What is type?
Type is the name given to any letter, number or punctuation symbol used by printers to clearly communicate ideas from the author to the reader.
Handwriting, while it achieves the same end, has little uniformity between various writers and so the audience comprehension is reduced.
Prior to the invention of printing, all documents were laboriously hand written. The cost of producing these manuscripts, as well as the time needed to create just one version, meant that few people learned how to read; one needed to be wealthy enough to afford education and hence books. Printing from moveable type improved production methods immeasurably, and more people could afford to learn to read and to buy books.
The original typefaces used by early printers were based exclusively on the handwritten manuscripts available at that time, and many of the rules for setting type were developed with handwriting in mind. This was partly because the "market" for printed documents, during the early fifteenth century were used to calligraphic texts. It was also because there was no other precedent for setting type.
A very short history of type
The invention of printing from moveable types is usually attributed to Johann Gutenberg, although experiments were made some years before the appearance of the first printed book. Gutenberg's first book was printed one page at a time and had an edition of about two hundred copies.
What Gutenberg achieved was the use of many different elements - a suitable metal alloy for cutting type, a wine press (or similar) for making the impressions, and a suitable ink - to create a faster, cheaper way to produce the books that a more literate Europe was beginning to demand.
However, the invention of this form of printing did not produce a radical change in the style of letters because the early printer regarded printing as an imitative evolution rather than as a new process. All our printed letters derive from the capital letters used by the Romans. The small letters were evolved from these capitals, which, of course, were influenced by the changing materials and tools.
When Gutenberg printed his first book, there were four variations in the type design - a gothic for books and bibles, a round gothic for classical works, a round text, and a cursive gothic, used for printing works in the vernacular. Many books printed until the 15th century were similar to the manuscripts of the preceding centuries in that many were illuminated by hand after printing.
The typefaces that developed after this period were generally based on the calligraphic styles of the illuminated scripts and Roman capitals.
- pre-1450 Manuscripts hand written. Mainly produced by the Church - theological works and some philosophies
- 1450 Invention of moveable type, usually attributed to Gutenberg. Printing types were based on handwritten letter styles.
- 1470 Nicolas Jenson designed the first Roman typeface based on writing forms. Today this style is referred to as Antique Old Style.
- circa 1600 Aldus Manutius designed the first italic type. This type was based on the slanting calligraphic styles of the previous century.
- Early 1600 Garamond designed variations on the Roman type styles. This style is referred to as French Old Style.
- 1560 - 1720 No major variations in type styles.
- 1720 Caslon designed the first Old Style typefaces. His types are commonly referred to as "the most readable faces ever designed".
- 1775 Baskerville designed some of the first Transitional Roman typefaces.
- 1788 Bodoni designed first Modern Roman typefaces.
- 1815 First square serif faces designed. Often referred to as Egyptians.
- 1829 First typewriter led to development of monospaced characters such as Courier.
- 1886 Mergenthaler perfected the first linecasting machine, using hot metal type in a single line. Called Linotype.
- Late 1800s First major contribution of sans serif faces. Commonly called Grotesques.
- 1928 Renner designed Futura. Helvetica, designed in Switzerland.
- 1932 Times Roman designed and implemented in London.
- 1946 Phototypesetting developed. Used photographic images to produce type.
- 1982 Macintosh developed. Changed the way type was set and opened typography to everyone.
How do the laser fonts fit the picture?
The anatomy of type
Typography is the process of creating a textual image and then printing from it. However, typography is more than just words - it has qualities that can influence the reader. The way you set type can create a mood or make an impression, awaken interest, speak - quietly or loudly. Readability, comprehension, style and choice of typefaces are essential to its form.
Width of letters and size of type
The length of the alphabet varies in both capitals and lower case. This variation affects the number of words that can be printed on a page, before the text spacing is changed.
For example, the roman lower case letters of Times are narrower than the same letters for Bookman which are wide and generous. This obvious difference in the widths of letters will help you to determine the choice of the best typeface for a particular document. If you are producing a very long document, you might want to choose a wide bodied type whereas if the document is short you could use a narrower face.
The x-height
There are also considerable differences between the sizes of types. These differences become more obvious the larger the typesize. In the example, you can see that 10pt Times seems to be smaller than 10pt Bookman.
This largeness is measured in terms of the height of the non-ascending and non-descending lower-case letters, e.g. x (hence the term "x-height"). The width of the "m" determines the width of the letters.
Shading of thick strokes
One of the characteristics of a typeface is the contrast between thick and thin strokes; this has a practical significance. Where the contrast is pronounced, the shading of the rounded strokes is described as vertical. These types should be set leaded e.g. Bodoni if set in 12pt would need at least 2 points leading to make it readable.
Length of ascenders and descenders
There are five letters in the lower-case alphabet with descenders g, j, p, q and y, and six with ascenders, b, d, f, h, k and l. These letters give an automatic amount of white space between lines of type set solidly. When the ascenders and descenders are long, this white space appears to be greater and the body seems much smaller. This is one of the reasons for the differences in the size of typefaces set at the same point size.
Size of capital letters
The capitals of a typeface are usually the same height as the descenders of the lower case alphabet. However, some types, e.g. Perpetua and Bembo have smaller capitals. These faces are useful for setting text in books, catalogues or other documents, where there are a number of capital letters in the text.
General weight and colour
Some readers have a preference for heavy faces, such as Times, Bodoni or Caslon, while others find lighter or medium density types are more readable. Leading, character spacing and the choice of paper will also affect the printing of faces, making them appear lighter or darker.
Written by Geoffrey Fletcher
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