MATERIAL REVIEW.
MESSRS. PULMAN'S COMMERCIAL PRINTING.
MESSRS. GEORGE PULISLAN AND SONS, Of Thayer Street, Manchester Square, send a varied assortment of the adver- tising pamphlets and showcards which they have produced for customers. It is at once apparent that the client's rather than the .printer's taste has too often prevailed. , The typo-
graphical contrast between Messrs. Pulman's own pamphlet, The Court of the Printers' Guild, wittily written and illustrated by Mr. W. Loftus Hare and the late Mr. Lovat Fraser, and printed in a superbly bold Roman type on a rough surfaced paper, and the dull and commonplace pamphlets produced for some other firms is almost ludicrous. It would hardly
seem possible that the one and the others came out of the same printing office. Of course, an elaborate descriptive catalogue could not be set in a large ornamental type with broad margins without becoming too bulky and too costly, but Aldus and the Elzevirs showed long ago how to get a large amount of print on a small page which should look attractive. The secret lies in the selection of a good fount of type and of a paper of pleasant colour, unlike the distressing muddy yellows and buffs that are unduly popular with advertising managers.
One of Messrs. Putman's successes is a provision merchant's price-list. The printer, by a judicious spacing of the type and a thoughtful use of heavy-faced capitals and lower case for the different classes of goods, has turned what is usually a very dull affair into an attractive little book. The name is rubricated at the top of each page, with a modest ornament, and in the lower corner of the page is a small, coloured illus- tration of the goods, which look appetizing. Another very happy achievement is a price-list of children's clothing, decorated with many of the clever and delicate sketches of
Miss Gladys Pao ; here the small, fanciful type, both Roman and italic, is skilfully arranged so as to tone with the drawings
and make a series of pleasant pages. A third pamphlet, which shows a keen sense of what is appropriate to the subject, is the prospectus of a girls' school, set in a large and hand- some type on thick white paper and bound in blue -and gold.
The prospectus of the new Bush House, with many drawings and plans, is less interesting for its typography than for its
contents : the greyish saw used. dulls the drawings and destroys the effect of the type, large and clear as it is. A word of praise is due to Mr. Padden's showcard for a well- known boot manufacturer, "which is'a capital piece of colour- printing, in gay colours on a black and rose background.
E. G. II.
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