some more quotes and images from sites

Some of the questions that I wanted answers to in order to complete my essay on the invention of metal movable type.


"Bruno Fabbiani has devised 30 experiments that show Gutenberg did not use moveable type to print the bible," Francesco Pirella of Genoa's Museum of Print said

URL: http://able2know.org/topic/37659-1

Picture of the overlap that Bruno found when studying Gutenberg's Bible. From the Discovery Channel.

China is where the discovery of the first movable type. Hua Sui is credited with being the creator of movable type in the East.

Picture from Cultural China.com

Why the pre discovered movable type did not catch on to the same extent as Gutenberg's.

"In the Far East, movable type and printing presses were known but did not replace printing from individually carved wooden blocks, from movable clay type, processes much more efficient than hand copying. The use of movable type in printing was invented in 1041 AD by Bi Sheng in China. Since there are thousands of Chinese characters, the benefit of the technique is not as obvious as in European languages." - The great Idea finder - The history of the printing press.

Koster background notes

Source - Article "The legend of Koster" by psyner

- Born 1370 in Haarlem in Netherlands.
- He had a large list of job titles; Candle maker, innkeeper, Sheriff, treasurer, officer of the city guard and most importantly the position of what was referred to in dutch as Koster meaning  the warden of the great church of Haarlem.
- Around the year 1423 (though some versions of events date it as 1428 or 1430) Koster was walking through the a nearby wood with his grandchildren. To keep them amused he carved some letters into the bark of a tree, when the letters fell to the sand, he noticed the impression they left which gave him the idea that the same could happen on paper to make books. That one moment later became the what many believe to be the invention in Europe of printing with movable type. This would make it an innovation that came a dozen years before Gutenberg printed his 42-line bible.
-Hadrianus Junius, has the noble reputation of the most learned man in Netherlands after Erasmus was the first person to give a full account of the Koster in "Batavia" published 1568 (this seems to me to be a reliable source of information so good for getting a feel for the argument that Gutenberg did not invent movable type, however the fact that he is from the Netherlands like Koster must be taken into account as he may be biased)
- He mentions in his findings as well as the above story that Koster went on to then experiment with block printing and to improve the quality of the ink as he found that used by scribes tended to run when used by a press.
- His son in law Thomas pieter helped him to produce the book 'Speculum Humanae Salvationis'
-He then continued to improve the methods with different types of wood, followed by lead and then mixtures of lead and tin.
- As his business blossomed and grew he hired a number of assistants, including Johannes Fust.
- If the myth is to believed it was Johannes Fust who broke into his masters print workshop in 1441 and stole all of his types and equipment before fleeing to Amsterdam, onto Cologne and finally onto Mainz.
-Could this be true? - There are no books in existence bearing Koster's name as a printer but neither are there any which have Gutenbergs name so it does not give evidence in Gutenberg's favour either.
- Although Koster is not mentioned specifically until Junius' Batavia in 1568 the suggestion of Haarlem being the birthplace of printing had arisen quite a while earlier in Jan Van Zuyren's work on the 'Invention of Typography' he wrote in relation to the cities claim "...at this day fresh in the remembrance of our fathers, to whom, so to express myself, they have transmitted from hand to hand from their ancestors."
-Another supporter of this appeal is Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert in his preface to a translation of Cicero which he printed himself in 1561 where he states refering to Koster and Haarlem that "....the faithful testimonies of men alike respectable from their age and authority, who not only have often told me of the family of the inventor, and of his name and surname, but have even described to me the rude manner of printing first used, and pointed out to me with their fingers the abode of the first printer."
-Despite this story today the most wide spread thought and teaching is directed towards the idea that printing was invented in Mainz Germany around 1452 by Johann Gutenberg.
- Even modern scholarly texts on the topic admit that this theory is possible and that Gutenberg was maybe not the first.
- Warren Chappell's 'A Short History of the Printed World' which was published in 1970 states that the "quality of the early Dutch type-making and printing still extant is so markedly inferior to Gutenberg's that the possibility of a few years' priority is less important than Gutenberg's results."
- he then goes on to defend this not wholly neutral position with the justification that the "Chief value of establishing earlier experiments lies in their helping to explain the extraordinary quality of the great 42-line Bible [of Gutenberg]"
- In Summary Warren feels that Gutenberg should be recognised as the principle inventor of movable type for aesthetic purposes more than any reason to do with historical accuracy or fact.
- Dispite the wide belief in Gutenberg as the inventor for hundreds of years believers in the story of Koster have stood by him and also believe that he also printed the 'Biblia Pauperum', the 'Ars Moriendi' and the 'Donatus' as well as the 'Speculum.'
- Among those believers are said to have been scholars equally as eminent and qualified as those who support the case of Gutenberg inventing movable type.
- There are holidays, celebrations and centenaries all help in Haarlem and all over the Netherlands as well as countless tributes in the form of books, paintings, sculpture, coins, medals and memorial statues all created in his honour. Dutch school children are taught all about their fellow countryman's great achievement.
-I guess we are left with never truly knowing which of the two candidates really was the inventor of movable type in Europe.
- Whether it is a myth or fact the story of Laurens Janszoon Koster is certainly the stuff of legend.

Movable type in the East

Points I have learnt from various sources about Movable type in the East before Gutenberg's time. With lots of conflicting ideas, i wanted to try and make sense of it all and form an opinion.

- The first believed movable type system was made during the Goryeo Dynasty around 1230 in Korea.
- There is another book called the Jikji that is thought to be the first book made from movable type dated from 1377, long before Gutenbergs bible.
- The first successful use of metal type was used in China by Hua Sui in 1490 AD with his bronze type.
- The transistion from wooden movable type to metal movable type was in 1234 in Korea during the Goryeo Dynasty, it is credited to Choe Yun-ui.
- Therer was a set of ritual books, Sangjeong gogeum Yemun printed with movable type in 1234, before Gutenbergs bible it is however Jikji that is the oldest still remaining so has solid evidence backing it up.
- There are examples of this early metal type in the Asian Reading Room of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.
- The process for making coins at the time was adapted to making metal type. Scholar Seong Hyeon of the Joseon dynasty described the Korean font casting process of 1439-1504:

"At first, one cuts letters in beech wood. One fills a trough level with fine sandy [clay] of the

 reed-growing seashore. Wood-cut letters are pressed into the sand, then the impressions

 become negative and form letters [molds]. At this step, placing one trough together with

 another, one pours the molten bronze down into an opening. The fluid flows in, filling

 these negative molds, one by one becoming type. Lastly, one scrapes and files off the

 irregularities, and piles them up to be arranged."

- King Sejong the Great devised a simplified version of the alphabet with just 24 characters for use of the common people that could have made typecasting and compositing more feasible. However his creation did not get the attention it deserved as koreans were appalled at loosing their Chinese.

- In the early 15th Century however the Koreans created a form of movable type that French scholar   Henri-jean Martin described as "extremely similar to Gutenberg's" Could his invention have been stimulated by that of the East?

- On the other side of the argument there is no evidence to suggest that the easting type invention made it to Europe before Gutenbergs invention.

- Gutenberg also developed the invention with the use of a hand mould and an oil based ink that was more suitable for printing as well as the first Latin typefaces.

- Did he invent movable type and deserve the praise in his own right? or perfect what was already known to him? This is what I want to find out through more extensive research or through forming my own opinion after carrying out multiple research, hearing all sides of the debate.

The impact movable type had on the world.

Source - The History guide - The Printing Press

Dispite Gutenberg trying to keep his methods kept secret they spread quickly and by 1500 around 2500 cities in Europe had got presses.
Some of the changes these presses had on the nation as mentioned in the above article are:
- The increase in output and decrease in cost of books.
- Information became available to a wider population, who were of course eager to retrieve it.
- Libraries were able to store more information at a lower cost.
- "Printing also facilitated the dissemination and preservation of knowledge in standardised form especially when it came to science, technology and scholarship.
- It created what was described as a "information revolution" that has been likened to that of the internet today.
- Printing stimulated the literacy of lay people and eventually came to have a deep and lasting impact on their private lives.
- Most of the earliest printed books were on religious matters however students, businessmen, upper and middle class all bought books on a mixture of topics.
- Printers responded to demand with moralizing,medical, practical and travel manuals.
- Printing provided a superior basis for scholarship and prevented the further corruption of texts through hand copying which meant that the information made more progress and was more reliable as it would have echoed the original.



Summary of some areas outlined here and others that I believe that the printing press had a dramatic impact on. With further research I am sure I will discover some more.

-Medicine
-Religion - Eg Gutenbergs bible
-Technology
-Scholarship
-Ideas, knowledge, Facts
-Stories, tales
-Cultural awareness
- Language - Different words from different regions shared or acknowledged as a separate language

Laurens Janzoon Coster

Was Laurens Janzoon Coster the real inventor of movable type?

I was very interested in the discovery in my previous blog entry that there was another names print designer that has also been credited with the invention of movable type so wanted to do a bit of investigation to discover more about him and this theory.

Junius's Story
Hadrianus Junius, wrote his story in 1588 in 'Batavia' His book and story was supported by some of his friends in the business. - Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert - Samuel Ampzing - Petrus Scriverius are some of the notable names.
According to Junius, Coster was in Haarlemmerhout sometime in the 1420's carving letters from bark to amuse his grandchildren, he then noticed the impressions that the letters left of the sand.
He then proceeded to invent a new type of ink that didn't run and began a printing company using movable type. (he dated this as early in the 1420's due to a fire in 1426 during the Hook and Cod wars that burnt Haarlemmerhout during a seige)
Junius believes that he used wooden letters at first but later used lead and tin movable type. This company grew, he is said to have printed several books including Speculum Humanae Salvationis. He had several assistants including the letter cutter Johann Fust. Laurens broke his promise of secrecy to Fust when Laurens was nearing death by stealing his presses and type and took them to Mainz where he started his own printing company.

Ulrich Zell's Story
In the anonymous 'Kolner Chronik' of 1499 Ulrich Zell who was a printing assistant from Cologne in his sixties claimed that printing began in Mainz. This was based on the knowledge from Holland that was used to print Latin grammar texts (Donatus)
neither Coster nor Haarlem are mentioned in that chronicle which if true points to Johann Gutenberg around a decade after Coster's death.
However the first securely dated book by Dutch printers is from 1471, long after Gutenberg.
Either way Coster is considered a Haarlem local 'Hero' whos statue can be found in the city along with many other mentions of his name.

1823 Haarlem celebrated the 400th anniversary of Coster's invention with a monument which contained the symbolic 'A'

The History of the Printing Press

Milestones of printing- as laid out by http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/printpress.htm

 888- The Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist scripture was the first example of black printing that has been dated.
1041 - Bi Sheng - invented movable clay type in China.
1423 - Europeans are using a process of block printing to make books using the art of graving which was known as xylography.
1439 - Gutenberg moves from Mainz to Strasberg
1436 - Gutenberg begins to work on his printing press.
1440 - Gutenberg finishes his wooden press which used metal movable type.
1440 - Laurens Janszoon Koster (Coster) is credited by some for inventing metal movable type.
1444 - Gutenberg returns to his Native maize and sets up a printing shop.
1446 - Gutenberg prints the "Poem of the last Judgment"
1448 - Gutenberg prints the "Calendar for 1448"
1450 - Gutenberg forms a partnership with a wealthy man called Johann Fust.
1450 - Gutenberg begins work on a bible - is first is 40 lines per page.
1452 - Gutenberg beings to work on the 42 lined bible in two volumes.
1454 - Gutenberg prints indulgences which were sold to the Christians by the Pope, pardoning their sins.
1455 - The Biblia Pauperum, the first block-printed Bible was published in Germany.
1455 - Gutenberg completed work on what is estimated to have been 200 copies of the bible.
1455 - Gutenberg became bankrupt which meant that investor Johann Faust gained control of the print business.
1457 - A Psalter introduced by Faust (collection of Psalms for devotional use) was the first known colour printing.
1460 - Gutenberg with the help and aid of Conrad Humery re-established himself in the printing business.
1461 - Albrecht Pfister printed Edelstein, the first illustrated book which featured a number of woodcuts.
1465 - Gutenberg is appointed to the court of Archbishop Adolf of Nassau.
1476 - 200 woodcuts were used in a edition of Aesop's Fables
1476 - First saw the use of copper engravings instead of woodcuts for illustration.
1476 - William Caxton sets up his printing press in Westminster in England.
1499 - Printing had become established in more than 2500 cities around Europe.
1499 - An estimated 15 million have been press printed from around thirty thousand book titles.

Did Gutenberg really invent the first movable type?

  http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20041108/bible.html

Italian researcher Bruno Fabbiani believes that Gutenberg used stamps with a metallographic invention rather than movable type for his 42 page bible that he is said to have invented between 1452 and 1455.
After studying one page from the bible closely Fabbiani noticed that some of the letters were superimposed.
Fabbiani said - "Movable type are metal blocks, sort of parallelepipeds put together, one attached to another, to form words. With this method, it is practically impossible for type to be superimposed,"
Instead he believed it would be a typewritter type process on a larger scale which could have possibly slipped slightly causing the slight imperfection.

His claim caused uproar in the industry, some experts were quick to dismiss his claims.

"Eva Hanebutt-Benz, director of the Gutenberg Museum in the German town of Mainz, where Gutenberg was born, told reporters that there are "many open questions" on how Gutenberg produced the Bible as no documents exist from the printer's workshop. But she was strongly skeptical about Fabbiani's claim."

other experts were more open minded and intrigued about Fabbiani's believes.
"This is very important and credible research. We should not be afraid to destroy the myths, " Francesco Pirella of Genoa's Museum of Print told Discovery News.

How Gutenbergs moveable type changed the print world.

Website used for reference for this research -  http://www.juliantrubin.com/bigten/gutenbergmovable.html

This invention of the mass printing process is regarded by many as the invention of the century. Not only did it make a huge impact in everyday life such as medicine, education and religion but it also dramatically changed the design of typefaces, opening new abilities and a new feel to type design.

Before type was carved into stone like in Greek or Roman lettering or was written by scribes which took a great length of time. Letters were carved in wood but they were also time consuming and not very durable, the ink gave the wooden blocks a limited life span.

The process - "He made metal moulds, by the use of dies, into which he could pour hot liquid metal, in order to produce separate letters as the same shape as those written by hand. These letters were similar, more readable, and more durable than wooden blocks. Such letters could be arranged and rearranged many times as the printer wished to create different pages from the same letters.Gutenberg also introduced the use of printing press to press the type against paper. For this he used a hand press used in his times by wine industry. Ink was rolled over the raised surfaces of the hand-set letters held within a wooden frame, and the frame was then pressed against the paper. The press enabled sharp impressions on both sides of a sheet of paper and many repetitions. After a page was printed, the type could be reused for printing other pages."

The 42 line bible which is also known as the Gutenberg bible or Mainz bible (where it was produced) is generally known as the worlds first book created using this movable type process.

However many experts believe that Gutenberg was wrongly accredeted with the invention of moveable type:

"Bruno Fabbiani, an expert in printing who teaches at Turin Polytechnic, said the 15th-century German printer used stamps rather than the movable type he is said to have invented between 1452 and 1455. So, Johannes Gutenberg may be wrongly credited with the production of the first western book printed in movable type, according to the Italian researcher."

According to a BBC website there was a similar system of moveable type in Korea over a century before Gutenberg's invention, there is however no evidence that it was brought into Western Europe.

Renaissance Secrets: What Did Gutenberg Invent?

Even if Gutenberg had based his idea on the Koreans process the BBC define his invention as;

"Invention requires putting together disparate elements in a novel way, making a cohesive, coherent process that can then be carried on by many different people. It was Gutenberg’s combination of the printing press, type, paper and ink that made the invention a success."

It can be summarised therefore that Gutenberg turned what was an impractical printing process to a practical, readily used worldwide process. Over the next 500 years though there was much development to the mechanics of printing the fundamental process has remained the same, evidence of how big an accomplishment is was and how accepted it had become.

New technologies that changed type

Source = DT&G Design
http://www.graphic-design.com/DTG/bergsland/new_typography.html

New technologies from the later 20th Century that saw the change from metal to digital type opened the doors for so many more fonts. It went from hundreds of fonts to hundreds of thousands.
This was made possible by: phototype, press type, early desktop publishing.
These 3 technologies marked a huge change to type.
With digital software you are able to adapt Point size, leading, colour, weight etc at a simple click of a button.
However although this modern version was a lot quicker to manipulate and use there was still a lot lost in the translation from metal to digital type. A certain character and feel that does not exist in a digital version.
Although this had a huge impact on typography there are also lots of other factors over the years that have also influenced typographic styles and techniques.

Helvetica- todays widely used font.

Some key points on Helvetica:

Helvetica is a swiss sans serif typeface that was developed by designer Max Miedinger with help from Eduard Hoffmann as the Haas type foundry.
The aim was to develop a neutral typeface that was had great clarity and could be easily read on the likes of signage.
It was originally called Neue Hass Grotesk and was based on Schelter Grotesk and Hass normal Grotesk.
It was created after the success of univers.
Arther Ritzel reworked it into a full family of weights etc.
In 1960 the name was changed by Haas' German parent company Stemple to Helvetica which is the Latin word for Switzerland due to its origins in order to make it more marketable internationally. Eduard Hoffmann originally rejected this name change as he felt it would not be appropriate to name a font after a country but came around due to the fact it means "swiss" as opposed to switzerland.
Similar typefaces have been created since including Monotype imaging, ParaType, Bitstream, Nimbus Sans.
Helveticas strokes are either cut horizontally or vertically.
Versions exist for the following alphabets/scripts - Latin, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Khmer and Vietnamese, showing how widely adopted this typeface is. Chinese faces have also been developed to complement Helvetica.
Uses of Helvetica - Commercially used for businesses such as: Orange, BMW, Microsoft, Toyota,                           Panasonic, Motorola and many more.
                             -widely used by the government such as tax forms.
                             - Nasa uses it for the space shuttle orbiter
                             - Signage
it is seen as a trusting font so gives the right message of "you will get to your destination" "your money is safe with us"
Whilst many are pleased with its simplistic state others believe that its neutrality is a platform for creative design.

"It has a modern attitude which lines up with the aesthetic premises of the 1950s and 60s. Helvetica is a corporate typeface, but on the other hand it's the favourite of hairdressers and kebab shops. It is the butter on the bread."

Lars Mueller- Helvetica devotee.

"It's durable. It comes from natural design forms. It doesn't have an expression of fashion. It has very clear lines and characters, it looks like a very serious typeface," says Frank Wildenberg, managing director of Linotype, the German firm that owns the font.

Examples of different weights of Helvetica

Compared with other major fonts.

The origins of the alphabet

What I have learnt about the origins of the alphabet from -  'The Thames and Hudson Manual of Typography'- Ruari McLean.

The ability to write brought about the invention of the alphabet. In order to have become a typographer they needed to fully understand the alphabet and how it was different from other writing systems such as chinese or Japanese.
Although it is not certain where our alphabet originated from there is a wide belief that it was most likely to have been invented less than two years before Christ in an eastern corner of the Mediterranean.
David Diringer believes that all existing writing systems have stems and developed from this first invented type. He said "The inventor of inventors are to be ranged among the greatest benefactors of mankind...only the Syro-Palestinian Semites produced a genius who created the alphabetic writing from which have descended all past and present alphabets"
As soon as writing was invented people were trying to make it look better and better to make it aesthetically pleasing.
There was a tradition of decorated, illuminated and illustrated manuscripts that are very significant to typographers, countless books exist today on the topic. The British museum has a permanent collection of illuminated manuscripts.
Paper was invented in China and this knowledge of how to make paper spread slowly from the East towards the West. The first paper mill in Europe was established in Spain in AD 1150.
Printing from wooden blocks also flourished in China. It had become an art by the tenth century AD.
The 'Diamond Sutra' which is also in the British museum dated back to 868 and has been named as the worlds oldest extant printed book.
Then came the invention of printing from moveable type made out of clay and held in an iron forme. In Pi Sheng China between 1041 and 1048 and also in korea they used moveable metal type  but since the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans did not have an alphabet the invention of moveable type was not a big deal then.
T.F. Carter said "The writing of the languages of the far east is based on some forty thousand separate symbols: for them, until the large wholesale printing of recent years, moveable type have seldom been practical or economical...The invention of printing from wooden blocks was therefore the invention of printing in china"
Nobody knows whether the process of Block printing in the form of playing cards, money or books spread to Europe before the process began there. We do not know when block printing first began in Europe but there is evidence that it was used for printing textiles from at least the sixth Century and we do know that playing cards were popular in France in the late fourteenth century.
However the wooden block printing process used for pictures and text did not lead to the invention of moveable type in Europe.
The invention of moveable type by Johannes Gutenberg was down to his knowledge of metal as a goldsmith. His invention was made after around ten years of trial and error to bring about the popular printing process that opened the door to lots more different typefaces emerging.

Ancient Greek Font.

Greek - Τηε γρεεκ αλπηαβετ. Αλτηουγη τηερε αρε μανψ σιμιλαριτιες ηερε ανδ λεττερς ωε ωουλδ ρεξογνισε τοδαψ τηερε ηας αλσο βεεν σομε δραματιξ ξηανγες.

Translation, Helvetica- The Greek alphabet. Although there are many similarities here and letters we would
recognise today there has also been some dramatic changes.

( I found a conversion website where you can type in English and get it changed to Greek called Type Greek - its reliability cannot be 100% certain but it does match the letter i have found in previous research)


For example the symbol for the letter A in upper case is the same as that used in many modern Serif typefaces, the lowercase letter a although recognised as the letter a it takes on a slightly alternative form than the commonly used current typefaces but is similar to more quirky fonts.
Other letters such as r have developed beyond recognition.  φσνπ fjnp. No lines or shape bear resemblance to the current day letters.

The First alphabets- With reference to "The complete Typographer" by Christopher Perfect

The Origins of the alphabet has caused much debate, there are many different theories as to when the first writing system was established.
The introduction of a writing system was a huge step for civilisation and helped develop many aspects of life from education, communication or clarification in the form of directions, recording stock, wealth etc
An alphabet is 'A writing system with one unique visual sign (letter) for each consonant and vowel sound (although there were no vowels in the earliest alphabets) which can be combined to form visual units (words) to represent a spoken language.'
The alphabet has been the most successful writing system. From about 1500BC it has survived despite many dramatic changes in the history of the Western world and is still used today.
Though we do not know how the alphabet came about what is known is that the Semitic people - the Phoenicians developed a new phonetic language in 1500BC which is what is believed to be the first alphabetic system. It consisted of a symbol for each of the 22 consonant sounds. It had some visual similarities to Egyptian Hieroglyphs though significantly the phoenician alphabet did not use any pictograms.
Due to the phoenicians strategic positioning on the Eastern Mediterranean coast in a bid to maximise the use of sea travel when it came to exporting their goods. These business relationships with neighbouring areas allowed the phoenician alphabet system to spread, by 800BC it had made its way west to Greece.
During this time in Greece there was many different dialects and alphabets in use. However eventually two alphabets emerged the Ionian in the east of the country and the Chalcidian in the west.
There were several similarities between these early Greek alphabets and the phoenician alphabet. These include the order and names of letters and the direction of writing which was from right to left. (or sometimes alternative)
From about 500BC the direction of writing was reversed so now read left to right.
403BC the Ionian alphabet was officially adopted as the Classical Greek alphabet in Athens. it was Chalcidian however that had been the most influenced by the phoenician alphabet and was the model for all other succeeding alphabets to emerge from Western Europe.
Around 675BC trade developed between Greeks and the Etruscans who had migrated from Asia to the west coast of Italy. This communication that the influence of the Greek Chalcidian spread to Italy and is believed to be a main factor behind the Etruscan alphabet.
The Etruscans remained dominant in Italy for some 250 years . 100 years later their power was lost to Rome. They left considerable legacy to the Romans such as architecture, law, roads and other trappings of a civilised society.
the Etruscan alphabet was inspiration of the Roman alphabet which we still use today. The Romans made slight adoptions to some letters, introduced others and removed a few too. The result was a 23 letter alphabet we still use today with the addition of J,U and W which were not added until the Middle ages.

Reviving the rules of typography by David Jury - continued

Transitional
During the last decade of the 17th Century that in France the first development of the Old Style occurred. A font for the Imprimerie Royale was created. This departure from Old Style had a huge impact on designers and printing types..
During the 18th Century the best known of these designers emerged - John Baskerville. He was an amateur printer and type founder who is acknowledged for creating one of the earliest Transitional style typefaces.
Baskerville not only made developments to type style but he also developed the printing process and he made advances in ink and paper-making which enabled him to rationalise the production of type but he still maintained the characteristics of hand written font.
The book describes Baskerville as "an open form (similar to Old Style) but set at an angle that is closer to vertical and with a greater contrast between the thickness and thinness of line (similar to modern)"
The differences between Baskerville and its predecessors may appear to be very slight but at the time John Baskervilles books were revolutionary. They were not well received, partly due to the typeface but also because of the whiteness and smoothness of the paper which gave it a 'sheen' in contrast to the opacity and darkness of the ink. Some cities went as far as accusing his books of causing blindness.
Although his books were rejected in England for more than 150 years it was these characteristic of his books as well as the type design itself  that had such an influence over Didot and Bodoni later.
Pierre Simon Fournier, said in his Manuel Typographique (1764 - 66) said of Baskerville "He has spared neither pains nor expenses to bring [his types] to utmost pitch of perfection"

Modern
" I want magnificance...I don't work for the common reader" Bodoni
The Didot  family in Paris and Giambattista Bodoni in Italy ignored all aspects of calligraphy. They introduced a rationalistic design based on what was of interest at that time in science and all things 'factual'.
They themselves were influenced by the results of research carried out in france 100 years earlier. During this experiment a team of 3 mathematicians and scientists were asked to look into the whole process of type design and its manufacture. The result was the use of a grid which enabled designers to 'execute to the smallest detail, the letter we have decided on' and they used drawing instruments rather than free hand. Their initial prints were printed from copper plates and had a dramatic impact.
Pierre simon Fournier introduced his two volume Manuale Typographique which lay out the key characteristics of 'science and economy'initiated in Paris by the Imprimerie Royale- 1702. he was a firm believer in a rational method of describing types. He had a point system that was used for describing the measurement of type which is what helped the production of the later Didot and Anglo-American point systems.
Bodoni and Didot being contemporaries were aware of each others work. They shared influences and nature of work which encouraged them to produce books which would be appreciated as works of art.
Allen Haley notes "Bodoni's work was probably the most honoured, and the least read, printing of its time'.

Sans Serif
Has also been known as Grotesque, Grot, Monoline and Jobbing type
Herbert Bayer "Why two characteristics, A and a for a single sound a? One character, one sound. Why two alphabets for one word? Why two systems of characters when a single one gives the same results?"
The first Sans Serifs were a 'by-product' of the interest of the exploration of Athens and the architectural revival at the end of the 18th Century. However it was swiftly adopted to answer the need for a simple, utilitarian font that could be used throughout newspaper advertisements, lottery and theatre tickets, programmes and later posters. In the printing world this range of materials was given the generic term 'jobbing' or 'ephemeral' work.
Sans Serif was popular and widely used when a short loud statement was required due to its uncluttered, highly legible, bold characteristics.
The rush to respond to this demand for Sans Serif fonts for commercial purposes meant that the quality suffered considerably of the early designs. For example Vincent Figgins' Sans - 1832.
The 'quirkiness' of some of the characters gave it individuality and made it stand out that were used to seeing perfectly formed and refined typefaces, they looked like 'mistakes' almost. They gained attention, achieving what it was designed to do but not in the way it was intended.
The printing trade however disliked these non- conservative fonts, branding them 'Grotesque'.
In the 19th century following world war two the early geometric 'minimalistic' qualities of Sans Serif provided the starting point for new designs. They wanted to communicate the optimism of the new modern age post war. They wanted to embrace the social advantages of mechanisation and mass production however this mechanistic structure of the early designs hindered readability.
Twenty five years later, Adrian Fruitiger's Sans Serif Univers was drawn considering optical balance rather than being constructed geometrically. It was an attempt to design a truly Utilitarian Sans Serif that could have been applied anywhere. Fruitiger  designer 21 variations of Univers, a family of different widths and weights as well as Italics which were slanted versions of their Roman counterparts rather than being calligraphic in origin as was the norm.
It was designed specifically for the photo-typesetting technology.
There has been a steadily increasing number of Sans Serif font designs since the 1960's that have been designed with the specific purpose of reading.
The invention of a new type of pen, the ball point that was developed for the use of pilots during WW2 might have led to the acceptance of 'monoline' Sans Serif types in general use.
The computer also appears to be 'encouraging a resurgence of interest in humanistic old style typographic values of warm, comfortable and readable types'

What I have learnt from Reviving the rules of Typography - David Jury

I found this book very interesting and useful when it came to learning more about some of the different type styles that I have been studying.

Blackletter
Blackletter can also be called Gothic, Textura, Fraktur or Old English.
A form of Blackletter was used for Gutenberg's 42 lined bible which was the first book published in the Western world to have survived. This type was described byAF Johnston "An upright and angular letter, characterised by an almost entire absence of curves" and was believed to be based on type derived from Roman inscriptions. It still continues to be used occasionally in Europe.
Johnston mentions that Gutenberg's type is difficult to differentiate between, such an an n being made up of two i's placed in contact. However people say that it has such an immaculate setting that offers a balance that has never been surpassed.
Blackletter is still used for newspaper mastheads, legal documents and organically produced food. Due to its German originals and Hitlers application of it as the "True German Typeface" it has also got associations with more disturbing connotations.

Old Style
Old Style represents the earliest Roman typefaces. Roman typefaces are made up of two distinct parts, The Uppercase or capitals derived from Roman stone inscriptions and the lowercase developed from hand-written books of christian scribes in Northern Europe.
Shortly after Gutenberg's invention of moveable type hand written and stone inscribed Roman lettering was able to be cut into metal type.
The characteristic associated with Old style focus on the quality of hand written font that would be produced with a broad-nibbed pen with a varying width thickness.
The appearance of books adapted with the developments in the printing process. Original Old Style typefaces such as Garamond, Plantin, Janson, Caslon etc are still considered to be amongst the most readable typefaces and therefore are frequently used in publications.

Characteristics of the Greek alphabet points.

Just a few points on Greek alphabet I found
-The Greek alphabet is the first alphabet in the sense that it had a different symbol to represent each of its 24 letters.
-It emerged in the 8th or 9th century BC after the fall of the Mycenaean civilisation.
-It led to the abandonment of the Linear B script descended from the linear A script, early Greek writing systems.
-Descended from the Phoenician alphabet and has influenced others such as the largely common of its era Latin.
-Its symbols are still used today in many instances: symbols in maths and science, particle names in physics, components of star names and other purposes.
-The Greek alphabet we recognise today came from the Greek dark ages.
-The biggest development from the phoenician alphabet to the Greek is the additive of vowels. It also added 3 new consonants.
-Greek used to be written right to left but later became written right to left.
-When letters were adopted from phoenician to Greek names were maintained or modified slighty to fit in with Greek phonology.
-The borrowed names had no meaning in Greek except labels for letters however later added Greek symbols did have proper Greek meanings.

Essay plan - The development of universal type

The history of the alphabet

 (reference to type and typography by Phil Baines and Andrew Haslam) I found a few useful points in this book that will help with my essay:

The Romans acquired and adapted the Greek alphabet creating their 26 character Roman alphabet that notated the phonemes of Latin.
As the Roman Empire grew, different countries adapted the alphabet to record their native languages. Changes had to be made by the different nations to capture the vast range of varying sounds that each language has. New symbols had to be made such as circumflex or accute accents.

Bill Bryson in his book 'Mother Tongue' stresses how important the different accents on letters is to pronunciation.

"David Crystal in 'The English language' notes that, in fact 84% of English spellings conform to a consistent pattern"

"If writing is the physical notation of language, then type is its mechanical notation"

In Europe the invention of type is credited to Johann Gutenberg although there is evidence of a pre existing movable metal type in korea that would have been used as far back as 1241.

Alphabet system's traceable origins went back some 3000 years.

Phil Baines and Andrew Haslam also lay out what they believe to be the two main factors of the story of the western alphabet prior to Gutenberg inventing type, both of which were developed in parallel.
 - The first is the establishment of the 26 symbols that including vowel and consonants that represent the phonemes of most European languages.
- The second is the continual refinement of those symbols to end up with the legacy of 26 letters in both Upper and lower case. The idea of a small gap between words and a left to right reading direction were also important developments in the lead up to Gutenberg's type.

The latin alphabet dates from imperial Roman times, although its origins are much earlier:
The Phoenicians, who were a great trading nation from what is now Israel, the Lebanon and Syria used a 22 letter alphabet. Although little Phoenician literature was found by archeologists the earliest recognizable Phoenician inscriptions were found at Byblos and have been dated back to 1100BC
The classical Greek alphabet which is sometime referred to as the Ionic or Eastern alphabet was developed from the Phoenician alphabet.
In 403BC it became the official alphabet in Athens. The Greeks however did make some changes. they used two of the symbols as vowels and created 3 more vowels making 25 letters in all.
Greeks used Phoenician names for letters but they amended the spelling in order to reflect their own pronunciation.

Before the official adoption of the Classical Greek alphabet the Greek colonists had taken a script to Italy. This 'Euboean' alphabet became the Etruscan alphabet and was slightlydifferent from the Classical Greek version.

The Etruscans adapted the alphabet to reflect their phonetics, a process that required the use of 26 letters.
In due course The Romans developed an alphabet based on the Etruscans. They used 21 of the original 26 letters:
- 13 stayed the same - a,b,e,h,i,k,m,n,o,t,x,y,z
- 8 were amended - c,d,g,l,p,r,s,v
- 2 further were reinstated - f and q- had existed in early Greek but had been dropped in Classical Greek.

The alphabet now had 23 letters - with this new alphabet the Romans were able to write a phonetic representation of their language which is now know as latin.

j,u, and w were more recent additives needed to represent other sounds in new languages such as Old English. prior to there introduction i was used to represent i and j, v was used to represent the sounds of both v and u and w wasn't needed until New English came about.

Although the Roman alphabet took many forms, Capitalis Quadrata (which was square capitals) have had the most influence on lettering and the development of typography.
Many of these different versions exist on prescriptions Eg those from the reign of Trajan which can be seen most famously on Trajan's Column in Rome from c114AD.

This is the process of which has led us to our 26 letter alphabet that we use today.

Below are some images which show the development of todays alphabet, you can see the letters get closer and closer to what we use today:

Phoenician alphabet

Greek alphabet

Roman alphabet

development of universal type

I found a very interesting article on the website graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials
It had really useful information on my chosen topic to study; the development of typography.
Family Classifications of Type

---

Since the time of Gutenberg, the typographic form has evolved with technology, philosophy, and culture. In order to effectively analyze this typographic evolution, the design of type characters over the last five and a half centuries is most often broken down into classifications of common visual characteristics, called families of type:

(15th-17th century) (mid 18th century) (late 18th century) (19th century) (19th-20th century) (19th-20th century) (19th-20th century)

The families of type represent more than 500 years of development and each family displays distinct visual characteristics. These characteristics are basic to visual communication with type.
The examples shown here are, for the most part, contemporary derivations of period type designs. Most available versions of pre-20th century typefaces have been refined according to the dictates of technology and popular taste. Although these may vary, sometimes substantially, from the original versions, they nonetheless preserve predominate characteristics and, since they are widely available today, are more relevant in helping the contemporary designer identify typographic forms.
When conparing famaily characteristics, look closely at:

• stroke variation (contrast)
• serifs and bracketing
• x-height
• stress
  

Old Style (15th-17th century)
The concept of adhering to manuscript models was the basis of the first 300 years of type design, and typefaces designed during this period are referred to as Old Style.

Oldstyle Characterisitcs

• minimal variation of thick and thin strokes
• small, coarse serifs, often with slightly concave bases
• small x-heights.
• In the round strokes, the stress is diagonal, or oblique, as their designs mimic the hand-held angle of the pen nibs of the scribes.
• The tops of lowercase ascenders oftenexceed the height of the capital characters.
• The numerals, called old style figures, vary in size and have ascenders and descenders. Many contemporary versions of Old Style typefaces do not retain the old style figures but, in catering to contemporary taste, uselining, or capital height figures.

It is interesting to note that in the revolutionary practice of cutting and casting the first types, no thought was given to the adaptation of letterforms themselves to this new medium. Since printers apparently regarded their craft as an evolution of manuscript preparation, the first type designs cut into metal were literal copies of the pen-drawn strokes of scribes.
Gothic:The typefaces of Gutenberg’s first prints mimicked the Germanic Gothic or blackletter manuscript style — a heavy, broad-nibbed form, constructed with straight and angular strokes, with almost no curves.
When printing came to Italy a few decades later, type design was derived from their more rounded Roman letter style. The Roman style eventually prevailed, as its readability and appeal to the eye were markedly superior to the weighty, harsh Gothic.

Gothic	Roman

Venetian/Aldine: Because of its location and status as a center of trade, Venice became the focal point of type design and printing in the late 15th century. The most influential Venetian work came from Aldus Manutius, a printer and publisher whose books were reknowned for their authoritative scholarship. As they also were of the highest technical and aesthetic quality of their day, they were in great demand, and the typefaces they employed were widely copied by other printers.
Aldus’ most important type, designed by Francesco Griffo, was created for a 60 page essay by Cardinal Pietro Bembo, in 1495. The typeface, called Bembo after the manuscript’s author, was a Roman design of great typographic significance. Its popularity spread throughout Europe and remained the major influence in type design for the next hundred and fifty years. All of the type designs which we call Old Style can be traced back the design of Bembo.
Aldus is best known as a entrepreneur who devised many creative innovations in the process of realizing his business goals. He was quite adept at marketing his products to the upperclass and university scholars.
Among Aldus’ many innovations was publishing personal versions of the classics in a small format which was easy to carry. Books of that time were very large, usually read while being supported by a lectern. Aldus correctly recognized a market for a smaller, easily transportable book which would fit conveniently in a pocket or saddlebag.
These, the forerunners of today's pocket-size books, utilized another of Aldus' unique innovations. They were printed in a new style of type which he commissioned from Griffo. This type, patterned after the official cursive hand of scholars and professionals, called cancellaresca, was designed at an angle, carried a distinct flavor of handwriting, and featured smaller character widths.
This typestyle, the first italic letterform, allowed for more characters per line than the Roman style, thus fitting more text to the smaller page format of his personal books. These books were enormously popular and had a profound effect on education and the diffusion of knowledge.
A twentieth century revival of the Venetian types, Bembo is a copy of the Aldine Roman typeface cut by Francesco Griffo.

BemboReleased by Monotype in 1929 A twentieth century revival of the Venetian types, Bembo is a copy of the Aldine Roman typeface cut by Francesco Griffo.Bembo is a classic typeface displaying the characteristics which identify Old Style designs: minimal variation in thick and thin stroke weight small x-height ascender height exceeding cap height oblique stress short, bracketed serifs with cupped bases angled serifs on lower case ascenders A good type choice for expressing classic beauty and formal tradition, it reads well in large amounts of text and is an excellent book face.

Bembo is a classic typeface displaying the characteristics which identify Old Style designs:

• minimal variation in thick and thin stroke weight
• small x-height
• ascender height exceeding cap height
• oblique stress
• short, bracketed serifs with cupped bases
• angled serifs on lower case ascenders

A good type choice for expressing classic beauty and formal tradition, it reads well in large amounts of text and is an excellent book face.

French/Garamond: By the 16th century, France became a leading influence in printing and typography. The most popular type designs of the time were those of Claude Garamond, who was heavily influenced by the Aldine types. As Aldus Manutius was an innovator in publishing, Garamond was certainly innovative in his type designs. While the typographic form was basically a copy of hand lettering, Garamond was perhaps the first to consider the qualities of letterform design as distinct from earlier manuscript styles. Thus his designs, while based on the Venetian types, introduced subtle and delicate refinements: more open lower case characters with generous counters, larger capitals, and a delicate grace to the curved strokes.
While these refinements are subtle, they nonetheless produced type which was at once more graceful and inviting to the eye than the popular Aldine Roman. Garamond's type was a great success and became so widely accepted that it is considered to be the final deathblow to the Gothic letterforms. Many contemporary variations of Garamond continue to be among the most widely used typefaces today.
Garamond's innovations established many of today's typographic conventions. His appreciation of the Aldine italic was such that he felt it to be a suitable complement to all of his Roman types. Thereafter, for each roman typeface he created, he also designed a complimentary italic style. This concept was so universally accepted that the italic became a standard variation to Roman types.
Garamond also established the concept of the commercial type founder. Since the time of Gutenberg, custom dictated that printers design and cast their own types. They also manufactured their own paper, and formulated their own printing inks. When a printer created a particularly popular typeface, other printers were quick to copy the designs for their own typecasting.
Whether Garamond wished to preserve the integrity of his own designs, or merely make additional profit is not known, but he initiated the practice of casting his types for retail sale to other printers. This eventually led to the establishment of independent businesses which were exclusively devoted to the design, cutting, and casting of type for sale to the printing trade.
These establishments, called typefoundries, became sources of type for many printers and were instrumental in the widespread acceptance and distribution of new designs.

GaramondDesigned by Claude Garamond in 1532 he preeminent French Old Style design exhibits subtle refinements to the Venetian designs with its graceful serifs and delicate weight changes. Counters are generous, with the exception of the lowercase ‘a’ and ‘e’, which are small. Lowercase top serifs are extended, diagonal, and curve to join the main strokes. The Uppercase ‘T’ is unique, with the top left serif slanted and the top right serif straight. Garamond remains one of the most popular text faces today. It is highly readable, lends a graceful quality to text, and its long ascenders give it a light, airy quality.

English/Caslon: The religious reform and government censorship of 16th century France heralded the end of the influence of its printing industry. Dutch foundries, noted for their high quality metal work, were the chief source of type manufacture well into the 18th century.
The establishment of England's influence in type was brought about almost single-handedly by William Caslon. Caslon was a engraver who specialized in ornamenting and personalizing gun locks and barrels and occasionally engraving lettering for bookbinders. Because of his steady hand and superior engraving skills, his work was highly prized and his business very lucrative. He was occasionally commissioned to cut engravings for book covers and his lettering work was so impressive that, in 1720, he was persuaded to establish his own type foundry.
The exquisite letterform refinements in his type designs were not only well received, but quickly became the universal printing standard. Caslon's type brought him fame and his foundry became the largest and most prestigious in England.
The success of Caslon’s types came from his skill as an artist. English typecasting in his time was considered a common trade rather than the prominent craft it was regarded abroad. As a result, the quality of English types was so poor that most printers exclusively employed types from the vastly superior Dutch foundries.
While Caslon certainly based his designs on Dutch types, his artistic sensitivity gave his types a superior quality of delicate modeling and form. While not as elegant as the French types, Caslon’s designs embodied a sturdier grace which better suited the English aesthetic.Every foundry in the world has offered a variation of the Caslon types, and the phrase, “When in doubt, use Caslon,” was a standard printer's epithet for generations.

Caslon Designed by William Caslon in 1725 odeled after late 17th century Dutch designs, Caslon became the most popular type of the 18th century. Its design shows the evolution of the Old Style types and bears some of the traits that would characterize the Transitional designs. Its stroke variation is more pronounced Serifs display a more graceful bracketing. Lowercase characters bear wedge-shape top serifs the Uppercase ‘A’ has a distinctive curve at the apex. Caslon can be used to express a formal dignity. It is a highly readable typeface which evokes the charm of its period.

My own movable type!

 I saw a stamp set when I was shopping, it reminded me of the movable type process so I decided to buy it and have a go to understand the process for and the time and effort it must have taken to create a full book.

My attempt

The alphabet stamp set.

useful typography vocab.

Words I thought I should know when learning about typography. I wanted to learn about the basics so than I can understand fully what is being described when reading more into typography.
Bitmap font: a font consisting of a bitmap for each letter, figure, or character comprising the font. A bitmap font is drawn to one size only and cannot be scaled (i.e. made larger or smaller) without severe degradation. Macintosh bitmap fonts also containing kerning information.
Font medium: the form a font takes – metal, photographic, or digital.
Glyph: the components of a font outline or shape (a stroke, an accent, etc.).
Kerning (noun): the portion of a letter that extends beyond the letter’s width; i.e., the letter shapes that overhang.
Kerning (verb): to adjust the spacing between characters in words to improve their appearance.
Punchcutting: cutting the master image of a typographic letter at its actual size on a blank of steel. The blank is used to make a matrix; molten lead flows into a matrix, producing a single piece of type.
Scalable font: a font that is mathematically defined so that it can be rendered at any requested size. Opposite of a bitmapped font.
Type designer: a person who designs letterforms intended for eventual manufacture as fonts. Includes designing new faces and redrawing existing faces.
Typeface: the features by which a character’s design is recognized. Six forms comprise the graphic shapes for Latin languages: uncial, black letter, serif, sans serif, script and decorative; each form contains a number of designs. For example, the serif form contains four designs – Old Style, Transitional, Modern and Slab Serif.
Type foundry: a manufacturer of metal type.
Typesetter: a person who sets type using either hot lead or digital type.
Typographer (modern sense):  a person with knowledge of typefaces, typography and printing methods. Typographers determine what typefaces will be used for books and other printing at publishing houses.

Summary of this extract

The development of typefaces in printing:

• Began with Calligraphic lettering from hand written books which took years and only churches and nobility could afford.
• Printing - long complicated process but enabed quicker spread of ideas, news, knowledge and religion.
• Moveable type - Johannes Guttenberg - aswell as advancing printing he also developed his own typeface rhat resembled the hand lettered Gothic Script.
• Unical Lettering - (means inch high in Latin) used during the Roman Empire.
• It evolved to Celtic Roundhand which originated in Ireland.
• During the reign of Charlemagne the King ordered a standardized lettering style to be used throughout the Holy Roman Empire which was Carolingian lettering.
• the lettering style Black letter which is also known as Old English or Gothic was developed in Germany .
• Nicolas Jenson - printer and typography responsible for producing Old Style faces which were nfluenced by letterforms carved onto Classical Roman architecture. It was easier to read than Black letter and it adapted well to metal typecasting. Examples of this style = Centaur, Bembo, Benguiat, Goudy old style, Times Roman, Trajon, Jenson, Caslon.
• Aldus Manulius founded the first successful mass market publishing house called the Aldine Press. Nicolas Jenson and Francesco Griffo who is credited with developing Italic types both designed typefaces for him.
• William Caxton developed Gothic type ( a form of black letter) He also brought printing to England, he opened a print shop in Westminster and publised the first book in English.
• 1530 Claude Garamond established the first metal type.
• The times of London introduced the first steam press to replace hand operated presses- 1868- The Rotary Steampress was introduced.
• Type styles underwent major developments in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the development of Sans Serif type faces.
• This introduction was controversial with many people labelling them Grotesque. Members of this Grotesque style include Helvetica, Grotesque, Arial, Franklin Gothic and univers.
• The Grotesque style was later joined by Geometric (Avant Garde, Futura, Century Gothic) and Humanist (Gills Sans, Optima)

It is clear to see how dramatically type and the ability to print and reproduce it has developed over time. With these as some of the key milestones along the way. It is harder to tell where it will go from here and how signifiacnt type will be in the years to come. With constant new technology evolving type is used more and more for communication, will vocal communication die out?

The history of typefaces from printlocal.com

I am trying to settle on a topic for my typography blog and am currently finding myself most interested to the history of different typefaces, how, when and why they were made, the purposes they are intended for and the impact they had. Here is some information I found on this topic at the following website which I found very useful:

 http://www.printlocal.com/History-of-Printing.htm

Typography from Gutenberg to Computers
One of the best things about being a printer is recognizing the role our profession has played in the educational, political, and religious life of mankind. In the Middle Ages, before printing was invented, scribes made books by hand-copying manuscripts in distinctive calligraphic lettering. A single book could take years to produce using this method, meaning that only the church and nobility could afford them.
Printing made it possible to produce whole books in weeks rather than years. This, in turn, enabled the rapid spread of knowledge, ideas, literature and news, profoundly shaping the development of whole societies.
Many people believe that the invention of printing hinged on the development of the printing press. Derived from presses used to squeeze the oil from olives and juice from grapes, the first printing presses used a heavy screw to force a block of type against the paper below.
But that’s only half the story. It wasn’t until Johannes Gutenberg perfected the technology of movable type in 1458 that the printing press realized its full potential. Movable type – letters of the alphabet, numerals, and punctuation marks constructed of durable metal – could be assembled into a page of text, then disassembled and re-used to create a new page of text.
Early printers needed both a printing press and a type font – the set of movable type – to produce books. Type was cast from molten metal poured into carved molds; the task of carving the molds was the done by typographers. Gutenberg himself fashioned a font containing over 300 characters, including flourishes and ligatures, to simulate the look of hand lettered Gothic script. He also invented a variable-width mold to cast type from metal and perfected a blend of lead, antimony, and tin that resulted in very durable type.
Early printers as typographers
Prior to the development of printing, lettering styles were confined to the calligraphic styles of scribes. Uncial lettering (from Latin uncial meaning inch-high) was used during the Roman Empire; this gradually evolved to Celtic Roundhand (developed in Ireland). Later, during the reign of Charlemagne, the king ordered a standardized lettering style to be used throughout the Holy Roman Empire – Carolingian lettering. Finally, a lettering style called Black Letter (sometimes called Old English or Gothic) developed in Germany. Black Letter was adapted by Gutenberg for the movable type used to print the 42-line Bible (named for the number of lines per page), which is also known as the Gutenberg Bible or the Mainz Bible (for the place where it was produced).
Because type was so critical to early printers, many were also typographers, or employed them. One example is Nicolas Jenson (1420-1480), a printer and publisher originally from France who studied with Gutenberg and eventually settled in Venice, Italy. Jenson developed the first standardized typeface for printers. Jenson’s types – known as Old Style -- are regarded as among the very best of the Renaissance. Many typefaces in use today (such as Times New Roman) are based on Jenson’s designs.

Printers mark of Nicolas Jenson
Old Style typefaces are adaptations of Roman type – a style influenced by the letter forms carved on classical Roman architecture. The clarity and regularity of Roman type was more aesthetically pleasing and easier to read than Black Letter. In addition, it adapted well to metal typecasting, hastening the move away from the Black Letter style used by Gutenberg.
Old Style fonts are conservative in design, very readable and well suited to writing long documents. Old Style typefaces whose names you may recognize include Centaur, Bembo, Benguiat, Goudy Old Style, Palatino, Times Roman, Trajan, Jenson, and Caslon.
Nicolas Jenson and Francesco Griffo (credited with developing Italic type) both designed type for Aldus Manutius (1450-1550), a publisher and printer. Manutius founded the first successful mass market publishing house, called the Aldine Press. If the name Aldus seems familiar, it may be because in 1985, Paul Brainard named the first desktop publishing program Aldus Pagemaker.

Printers mark of Aldus Manutius
Another early typographer was William Caxton (1421-1490), credited with developing Gothic type (a form of Black Letter). An English merchant and diplomat who worked translating French literature into English for the Duchess of Burgundy, Caxton brought printing to England when he opened a print shop in Westminster. In 1477, he published the first book in English, and over a span of 14 years, he printed more than 70 books. Some of the best-known books printed by Caxton include Troilus and Creseide, Morte d'Arthur, The History of Reynart the Foxe, and The Canterbury Tales.
The first type foundry
In 1530, Claude Garamond (1490-1567) established the first metal type manufacturing factory and began to produce fonts for printers. His skill as a punchcutter (type carver) meant that his carvings of type molds produced superior type characteristics. Thus, his fonts became sought after by printers of the time, and the type foundry became a business enterprise. Garamond also cut the classic Old Style typeface bearing his name, which is considered one of the best faces in all typography.
Developing lettering styles
For the next 200 years -- from the late 1600s to the late 1800s – the printing press and the science of typecutting had only minor refinements. Then in 1814 The Times of London introduced the first steam press to replaced hand-operated presses; in 1868 the rotary steam press was introduced.
Type styles, which had continued to evolve through several periods (Transitional, Modern, Slab Serif) underwent a major change in the late 19th and early 20th century with the development of sans serif type faces. (Sans serif means without serifs in French). It is likely that several factors had, until that time, influenced the continuance of serifs at the end of letters. First is tradition – all hand lettering styles used by scribes had serifs, and cast metal type was a continuation of hand lettering. Secondly, serifs help the human eye move from letter to letter, thereby facilitating reading.
Regardless of the simple, clean, and ultimately pleasing design of sans serif type faces, their introduction was so controversial that as a group the fonts were called Grotesque. Notable Grotesques include Helvetica, Grotesque, Arial, Franklin Gothic, and Univers. The Grotesque style later was joined by Geometric (Avant Garde, Futura, Century Gothic) and Humanist (Gill Sans, Optima). Sans serif typefaces became very popular in the 1920s and 30s.
Selecting fonts for an application
Early typographers were very careful to match the lettering style to the printing project, thus continuing the emphasis established by hand lettering of creating something of beauty as well as utility. By understanding the origin of today’s digital type faces, we can exercise the same care when we compose our documents. If you would like more information on the history of type, please give us a call at 877-816-4448
Vocabulary
Bitmap font: a font consisting of a bitmap for each letter, figure, or character comprising the font. A bitmap font is drawn to one size only and cannot be scaled (i.e. made larger or smaller) without severe degradation. Macintosh bitmap fonts also containing kerning information.
Font medium: the form a font takes – metal, photographic, or digital.
Glyph: the components of a font outline or shape (a stroke, an accent, etc.).
Kerning (noun): the portion of a letter that extends beyond the letter’s width; i.e., the letter shapes that overhang.
Kerning (verb): to adjust the spacing between characters in words to improve their appearance.
Punchcutting: cutting the master image of a typographic letter at its actual size on a blank of steel. The blank is used to make a matrix; molten lead flows into a matrix, producing a single piece of type.
Scalable font: a font that is mathematically defined so that it can be rendered at any requested size. Opposite of a bitmapped font.
Type designer: a person who designs letterforms intended for eventual manufacture as fonts. Includes designing new faces and redrawing existing faces.
Typeface: the features by which a character’s design is recognized. Six forms comprise the graphic shapes for Latin languages: uncial, black letter, serif, sans serif, script and decorative; each form contains a number of designs. For example, the serif form contains four designs – Old Style, Transitional, Modern and Slab Serif.
Type foundry: a manufacturer of metal type.
Typesetter: a person who sets type using either hot lead or digital type.
Typographer (modern sense):  a person with knowledge of typefaces, typography and printing methods. Typographers determine what typefaces will be used for books and other printing at publishing houses.