almost perfect type of the work most suitable to the needs of process.
Wider experience of printing requirements, and finer workmanship in
the actual making of the blocks, in Paris, Vienna, New York and
London, soon brought the half-tone process into great vogue. The
spread of education has enormously increased the demand for ephemeral
literature, more especially that which lends itself to pictorial
illustration; and the photograph or drawing in wash reproduced in
half-tone has of late to a great extent ousted line work from the
better class of both books and periodicals.
Improvements in machinery have made it possible to print illustrations
at a very high speed; and the facility with which photographs can now
be taken of scenes such as the public delight to see reproduced in
pictures has brought about an almost complete change in pictorial
journalism. In addition, reference must be made to an extraordinary
increase in the numbers and circulation of cheap periodical
publications depending to a very large extent for popularity on their
illustrations. Several of these, printed on the coarsest paper, from
rotary machines, sell to the extent of hundreds of thousands of copies
per week. It was inevitable that this cheapening process should not be
permitted to develop without opposition, and the _Dial_ (1889-1897)
must be looked on as a protest by the band of artists who promoted it
against the unintelligent book-making now becoming prevalent. Much
more effective and far-reaching in the same direction was the
influence of William Morris, as shown in the publications of the
Kelmscott Press (dating from 1891). In these volumes the aim was to
produce illustrations and ornaments which were of their own nature
akin to, and thus able to harmonize with the type, and to do this by
pure handicraft work. As a result, a distinct improvement is to be
found in the mere book-making of Great Britain; and although the main
force of the movement soon spent itself in somewhat uninspired
imitations, there can be no doubt of the survival of a taste for
well-produced volumes, in which the relationship of type, paper,
illustration and binding has been a matter of careful and artistic
consideration. Under this influence, a notable feature has been the
re-issue, in an excellent form, of illustrated editions of the works
of most of the famous writers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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