Thursday, January 04, 2007

Small Print

Looking at an old bible and an old hymn book the other day, set me wondering - did people have much better eye sight years ago than they do today?
The print in both these books and in an old dictionary too, is mimiscule compared to the same books today, yet we have better lighting in our homes than did the people of the 19th. and early 20th. century, so how did they manage to read that tiny print.
It certainly made the books lighter and less bulky to carry too. Was it done to save on costly paper and ink I wondered, or was it just that that was the natural size and people didn`t expect anything different.

3 comments:

dmmgmfm said...

That's a very good question. From one who likes big print books and dollar store reading glasses (I need one or the other, not both YET), I have to think their eyesight was better. If you find out the answer, let me know.

Ivy said...

I take my glasses off to read the small print! Can read it much better without them.

Mangonel said...

Didn't they have servants to do it back then?