Type height

One of the essential characteristics for type to make the right impression on paper is that the all the pieces in the composition should all have the same height. This is not a trivial detail, since the quality of a good printing derives precisely from the precision of all the elements that contribute to its creation: the right thickness of paper, a dense ink and a good hand of the printer, of course. But it is precisely the impression of the characters, lined up to form lines and pages, that determines the final legibility of the texts. It is clear, therefore, that all characters had to be the same height after casting: the measurement from the base (foot) of the lead block to the eye is defined as type height. In the early printing houses, height was almost a professional ‘secret’, designed to protect the printer’s workshop and guarantee his expertise. When type foundries became established for the production of type, there was also a need for a ‘standardisation’ of typographic heights, which varied from country to country. In Italy, two were established: the French (63 points, 23.566 mm), which was widespread mainly in the North, and the Italian (66 points, 24.809 mm), which was more common in the regions of Central and Southern Italy.