The Way Back View - Printers rule

Printers and publishers have always looked to find ways to keep their businesses at the forefront in their customer's minds. One method was to provide them with a practical tool that would likely be used every day. In the past, giving away specialty rulers was a popular way to do this since they had markings for things like picas, points, and column widths which were of concern to print specifiers that regular rulers did not have. The rulers were usually made of wood, but not always. The Howard-Wesson Co. ruler, for example is made of brass, while the Vancouver Sun/Province ruler is plastic and the John Wilkes Press proportion wheel (yes it's not really a ruler) is solid paper.

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