g. 23, the head-band and initial are pleasing in design and they
beautify the page without having the slightest relation to the text of
the page.

Esthetic ornament characterizes the periods of design which have had the
most important influence in the development of printing: the Greek,
Roman, and Renaissance.

Symbolic ornament is found in Egyptian, Assyrian, Byzantine,
Scandinavian, Celtic, Persian, Indian, Gothic, Chinese, and Japanese
design. For intimate study of these various styles and periods the
reader is referred to the various books listed in the bibliography.

[Illustration: Fig. 21. Ornament designed with natural forms.]

[Illustration: Fig. 22. House-organ cover design by Mr. F. W. Goudy, in
which the ornament is symbolic of the message of the page.]

[Illustration: Fig. 23. Type page decorated with esthetic ornament. Much
of the decorative material available to printers is of this character.
Since the printer need not study its symbolic significance he may choose
such decoration for its qualities of tone and good drawing.]

Ornament may be natural or inventive. Natural ornament confines itself
to the rendition in decorative design of forms chosen from nature,
either animate of inanimate. Inventive ornament consists of elements not
derived from any natural source. It is usually geometric in character;
that is, it is rendered in patterns and masses expressed in geometric
shapes.

[Illustration: Fig. 24. Type border used as geometric ornaments.]

[Illustration: Fig. 25. Further use of type border to make a flat
pattern or "all-over" design. Compare the effect with that shown in the
facing illustration.]

In the artistic development of the various races, geometric design has
often been the result of religious restrictions upon the imitation of
any animate forms. The Mahometans have developed it to its highest type
of expression. Arabian and Moorish architecture and handicrafts are the
best examples, with the crystal beauty of the Alhambra, the wonderful
palace built by the Moors in Spain, as the supreme achievement of
geometric design.

[Illustration: Fig. 26. A niche in the Alhambra, at Granada, Spain.
Showing characteristic Moorish ornamentation.]

Geometrical design uses simple materials, being the oldest of the
elements of decoration. The implements of savages and the tattooing of
the Indians prove this. From the first crude expressions of the original
squares, circles, zigzag lin