William Morris, A Note by William Morris on his Aims in Founding the Kelmscott Press, and a Short Description of the Press by S. C. Cockerell, and an Annotated List of Books Printed Thereat

In Beautiful Books, William Morris expanded his ideas on the design of books, which he was later to put into practice in his own private press (Kelmscott). His guide to book design was based on several aspects that were equally important to him. These included his insistence on the quality of the materials used, paper choice, the design of the type, the page layout that gave equal weight to text and ornament, margins and spacing, and the value of illustrations. In this extract, Morris set forth his principles of book design that reflected upon his modern book making, in relation to the examples of the medieval book designers and printers. It was also the last publication of the Kelmscott Press. Morris’s essay on his Kelmscott Press first appeared in the Boston magazine Modern Art, in 1896.