>paper-in-hand kind

Was it Mao who said "imperialism is a paper typeface"?

Electra, designed by W.A. Dwiggins and used in many Knopf books through the middle decades of the century.

I don't know about the Mao quote, but it was Joyce who wrote, "They are still. Once quick in the brains of men. Still: but an itch of death is in them, to tell me in my ear a maudlin tale, urge me to wreak their will."
Not as catchy, i know.

> I don’t know about the Mao quote

sii was teasing you. Mao actually said "imperialism is a paper tiger."

You might remember that one.

Besides Electra, Plantin. A man among boys.

hhp

2 favorites: Lexicon and Dante.

Putting ink on paper has been done in a number of ways, especially in the 20th century. What is a "good" typeface depends on how that was done -- letterpress? offset? And within offset, repro-negative-plate, or direct to plate? And within a repro-negative-plate workflow, was the repro pulled from metal fonts, or photocomp fonts?

Refining that further, in the photocomp days, type was proprietary. What might be a good font on a Linotype 202 might not be a good font on a Monotype VideoComp.

Etc.

Though if you're asking about *design* without regard to putting ink on paper, you might get different answers.