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The Evolution of Type

JA December 04

The more I go about blogging, the more I seem to be developing a bit of a thing for typography and all things font-related. Not that I could ever even comprehend designing a typeface – rather I’m just a little smitten with the whole process; the precision, the magnified details, the time and effort that goes into making what I look at almost every hour of every day.

But the more I seem to read casually, the more I also tend to get bogged down in the jargon, being an amateur and all (what exactly was a serif anyway, and what does it mean when they say ‘old style’ or ‘didone’ or ‘Egyptian’?). Luckily, while browsing through the fantastic i love typography archives the other day, I found several very detailed posts by John Boardley on the industry’s particular vernacular. Typography, as it turns out, has its own kind of genealogy, and it’s from here that much of the language begins.

Humanist

According to Boardley, the term ‘Humanist’ refers to the types that lifted the industry out of the heavy, gothic fonts of the Middle Ages and embraced a lighter, more readable calligraphic style. Old Blackletter fonts were ‘heavy’, ‘dark’ and at times ‘almost illegible’, and so around the 1460s and 1470s, the Italian humanist writers began to use more open, generous designs that were easier on the eye. These are said to be some of the earliest roman types and while humanist designs are not often seen today, they are widely regarded as the ‘great grand parents of modern type.’

Old Style

Old Style types are the next chapter in typographic history – a move away from handwritten styles towards a more machine-orientated, sophisticated design, for example through greater contrast between the thick and thin strokes and a more centred appearance. It was also around this time, in 1501, that the first italic type was created, curiously not as a way to enhance the roman, but as an independent typeface all of its own. Old Style inspired fonts like Goudy, Palatino and Perpetua are still used today.

Transitional

As the name suggests, this period took Old Style typography another degree higher – the stress (the angle of the letters) became more upright, the thick and thin strokes even more emphasised and the head serifs (for example, the embellishment at the top of the letters) generally more horizontal.

Modern

Modern fonts came into the picture around 1784, courtesy of Frenchman Firmin Didot and, later, Italian type designer, punchcutter and printer Giambattista Bodon. Boardley describes the appearance like so:

There’s something rather clinical about the Moderns, especially in the roman capitals. Their vertical axis coupled with strong horizontal stress furnishes them with the stiffness of toy soldiers on parade. They are elegant, and like all things elegant, look unhurried, calm, and in control. They’re generally not suited to setting extended text, as the verticality of the letter forms interferes with the text’s horizontal rhythm. The letters don’t lead our eyes across the page, but rather up and down.

Slab serif

Slap serifs (or Egyptian, Square Serif, Mechanical or Mécanes) were fonts that characterised the power, strength and boisterousness of the industrial age. Born in Britain in the early 1800s, they were loud and brash and, as Broadley writes, were made for an age of advertising and propaganda:

Until this time, type was designed to serve one purpose—it was designed for long stretches of texts, for books. But with mechanisation, and major innovations in printing technology (e.g. the Steam Press, 1814), advertisers in particular were looking for a type that stood out from crowd; a type that shouted, look at me! Thus was born the display face—type for use at large sizes, for short bursts of copy.

The legacy of the slab serifs is clearly visible in the keys of the majority of typewriters. In more recent times, they’ve inspired designs such as Courier and Milton Glaser’s iconic I ‘Heart’ New York logo.

 

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