double great primer

Double great primer was a metal type size used in letterpress printing, nominally 36 points in the Anglo-American system. It belongs to the family of named type sizes that prevailed before point-size standardization became universal in the early twentieth century. The name itself is a relic of the old hierarchy of type sizes, each with a distinct English name rather than a numerical designation.

The term derives from the progression of sizes: primer, great primer, double English, double great primer, and meridian. Each step represented a specific increment in height-to-paper, measured in traditional printer's points. Double great primer sat between double English (roughly 28 point) and meridian (roughly 44 point). These names were largely British and German in origin, and different printing centers sometimes applied them inconsistently.

Why the terminology faded

The named sizes system persisted longest in book work and jobbing printing, where metal sorts had to be purchased and stored in discrete compartments. However, as foundries began casting type to point specifications in the 1880s and 1890s, the old nomenclature became redundant. By the 1920s, printers in most English-speaking countries had switched to calling type by its point measurement. Double great primer essentially vanished from practical use.

Modern type designers and digital foundries do not use this terminology; a font marketed today at 36 points would never be called double great primer. The term survives only in historical printing texts, old specimen books, and the accumulated equipment in museum collections. It is occasionally encountered in antiquarian bibliography when scholars must identify the type used in historical editions.

For contemporary printers, the significance of double great primer is purely historical. It marks a moment when type sizes were named rather than measured, reflecting a trade organized by apprenticeship and tradition rather than standardized metrics. Understanding the old size names helps explain why early printing specimens look the way they do and why type specimens from different countries and periods sometimes puzzle modern eyes.