mage has
[74] returned to the more classic Greek form, although the result may at
first glance seem illegible to the reader familiar with the more common
cursive letters.

The type shown in 67 is a new English face designed by Mr. C. R. Ashbee for
a prayerbook for the King. Interesting as it is, it seems in many ways too
extreme and eccentric to be wholly satisfactory: the very metal of type
would seem to postulate a less "tricky" treatment.

It is interesting to attempt a discrimination between the various national
styles of pen letters which the recently revived interest in the art of
lettering is producing; and it is especially worth while to note that the
activity seems, even in Germany, to be devoted almost exclusively to the
development and variation of the Roman forms. It is noteworthy, too, after
so long a period of the dull copying of bad forms, and particularly of bad
type forms, that the modern trend is distinctly in the direction of
freedom; though this freedom is more marked in French and German [75] than
in English or American work. Hand in hand with this increased freedom of
treatment has naturally come a clearer disclosure of the mediums employed;
and indeed in much of the best modern work the designer has so far lent
himself to his tools that the tools themselves have, in great measure,
become responsible for the resulting letter forms. [76] Moreover modern
designers are showing a welcome attention to minuscule letters, and it even
seems possible that before long some small letter forms that shall be
distinctively of the pen may be developed, and that the use of type models
for minuscule pen letters will no longer be found necessary or commendable.

[Illustration: 68. MODERN GERMAN CAPITALS. AFTER J. M. OLBRICH]

[Illustration: 69. MODERN GERMAN CAPITALS. GUSTAVE LEMMEN]

[Illustration: 70. MODERN GERMAN CAPITALS. AFTER ALOIS LUDWIG]

[Illustration: 71. MODERN GERMAN CAPITALS. AFTER OTTO ECKMANN]

Another noticeable tendency in modern lettering seems to be the gradual
promotion of small letter forms to the dignity of capitals, (see 79 and 98
for examples) in much the same way as the Uncial letter and its immediate
derivatives produced the present small letter. It is surely to be hoped
that this movement may not lose vitality before it has had time to enrich
us with some new and excellent forms.

[Illustration: 72. MODERN GERMAN CAPITALS. OTTO HUPP]

[Illustration: 73. MODERN GERMAN CAPITALS. JOS