My productivity and time management for the day were just dealt a crushing blow. Sevanti Letterpress digitized an entire copy of the 1148-page tome that is the 1923 American Type Founders Specimen Book. Then released high-resolution PDFs of the massive work for free.
So much type. So many great layouts and examples of type in use. So many ornaments. So many great quotes. So hard to pick pieces to highlight. Just check out the whole thing.
After all is said and done, the printer’s work is judged chiefly by the type faces used in it. A good type face may make poor paper and cheap inks passable, but the best qualities of papers and of inks are incapable of giving even a semblance of quality to printing executed with type faces of inferior designs.
- American Type Founders Specimen Book (1923)