Dear Dr. Boli: I was trying to duplicate some of the type fonts I saw in the display advertisements in your magazine, but I was not able to find equivalents from any of the type foundries I visited. Where do you get those exceptionally distinguished types, and how can I obtain the same? —Sincerely, Geo. Bruce, Chambers-Street, New York.

Dear Sir: From the beginning, it has been Dr. Boli’s policy never to print anything in a type he did not design himself. Thus Dr. Boli, unique among editors of popular magazines, was able to control not only every word, but even the individual letters that appeared in his publications. Many were the nights when the whole press-room staff stayed into the small hours, idle and grumbling, while Dr. Boli carefully engraved the only possible initial that would perfectly introduce an article about improvements in the gravel industry, or painstakingly imitated the sinuous curves of the lower-case s in the celebrated Granjon cursive in order to provide the proper emphasis in an advertisement for bottled sarsaparilla. Doubtless Dr. Boli could have satisfied his readers by printing with another man’s letters, but he could never have satisfied himself. He would as soon have used another man’s toothbrush.

Moving his magazine to the World-Wide Web necessitated a certain amount of compromise to accommodate the still-primitive state of hypertext technology, which does not realistically permit the use of type fonts not found on the great majority of computers. Reluctantly, Dr. Boli has allowed his writings, such as the article you are reading now, to be spelled by letters he did not design and approve himself. Dr. Boli has nevertheless made no compromise with his display advertisements. One of the chief enticements Dr. Boli can offer his advertisers is the ability to set their messages in attractive and unusual types not available anywhere else on the Web. That is the reason why you may not have them.