bourgeois

In metal type, the bourgeois was a standardized body size measuring 9 points, sitting between the smaller brevier (8 point) and the larger long primer (10 point). Like other traditional type sizes, it had its own set of matrices and casting equipment in a foundry, and printers would stock it alongside their other fonts for work that needed a middle ground between headline and body text.

The name reflects the hierarchical naming system for early type sizes, which used social classes and ecclesiastical terms rather than numbers. Long primer, pica, and great primer all derive from this same convention, though the logic behind which class got which size is now obscure. The 9-point measurement itself is approximate: foundries working before standardized point systems had some variation in what they called bourgeois, and the actual body height could shift slightly between makers.

Bourgeois appeared regularly in 19th-century printing offices for periodicals, notices, and book work where 8-point felt cramped but 10-point seemed too large. It worked well for two-column layouts in newspapers and for secondary text in mixed-size compositions. Compositors would reach for bourgeois when they needed legibility without bulk.

The term has been effectively obsolete since the mid-20th century. Photographic and digital typesetting destroyed the foundry system that kept named sizes in currency; printers and designers now simply specify 9 points directly, or choose from typefaces that assume decimal sizing from the start. You will encounter bourgeois only in historical printing records, old foundry specimens, and descriptions of letterpress equipment.