Owing to the varying styles of authors and the diverse subjects of books, some letters will now and then run short in a fount, whatever the proportions may have been at first. A new fount of type may run evenly on a work in general literature written in the third person, while a novel filled with dialogues in the first person will rapidly exhaust certain letters, and require sorts to render the fount serviceable to its full general capacity. So with scientific and other books. Even in the case of two authors writing on the same subject, there is no certainty that the fount will run alike. The master-printer, therefore, to keep the entire letter in use, is compelled to order sorts, and his fount is thus constantly growing larger. A FOUNT OF TYPE. A complete fount of type may be comprised under the following heads:— _CAPITALS._ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Æ Œ & _SMALL CAPITALS._ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Æ Œ & _LOWER CASE._ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z æ œ ff fi ffi fl ffl _ITALIC CAPITALS._ _A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Æ Œ &_ _ITALIC LOWER CASE._ _a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z æ œ ff fi ffi fl ffl_ _FIGURES AND FRACTIONS._ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ¼ ½ ¾ ⅓ ⅔ ⅛ ⅜ ⅝ ⅞ _POINTS AND REFERENCES._ , ; : ? ! - ’ ( ) [ ] * † ‡ § ∥ ¶ _BRACES, DASHES AND COMMERCIAL SIGNS._ $ £ ° ` ´ [symb] [symb] [symb] - – — ⸺ ☞ ☜ @ ⅌ ℔ Four kinds of spaces; en, em, two and three em quadrates. Accents. These are the ordinary sorts cast to a fount, and are classified by founders as long, short, ascending, descending, kerned, and double letters. LONG LETTERS fill the whole depth of the face of the body, and are both ascending and descending, such in the Roman as Q and j, and in the Italic _f_. SHORT LETTERS have the face cast on the middle of the body, (by founders called shank,) as a, c, e, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w, x, z, all of which will admit of being bearded above and below the face, both in Roman and Italic. ASCENDING LETTERS are all the Roman and Italic capitals; in the lower case, b, d, f, h, i, k, l, t. DESCENDING LETTERS are g, p, q, y, in Roman and Italic. KERNED LETTERS are types that have part of the face hanging over either one or both sides of the body. In Roman, f and j are the only kerned letters; but, in Italic, _d_, _g_, _j_, _l_, _y_ are kerned on one side, and _f_ on both sides of its face. Most Italic capitals are kerned on one side of the face. The DOUBLE LETTERS in modern use are ff, fi, ffi, fl, ffl; and these are so cast to prevent the breaking of the beak of the f when used before a tall letter. The diphthongs æ and œ may be classed among double letters. Printers divide a fount of letter into two classes. 1. _The upper case_ } _sorts._ 2. _The lower case_ } The upper case sorts are capitals, small capital letters, references, dashes, braces, commercial signs and fractions.