Task 1.1 - History of Typography (6/16)

History of typography  

Typography is the technique used for arranging letters. Typefaces/ fonts evolved by time and handwriting was transformed into printed letters. It is also the study of line length and space between letters.

Typography started around 5000 years ago where civilizations used pictographs to communicate. This evolved in ideographs and later hieroglyphs.

The Book of Ornamental Alphabets from the 8th century

The first alphabet to include only letters was the Phoenician alphabet which developed around 1200BC. Afterwards, Romans added serifs to the letters for example; Times new Roman.

Typefaces were later developed, such as the Garamond typeface which was developed by Claude Garamond. He  also created the apostrophe and the French written accent. 

Garamond (Old style)

By the 20th century Frederic Goudy, who was a typeface designer, had developed various font families.

A few font families by Frederic Goudy

The History of Visual Communication, 2014. The Alphabet. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.citrinitas.com/history_of_viscom/alphabet.html. [Accessed 29 March 2014].

A Brief Historical Overview of Typography Trends, 2014. Inspired Magazine. [ONLINE] Available at: http://inspiredm.com/typography-history/. [Accessed 29 March 2014].

Five Classic Typefaces for Design and Content, 2014. Garamond [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.gravitateonline.com/marketing-101/design-learning-center/typography-design/classic-typefaces.[Accessed 29 March 2014].

MyFonts, 2014. Frederic W. Goudy. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.myfonts.com/person/Frederic_W_Goudy/. [Accessed 29 March 2014].