Class Numero Two

- Fall of Rome
- Crusades, printing and paper developed

-first book printed in English, Recuyell of the Histories of Troy 1475

-1465
 Sweinheim  and Pannartz
 Guys from germany sent to Italy by Cardinal Giovanni of Turrecremata
 Blended Gothic minuscule forms with elements of Carolingian
 Produced half Roman type based on humanistic Italian round letter forms

-Calendarum 1476
 tidbit -  special thing in book

-Steven Day brings printing  to colonies in 1639, buys charter and  sets up a printing shop
 and prints a  book of psalms
 not a typographer just a business man (like Gutenberg)



- Rococo movement
 engraving letterforms in copperplate
 allows for lavish floral designs

- King does not allow others to use his typeface
  Because they are engravings - increased thick and thins / more precision less like hand written type
  Lower case "l"s  have spurs to identify as king's typeface

- Pierre Simon Fournier le Jeune
  gave us the idea of font family and large scale type faces
  Dies before revolution- his work loses relevance

- Charles II says reduce to 20 printers / death ensues

- Giambattista Bodoni
 Neo-Classical style evolves to modern style
 redesigns roman letterform with more geometrical and mechanical shapes

-Fatface
 Bodoni face, but extending it even more
 it is a displayface

-1834 Industrial revolution / people who want to sell things!!

-Woodtype is practical for large letterforms not for small
 Large metal when cools bends not good, so use wood
 Invention of the router allows to make copies quickly and easily

-from agriculture to industrial
 possible because of power ( steam power)
 factory = system division of labor
 industrialization leads to consumerism no time to make things that they need

- egyptian face ( Egypt was cool thing at time)
  Vincent Figgins 1815

-1870s poster houses declined with improvement of lithography
  Mix colors draw directly on stones,
  laws passed to govern poster hanging - became intense

-Five Families:
 Old Style - traditions of the hand
 Transitional - evolution to modern face greater contrast thick and thin
 Modern - extreme contrast thick and thin- no brackets on serif
 Egyptian - even weight / slab serifs
 San Serif - no serifs



     Today I connected how technology informed the design of typeface. From handwriting to moveable type, copperplate,  lithography, and routers. Even the development of society influenced type. Rococo typemakers used a lot of lavish decoration for the upper class, while type created for posters during the industrial revolution used attention grabbing displayfaces. Now I see how the five traditional families of font came to be from clear, logical steps. Seeing as how technology and society affect type so much - I wonder if it has the same affect after the industrial revolution. Maybe its more subtle? I think because the foundation for type is already in place what will change more radically is visual design.

     Knowing the history of type helps immensely for using them in the appropriate context. Before, selecting type was visually based for me; but now I have a historical frame to guide my selections in the future.