Counterpunch and Designing Books

by Fred Smeijers, Jost Hochuli and Robin Kinross.
Hyphen Press, London, 1996.

Reviewed by Wilfred Niels Arnold

We of the word processor and laser printer era are undoubtedly grateful but somewhat blas about the large range of available fonts and their facile interchange. Likewise, the developments in print technology and the production of books, which enjoy a rich history spanning five centuries, tend to be taken for granted. In order to appreciate the skills and techniques associated with the design and manufacture of books it can be fulfilling to read within the history of printing and to be guided through critical assessments of the final products. Hyphen Press has published a series in this regard.

The first movable types were cast in lead. A matrix was struck by a punch to generate a mold. This was filled with molten lead and then, after cooling, adjusting, and manipulating the type, it could be inked and used to create the printed words on paper. A set of punches was thus an essential and valuable item. In the first of two books to be reviewed here we are taken one step further back in the process, i.e. the construction and use of the counterpunch. An example helps to make the point. A counterpunch of solid elliptical shape would be used to make the depression in the interior of an "O" in a new punch.

The other basic feature is the use of soft steel during cutting and punching followed by tempering for a hard final product. In any event, every punch cutter had a well-balanced set of conterpunches because it would have been almost impossible to construct the smaller fonts with deep enough groves by gouging and engraving.

The surprising fact is that the Plantin-Moretus Museum, for example, has about 4,500 punches, but only 16 counterpunches. For answers to these and other questions Fred Smeijers provides a delightful treatise. The author is not only a typographic designer but has mastered all of the old techniques and he takes us step by step through processes for which he has obviously developed great love and appreciation.

"Designing books: practice and theory" is the work of another graphics designer and typographer, Jost Hochuli, together with Robin Kinros who is also the editor of the series. This volume will be of interest to specialists. My main reservation concerns the format. The pages are 6.5" x 10" and in many cases the illustrations fail to make the point.

The authors have elected to use greatly reduced examples, four or more on the same page, and the result is at best a Gest lt impression. For those that have access to the originals this volume may point the way but most of us will have difficulty conceiving the effects that the authors are proposing. In short, a much larger format would have more utility.