French Type-High?

French/German type height is: 23.556 mm

According to a 1958 Linotype specimen book there was a standard for …..International Type hight to paper measurement. “This differs in many countries from the .918” American-British standards, to the .928” used in many countries in Europe and the Medians standard of .934” used in Belgium.” What was used around the world was based on what country controlled or influenced that area. For example India and Australia use .918” because of Great Britain. Cuba, and most of central America use .918” because of America’s influence. The African countries tended to use .928” because at one time they were colonies of European countries. Some countries had multiple type hight standards as their politics changed. Some countries developed their own standards such as Russia at .938” and .990”. When I made replacement letters for a printer in Israel, he had to pick since they use both .918” and .928”.
Please be aware of these differences when buying type on line. Wood type from Germany and Italy may be beautiful, but if you don’t have an adjustable bed, or can not remove packing, you can not mix American standard .918 with other heights.

thanks gentlemen, a compendium of information

TG

My photo – taken at Rainer Gerstenberg’s Schriftenservice in Darmstadt – shows a type-written list of Swiss printers with the respective type height, the list was established in the 1930s at Stempel Foundry and is still used. In the top-left hand corner, one can clearly see: N.H. (Normal Höhe) 23,56; Eng. H. 23,32; Ö-Ü H. (Austrian-Hungarian height) 23,69; Holl. H. (Dutch height) 24,85; Russ. H 25,10; Dän. H. 25,20.

swiss_type_heights.jpg