Free history and evolution of typography essay sample

Introduction

History of Typography
Typography is the study of types the faces types and the evolution of printed letters. It can also be defined as the study of handwriting that offers a unique base for making type designs. It involves the art and methods of type designs, changing the type characters and their arrangement. Before the invention of movable types by one Johannes Gutenberg, books were mainly produced by scribes where lay copies were being used to serve the market. Several people who were involved in the invention of movable types include Garamond, Gutenberg, Divot, Arnold and Giambatista whose earlier works in this topic have greatly been developed to come up with the modern typefaces. The use of typesetting technology greatly increase throughout Europe during the period of sixteenth century and this led to the creation of several printers were set up across cities and this led to the increase in the production of typical print books. Claude Garamond a native of France was among the first independent type founders during the early sixteenth century. Garamond though he did not invent the movable type, was the first to make type available to most printers at lower prices. His types were based on the roman front of Griffo named after Griffo, the man who was given the work to produce an italic type to be used by Aldine classics. Many people such as Jenson, Caxton and Griffo were greatly involved in the process of developing types. It is through the works of these gentlemen that we have been able to develop these types to the ones we see on our computers (Moran, 2010).

Thesis

The invention of typefaces was a major breakthrough in the history of typography since it was the beginning of the evolution of this topic that we are experiencing till now. Many inventors such as Garamond specialized on type design and punch cutting and would sell these punches to other printers. This led to several other typographers engaging in this business of selling their typefaces and in the end more typefaces were circulated throughout the world. From selling these typefaces Garamond was able to acquire capital to improve his business of selling these typefaces. Johannes Gutenberg on the other hand after coming up with the first movable type printing decided to engage himself with mass production of movable types that were then sold and in the process gaining some financial benefits from his work. His contribution in this field led to the increase in mass production of printed books since his method was more viable and cheaper compared to other methods that had been tried before. From typography both Garamond and Gutenberg were able to utilize the opportunity to gain financially and in the process help in spreading the use of typography. From their contributions the use of typefaces became so common that it permanently interfered with the structure of the society during their times. This led to the introduction of mechanical movable type printing that greatly enhanced mass communication within the European society.

Body

Gutenberg was greatly recognized due to his vast knowledge in the field of printing and his ability to typo graph his own work by engineering a way to cast and cut type to ensure replication of letter forms repeatedly after shape fixing the letter. He was also a publisher risking capital while preparing and selecting material that would be printed for sale while still also designing the layout of each page. Gutenberg with the intention of standardizing Charlemagne requested that the Holy Roman Empire should be written using the Caroline minuscule and roman capitals to achieve uniformity these lead to the growth of the black letter where the strokes were made thicker and the form of the letter thinner with time it evolved into the square text gothic.
Gutenberg faced financial problems while trying to print the forty two line Bible since he started experimenting at around 1440and by 1450 he was ready to put his method out for commercial use but he was financially incapable he therefore had to borrow funds from Fust Johann he later again in 1452 had to do the same and they became partners their productions had no page number no title page and no innovations to differentiate it from the other manuscript copyist but to both Gutenberg and his customers their creation was excellent however Gutenberg suffered a major blow when Fust broke away from the partnership and transferred the ownership of his company to Peter Schaffer his soon to be son-in-law.
Claude Garamond on the other hand came up with a group of old-style typefaces that were later named after him. From his work as a publisher and punch cutter he specialized on type designs and punch cutting and used to sell these punch cuttings to other printers during his time. He was among the first pioneers in type designing and his works have greatly been improved on today though the credit still goes to him. His works include Garamond Granjon and Sabon that are still being used today showing his level of influence in this field. He was able to train with several other typographers such as Simon de Colines and Geoffroy Tory who together with him learned on the type designing and did greatly contribute to the history of typography. Almost sixty years after his death, a French printer by the name Jean Jannon developed newer typefaces that were based on Garamond’s previous work. His typefaces had similar characteristics with those of Garamond and his work would later be referred to as Garamond.
Other contributors in typography history include Arnold Pannartz and Konrad sweynheim who in 1465 established the Antiqua which is currently known as the roman and was accepted warmly as the national typeface until its discontinuation in the year 1940 the italic on the other hand was known as the gothic schwbacher in Italy and was innovated by the chancellery clerks to boost their working speeds.

Evolution of Typography

The figure below displays the features that are a necessity in a typographic page.
Two aesthetic qualities were considered when dealing with a typographic page the first one being named the sense and depended on aspects such as the block type size its location on the page display letters for subheads, running heads titles and margin size. A competent typographer had the major tips concerning the contents of the page automatically generating its functions seriousness and the particular period it was produced. The second quality involved color the brightness or darkness of the block type had a diverse variety of meanings. Color results from letter shapes distances between words letters and lines the inking type was also considered together with the printing mode utilized in making impressions on the paper. The most vital element though was the design that was highly valued even before the invention of books and printing (John, 2012)

Conclusion

Typography has greatly evolved ranging from the times it was developed up till now we can easily use them in our computers. We are able to use typography today in many ways, typography can be applied in the internet, we can use typography while printing our books and even journals. Typography has been successfully used in making movies and it has proven a very important discovery to the world. The credit to the discovery of typography can be given to the first people to come up with typography such as Gutenberg, Garamond and Giambatista among others who came up with this technology several centuries ago. From their foundation many have developed typography and can be used in modern art and in many computer graphic design programs. From Garamond and Gutenberg’s work several other typographers have come up with better and more beautiful typefaces that are currently being applied in several works such as print media and in production of movies. (David, 1995).

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