Summary
Walker explains how type is made, shows the block-printing that preceded movable type, and argues that printing is bound to handwriting: while handwriting was good, printers had a living model, and when it decayed printing decayed too. On the screen he sets Gutenberg's Bible beside manuscripts, a printed Livy of 1469 and the first book printed at Venice. He tells of Aldus, the first publisher of cheap books, and shows the copy-book of the Venetian writing-master Vicentino, which draws applause. He passes to Elzevir, Caslon and Baskerville, whose type he thinks not very good. He warns against wide leading, which leaves the page in stripes, asks for wide margins except the inner ones, and notes that headlines often rob the page of its design.
On illustration, Walker asks for harmony between type and decoration and true book ornament rather than pictures where they are not wanted. Nothing should go into a book that cannot be printed in the same way as the type. A florid American magazine page draws laughter; a Boccaccio printed at Ulm, La Mer des Histoires, Blake and Bewick serve as good examples.