Note 192 — Chapter IV · LETTER-FOUNDING AS AN ENGLISH MECHANICAL TRADE. 1477–1830.

Smith (Printers’ Grammar, p. 8) blames the French founders of his day for the shallow cut of their punches, which being naturally reproduced in the types, was the cause of much bad printing. Some sorts, he said, as late as 1755, only stood in relief to the thickness of an ordinary sheet of paper. He contrasts English punch-cutting favourably with French in this particular.