Linotype in Greece: the introduction of new typefaces in the Greek popular print media, 1970-1980 Access and critical evaluation of primary sources 1. Introduction About the research project he paper is presented as part of the research seminar programme in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading, 20 November 2014. Helena Lekka is a PhD candidate and is supervised by Professor Paul Luna and Gerry Leonidas. his research project is funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council. he subject of this research is Linotype’s introduction of new typefaces for commercial printing in Greece between 1970 and 1980. In particular, it focuses on the process of design and manufacture of these typefaces for photocomposition. It also aims to explain the efects these typefaces had on the Greek typographic aesthetics at the time, and the ways in which they inluenced the design of popular national publications and of advertisements. Finally, this research aims to document a less well known aspect of Linotype’s activities, involving its businesses across the U.S., U.K., Greece and Germany, and an international team whose combined expertise included type design, printing technology and business1. About the research paper his paper discusses the access to primary sources in a variety of archives for the purposes of uncovering new information relevant to this research, as well as its subsequent critical evaluation. As there are no existing studies on Greek typefaces for photocomposition, and relevant secondary sources are limited, access to primary material in additional archives is of paramount importance for illing the gaps in the historical narrative, and answering speciic research questions. 2. The Linotype Greek Archive he Linotype Greek Archive, located at Reading’s Department of Typography and Graphic Communication, is the primary source of this research. It was given in 2008 to Gerry Leonidas for the Department by Matthew Carter, and was part of Carter’s personal archive pertaining speciically to Linotype’s design and manufacture of Greek typefaces for photocomposition. he archive covers a period of twenty years, from 1961 to 1981, and concerns the design of the following typefaces: Helvetica Greek and Optima Greek, designed by Matthew Carter; Century Schoolbook Greek and Baskerville Greek, also designed by Carter with the assistance of Tim Holloway; Caledonia Greek, designed by Walter Tracy, with the italic and bold weights later added by Matthew Carter. More speciically, the contents of the archive include: • correspondence (letters, memos, telexes) between Linotype’s U.S., U.K. and German subsidiaries, regarding the design, manufacture and sales of Greek typefaces (igures 1, 2 and 3), • original typeface drawings, • trial typesetting proofs (igure 5), • printed type specimens (igure 4), • handwritten notes and miscellaneous related oice paperwork (igures 6 and 7). 1 he Linotype Group of Companies had a complex structure, and incorporated a number of distinct businesses in the U.S., U.K. and Germany. hose central to this research are Mergenthaler Linotype (MLCo) based in Brooklyn, N.Y.; Linotype & Machinery (L&M), and Linotype-Paul based in Altrincham (Manchester) and Kingsbury (London) respectively; and Stempel A.G. in Frankfurt. Other subsidiaries included Linotype GmbH, also based in Frankfurt, and the Haas Foundry in Switzerland. Although all Linotype companies traded independently, covering diferent geographical areas of the international printing market, they frequently collaborated with each other in order to develop and promote new typefaces. Furthermore, Linotype maintained a number of agents in many countries, including Greece, whose knowledge of the local printing markets was essential for the expansion of the company’s business worldwide. 1 Figure 1. Letter from Walter Tracy to Mike Parker, 28 April 1971. Linotype Greek Archive, Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, Reading. Figure 2. Telex from Walter Tracy to Douglas Turner, 19 January 1971. Linotype Greek Archive, Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, Reading. 2 Τhe archive itself was handed over unsorted and incomplete. In the early stages of this research, a signiicant amount of time was spent going through the contents of the archive in order to establish a timeline of events. his process included reading the correspondence chronologically, establishing Linotype’s company structure, key Linotype staf as well as the Greek clients involved. An additional aspect was to try to determine if other items, such as type specimens, notes or other oice paperwork, were related to or referenced in the correspondence. he fragmentary nature of the archive often generated more questions than answers. For example, the correspondence has many chronological gaps and, for the most part, records the communication and collaboration between key Linotype staf. here are very few letters preserved that were directly sent to Linotype from Greek clients, making it somewhat diicult to ascertain the exact nature of their businesses (i.e. general printers, newspapers, magazines, etc.). he archive does not include all the original drawings made for the typefaces under examination. his is partly remedied by the inclusion of a good number of trial typesetting proofs that, to an extent, help trace the development of each typeface. Finally, the handwritten notes document thought processes or information from conversations, but the shorthand manner in which they have been written often make it diicult to place them in a speciic context. In an efort to redress this lack of information, it became necessary to consult additional primary sources in order to: • Verify existing information. It was essential to conirm whether the Athens Publishing Center (APC), one of Linotype’s biggest Greek clients, was the irst company to import Linotype photocomposition equipment in Greece; an event of paramount signiicance in the context of this research. • Re-evaluate existing information, particularly in light of new evidence from other sources. Information from the Mergenthaler Linotype Company Records in Washington shows that Walter Tracy’s role in the design of Caledonia Greek goes further back than was initially indicated by the Linotype Greek Archive. • Answer speciic research questions arising from the existing material, and ill as many gaps as possible in the documentation. For example, the Archive contains no correspondence from 1973, making it diicult to determine the design process and client communication for Optima Greek. To an extent, this gap was covered by correspondence found at the Mergenthaler Linotype Company Records. 3. Significance of historical awareness Before accessing other primary sources, it was important to understand the wider chronological period into which the events informing this research were set, and create a framework for it. Tosh says that historical awareness rests on three principles: • Diference – the recognition of the gap that separates the present time from the past. • Context – the belief that the subject of a historical enquiry must not be removed from its setting. • Process – the relationship of events over time which endows them with more signiicance than if they were studied in isolation2. In the irst instance, it was critical to understand the technical aspects of photocomposition, a technology which is now obsolete.Unlike letterpress printing, which continues to be employed to this day albeit in limited circumstances, there are no instances where phototypesetting is still used today. Consequently, a considerable efort – as well as imagination – was needed to grasp not only the evolution of the technology, but also all the 2 Tosh, J., he Pursuit of History, pp.9-11. 3 Figure 3. Internal memo from Matthew Carter to Mike Parker, 10 August 1972. Linotype Greek Archive, Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, Reading. Figure 4. Printed type specimen for Caledonia Greek, 13 July 1965. Linotype Greek Archive, Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, Reading. 4 technological factors type designers took into consideration in creating functional typefaces. In other words, type designers then designed, to a large extent, diferently than they do today. In this instance, the challenges of designing typefaces for photocomposition are extensively described in the contemporary writings of both Adrian Frutiger’s and Gerard Unger’s3. Secondly, the design and manufacture of these typefaces coincided with a prolonged and volatile period of political, social and cultural change in Greece, during which the country was looking westwards in an efort to emulate successful Western economies. Aspirations such as these also extended to the Greek printing trade. In the late 1960s and the 1970s, Helvetica was the typeface that most exempliied typographic modernity, and a Greek version of the typeface was deemed essential for printers and publishers aspiring to produce publications of high design and production values. Linotype, spotting a printing market that was then clearly in need of good quality typefaces, decided to invest in a systematic design programme of new Greek typefaces. It was in this way, according to Carter, that the company, having been long aware that good type sold machines, quickly managed to establish its presence in photocomposition in the Greek printing market4. hese events and processes eventually resulted in giving Greek printers a considerably wider choice of typefaces altering the look and feel of their printed output, and thus profoundly afecting Greek typographic aesthetics at the time. Finally, historical awareness is dependent on the notion of continuum. Like all facets of human activity, printing practices and technologies, being the results of processes over time, constantly evolve5. From this perspective, photocomposition can be described as an interim period in printing technology that helped accelerate the transition between mechanical and digital typesetting. Placing it within a historical framework allows for the evaluation of the changes incurred in the printing industry over time, and the connection of past with present practices. herefore, for all the reasons listed previously, it is of great importance, before accessing and evaluating other primary material, to be aware and knowledgeable of as many relevant secondary sources as possible. Being well-informed is a decisive factor in evaluating and interpreting new archival information accurately. 4. Accessing additional primary sources in other archives he additional primary sources that have been used up to this point were accessed in the following archives: • Walter Tracy’s correspondence; Department of Typography and Graphic Communication, University of Reading. • Costantinos A. Doxiadis Archives; Benaki Museum, Athens. • Mergenthaler Linotype Company Records; Museum of American History, Washington D.C. • St. Bride Printing Library, London. To begin with, access to archives on a mundane level varies signiicantly as researchers are granted entry under the speciic terms and conditions of each institution6. Additionally, archives are often open at speciic times and days. his places a limit on the time a researcher can spend examining 3 See Frutiger, A., Type, Sign, Symbol, p.20, and Unger, G., ‘he design of a typeface’, Visible Language, Volume XIII, Number 2, respectively. 4 Matthew Carter interviewed by the author. 5 Tosh, p.12. 6 he Museum of American History does not allow researchers to use their own pencils, paper and existing notes, making cross-referencing diicult. However, they do allow laptops, cameras and other digital equipment. his may not necessarily be the case elsewhere; at St. Bride Printing Library researchers are allowed to use digital equipment as well as their own notes and writing material. 5 Figure 5. Detail from a trial typesetting proof of Baskerville Greek Italic, 12 August 1978. Linotype Greek Archive, Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, Reading. 6 relevant material, with those archives located abroad exerting additional time – and inancial – pressures. All the primary sources listed above, with the exception of the Doxiadis Archives, are unsorted collections of materials. his can often lend an air of uncertainty and unpredictability when visiting an archive; a researcher cannot be sure as to what kind of material is to be found, if any, or whether there will be archivists with extensive knowledge of the archive’s collections. At the Mergenthaler Linotype Company Records a preliminary inventory exists as the only guide to the contents of numerous large boxes. his makes it diicult to locate relevant material, compounded by the fact that no expert archivist is at hand to assist with information. In addition to that, the archive is open only twice a week for researchers, and, for the purposes of this research, only four days could be proitably spent there. he only exceptions have been with the material located in the Department of Typography, namely the Linotype Greek Archive and Walter Tracy’s correspondence, where repeated access at regular intervals over a period of time is markedly easier. Despite these restrictions, the material from all these archives has contributed valuable information. Walter Tracy’s correspondence pertaining to the design and sales of Greek typefaces, primarily for hot metal, has been used extensively in order to trace the history of the design of Caledonia Greek, and to obtain information about the Greek printing trade. Some of Tracy’s exchanges with Mike Parker, Matthew Carter, and various other Linotype agents or staf have been particularly illuminating on Linotype’s company structure, its business practices and activities. he Doxiadis Archives in Athens provided some information about Doxiadis’s publishing activities. hese included the purchase of the irst Linotype phototypesetting equipment in Greece and the design of Helvetica Greek, commissioned by the publishing arm of his business empire, the Athens Publishing Center (APC). As Doxiadis’s reputation rests mainly on his international, large-scale works as a town planner and less on his publishing output, his archives yielded material of a diferent kind. Although no correspondence was found between APC and Linotype, the purchase of equipment, APC’s printing set-up along with related photographic material was veriied through the international newsletter that Doxiadis Associates – Doxiadis’s main business concern – produced. In addition, two memos dictated by Doxiadis himself outlined in great detail not only his ambitions for APC as a viable printing business, but also the visual and typographic style his architectural publications were to have in order to complement their content. Examples of APC’s printing output, such as books and magazines meticulously kept in the archive, further demonstrated Doxiadis’s vision. Mergenthaler Linotype’s company records in Washington contained a wealth of material. his included entire folders of correspondence, reports, manuals, client complaints, as well as some visual material such as Greek newspapers and magazines collected as research material in the initial design stages. All this material has contributed greatly to this research, and the process of evaluating it is currently ongoing. For example, new information has been uncovered shedding more light on the circumstances that led to the design of Caledonia Greek – a typeface that was initially designed for hot metal and subsequently adapted for photocomposition – dating further back than originally indicated in the Linotype Greek Archive. Also, some additional new names of Greek clients have also been discovered, but with no further information as to the nature of their businesses. he visit to St. Bride Printing Library, which holds a small number of Walter Tracy’s papers and correspondence, yielded the least material of 7 Figure 6. Handwritten note by Walter Tracy, undated. Linotype Greek Archive, Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, Reading. Figure 7. Handwritten note by Matthew Carter, undated. Linotype Greek Archive, Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, Reading. 8 all in relation to Caledonia Greek or additional insights on the design of Greek typefaces in general. Nonetheless, some documents, including an article on the design of newspapers and a memo containing Linotype’s Typographic Index, are a small but welcome addition to the main body of evidence. 5. Critical evaluation of primary sources Having accessed other archives and collected additional information, the next stage in historical research is the critical evaluation and interpretation of sources. he process of deriving facts from primary sources raises a number of questions. For example: • How to extract what is important from the sources? • How to evaluate new information against existing evidence? • How to interpret data objectively and assess the veracity of one’s conclusions? As already mentioned, the Linotype Greek Archive, the primary resource for this research, does not provide a complete account of the events and processes relating to this research. his is equally true for all the other archives visited up to now. Archives, Evans observes, are the product of the chance survival of some documents and the corresponding chance loss or deliberate destruction of others. He likens historical research to a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces are scattered all over the house in several boxes, some of which have been destroyed, and where once it is put together, a signiicant number of the pieces are still missing 7. his is also because, in a more fundamental sense, a great deal that happened left no material trace whatsoever 8. Most of the primary sources consulted for the purposes of this research are collections of business records and oice documents. hese, as a rule, are not exhaustive because companies do not document every aspect of their business processes. For example, Linotype kept meticulous iles on machine malfunctions or other client complaints for speciic orders, presumably in anticipation of any future litigation issues. However, they did not keep iles of positive feedback from satisied customers, if there was any. On the other hand, business correspondence records opinions, ongoing discussions, decisions made and, occasionally, personal thoughts. It also reveals a company’s structure, its vested interests, administrative routines, and record keeping procedures. According to Tosh, in the historian’s hierarchy of sources, those directly arising from everyday business or social intercourse, and written with no thought for posterity, are history par excellence [sic] – the ones that carry the most weight, leaving open the task of interpretation9. Most sources can be interpreted in a variety of ways, and, as we all bring our own thoughts to bear on them, these can have a signiicant efect on how a document is read10. However, having speciic questions in mind keeps the overarching aim of the research into focus, and helps ascertain the relevance of a particular primary source. It is on such occasions a good knowledge of relevant secondary sources can be supportive in being selective in this particular task. Evaluation and interpretation often go hand-in-hand. New information can be evaluated by cross-referencing it against existing evidence in the form of other reliable primary and secondary sources. However, the nature of interpretation is often uncertain and provisional, and the need to test it against primary sources arises continuously11. In doing so, it is important to keep an open mind as original assumptions may need to be 7 8 9 10 11 Evans, R.J., In Defence of History, p.87. Tosh, p.180. Ibid, p.93. Evans, p.84 and p.92 Ibid, p.10. 9 revised, especially in light of new evidence. Primary sources are basic, raw and imperfect evidence, and researchers are called to convert them in a coherent and intelligible secondary source12. However, both the quantity and quality of primary sources often deines the limits of research. A major issue in this research is that almost all correspondence found in any of the archives is mostly outgoing – meaning that it records the communications of Linotype staf with their colleagues or with clients. In contrast, there is very little incoming correspondence preserved, that is communications from clients to Linotype staf. his lack of information has made this research, up to this point, somewhat one-sided as feedback or any other response from a client has to be at best inferred from the existing sources. It is quite possible that, in the end, certain gaps in the narrative will not be adequately illed. 6. Interviews as primary source material Interviews in order to extract personal testimonies based on the irsthand experience and opinions of individual informants are also treated as primary sources equivalent to archival records13. Matthew Carter was interviewed in his capacity as the primary designer of the majority of the typefaces included in this research. Carter worked as a type designer for Mergenthaler Linotype in Brooklyn, N.Y., from 1965 to 1970. Returning to the U.K. in 1970, he continued to work for the company on a freelance basis from his home in Blackheath, London, until 1981. Overall, Carter’s recollection of the period he worked for Linotype was very good given that the events under examination took place approximately forty years ago. He veriied information, and provided a vivid impression of his visits to Athens with Mike Parker in order to meet with clients. He described at some length the process he followed especially when designing for the Linoilm VIP, the phototypesetter for which most of the Greek typefaces were manufactured. He also discussed a number of technical issues he would have come up against at the time. However, Carter had little recollection of the Greek clients he met, remembering only the most distinctive ones. He also had no recollection of events in which he played a key role such as negotiating a licensing agreement with Monotype for Times Greek No.214. Undoubtedly, interviews have the advantage of bringing the past vividly to life as well as provide authentic evidence. Nonetheless, there are pitfalls; the passage of time and the impact of subsequent experience tend to modify memory, therefore a personal testimony can never be a pure distillation of the past15. he fact that Carter has no recollection of negotiating a license agreement for Times Greek No.2 is in stark contrast with existing evidence both in the Linotype Greek Archive and the Mergenthaler Linotype Company Records. Additional factors also shape the outcome of an interview; the selection of a particular informant, the nature of the questions posed as well as the researcher’s position towards the informant all play a decisive role of how the past is recollected and communicated during an interview16. For all the reasons outlined above, it is essential to evaluate personal testimonies carefully. Once more, this means cross-referencing information against all other available and reliable sources, in the same way as when evaluating and interpreting archival sources. 12 Marwick, A., he Nature of History, p.136 13 Tosh, p.313. 14 Linotype’s version of Times Greek for hot metal was considered as inferior to Monotype’s by some of Linotype’s Greek clients [Letter to Robert Pegg from Walter Tracy, 15 February 1971]. he typeface was re-drawn for photocomposition in 1975 based on Monotype’s Times Greek No.2. In 1974, Carter directly liaised with John Goulding, Typographic Manager at Monotype, for the licence for the series 565, 566, 567 and 667. 15 Tosh, p.313. 16 Ibid, p. 319. 10 7. Conclusion he Linotype Greek Archive, which this research focuses on, is unsorted and incomplete, giving rise to the need to access additional primary sources elsewhere in order to verify and re-evaluate existing information, and answer speciic research questions. In preparation for this, it has been essential to create a historical framework through relevant and reliable secondary sources, which are also instrumental in helping with the evaluation and interpretation of primary sources. Four diferent archives have been accessed so far, each under diferent terms and conditions. Naturally, the majority of them have been unsorted, making it diicult to locate material at times especially if no knowledgeable staf is at hand to assist with information. Additionally, the amount of time available for repeated visits to each archive has been variable. hroughout this process, it is important to bear in mind that all archives, sorted and unsorted, contain incomplete material that has to be shaped into a reliable secondary source through evaluation and interpretation, even if a great deal of human activity leaves no material evidence behind. Moreover, gaps not adequately answered by archival evidence can be illed through interviewing relevant informants, a method equally valid to archival research. he process of extracting, evaluating and interpreting information from both methods is the same, and it involves cross-referencing data to existing reliable primary and secondary sources continuously. his is a time-consuming activity, but it ensures that assumptions made are tested rigorously before inal conclusions are reached. It is hoped that this research abides by these principles and eventually becomes a useful secondary resource in its own right. Bibliography Carter, M. Interviewed by the author at TypeCon 2014, Washington D.C. (U.S.A.), 1 August 2014. Evans, R.J. 1997. In Defence of History. London: Granta. Frutiger, A. 1980. Type, Sign, Symbol. Zurich: ABC Verlag. Marwick, A. 1981. he Nature of History (second edition). London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Press Ltd. Tosh, J. 2010. he Pursuit of History: Aims, Methods and New Directions in the Study of Modern History (ifth edition). Harlow: Longman. Tracy, W. 1971. Letter to Robert Pegg. [correspondence]. Walter Tracy Correspondence. Reading: Department of Typography & Graphic Communication. Unger, G. ‘he design of a typeface’, in Visible Language, Volume XIII, Number 2, April 1979, pp.134-149. 11