The printer cannot make his own press or his own paper. The making of printing presses and paper making are necessarily separate trades. But the hand press printer should make his own ink, as the painter should make his own paints. Ink is not a raw material. Oils and pigments are the raw material of ink; patience in grinding is the only virtue required in the craftsman. Of patience there is this to be said. To be patient is to suffer. By their fruits men know one another, but by their sufferings they know what they are. And suffering is not merely the endurance of physical or mental anguish, but of joy also. A rabbit caught in a trap may supposed to suffer physical anguish: but it suffers nothing else. The man crucified may be supposed to suffer physical & mental anguish, but he suffers also intense happiness and joy. The industrialist workman is often simply as a rabbit in a trap; the artist is often as a man nailed to a cross. In patience souls are possessed. No lower view of the matter will suffice.
-- Eric Gill, An Essay on Typography (1931), p84.
This fierce commentary on production-line-style creation, the nature of craft and typography is as true as it has ever been. To give a better taste of the style, the paragraph above continues, But the question of colour must be considered. Even black can be made in a variety of tints ...
-- Eric Gill, An Essay on Typography (1931), p84.
This fierce commentary on production-line-style creation, the nature of craft and typography is as true as it has ever been. To give a better taste of the style, the paragraph above continues,