The article is devoted to the topic of Russian typography at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as the art of typing and typesetting related to the aesthetics and techniques of printing production. As an object of study, the author draws on materials from specialized periodicals of the 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as catalogs of foundries and printing houses that appeared at that time. An empirical material allows you to reconstruct aesthetic criteria for the design of periodicals, typing rules, font requirements and other features of the modern era, which was associated with the period of rise of mass printed graphics.