A History of Type Lecture

This Lecture is based on type issue, here is the handout we got given which features the diffenrt sections of a type letterform: 

Ascender The part of lowercase letters that extend above the median in b, d, f, h, k, l, t.  See Descender.

Black slant Type posture that slants to the left.  Compare to Italic, which slants to the right.  Uncommon and difficult to read in any but extremely short segments.

Blackletter Heavy, angular types based on medieval script writing.  The first metal type in Europe, and that used by Gutenberg.  The five categories of blackletter are Bastarda, Fraktur, Quadrata, Totunda and Textura.

Contrast, typographic The amount of variation between thick and thin strokes of a letter Helvetica has little contrast, Bodoni has high contrast.

Descender The part of lowercase letter that extends below the baseline in g, j, p, q, y.  See Ascender.

Egyptian A group of display types with slab serifs.  So named because the types’ popularity coincided with a mania for ancient Egyptian discoveries in the 1830s.

Family A group of typefaces derived from the same typeface design.  Usually includes roman, italic, and bold versions.  May include small caps, old style figures, expanded, condensed, and inline versions.

Flush A typographic term meaning aligned or even.  Type can be set flush left (even on the left and ragged on the right); flush right (even on the right and ragged on the left); or flush left and right (more properly called justified).

Grotesque or Grotesk A class of sans serif.  So called because it was considered ugly when it was introduced in the mid-1800s.  URW Grotesque and Franklin Gothic are examples of grotesque faces.

Gutenberg, Johannes Inventor of movable type in 1450.  His 42-line Bible of 1455 was the first book to be produced with his technology.  It looked like the handwritten books of the time, but could be duplicated in quantities and speeds never before achieved.

Humanist A class of sans serif that looks a bit like handwriting, or at least don’t look too mechanical or geometric.  Identifiable by having a humanist axis, or angled emphasis related to handwriting.  Examples include Formata and Syntax.

Kern (noun) The part of the letter that extends into the space of another.  In metal type, this had to be hand filed on each letter.

Kern (verb) Removing space between specific letter pairs in order to achieve optically consistent letterspacing.  See Tracking.

Neo-grotesque A class of sans serif faces designed since 1945, including Helvetica and Univers.

Old Style Type originating in the 15th and 16th centuries.  There are two classes of Old Style types: Geralde and Venetian, both characterized by diagonal stress and bracketed serifs.  Examples are Caslon and Garamond.

Point size The size of a typeface measured from just above the top of the ascenders to just beneath the bottom of the descenders.  Invented in 1737 by Pierre Fournier le Jeune.  Also called Body size and Type size.

Ragged Type that is set with one edge rough: flush left/ragged right or flush right/ragged left.  There are two kinds of ragged: rough rag, in which hyphenation is either set to a wide measure or is not used; and smooth rag, in which the hyphenation zone is set to less than a pica.  Ragged left type is difficult to read beyond three lines.

Sans serif From the Latin “without serifs.”  Type without cross strokes at the ends of their limbs.  Usually have consistent stroke weight.  There are four classes of sans serif types; Grotesque/Gothic, Geometric, Neo-Grotesque, and Humanist.

Script Type, typically joined, designed to imitate handwriting.  The four classes of script type are Black-letter/Lombardic, Calligraphic, Formal, and Casual.

Serif A small terminal at the end of an stroke or arm of a letterform.

Serif, bracketed A serif where the area between the stroke and serif has been filled in with a curved triangle.

Transitional Serif types developed in the late 18th century.  They evolved between Old Face and Modern and share characteristics of both of these styles.  Examples are Baskerville and Ehrhardt.

Word space Space between words.  Proportional to letterspacing: if one is open, both must be open.  “Correct” word spacing is invisible;  just enough to separate words but not enough to break a line of type into chunks.  The lowercase i can be used as a guide for approximate spacing.

X-height The distance from the baseline to the median in lowercase letters.  So named because it is the height of a lowercase x, which has neither an ascender nor descender.

Typogrpahy includes meta-communcation // paralinguistics // kinesics

There is many forms of type some old and new, the forms differ and can be section into these:

Humanist/Old Style/Traditional/Modern/Slab Serif or Egyptian/Sans Serif

Printing was a form in which type and letterforms could be created the Gutenberg press was made in 1450 and it presents movable type. 

- TRAJAN'S COLUMN 113AD (uppercase)

- GUTENBERG GOTHIC SCRIPT 1450 (lowercase)

HUMANIST TYPEFACE

• - NICOLAS JENSON, circa 1475
• - easier to read, more modern for this time
• - characteristics = very little difference between main and secondary strokes

Old style fonts include: - first italic font invented

- GARAMOND, different spacing, 'e' not upturned

- type becomes an art

- NEW OLD STYLE = Palatino, Perpetua, Goudy Old Style = first Roman fonts

- Renaissance style, sophistication

- Venice

8. SLAB/EGYPTIAN 1800s

- designed to command attention

- rules of hierarchy broken

- confusing but noticeable

- FAT FACE FONTS = bodoni on steroids

- TYPEWRITER

SANS SERIF 1896

- BERTHOLD TYPE FOUNDRY, GROTESK, simple, stripped down, function over form, everything else is secondary

- popularised, font of the modernists

- GILL SANA 1926 = penguin books, public info signs