Commercial Art 1
A Brief History of Typography Worksheet
TYPOGRAPHY AND PRINTING
How were books produced before the printing press?
They were produced by scribes – written out by hand
Who invented movable type? The
Chinese
Who perfected it? Johannes
Gutenberg
What was the first mass-produced book? When was it produced?
The Gutenberg Bible was produced in 1454
Why was printing the first mass medium? Explain.
All of a sudden, books, flyers, whatever could be printed quickly and easily
distributed to the masses
What major historical event might not have occurred without the technologies of printing?
The Protestant Reformation – Martin Luther’s Theses could be mass produced and
thousands of copies quickly distributed
Why did authorities try to control what was printed?
The Church was the authorities – printing was causing the scribes to lose their
“jobs” in society
Between 1600s and 1800s, many type foundries popped up all over Europe and eventually into America.
What is a “foundry” and why would it be important?
A foundry is a font-design company or person that designed or produced metal
printing type that was used in printing presses. They were important because they
developed the fonts and made the metal type, which was then sold to printers.
In the late 1880s, what two technologies advanced typography?
The introduction of line-casting machines – Linotype and Monotype
What significant event occurred in US typography in 1892?
All of the individual type foundries in the United States merged into a single
company – American Type Founders (ATF)
How many American foundries were there before? 23
How was type size measured in early typography?
All different ways – each foundry had it’s own method of measuring
How did this change?
The sizes were standardized into the point system
Who first proposed the change?
Pierre Simon Fournier
When was the point system adopted? 1878
And by whom was it adopted? The American Type
Foundries (ATF)
HISTORY OF LETTERING
Exactly how old is writing? Several
millennia BC
What were the first writings?
Egyptian hieroglyphics
and Sumerian
cuneiform inscriptions
How was early Latin writing influenced?
How was early Latin writing influenced?
By chiseled-in-stone letterforms from Roman
inscriptions 50-120 AD
When did the lower case letter develop?
Somewhere between the 6th - 10th centuries (500 - 900 AD)
HISTORY OF TYPE
What’s another term for “Old English” lettering? Blackletter
How did the Renaissance affect the Old English lettering?
The Renaissance was typified by an obsession with things “classical”
(think Greco-Roman). Letters began to be written more rounded and expanded in
width than earlier
Look up some fonts in the following serif categories: Old Style, Transitional, and Modern. Draw the
letters “M” and “e” for each subcategory based on your findings and note the differences.
Me Me Me
OLD STYLE
Garamond
TRANSITIONAL
Baskerville
MODERN
Didot
What is the most common sans serif typeface? Why? Explain.
Helvetica –
Lots of weights and widths
Very versatile
Easy to match!
Designers HATE to have to use it... Clients LOVE it!
Why is sans serif type more difficult to read (for general reading)? Explain.
They have low contrasts and no serifs
What is a “slab serif” typeface?
Type that was designed to serve one purpose—for long stretches of text (books,
newspapers, etc.).
A font where the serifs (may) have been added to a sans serif type to get block-like
serifs that are usually the same thickness as the body strokes
Almost all typewriter typefaces are slab serifs!
Look at an example of a slab serif typeface. How do you think slab serif type came into existence?
A) Did a type designer add serifs to a sans serif type?... OR
B) Were they designed as they are – no “parent” fonts?
They were PROBABLY “A”...
What is the most famous/most used typeface in newspaper printing?
New Century Schoolbook
Explain the origins of TWO of the decorative types. When would each of these two types be used?
FAT FACES – Created for advertising
Bodoni Ultra
WOOD TYPE – Carved from wood, not metal. Looks “Old West”
Ironwood
SCRIPT, BRUSH, ITALIC, FREEHAND TYPEFACES – Based on handwriting
Shelley
Freestyle Script
Brush Script
Zapf Chancery
ART NOUVEAU – Ornamental type (Victorian era), organic, asymmetrical,
intricate, flowing lines
Arnold Boecklin
Desdemona
Galadriel
Victorian