Figure 176
Luce’s Types Poétiques (roman and two versions of italic)
From Luce’s Essai d’une Nouvelle Typographie, Paris, 1771
1771
In the romain du roi types, the “complimentary” projection on the lower-case l appears on the left of the shank; in Luce’s types, on the right. Luce’s elongated type, because it was compact, was adapted to poetry, where broken lines are undesirable. So he called it poétique. Although Luce was a royal type-cutter, he designed these types as an independent venture, and intended them for general use.