These images are edited selections from class slide lectures. Reading this page is not substitute for attending class.
1.
Humanism
15th century Italy was the center of Humanism, a philosophical approach to life in which Classical rather than religious studies were emphasized. The examination of ancient clasicsal manuscripts, as well as those copied during the Carolingian period, influenced type design away from the blackletter form and back to the Roman ideal.
Venetian | Old Style Type
The even and sturdy strokes of type from this period held up under the comparatively simple printing limitations:
• uneven pressure from a screw press
•rough paper surface
2.
Semi-Humanistic Type
Sweynheim and Pannartz
These Czech printers, trained in Mainz, Germany were the first printers in Italy. They arrived in 1464 at the abby of Subiaco and by 1467 moved to Massimi Palace in Rome. Sweynheim, an engraver, was mostly likely the punchcutter. His designs were influenced by the calligraphic style of the Italian Humanists—using Classic Roman capitals in combination with the lowercase style of humanist manuscripts. He also cast the first Greek type. The pair produced 12,000 editions of 37 different classical works.
3.
Nicholas Jenson
1420–1480
A Frenchman sent to learn punchcutting in Germany traveled to Italy where he is thought to have made the first definitive break from blackletter style towards a roman letterform. (See an example of his early work—the 1470 edition of Eusebius, De Evangelica Praeparatione.) His highly legible and evenly colored typeface was based upon formal Humanistic style scripts has been reinterpreted through the centuries by many including William Morris's Golden Type, Bruce Roger's Centaur, and Robert Slimbach's digital Jenson for Adobe.
4.
Francesco Griffo
Italy, 1501
Griffo cut the first face based upon chancery manuscript for printer Aldus Manutius. Referred to as Italic (named derived from 'Italian') this face was used to conserve space both in manuscript and print. The style of italic has many linked to the handwriting of Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) or Bartolomeo Sanvito, among others.
The highly legible roman style type Griffo designed for De Aetna (written by Cardinal Bembo) was used as a basis for Stanley Morison's Monotype Bembo in 1929 and subsequent Bembo derivatives.
5.
The French Typographic Renaissance
The great patron of the arts and letters, King Francois I (1494-1547) was infatuated with the Italian Renaissance style and encouraged its establishment in France. Louis supported massive architectural projects — the royal residences at Chambord, and Fontainebleau as well as started the art collection at the Louvre.
He was also the founder of the Imprimerie Royale, the French Royal Printing Works. (see below)
6.
The Golden Age of French Typography
Claude Garamond (1480–1561) was commissioned by Simone
de Colines to cut the first matching roman and italic face. He operated solely as a punch cutter, not as a printer, and was one of the first to design and cast faces for sale to printers. His design was a significant step away from calligraphic form. Above is shown a set of his matrices from which his font could be cast.
At Claude Garamond’s death (1561), his types and matrices were broken up, many of which were acquired by Christophe Plantin.
7.
Geofroy Tory 1480-1533
Champ Fleury, 1529
(See it in detail here)
Tory's three book set put forth his theories of uniform French pronunciation and letter forms based upon the proportions of the human body. He incorporated this humanistic approach with the more scientific construction of letters based upon a grid of 100 units. The use of a grid base foreshadows the method used for type design in the 20th century.
8.
Metal Engraving/
Intaglio Printing
The refined lines of the images printed from metal plates were lighter than those from wood blocks and consequently needed lighter type faces for balanced accompaniment. Intaglio plates were longer lasting than wood but had to be printed on a separate press. Intaglio printing requires much more pressure than relief, since the ink is held in recessed grooves instead of on the surface of the plate — illustrations could not be printed on the same press as the text.
Intaglio (Italian, "to incise") includes engraving, etching, and mezzotint, among other techniques. Reversing the relief process, in intaglio the artist cuts the lines to be printed, rather than cutting away the non printing surfaces. ... Engraving allowed the scientific or medical artist to create a more precise and detailed line in a metal plate — copper at first, but later steel — than was possible in relief. I
9.
Imprimerie National
Paris, France
Currently in operation as a modern day printing house, the 500 year old historical printing works still maintains a punchcutting studio which is currently under the direction of Mme. Nelly Gable. She maintains a collection of 230,000 steel dies (28,000 serving as models) for western and oriental scripts. Additionally there are 14,000 punches for musical notation, 224,000 wooden Chinese ideograms, 15,000 wood cuts illustrations, 3,000 copper engravings and 2,500 gilding tools. The Imprimerie National’s entire collection of matrices, engraved plates, printing presses and the 30,000 volume library totalling 500,000 items are all classified as Historical Monuments. Despite their important designation there is a considerable amount of concern over the future of the collection. Read more
10.
Philippe Grandjean
Le Romain du roi, 1692
King Louis the XIV commissioned an exclusive typeface for the Royal Printing House, The Imprimerie Royale. The face is
a product of a committee of mathematicians, philosophers and others who used mathematics rather than calligraphy for the basis of their design.
One of the purposes for the
face was to authenticate a document's origin from the
royal press. Severe penalties, including death, were punishment for using the
Roman du roi.
Squares were divided up into a grid of 64 units & then another 36 units for a total of 2,034 units. Some type historians regard this as the first type design not reflecting the method of production — "calligrapher is replaced by engineer." The final punches were cut by Grandjean.
Rubens, Prometheus Bound, PMA
11.
Baroque
Baroque art reflected the spiritual and emotional aspects of the Catholic Revival or Counter Reformation. It is characterized with dramatic use of light and dark (chiaroscuro), vibrant colors and emotional drama.
The Baroque period is responsible for some of the most legible type faces—mostly referred to as 'transitional" meaning that they are developmentally between the Old Venetian Style and the future Modern Style.
Above
The Roman du roi
Above:Digital Fournier is based upon a 1924 Monotype font. The original Didot font was designed in 1742, named St. Augustine Ordinaire and included in the Manual Typographic. The font is Neoclassical in style and a stepping stone to the Modern style.
Left:
Fournier's 2 volume "Manuel Typographic" 1764–66.
One volume is an account of type founding and another is a display of his font designs. Here is one of his rococo style samples.
12.
Rococo
1730 to 1770
At the end of late Baroque and during the reign of Louis XV a light and playful style was originated in France— Rococo. It was characterized by elaborate ornamentation—scrolls, foliage etc. "Rococo takes its name from the French 'rocaille' , which means the rock or broken shell motifs that often formed part of the designs.
14.
NeoClassicism
In reaction to the frivolous period of the Rococo, artist again looked back at the classical styles of ancient Greek and Rome. With the revolution, French painting resumed its moral and political purpose and embraced the style known as neoclassicism. Even before 1789, popular taste had begun to turn away from the disarming, lighthearted subjects of rococo; as revolution neared, artists increasingly sought noble themes of public virtue and personal sacrifice from the history of ancient Greece or Rome. They painted with restraint and discipline, using the austere clarity of theneoclassical style to stamp their subjects with certitude and moral truth.
Above:
Firmin Didot
Inspiration for NeoClassicism came from archaeological discoveries made at Herculaneum and Pompeii.
Francoise-Ambrose Didot (b.1730 - d.1804) established the print shop, type foundry and bookselling business in 1713. He refined Fournier's point system of type measure and identified the type with sizes defined in points rather than grouped by names.c
Firmin Didot 1783
He invented the word "stereotype", which in printing refers using a solid metal printing plate as opposed to individual pieces of movable type.
The Didot typeface parallels the French Neoclassical style of clarity and formality.
(Visit the Plantin-Moretus Museum here)
16.
Christophe Plantin (–1589)
Antwerp, Belgium (later Flanders)
Born in France and originally trained as a book binder, an injury lead printer Christophe Plantin to change to printing. His masterpiece, the Polygot Bible, 1572, was an eight volume edition printed in 5 languages (Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac and Aramaic). Because Plantin only had daughters he partnered with his son-in-law Jan Moretus to expand the operation. Still his daughters were active participants in the business.
17.
Nicholas Kis
Hungarian in Holland
1650-1702
Transylvanian protestant who, sent to Holland in the last quarter of the seventeenth century to learn printing, became one of the leading punchcutters of his time before returning to Transylvania to print bibles.
18.
Christoffel van Dyck(Dijck)
1601-1669
Amsterdam was a city that enjoyed relative religious tolerance which allowed a healthy printing industry. The famous Elzevir printing firm purchased the type of the estate of van Dyck. Van Dyck's design was derived from Garamond but was more condensed, had little contrast in stroke weight and heavy serifs. Stanley Morrison wrote "Although his type faces are not as important to the historican than those of Garamond, they are certainly more beautiful."Van Dyck' sturdy faces were possibly the basis used by William Caslon for his roman type. (Below: Digital sample from the Dutch Type Library).
13.
William Caxton
English
He is credited with printing the first English language book(in Bruge) in 1475. Blackletter was still the style preferred north of the Alps and consequently the book was set in Batarde. In 1476 he set up the first English press in London where he printed his famous Cantebury Tales. This edition had a dramatic effect on the spelling of English. Gothic style letttering was to remain dominant in England for another 100 years, (hence Old English).
To see more of Caxton's work visit the British Library Digital Collection.
14.
Bishop John Fell & The Fell Types by Peter de Walpergen
Britain 1672
Because of restrictions on domestic typefounding*in England most typefaces were imported — primarily from Holland. The Bishop of Oxford, John Fell assembled the type for the Oxford University Press by importing punchcutter Peter de Walpergen from Holland.
The Fell Types are essentially the link between the Dutch Style and Caslon. You can download a number of free digital versions of the Walpergen font from Igino Marini.
"1634 Decree of Star-Chamber concerning printing decreed that publishers of Catholic and Puritan books be put to death, ears cut off or faces branded. Read more...
15.
William Caslon, 1692–1766
"Just as Shakespeare gave England a national theatre, William Caslon gave the country a national typeface."
Caslon's type is a direct descendant of Nicholas Kis's design. (see above)
In 1998 Justin Howes letterpress printed samples of each size of Caslon type and then scanned the results. He left in the irregular edges, making no attempt to smooth or regularize the designs. The ITC release, named H.W. Caslon, represents the complete range of Caslon type that survived into the 20th Century. Read more...
16.
Baskerville, 1725
Baskerville's background as a stonecutter and writing master contributed to his type design, a field he did not enter until his 40's. His elegant design was based on the style of engravers rather than a humanist handwriting model. The fonts were produced by punchcutter John Handy. Baskerville's design is classified as transitional — bridging the old and modern styles.
Baskerville was a perfectionist who made major innovations to press construction, formulated blacker and quicker drying printing ink, and produced smoother paper surfaces.
Stanley Morrison directed the first revival of Baskerville for Monotype in 1923 and it was later updated in 1978 by Megenthaler Linotype.
In the Colonies of the New World
16.
Benjamin Franklin & The British American Colonies
The first printing press on the American continent was in Mexico City. The first press in the colonies was in Massachusetts and the typeface was an imported font of the predominant English face, Caslon.
Franklin used Caslon types but also championed Baskerville against critics who said the contrast of the line weights made for type that was hard to read.
Modern Type
Bodoni
Italy, c.1800
(See his typographic manual in detail here)
"The son of a master printer, Bodoni held to four principles from which a good typeface derives its beauty: uniformity of design, smartness and neatness, good taste, and charm. At the time of his death Bodoni was working on the first volume of this book, of which only 250 copies of the two-volume set were later published by his widow Margherita."
excerpt from Octavo
Lithography “stone printing” Alois Senefelder
Germany
Senefelder was a actor/ playwright who was experiencing problems printing the playbill for his new production. He experimented with a etching technique using a greasy, acid resistant ink as a resist on a smooth fine-grained stone of Solnhofen limestone.
All type had to be written in reverse but it was usually transferred from a transferable right reading image
The sampling of letters below are by Henri Van de Velde.
Wood Type
Metal type casting was limited to just one or two inches in height due to difficulties of casting larger type, the weight and the cost. Darius Wells invented the lateral router, a saw that could cut curves in wood allowing for the production of a lighter, larger and cheaper letterform.
Egyptian Slab
The earliest slab type faces were cast in 1817 by Figgins Foundry in London. The name on their catalog is listed as "Egyptian." Egyptian was a name attached to type around the 1830's when a craze for Egyptian artifacts was sweeping the western world. Other heavy slab faces followed shortly — Latins and Clarendons.
The provenance as much as the use of the term Egyptian is obscure. Most authorities agree that it was the coincidence of the emergence of the square-serif types with the popular interest in Egypt following the Napoleonic conquest [...] that gave the design its name.”
Alexander Lawson, Anatomy of a Typeface
Knocking the serifs off of the type left a clean and more geometric style. This style was embraced by the early 20th century avant garde.
Snas serif type The 20th CEntry Avant Garde
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