History of Typography

Classification and Terminology
what is type:
"if writing is the physical notion of language, then type is it's mechanical notion"
'mechanical' being linked to the use of machines to create the type
'notion' graphic system, documenting thought symbolic code.


Origins
First movable type made from clay credited to Chinese 1041
1455 Johan Gulenberg [German] first use og 'moveable' metal type
-previously it was carved in wood/ clay.


Early Influences
-Romans: Chiselled letter form / use of capitals / serifs
-Greek: impressions in clay
-Chinese: Brush drawn characters
-Religious Scribes: Carolingian Court 7C -9C AD in France gospels of Charlemagne first used lower case.
he had scribes making copies of books and to speed up the process they wrote in lower case which would have been more flowing. 


Developmental Influences
-Desire to communicate: Religious / Poets / Artists / Writers
-Initially only available for the rich [church]
-Created because of a need for communication
-19th century industrial developments: Industrial revolution / power / type production for mass markets / transport


Design Influences
-15th - 19th century: mainly printers & craftsmen / work of scribes
-Late 19c - 20c: artists and art movements e.g arts and crafts [William Morris and Kelmscott] Eric Gill / Bauhaus
-Late 20th century: Designers, Neville Brody
Availability of digital processes


Manufacture
15 - 19c
Mainly printers and craftsmen, late 19c onwards
-Major type corporations
  -Monotype
  -Linotype: ended 1980's
IBM "Golf ball" typesetting: faces of type on metal blocks pressed onto acetate ribbon to create print on a page
Photosetting: Alphabet in photo negatives.. light is shined through and you get a copy of the type.
1980's start of digital type.


Type Terminology
Cold metal type: machine selects letters from the tray prints them then puts them back.
Current terminology used in digital production derived in general from use of metal type in 19c
-Font / family / character / caps or upper case / lower case
-Upper case comes from when the letters were set in a tray on the right hand side know as the upper case


Measurement of type
-Points and Picas [square of point 'character' size]
-Body refers to block type sits on [printing block]
-Face refers to the printing surface
-Height, distance between baseline and top of lower-case letters
-Set width, dictated by the characters e.g M and W widest
-Specify, point / body size is the dimensions by which we describe type.


Space between lines of type 'Leading' [strips of metal between each line]


Text / body type - 14pt and below
Display type - above 14pt 
Word spacing - achieved by placing metal spaces between words


Type setting
-Originally by printer craftsmen, type set by hand into type chase, cold set
-Mono type - machine set hot metal
-Litotype - machine set hot metal
-IBM "Golf Ball"
-Photosetting
-Digital


Alignment
-Justified: equal margins, randomly spaces letters
-Aligned left / right
-centred
-assymetrical, no alignment [by eye / page layout]


Classification
essential to choose right type face for the job main categories...
-Roman / Serifs
-Sans serifs / grotesque: names as they were considered ugly by type makers
-Slab serifs / egyptian
-Scripts and Decorative: only used as headings


Drop capitals [illustrated] : larger leading letters usually used at the start of articles.