The Art and Craft of Printing

For William Morris, a well-made book begins with decisions about paper, letters and the spaces between them. His account of founding the Kelmscott Press explains why he chose linen paper and studied early Venetian printing when designing his Roman type. He also discusses Gothic letters, even spacing and the arrangement of margins, treating two facing pages as the basic unit of book design. Decoration must belong to the printed page rather than distract from it.

S. C. Cockerell's short description of the press and annotated publication list accompany Morris's statement of aims. The catalogue records coloured inks, typefaces, bindings, borders and the numbers of copies printed, showing how those aims took shape in individual editions. Readers interested in typography or the history of printing will find both a designer's reasoning and a detailed record of finished books. The emphasis throughout is on the relationship between visual beauty and ease of reading.