A colophon that transcends all colophons

[avram]

Does everyone here read Paul Ford’s Ftrain regularly? Here he is talking about books, typography, and specifically the colophon of Bruce Rogers’s Paragraphs on Printing:

Rogers’ book terminates with a tremendous 3-page colophon, which wonders aloud if it is not perhaps “the longest colophon on record.” I take this personally, as a challenge for some day in the future, a challenge to create a colophon that transcends all colophons, a colophon that not only mentions the fonts of choice, but describes the sensuous lilt of certain descenders, offering prayers for good linespacing and a hymn to the golden ratio—a colophon that compares the kerned nestling of the “a” against the “W” in “Water” to the cuddling Madonna and child, and describes not only the paper that holds the ink but explains how the exact proportions of the lowercase “q” were debated so avidly that there was a stabbing in the foundry.

It gets even better. Go read.

Comments

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

There was an issue of Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern that had a colophon like that. I'll try to look it up tonight...

(last I looked, which was a while ago, www.mcsweeneys.net wasn't nearly as good, but still interesting.)

[intelligentrix.livejournal.com]

I love Paul Ford's writing. Really really really. It makes me go all weak in the knees and want to propose marriage.