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Printer's Ornament

Printing
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A decorative typographic symbol or small image used to separate sections or fill space. It is also called a fleur or dingbat.

Detailed Definition
A printer's ornament is a small decorative element cast in type, engraved on a block, or reproduced as an image. Ornaments may divide poems, mark changes of section, fill a short final line, or decorate title pages and colophons. In poetry books, they can create pauses analogous to stanza breaks or signal shifts within a sequence. Their style may be floral, geometric, abstract, or emblematic, and it often contributes to the historical character of an edition.
Example
Example in poetry:
A printer's ornament such as a small floral mark can separate one group of poems from the next; A chapbook may place a printer's ornament between a dedication and the first poem; A centered asterisk ornament can mark a change of speaker in a sequence when blank space alone might be unclear; A poet may use a decorative leaf ornament at the end of a section to signal closure
Additional Notes
A printer's ornament can mark a pause between poems, sections, or stanzas. Common forms include flowers, stars, rules, and typographic symbols; its decorative role should not distract from the text.
Also Known As
Typographic Ornament Printer's Flower Fleuron
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