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On a micro typographic level however, there are some differences. Dr Johnson’s compositor didn’t have a bold weight to separate headwords from entries, or a sans serif for related words; instead the hierarchies were expressed through capitals, small capitals, changing sizes and italics. Although the word count is about the same, the new dictionary reflects a general tendency towards use of lower- or upper and lower-case forms for headwords, in a bolder and often sans serif type, slightly larger than the entries, instead of varying between capital, Free Fonts roman and italic forms at the same size and the same weight, with detail expressed by a reduction in size.
Minimum type size is also a very interesting question. It might be assumed that better glasses and contact lenses would lead to a greater capacity to read small type, yet some of the historical dictionaries and bibles I’ve seen contain type that is extremely small by any standards. A dictionary like the Collins Household Dictionary of 1859 is quite difficult to navigate and read, with its 6pt type, lack of differentiation in weight, and column rules.
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