printer (the "Buchdruckwerkstatte GmbH") was simply the printing office
of the Bildungsverband.3^7 The typeface used was an "Akzidenz Grotesk": a
"jobbing sanserif," designed anonymously, probably in the 1900s. For the
reasons already outlined, he would have preferred this over any of the
recently designed sanserifs, which (in the case of Futura) would hardly
have been available for purchase at the time the book was being set. On
the evidence of a contemporary catalogue, there could be several possibil
ities for a more exact identification of the typeface used.38 But, for the pur
pose of characterizing Tschichold's preferences, "Akzidenz Grotesk" in a
light (as against medium or regular) weight is sufficient description. He
remarks (p. 75) that he wanted to show that such a typeface could be eas
ily read in continuous text- against the common assumption that sanserif
is less legible or readable here than are seriffed letters. At least one reader
complained about this aspect: "This thin typeface - and then printed on
shiny art-paper- makes the reading of the book hardly the pleasant exer
cise that Tschichold assumes it will be."39 Tschichold was at least aware
that readability was a prime issue, if one that was complicated by the other
issues with which he was then concerned.
In a later reference to the setting of his own book (p. 227), Tschichold
mentions the constraint of having a sufficient quantity of type with which
to set a long text: something that could militate against setting a book in
sanserif. It is clear that he was then still working in conditions where
hand-setting of books was common or even usual: in book printing, at
least, if not throughout the industry.40 In this light, it may not be so sur
prising that the mechanization of text-setting is not discussed or even
mentioned in this book. Here, as elsewhere in architecture and design,
modernist theory -which would have preferred machine-setting, as more
in tune with the spirit of the age- could only run ahead of the real condi
tions of production.4 1
ORTHOGRAPHY
For Tschichold, as for some of his visionary artist-designer colleagues, the
question of letterforms could not be separated from orthography and a
reform of the systems of written and printed language. And, as with letter
forms and the debate over black letter, there was a specifically German
language dimension to the matter. He argues for a revised orthography that
would be phonetically exact and consistent, and for a single set of letters.
The argument is shot through with the rhetoric of modernism: for economyXXX