtu s C e rn ik, B rn o -Ju lian o v, Husovo nabr. 10.

Special num bers [in chronological order)

• JU N G E M E N S C H E N . B au h au sh eft. N ovem ber 1924. Typog raphy: Jo o st
Sch m id t. Hamburg 13. Jo h n sa lle e 54.
DAS N E U E R U S S L A N D . S o nd erh eft R u ss is c h e s Theater. 1925, 3/4. H e rau s­
geber Erich Baron, B erlin -P an ko w , K a v a lie rstra ß e 10.
•D E R B Ü C H E R K R E IS . So n d erh e ft Neue Ku n st. 1925, Heft 12. Verlag des
B ü c h e rk re ise s, Berlin S W 6 8 . B e lle -A llia n c e -P la tz 8.
L E S C A H IE R S DU M O IS. Nos. 16/17: Ciném a. Editions Em ile-Paul Frères.
14. rue de l'Abbaye, Paris, 1925.
L E S F E U IL L E S L IB R E S . So n d erh e ft Man Ray. M ai-Ju in 1925. Paris. Lib rairie
S to ck.

229
Q U A LITÄ T. So n d erh e ft Das Bauhaus in D e ssa u . 1925, 5/6. In tern ation ale
P ro p a g an d a -Z e itsch rift für Q u alitätse rze u g n isse . B erlin -C h arlo tte n b u rg 9.
Redaktion C. E. H inkefuß.
• T Y P O G R A P H IS C H E M IT T E IL U N G E N . Sonderheft elem entare typ og raphie.
1925. heft 10. redaktion jan tsch ich o ld . verlag des b ild u n g sverb an d e s der
deu tsch en b u ch d ru cke r, berlin.
• A B C . S erie 2, Nr. 2. S o nd erh eft Neue K u n st. Redaktion H annes M eyer,
B asel. A u g u stin e rg a sse 5. 1926.
•D A S W E R K . So n d erh e ft Die Neue Welt. Ju li 1926. Redaktion H annes
M eyer. Verlag Gebr. Fretz A G , Z ü rich .
•O F F S E T . B U C H - U N D W E R B E K U N S T . B au h au sh eft. 1926, Heft 7. Leip zig.
S e e b u rg straß e 57.

Czech
Z IV O T II. S b o rn ik nové krásy. Typography: Karel Teige. Photom ontage on
co ver: Fe u erstein — K re jca r — Sim a-Teige. V ylvarny odbor um elecké
besedy, Praha II, 1922.
\ IT E S L A V N E Z V A L : Pantomim a. C o ver: Jin d ric h S tyrsky . Typography: Karel
Teige. Praha, 1924. d
K A R E L T E IG E : Film. C o ver and typography by the author. V áclav Petr,
P rah a -B u b en ec, 1925.
J . H O N Z L : Ro zto cené je v iste . C o ver: S tyrsky and Toyen. Typography: Karel
Teige. Jan From ek, Praha. 1925.
J A R O S L A V S E IF E R T : Na vinách T S F . Typography and co ver: Karel Teige.
V áclav Petr, P rah a -B u b en ec. 1925. d
V IT E S L A V N E Z V A L : M en si ruzová zahrad a. C o ver: S ty rsk y and Toyen.
Typography: Karel Teige. Odeon. Praha, 1926. d

Danish
H A R A L D LA N D T M O M B E R G : A ktiv Reklam e. Nye p rin cip e r i an n o n cerin -
gens kun st, K ö b e n h a vn -K ristia n ia -B e rlin . Det Ny Stu d en tersam fu n d s
Forlag, 1924.

D utch
E L L IS S IT Z K Y : Su p rem atisch worden van tw ee Quadraten. Verlag De StijI.
Clam art [S e in e ], Fran kre ich . 64 av. S ch n eid er, 1922. b d

French
F. T. M A R IN E T T I: M an ifeste du futurism e [p u b lié par le „F ig a ro “ le 20 février
1 9 0 9 ). Leaflet. M ilano, n.d.

230
B A L IL L A P R A T E L L A : M an ifeste des m u sicien s fu tu riste s. Leaflet. M ilano,
1911.
F. T. M A R IN E T T I: Su pplém en t au m anifeste tech n iq u e de la littératu re fu tu ­
riste . Leaflet. M ilano. 1912.
U M B E R T O B O C C IO N I: M an ifeste tech n iq u e de la scu lp tu re fu tu riste .
Leaflet. M ilano, 1912.
L U IG I R U S S O L O : L’art des b ru its. Leaflet. M ilano, 1913.
F. T. M A R IN E T T I: Les mots en liberté fu tu riste s. Edizioni fu tu riste di
„P o e sia". M ilano. 1919.
T R IS T A N T Z A R A : ciném a c a le n d rie r du co e u r ab strait, m aisons, bois par
arp . co llectio n dada, au sa n s p areil, 37 avenu e kléb er. p aris. 1920. db
F. T. M A R IN E T T I: Le tactilism e . Leaflet. M ilano. 1920.
J E A N E P S T E IN : Ciném a. Paris. Editio ns de la S irè n e . 1921.
M A X E R N S T : Les m alheurs des im m ortels, ré vé lé s par Paul Eluard et M ax
Ern st. Paris. Lib rairie S ix, 1922. db
M AN R A Y : Cham ps d é licie u x. Album de p h o to grap h ies avec un pré face de
Tristan Tzara. Paris, 1922. b
T R IS T A N T Z A R A : sept m anifestes dada, q u elq u es d e ssin s de fran cis
picab ia. éditions du dioram a, jean budry & co. 3, rue du ch e rch e-m id i,
p aris, n.d. C1925).
A N D R É B R E T O N : M an ifeste du su rré a lism e . Poisson so lu b le . P aris, Simon
Kra C19253.
LE C O R B U S IE R : Vers une arc h ite c tu re . Paris, G. C rès & C ie, n.d. (1 9 2 4 ].
LE C O R B U S IE R : U rb an ism e. P aris. G. C rès & C ie . n.d. (1 9 2 5 ].
LE C O R B U S IE R : L’art décoratif d’aujourd’hui. Paris. G. Crès & Cie. n.d. (1 9 2 5 ].
LE C O R B U S IE R : La peinture m oderne. Paris, G. C rès & C ie, n.d. (1 9 2 5 ].
L E C O R B U S IE R : A lm anach d ’a rc h ite c tu re m oderne. Paris. G. C rè s & C ie.
n.d. (1 9 2 5 ].

G erm an
D IE S C H R IF T E N D E R „ B R Ü C K E " , In tern atio n a les Institut zur O rg an isieru ng
der geistigen A rb e it. M ünchen 1 9 1 1 -1 9 1 2 .
M A N IF E S T D ES F U T U R IS M U S . Katalog der A u sste llu n g „D e r S tu rm “ .
Berlin . Der Sturm . 1912.
H A N S A R P : die w o lkenpum pe. paul steeg em an n. verlag . hannover. 1920. d
R IC H A R D H U E L S E N B E C K : En avant dada. Eine G e sch ic h te des D ad aism us.
Paul Steeg em an n. H annover, n.d . (1 9 2 0 ].
•D R . W. P O R S T M A N N : Sprache und sch rift. B eu th verlag . Berlin , 1920.
G E O R G E G R O S Z : Mit Pinsel und S ch e re . 7 M ate rialisa tio n e n . B erlin , M alik-
Verlag, 1922. b
231
M A -B U C H N E U E R K Ü N S T L E R [100 p ic tu re s ]. R ed ig iert von L. K a ssä k und
L. M oholy-N agy. M a-Verlag L. K a ssä k , Wien X III. A m alien str. 26, 1922.
K U R T S C H W IT T E R S : A nna Blum e, Paul Steeg em an n. H annover, 1922. d
E L L IS S IT Z K Y : Figu rin en. Die p lastisch e G estaltung der e le k tro m e ch a n is­
chen S c h a u : Sieg über die So nn e. 10 original lith o g raph s. H annover. 1923.

E L L IS S IT Z K Y : Proun. 6 original lith o g raph s. 1. K estn erm ap p e. Hannover,

Ludw ig Ey, 1923. b
S T A A T L IC H E S B A U H A U S IN W E IM A R 1 9 1 9 -1 9 2 3 . Typography: L. M oholy-
Nagy. B au h au sverlag . W eim ar-M ü n ch en , 1923.
S A M M L U N G G A B R IE L S O N - G Ö T E B O R G . Erw erb u n g en 1922/23 B erlin . Mit
Beiträgen von A do lf Behne. Ludw ig H ilberseim er, S. Fried län d er-M yn o n a,
N .p ., n.d.
P R E S S E S T IM M E N [A U S Z Ü G E ] FÜ R D A S S T A A T L IC H E B A U H A U S
W E IM A R . Typography and ja c k e t: L. M oholy-N agy. W eim ar, n.d. [1 9 2 4 ].
PRO F. D R. C. A U G U S T E M G E : Die Idee des B au h a u se s. Ku n st und W irk ­
lich ke it. Pan-Verlag Rolf H eise, B erlin , n.d. [1 9 2 4 ].
• IN T E R N A T IO N A L E A U S S T E L L U N G N E U E R T H E A T E R T E C H N I K W IE N
1924. Katalo g, Programm. A lm anach . H erau sg eg eb en von Fried rich
K ie sle r. Typography: Fried rich K ie sle r. Verlag W ürthle & Sohn N ach f.. Wien
I. W eih b u rg g asse 9. 1924.
LU M Ä R T E N : W esen und Veränderung der Formen - Kü n ste . Taifun-Verlag,
Fran kfu rt a .M ., 1924.
B R U N O T A U T : Die neue W ohnung. Die Frau als S ch ö p fe rin . C o ver: J o ­
hannes M olzahn. K lin kh ard t & Bierm ann, Leip zig, 1924.
L. T R O T Z K I: Litera tu r und Revolution. Verlag für Litera tu r und Politik. W ien.
1924.
W ERBW ART W E ID E N M Ü L L E R : gesang vom w e rb e w e rk . Stettin, willy
puppe. 1924.
A L M A N A C H E U R O P A 1925. G u stav K iep en h eu er, Potsdam , 1924.
H A N S A R P : der pyram idenrock. eugen rentsch verlag, m ünchen, 1925. d
•A D O L F B E H N E: Von Kunst zur G estaltu n g . Einführung in die moderne
M alerei. C o ver: O skar Fisch e r. A rb e ite r-Ju g e n d -V e rlag , Berlin . 1925.
DR. A N N A B E R L IN E R : Ja p a n isc h e Reklam e in der Tageszeitu n g. Stuttg art.
C .E . Poeschel Verlag , 1925.
M A X B U R C H A R T Z : Folder with le aflets for the Bochum A sso ciatio n for
M ining and C ast-S te e l Production [typo graphy with photom ontage].
Bochum , 1925. t
LU D W IG H IL B E R S E IM E R : G ro ßstad tb au ten [N eu e A rch ite k tu r 1]. Apoß-
verlag , H annover, 1925.

232
• E L L IS S IT Z K Y U N D H A N S A R P : K u n st-Ism en 1 9 1 4 -1 9 2 4 . Typography: El
L issitzk y. Eugen R en tsch V erlag . M ü nch en , 1925.
D IE S C H E U C H E . M ärch en . Typo g raph isch g e sta ltet von Kurt S c h w itte rs,
Käte S tein itz, Theo van D o esbu rg . A p o ß ve rla g , H annover. 1925. d
K U R T S C H W IT T E R S UND K Ä T E S T E IN IT Z : Die M ärchen vom Paradies.
Typography: Kurt S ch w itte rs. A p o ß ve rla g . Hannover, 1925. d
C O LIN R O S S : Fahrten- und A b e n te u e rb u ch . Typography and co ver: Jan
T sch ich o ld . Verlag der B ü ch erg ild e G u ten b erg , Berlin , 1925. t
G U T E N B E R G F E S T S C H R IF T 1925. H erau sgegeb en von A. Ruppel. Verlag der
G u te n b e rg -G e se llsch a ft. M ainz. 1925.
A R T H U R S E G A L U N D N IK O L A U S B R A U N : Lich tpro blem e der bildenden.
Ku n st. Berlin , 1925.
D IE B A U H A U S B Ü C H E R :
1 W alter G ro p iu s: In tern ation ale A rch ite k tu r
2 Paul K le e: Päd ag o g isch es S kizze n b u ch
3 Ein V e rsu ch sh a u s des B au h au ses
4 Die Bühne im B auhaus
•5 Piet M o nd rian: Neue G estaltu n g
•6 Theo van D o esbu rg : G ru n d b eg riffe der neuen gestalten den K u n st
7 Neue A rb eiten der B au h au sw e rkstätte n
•8 L. M oholy-N agy: M alerei, Photographie, Film
9 W. K an d in sk y : Punkt und Lin ie zu Fläch e
10 Oud, H o llän d isch e A rch ite k tu r
11 M ale w itsch , Die g e g e n stan d slo se Welt
A lb e rt Langen, Verlag. M ü nch en . 1925/28.
LE C O R B U S IE R : Kom m ende B au k u n st C= Vers une arch itectu re]). D e u tsch e
V e rlag sa n stalt. Stu ttg art. 1926.
5 0 JA H R E S T A D T T H E A T E R IN M A G D E B U R G . Fe stsch rift. G esam tau sstattu n g :
Jo h a n n e s M olzahn. Verlag : M itteld eu tsch e R e k lam e -G e se llsch aft m .b.H .,
M agdeburg, 1926. t
D IE FO R M . Z e itsch rift für g estalten d e A rb e it. Verlag Herm ann R eck en d o rf
Berlin W 35, 1926.
R U D O L F K U R T Z : E xp re ssio n ism u s und Film. B erlin , Verlag der L ich tb ild ­
bühne, 1926.
KA TA LO G 1926/1 der R ich m o d -G alerie C asim ir Hagen, Köln, R ichm od str. 3.
Typography: Anton R ä d e rsch e id t. Köln, 1926. t
S IE G F R IE D E B E L IN G : Der Raum als M em bran. D e ssau . 1926, C. D ünnhaupt
Verlag.
K A R L S C H E F F L E R : Z eit und Stu n d e. Leip zig, In sel-V erlag.

233
A NOTE ON THE BO O K A N D ITS D ESIG N
This first p u blicatio n of an E n g lish -lan g u ag e versio n of Jan T sc h ic h o ld ’s Die
neue Typografie [1 9 2 8 } has attem pted to fo llo w the a u th o r’s o rig in al page
layouts and design p re ce p ts as clo se ly as p o ssib le . A u ro ra G ro te sk, show n
in the Bertho ld Phototypes E l catalo g [1 9 7 4 ). w as id en tified as the ty p e ­
face c lo se st to that used in the original G erm an ed itio n ; this typ e fa c e , h o w ­
ever, had not been digitized at the time the C alifo rn ia edition w a s p ro ­
d u ced . The text w as set in 7.75 Imago Light Extended w ith 11.6 point le a d ­
ing. The typ eface w a s revised by extend ing its o verall set w id th s by 112
p e rce n t: ch a ra c te r sp acin g w a s expanded to a Q uark X P re s s trackin g value
of 16. D isp lay fonts w e re set in Fru tig er Ultra B la ck w ith a tra ckin g value of
19. Illu stra tio n s w ere scan n ed from the rep rin t issu ed by Brinkm ann & Bose
[B e r lin : 19873, and from Leben und Werk des Typographer! Jan Tschichold
[M u n ich : G. K. Sau r, 19883. Paper and binding m ate rials w e re se le cte d to
approxim ate those used in the Brinkm ann & Bose edition. Spo n so rin g Editor;
Edw ard D im en db erg, U n ive rsity of C alifo rn ia P re ss, Los A n g e le s. P ro d u c­
tion E d ito r: R e b e cca Frazier. U n ive rsity of C alifo rn ia P re ss. Los A n g e le s.
Production C o o rd in a to r: D anette D avis. U n iv e rsity of C alifo rn ia P re ss.
B e rke le y . R esea rch and D e sig n : S teve R e n ic k . U n iv e rsity of C alifo rn ia
P re ss. B e rke le y . R e se a rch and C o m p o sitio n : H a ssan H erz, TB H T yp e cast.
C otati, C alifo rn ia. Image S ca n n in g : S c a n A rt, R ichm o nd . C a lifo rn ia . Printing
and B in d in g : E d w ard s B ro th ers In c., Ann A rb o r, M ich ig an .

236
Jan Tschichold (1902-1974), a typographer and
teacher, became internationally known in 1925 with
the publication of Elementary Typography, the first
statement of constructivist graphic design principles.
After being taken into "protective custody" by the
National Socialists for "cultural bolshevism," he left
Germany in 1933 for Switzerland, where he worked
as a typographer until 1946. From 1946 to 1949 he
made his home in London, where he oversaw the
V
typographic reform of Penguin Books.

Ruari McLean, a typographer and scholar living in

Scotland, is the author of Jan Tschichold:
Typographer 0975).

Robin Kinross is a London typographer and scholar

and the author of M odem Typography:
An Essay in Critical History 0992).

Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism, 8

A Centennial Book

Jacket design: Steve Renick

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