Special features to help the buyer of quality type are built into the CR Typebook, recently published by the Composing Room, New York City typographers. It was designed by Arnold Shaw, supervised by Sidney Minson.

The dedication reads, “Over the years, The Composing Room, Inc., has received more awards than any other typographic plant from the American institute of Graphic Arts, the Art Directors Club of New York, and the Type Directors Club of New York. In truth these honors belong to the many outstanding graphic designers with whom we have had the privilege of working through almost 40 years. It is to these men and women that we dedicate this book, with gratitude for their warm friendship, and a deep sense of the continuing responsibility for unyielding standards of typographic performance which their confidence places on us.”

The book is a memorial to Sol M. Cantor, who was president of the company until his death in March 1965.

Over 750 metal typefaces are shown in more than 5,000 sizes, and a second volume presents “Monophoto” faces of The Photo-Composing Room. On the machine pages, large blocks of type show the color of design, leading, and measure. The complete font is always shown, along with any available swash initials. For convenient reference, all the swash letters in The Composing Room’s large collection are also gathered in a separate section.

The foundry pages, too, provide more than usual coverage by displaying the entire cap, lowercase and figure fonts in at least one size.

The index is in the form of a one-line specimen guide, so that type designs and comparisons can be spotted at a glance. This section will be revised annually to keep the book up to date as The Composing Room continues to enlarge its library. The binder is designed so that supplements can be added easily in every section.

Eighteen-point faces on the Linotype are shown as a separate group.

Especially useful to designers is a round-up of the possible “run-ins” that combine bold-face sideheads with light-face types on the Linotype.

There is a full range of foreign accents, Greek alphabets, rules, borders and ornaments, as well as Ludlow faces, Monotype and foundry designs, and sizes up to 144 point on the “all-Purpose Linotype,” a rarity in New York.

In announcing the book, Dr. Robert Leslie, Eli Cantor, and Sidney Minson, the principals of The Composing Room, joined in stating, “We did not want to add just another specimen book to the already crowded shelves. Sol Cantor gave years of study to what would make not just a beautiful book but the best practical working tool for the man who must decide the right uses of type. We think we have come very close to succeeding. We know that Sol was proud of the book as he saw it shaping up in the last three years.”

The Composing Room, Inc., is at 130 West 46th Street, New York, N.Y. 10036