Successful Layout & Design

King James Bible Typography

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 19:03:11 GMT

The King James Bible (KJV), commissioned by King James 1 in 1604 and published in 1611, has been a profound Bible translation and masterpiece of beauty through the ages. It has been one of the most influential English translations of the Bible. Its history combines politics, religion, and literary achievement in early modern England. It has an elevated, poetic style that influenced many later writers. It has been prized for its literary beauty, historical continuity and memorability in public reading and worship (ChatGPT).

My interest in this blog is to investigate the typography of the KJV, noting its typographical history and offerings. Everyone typographically agrees that Gutenberg’s printing press transformed typographic offerings and history. I have commented at length in these blogs about that historical transition. Bible renderings follow typographical history and traditions. The copy in the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. displays the Blackletter typeface of the 1611 KJV.

(Museum of the Bible — Gutenberg Bible 300)

What stands out typographically in the 1611 Bible version is the use of the “long s”, visually representing a modern “f,” as in the word “Gofpel.” The “long s” can be seen in the 1762 Parris Book of Common Prayer And Adminiftration of the Sacraments And Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According the the Ufe of The Church of England: Together With The Psalter of Psalter or Psalms of David Pointed as they are to be fung or faid in Churches. Note “A CATECHISM, that is to fay, An infruction, to be learned of every Perfon, before he be brought to be confirmed by the Bifhop.”

The long s was derived from the old Roman cursive s in the middle of words. When the distinction between majuscule (uppercase) and minuscule (lowercase) letter forms became established, toward the end of the eighth century, it developed a more vertical form.

Other striking features include: that the letter 'j' had not yet fully grown away from 'i' ('Iohn' vs. 'John'); the letter 'v' had not developed from 'u' ('euery' for 'every'); and that there are two alternative forms of the lower-case 'r', selected in the Bible according to no clear or consistently used definition. “The r rotunda (ꝛ), "rounded r", is a historical calligraphic variant of the minuscule (lowercase) letter Latin r used in full script-like typefaces, especially in Blackletter fonts.

An example in the 1611 can be found in John 1:15 where the word preferred is typeset as pꝛeferred.

Unlike other letter variants such as the 'long s', which were originally seen as orthographically distinctive, R rotunda has always been a calligraphic variant, used when the letter r followed a letter with a rounded stroke towards the right side, such as o, b, p, h (and d in typefaces where this letter has no vertical stroke, as in ∂, ð). In this way, it is comparable to numerous other special types used for ligatures or conjoined letters in early modern typesetting.” ( https://blackletterkingjamesbible.com )

A faithful recreation of this particular font by Frederick R. Brennan is the KJV 1611 Blackletter.

The Baskerville Bible

In English Bible printing, John Baskerville gained recognition in the 1750s for his editions of the works of Virgil and Milton. In 1758, he was appointed printer for the University of Cambridge and granted permission to produce a new folio Bible. Baskerville published his Bible in 1763 using a typeface he created (now called “Baskerville” font) and a smoother “wove paper,” which he helped develop and introduce. The punchcutter John Handy cut the typeface into metal.

Baskerville’s “magnum opus” is his folio printed at Cambridge in 1763. The Bible uses his types, paper and ink, and shows his characteristic ‘machine-made’ finish — very smooth and even in color and impression, with glossy black ink on smooth paper. The design is traditional, but the quality of material and workmanship is so high, and the conventions are so delicately modified and consistently applied that the result is extremely impressive. (Cambridge History of the Bible, 464). Only 1,250 copies were ever made, yet his design and craftmanship shaped future Bible typography.

In typography, Baskerville is a transitional typeface, copying old style typefaces of the period, especially those of William Caslon. Baskerville increased the contrast between thick and thin strokes, making the serifs sharper and more tapered, and shifted the axis of rounded letters to a more vertical position. The curved strokes are more circular in shape, and the characters became more regular. These changes created a greater consistency in size and form. (Wikipedia)

The Baskerville Bible was made out of metal punches. In 1953, thousands of them arrived at Cambridge, packed in oak boxes, donated by the French type foundry Deberny & Peignot. They are presently housed in the Cambridge University Library. The current day Cambridge KJV Family Chronicle Bible combines Baskerville typography, over 200 illustrations by Gustave Dore and an extensive family record section.

The Gideon Bible

I have chosen the Gideon Bible as an ongoing KJV Bible, from its hotel inception in 1908 to the present day. In 1908, Archie Bailey, a Gideon member, proposed to the proprietor, Edna Wilkinson, of the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana that a Bible be placed at the front desk for patrons. She ordered 25 Bibles to be distributed throughout her establishment. She started a trend that grew immensely and by the 1920s the Gideons were synonymous with hotel Bible distribution. The early American Standard Version was superseded by the King James Version and then the New International version in 1974. Bibles were distributed not only to hotels but to hospitals, public classrooms and the U.S. military. Bible distribution went overseas to Sweden in 1919 and the British Isles in 1949.

From 1908 to 2022, the Gideons distributed a massive 2.5 billion Bibles. Roughly 80 million Bibles are donated each year, funded through private donations. While 95% of hotels placed Gideon Bibles as recently as 2006, that percentage dropped to 79% by 2016 and estimates from 1015 show a continued decline down to 69%. Even with that decline, tens of millions of hotel rooms have seen a Gideon Bible awaiting weary and sometimes perplexed travelers looking for peace and rest in their rooms. (Bennett Kleinman, historyfacts.com, March 26, 2026)

What has interested me as a student of typographic history is the long-lived type history of the Gideon Bible — King James Version (until 1974), two-column printing, verse by verse rendering, and somewhat hard to read type. While the typographic world was advancing, the KJV of 1611 remained steadfast typographically for decades. What has been ignored or not known in the typography world was that there was and has been brewing in the conservative biblical world a raging controversy over Bible translations and renditions.

While the KJV was old, and its typographical renderings outdated, the issue was the integrity of the Word of God set against its liberalizing detractors. To change the Bible, even typographically, was to invade and dethrone the inspired Word with modernistic, liberal theological ideas and programming. The Scofield Bible and the march from Princeton to Westminster Seminary by Machen and others fueled the fire. Indeed, in my early seminary years, we used the American Standard Version for our English studies. In one of my first churches, it took a rigorous two to three years to convince a conservative Presbyterian congregation to move from the KJV to the NIV, and even that was done over the hue and cry of some of the saints at the door after the morning service — “When will you read from the ‘real’ Bible again?” The “Battle for the Bible” wars in the 1980s did not help either.

The twenty-page preface of the Gideon Bible is inclusive in the true sense, addressing all sorts and conditions of men—the uninitiated, the back-slid, the faithful—with reasons to open or re-open the Good Book, and it tries to make navigation as easy as possible. For pressing personal questions, a Bible verse with a page number for easy finding supplies the answer. Are you alone? Go to Hebrews 13:5. Addicted? John 8:36. Experiencing temptation? Second Timothy 2:22. Considering suicide? Psalm 116. On the big metaphysical matters, too—God and mankind, sin and death, Christ and the Holy Spirit, heaven and hell, eternal life—a Gideon Bible guides the pilgrim to Scripture’s safe havens. Gideons can joyfully recount the numbers of those finding salvation from reading the Gideon Bible in their hotel rooms, or the savage in Africa who found a torn page from a Gideon Bible, and God used it for their salvation from hell.

To change the text of the Bible, even typographically, took years. Note the samples of the Gideon Bible of 1958 & 1971. Most Gideon Bibles, especially the classic hotel editions, use a traditional serif “Bible type” that appears compact and highly legible in small sizes, based on classic Renaissance style faces, like Garamond or Times New Roman (in more modern printings) or Bembo, because they appear well in dense, double-column text. The Gideons wanted printed Bibles with maximum readability and low cost, not typographic distinctiveness. Printers therefore favored narrow letterforms, to fit more text per page, moderate contrast, easy on the eyes, and familiar book typography, so that nothing was distracting to the casual reader.

Modern Bible Typography

Why is Bible typography important? The older KJV (King James Version) two-column Bibles (like the Gideon Bible) often used by congregants were ill-designed, hard to read at small sizes, and each verse a separate paragraph with verse numbers and other markers interrupting the flow of the textual thought. They were not reader-friendly Bibles, and they often separated biblical thoughts and gave unfortunate fuel to “biblicism,” that is, quoting verses and thoughts out of context. Atomistic quoting of single verses became the trend of preachers and well-intentioned Bible study leaders. Contexts were ignored, and through bad typography, verses were clumped together in an unfortunate manner.

Those who appreciate the biblical text want it read accurately and legibly. Paragraph divisions were incorporated into the Biblical Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek texts (New Testament) arbitrarily. Even the verse numbers and divisions were arbitrary, supposedly for better study of the inspired Word, but led to unfortunate theological problems and even heretical points of view. The point I am making is that while we need to study the Bible as the Word of God to us and pore over the biblical theology therein, we need better Bible typography to do so.

In a 2021 issue of Bible Study Magazine, Mark Ward, editor, provided a well written and visual article “A Revolution in Bible Design: Meet the People Who Designed Your Bible.” In that piece he reviewed the work of Bible designers and crafts people who design today’s versions of the Bible, noting the typeface designs used and paper quality. In fact, in a YouTube segment, Mark has an entire talk on Bible typography well worth your time. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu4t9FKn9M4 . And Mark Ward, “A Revolution in Bible Design: Meet the People Who Designed Your Bible,” Bible Study Magazine, November–December, 2021.)

In fact, Ward issued a “Bible Typography Manifesto” in which he called upon Bible printers and publishers to typographically make the Bible more readable —

“Pay attention to typography. Pay actual designers to lay out your Bibles. There are standards for ideal line length, type size, and leading that have been established over the centuries. Lexicon is an exceptionally good typeface for Bible publishing.

Do not try to sell Bibles by including cutesy material that undermines the gravity of the text—or edgy, worldly material that undermines its holiness. Bibles should not look like teen magazines or gift-store kitsch.” ( https://byfaithweunderstand.com/bible-typography-manifesto/ )

He says that Readers’ Bibles should keep “the flow of thought going for Bible readers. The paragraphs will break up the thought where the thought itself breaks instead of at fixed intervals (as in our current system), and the single- column format—along with appropriate modern typographic conventions—will say “narrative” or “letter” (etc.) rather than “reference book,” as double-columns do. Treating the Bible like a reference book to the exclusion of Story has been one of the cardinal errors of evangelical interpretation.”

I, with Mark, have seen too many of the problems with verse-by-verse preaching and teaching and even writing that “proof-texts” a certain point of view, rather than being truthful to the context of Scripture.

Proper typographical line length, type size, leading, and typefaces that have been established over the centuries of good typography are ignored and shuttled to the side for what is supposedly dramatic and consumer driven. Clean lines and readable, legible and clear text are sometimes missing in printed Bibles. This does not have to be so, given the wealth of good typographers and typographic standards we have available. Use them. Obey them.

Well, someone has listened to these typographic voices! In 2015 Zondervan launched the company’s Beautiful Bible initiative. Partnering with 2K/DENMARK, the foremost Bible type foundry, a typeface has been created that uniquely complements modern English Bibles.

NIV Comfort Print “is a highly readable typeface that uses a unique mix of open and closed letters, making it easier to read for long periods of time. It is also spatially efficient, directly contributing to the company’s initiative to reduce its carbon footprint and reduce unnecessary paper usage. (https://www.thomasnelsonbibles.com/ comfort-print/)

Comfort Print Bibles stand out for their unique design focused on readability and comfort. Typically featuring font sizes between 10 to 12 points, these Bibles use enhanced typography and spacing to make text easier to read compared to standard print versions.” Thomas Nelson Comfort Print®type fonts have been uniquely created for the NKJV, KJV, NET, NIV, NASB. These exclusive family of fonts are expertly designed reflect the history and legacy of each translation, and also use the latest in the art and science of typography design to create a smooth reading experience.

Responding to AI and Digital Babylon

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 12:03:06 GMT

Responding to AI and Digital Babylon

H. Carl Shank

April 4, 2026

Austin Gravley, a former Social Media Manager of The Gospel Coalition, and now the Director of Youth Ministry at Redeemer Christian Church in Amarillo, TX, is writing a book on AI and the digital revolution taking place. He compares this Digital Babylon and its captivity and its exiles to Christians living under the overwhelming influence of an active anti-Christian developing AI. Piecing together his comments with those of many others on the advancing scene of AI on our lives, several themes come to mind.

First, AI is not God. While there are some in the Silicon Valley who might wish or see AI as a unifying, ontological force that can shape or rule our lives — the Super Machine —others remind us that this is only technology. And as advanced as AI is and becomes, God is still sovereignly in control of it and our lives. Jason Thacker, professor of philosophy and ethics at Southern Seminary and Boyce College, writes — “We must engage these issues, rather than respond after their effects are widely felt. But we don’t have to face today or tomorrow with fear. God is sovereign and his Word is sufficient for every good work, so we are able to walk with confidence as we apply his Word to these challenges with wisdom and guided by his Spirit.” ( The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity , Zondervan, 2020)

A recent storm that darkened my community and scuttled Internet services reminded me of that. Even AI data centers, growing to over 3,000 in 2025 nationwide, are not immune to power disruptions and total blackouts. AI pundits may claim to have control procedures to keep the Internet and AI running cannot promise it to be so. We need to keep this in mind in the Digital Babylon age, as was needed to be kept in mind by Israel in the Babylonian Empire age in biblical times. Babylon went through many iterations, but will be defeated by God at the end of the day, as noted in Revelation. Digital Babylon will experience the same demise. This is not prediction, just Bible truth. We as believers need to hold on to such truth.

Second, AI is still technology. Indeed, advanced and advancing technology, but not human. Matthew Schultz in a recent mereorthodoxy.com article notes— “Technology has existed since the Garden and is an integral component of our cultural mandate. We should also remember that one of the core distinctions between the Creator and his creatures is that we never create matter but merely (!) rearrange it. This becomes clear whether we consider an ancient farmer in Mesopotamia irrigating a plot of soil, a medieval peasant in Northumbria weaving a basket from flax, or a young musician in London taking the raw outputs of machine sound, adjusting its pitch, volume, and length, and incorporating it into a DAW loop. While there are all sorts of important distinctions and qualifications between pre- and post-industrial craft, there is no metaphysical distance between the two.” ( Artificial Intelligence Is A Technology , Feb. 26, 2026). AI may be the harbinger of a new Industrial Age, but though changes will be major and sometimes severe, the human side of the equation cannot be discounted or counted out.

Part of my retired status as a pastor and theologian is that of a typographer restoring old type faces and doing a deep dive into the history of type. Two historical typographical truths stand out. Although the Renaissance age brought movable type from Gutenberg and others into the machine age, the typographical flair of those ancient scribes with pen-drawn exquisite type remained a stylistic standard. The second note is that with the Industrial Age, while affecting the quantity and speed of type development and printing, master type craftsmen rebelled against machine driven type for more organic typefaces.

This was seen, for instance, in the type movement spawned by William Morris (1834–1896). William Morris was an Arts & Crafts designer who founded the Kelmscott Press (1891), reviving hand craftsmanship in printing. His work influenced the twentieth century private press and type revival movements. Lettering became a vehicle for breaking convention. Led by figures such as Morris, there was a decided reaction against industrialization, seeing machine-made goods as dehumanizing and ugly. Handcraftmanship, honesty in materials and utility fused with beauty made up much of what was called the Arts & Crafts Movement. That movement was rooted in medieval guild ideals and morality in design. (For an expanded history of type development, see “Advances in Typography: A Historical Sketch — Three Parts” in the blogs by CARE Typography, www.caretypography.com , Nov. 8, 2025, Nov. 18, 2025 and Nov. 20, 2025)

Third, AI affects everyone everywhere. Austin Gravely, a former Social Media Manager of The Gospel Coalition, raises and answers the query — “’So what?’, you may think. ‘I’m not an Internet technician. I’m not a fan of AI. I’m not planning to change how I use the Internet. Why does any of this matter to me?’ To put it bluntly: you are naive if you think these disruptions won’t directly affect you, or indirectly affect you through the effect they will have on others. If the iPhone, social media, and AI have taught us anything, it is that you are impacted by these events regardless of whether you participate in them or not.” ( The State of the Internet: 2026 , mereorthodoxy.com, March 30, 2026)

He goes on to say — “A changing Internet will change you. It will change you in ways you can see and in ways you can’t. It will change those you live with, work with, play with, build with, and fight with. It will change what is possible, probable, permissible, and prohibited in your life, your vocation, your church, your neighborhood, and any other physical space the Internet touches.”

I recall my 99 year old mother who passed away a couple of years ago in a nursing facility. She was one of those survivors of the Great Depression and World War Two who dismissed the first moon landing and had her flat screen TV removed from her room for fear the government was watching. She lasted for nine years in the same private room in a modern nursing center. She was attended by doctors and nurses and staff who used AI on their computers and other care devices. She even had a modern digital phone removed from her room and refused to learn it. While she personally rebelled against her AI driven machine age, she could not escape those who used such technology for her care. We cannot isolate ourselves from AI and its advancing development, no matter how isolated we try to be.

Fourth, AI can be either a blessing or a curse. Again, Matthew Schultz notes — “Our task is not to develop a unique theology of AI but to catechize our members into a people who can wield this technology without becoming captive to its internal logic. Like alcohol, artificial intelligence will become a test of character, a dangerous good that divides the foolish from the wise.”

He says “Yet the greatest danger is both more pervasive and less obvious: AI is much more likely to be deployed as a multiplicative layer that allows ever more efficient micro-targeting of digital services and physical products by industries that already profit from compulsive behavior. The advent of hyper-personalized, real-time engagement strategies will require legislative safeguards, especially if AI leads to video advertisements generated in real time for an exhaustively mapped individual profile.”

We must seek to “humanize” AI and employ it “humanly.” We must resist the phenomenological bent toward unbelief in AI development and pressures. We must once again learn to think critically and pervasively and biblically about AI. Our young people must be taught prescriptive critical thinking practices, rather than unwittingly and ignorantly giving in to what their phones and computers spit out. Church and ministry pastors must pastor rather than let AI bots plan, prepare and even give their sermons. We must learn to smartly negotiate with the “Magnificent Seven”— Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla — rather than blindly following their lead. Convenience and speed must not be allowed to overtake and overcome careful, sustained and critical thinking and acting.

“To give language to this change, we must take the best of Christian thinking regarding the social and political imaginary and apply it to the economic imaginary of life under the glowing shores of Digital Babylon, and that kind of work cannot be done with quick hot takes. It will take slow, deep, and thoughtful meditation to apply the riches of Christian thought to making sense of the companies that got us here and where they are taking us.” (Austin Gravley, The State of The Internet: 2026 )

I am both excited and wary of AI. I have learned to be much more cautious about social media and the videos and photos and information they give. Much of it has been and is being AI produced and tweaked. Spammers use AI technology to wrest thousands of dollars from unsuspecting senior citizens. Schools are requiring students to turn off their cell phones or “bag” them until after school hours because of the insidious nature of AI generated stuff. I value more and more of a face-to-face approach in teaching and learning and mentoring others. And we must adopt a state of “believing is seeing” rather than a non-Christian scientifically sanctioned “seeing is believing” approach to truth and justice.

Type Details Matter: Typos & Fractions

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 17:37:24 GMT

Type Details Matter: Typos & Fractions

Carl Shank

March 31, 2026

“The practice of typography, if it be followed faithfully, is hard work — full of detail, full of petty restrictions, full of drudgery, and not greatly rewarded as men now count rewards. There are times when we need to bring to it all the history and art and feeling that we can, to make it bearable. But in the light of history, and of art, and of knowledge and of man’s achievement, it is as interesting a work that exists—a broad and humanizing employment which indeed can be followed merely as a trade, but which if perfected into an art or even broadened into a profession, will perpetually open new horizons to our eyes and new opportunities to our hands.” (“Thoughts Upon A Typographic Custom,” Alexander S. Lawson, Electronic Publishing , January 28, 1994)

Such detail and “petty restrictions” are to be found in the consideration and history of typographic errors (typos) and the use of fractions. In my March 23, 2023 blog I noted that we need more than a spellchecker. Spell checkers are great. They help us in busy offices doing busy tasks everyday. EXCEPT they cannot correct errors of statement or errors of typography.

Grant Weisbrot of New York City has noted that "it is impossible to efficiently proofread without a knowledge of typesetting and printing procedures." ("The Typographic Eye: Proofreading," Electronic Publishing , May 13, 1994) Thus, the note to “raise the register mark and close up the space” in an article is translated by the typographer to “kern the register mark five units and raise it 1¼ points.”

He gives some examples of errors of statements — spelling when letters are missing, like "he" for "the;" spelling in a piece published in Britain, like "color" for "colour;" using a correctly spelled word in a wrong way, like 20 carat gold (carat is a diamond weight, karat is an alloy of gold, caret is an insertion mark, and carrot is a vegetable); awkward sentence structure, incorrect or inconsistent capitalization, ungrammatical or awkward sentence structure, failure to apply indents or hangs when suitable, and errors of fact, like the kangaroos of Tibet.

Typos

Typos have an old and famous—some would say infamous— history. What has been called “The Wicked Bible” in 1631 left out the word “not” in the seventh commandment — “Thou shalt not commit adultery” was transformed into “Thou shalt commit adultery.” When the error was discovered, the ramifications were swift and severe. King Charles 1 fined the printers £300 (around $70,000 today), revoked their printing license, and proceeded to find and destroy as many copies of the Wicked Bible as possible, turning it into a rare collector’s item. While his religious policies, coupled with his marriage to a Catholic, generated antipathy and mistrust from Reformed religious groups such as the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters, who thought his views too Catholic, this typo was too much to bear. Today, only about 20 copies remain in circulation. (History Facts at http://bit.ly/4rXvTZZ )

Digitized copy of "The Wicked Bible" in Exodus 20.

Aotearoa's Wicked Bible Digitisation Collection

A simple coding mistake scuttled NASA’s Mariner 1 mission on July 22, 1962. While it’s been reported that a missing hyphen in the software coding was to blame, NASA noted that it was an “omission of an overbar for the symbol R for radius in an equation,” as well as a guidance antenna on the atlas, that caused the failure. This was probably the most expensive typo in history, costing the space agency $18.5 million (over $180 million today).

The etchings on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. are truly historic. However, etched into Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address on the wall of the memorial are the words “WITH HIGH HOPE FOR THE EUTURE.” The error was corrected by filling in the bottom of the first “E,” in “EUTURE” but, like a paper erasure, the correction is obvious to those looking.

Even the esteemed Webster’s Dictionary has not escaped typos. In 1934 the nonword “dord” appeared between the word “dorcopsis,” a small kangaroo species, and “doré,” meaning “golden in color.” “Dord” was listed as a noun referring to density in the fields of physics and chemistry. The intended entry was actually “D or d,” the abbreviation for density used by physicists and chemists. The dictionary editors in sorting out and separating abbreviations from words in preparing the dictionary's second edition, a card marked “D or d” meaning “density” somehow migrated from the “abbreviations” stack to the “words stack. The entry existed in more than one printing from 1934 to 1947. It is called a “ghost word,” a word that does not actually exist.

Then there are errors of typography, like primes (' ") for apostrophes or quotes, or quotes used for inch marks, double-hyphens (--) for an em-dash (—), fractional mistakes, kerning that is on or off, word spacing that is inconsistent, unbalanced centered copy, allowing widows, orphans, ladders or rivers, wrong sized bullets, subscript or superscript failures (NIKE (TM) instead of NIKE™), two spaces after a sentence ending instead of just one space (a common typist mistake), asterisks to represent bullets, using the letter "l" for the number 1, capital O for the digit 0, and misnumbered pages.

Interestingly, the ancient Koreans were known for the quality of their proofreading work. If a novice made one typo, they lost a finger. The second typo caused the loss of a hand! In 1539, France required printers to hire proofreaders or to be fined and held liable for damages due to typographical errors. Today, we just add a "not responsible for typographical errors" to ordinary newspapers and mailers. We have grown sloppy, uncaring, and typographically ignorant—sad to say. Frank Romano in a March 1993 Electronic Publishing article, "The History of the Typo," says that "today artificial intelligence and fuzzy logic are being used to electronically generate typographical errors without human involvement."

Weisbrot notes that "a proofreader must correct the proof and enhance the typography without ever making changes in the text or specifications; editors usually frown on a proofreader's pretensions to improve the language, but it is rare for a designer to complain if the layout is typographically improved."

Fractions

The Franklin Covey Style Guide in advising writing fractions says that we should spell out and hyphenate fractions appearing by themselves in ordinary text, especially if they are followed by “of a” or “of an” — one-half foot; one-tenth inch, five-eighths of a mile. Yet, measurements in scientific and technical documents it says require figures — ½ foot; 7 ¼ meters and if combined with abbreviations or symbols — 34 1/3 km; 8 ½ hr. However, there’s the typographical problem. 8½ looks fine but 34 1/3 looks clunky and 34 and one-third is tedious and amateurish. Microsoft Word in a number of standard typefaces does not supply nearly enough fractions.

In addition, besides the clunky look, the forward slash used in 34 1/3 is not typographically correct. Indeed, a “fractional slash” is needed there. “As a general rule, a text slash is about 70% of the width of the main stroke of an uppercase “l” and is inclined from the vertical at about 20°. The fraction slash, on the other hand, is only about 45% to 50% of the width of the main stroke of an uppercase “l” and is inclined at a somewhat greater angle of about 30° to 35° from the vertical. And there are large negative sidebearings in the fraction slash.” (Stephen Moye, Fontographer: Type By Design , MIS Press, 1995) (See Diagram)

And there is even another typographical problem that raises its ugly head in fractional uses. The number 1¾ , while still the same typeface, has a “thicker” “1” and a thinner ¾ than should be. One way around this might be 1¾ with the ¾ in Bold, but that still does not look very good typographically.

We all use fractions, especially in texts that reference recipes or construction of some kind. If we don't use the words, like one-half, three-eighths, and so forth, we stick them into all kinds of writings — however they look. So, using a typical program like Microsoft Word, if the fraction we want is contained in the typical 256 character description of the font, Word will usually automatically and successfully put the font in the text so that it looks like it belongs. But fractions that go outside the bounds of the normal character set of the font we are using create problems in how to type them into our document so that they look good and naturally belong. Workarounds are limited. An example is below. However, these are constructed in layout programs, like Adobe InDesign which are not normally used in typical day to day letters and publications.

Rather than purchasing a subscription to Creative Cloud from Adobe to download and use a program like InDesign ( Adobe Creative Cloud ) what should we do? We could find a free or minimal cost font that is mostly made up of fractions, like Fraction Free Fonts , like KG Traditional Fractions by Kimberly Geswein — a b c d e f g h k — or settle for a less than suitable word translation in running texts, like five-thirtysixths (instead of 5/36). The fraction Free font will most likely not reflect the typeface you are using. That may be acceptable in a recipe listing where the fraction stands outside the line of text, but it will not look professional at all.

Another solution would be to use a font that has plenty of fonts already built-in. So, instead of the typical Times Roman fractions — ½, ¼, ¾ — you could use a specialty font like Mrs Eaves Fractions — GHIJKLMNO — yet still limiting and not the same text. And you would need to purchase this typeface. Or use Sumner Stone’s Fractional Stone Print font. Stone has created an all-purpose fractional font — the number keys have cap height numerals, the Shift-key has numerator numbers; the Option-key has the denominator numbers, and Shift-Option has the x-height numerals. (See Sample Below)

Still another (perhaps better) solution would be to contract out a font designer, like CARE Typography, to develop or enhance your preferred typeface with fractions you use. This latter solution is preferable to most, given the need for suitable fractions. An example of how this is done in a program called Fontographer is below on the fraction three-fifths (3/5) in Times Roman.

Using Adobe's InDesign Program

Free Fonts: A Deal or Trouble?

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 21:10:01 GMT

Free Fonts: A Deal or Trouble?

The latest Google estimate of available fonts is over 300,000 and counting. Other estimates have catalogued over 550,000 fonts. There are over 36,000 font families, over 4,000 type designers and over 2,700 professional font foundries, not counting smaller font entrepreneurs like CARE Typography, which provides restored fonts from yesteryear. (Quora source https://www.quora.com/How-many-fonts-are-there-in-existence-Does-any-group-attempt-to-keep-a-record-of-all-the-fonts-that-exist )

There are commercial fonts from sources like Adobe and MyFonts (Monotype) which require payment for their use in various platforms. Both provide a subscription service, which usually requires a substantial monthly or yearly fee to download and use their fonts. When I began using Apple Macintoshes in the 1980s, font manufacturers like Adobe and Monotype would “sell” the right to use a number of their fonts for thousands of dollars. And, by the way, you never really “own” the font. You have paid only for the use of the font for a specific purpose or machine. Moreover, the price varies for print use, or web use, or a digital ad use. Even today, the font Trinité Titling by Bram de Does, used in a number of Bibles and biblical studies, costs over $4,000 for the use on a single computer and much more for a number of computer users. Individual users of such fonts are mostly priced out of their budget.

Why the seemingly extravagant cost? We had a valve on one of our household plumbing lines go bad. I called the plumber, and he replaced the valve — at a cost of several hundred dollars, while the valve itself cost only a few dollars. Was that fair? Yes, because I was paying for the time and training and effort going into replacing that valve in my house. The same holds true for professional font designers. They spend hundreds, sometimes thousands, of hours in font development. We are paying for their livelihood.

Font licenses cover four basic parameters around font usage — “The What: The weight and style of the typeface; The Where: Literally where you’ll use the font – a website, digital ad, or in print; The Who: The number times a font can be installed on a computer (aka the number of people who can use it); The How many: For example, web font licenses describe the number of allotted page views, and app and digital marketing licenses set similar parameters.” (Monotype Report) Companies like Monotype are rarely concerning with an individual using a font for a home, individualized project, but rather an entire design company or printer using that font for commercial gain and advertising dollars.

There are fonts available “for personal use only,” prohibiting their use for commercial or money-making projects. There are what have been called “shareware” fonts, fonts with a minimal cost which require attribution of the type designer or provider on projects. Most fonts provide a EULA, or font license, which outlines and determines the legal restrictions and ramifications for their use.

What about free fonts?

Monotype warns against using unlicensed or what are called “free” fonts for several valid reasons, but, in my opinion, this is an obvious ploy to get the user to buy or subscribe to their font services. One Monotype report cites six issues associated with what are deemed “free” fonts. Free fonts may pop up in similar ads or designs to industry competition, perhaps prompting a lawsuit or cease-and-desist actions. Free fonts often have the inability to scale, add special characters, or even different alphabets. Free fonts have limited creative scope. They may be saddled with malware or software viruses. Poor font design can be a problem with such fonts. A sixth problem with so-called free fonts is that they can be actually “pirated” fonts, copied from legitimately designed fonts.

“Aside from branding issues, free fonts also suffer from a whole host of performance issues. Fonts are software files that interact with applications and the operating system on which it’s installed; without the guidance of a skilled font engineer, rendering issues may arise from crashing glyphs, or a lack of proper kerning (the space between glyphs) text in certain scenarios. A free font downloaded from a random website might not support a broad range of languages and or complex scripts (e.g., Japanese or Arabic), or basic diatrics to cover commonly used Latin languages.” (Monotype Report)

Monotype maintains that free fonts won’t give a company the individual style it deserves to help it stand out in the marketplace. They also point to the legal ramifications involved with font licensing, not a glamorous subject but one in which company attorneys are hired to examine for possible litigation.

Types of Free Fonts

There are four sources of free fonts — Open Source fonts with an SIL Open Font License (SEE https://openfontlicense.org ); OS fonts, fonts that come with your operating system and hardware; Subscription add-on fonts that come as an add-on to a subscription service; and, advertised free fonts by independent font designers, such as CARE Typography. Many or most of such free fonts come from freeware, shareware, public domain or demo fonts downloaded or reconstructed from an archive or library, like Internet Archive.

Companies such as Website Planet offer free “commercial” fonts, fonts that can be used in business and corporate applications. See https://www.websiteplanet.com/blog/best-free-fonts/. Several cautions, however, are still in order here. First, a font that “looks like” a standard, business font is not the same thing as its “older brother.” An example is Website Planet’s Playfair Display font, both a variable and static font designed by Claus Eggers Sørensen licensed under the SIL Open Font License agreement. Yet, this font looks a lot like the standard Bodoni font, created by Giambattista Bodoni in 1767 and revived by Morris Fuller Benton in 1911 under Linotype’s commercial license.

The problematics of free fonts can also be seen in what are called Dingbat fonts, which are picture fonts, or symbol fonts, like Website Planet’s Bocartes-Fritos Dingbats font, a playful, symbol rich dingbats font. Using this font for illustrative purposes in planning picnics or announcing fun and games may seem commercially useful. However, the symbols themselves may be under copyright by someone else.

Free fonts are limited in use and application, mostly for personal, individual projects or single use applications such as test environments, utility fonts for billing statements, invoices, official letters or in-house labeling. Other uses include wedding and event invitations, announcements, church and non-profit bulletins and so forth.

Monotype and other foundries argue against using free fonts as “branding” for consumer-packaged goods. They maintain that fonts are an integral and important part of building trust and recognition. They also argue that free fonts make it easy for phishing attacks on the general public. No doubt, Monotype wants type users to subscribe to their vast array of fonts and buy their use for different applications. Such fees can amount to a lot of money for a single use product or application. Of course, they would contend that such purchasing guarantees ethical licensing and use of fonts. It may also protect a small company against legal liabilities.

Using CARE Typography fonts . Many of the fonts advertised by CARE Typography are free to the user. Some of the fonts have a small handling fee. While I respect Monotype's cautions and warnings cited above about free fonts, a couple of clarifying notes are in order about CARE fonts.

Most are not for normal text use. Many of these restored fonts come from old pen-drawn fonts now long outdated in the regular marketplace. Some of them have missing letters, not due to our carelessness but what was available to digitize. Use trusted (even Monotype's) textual fonts for readability, proper kerning and licensed for use.

Use CARE digitized fonts for display purposes. Many of these older fonts are perfect for versals (opening letters) or fancy invitations, parties, retro looks and so forth. Many of these fonts have no small letters and are all capitals. They are meant for design purposes.

CARE fonts are licensed. Some with CARE's own licensing and others from trusted free licensing sources. We have made every attempt to provide trusted older fonts which are in the public domain in the copyright world. Some of the fonts we have are limited in their use for churches and other non-profits. When you order a font or a number of them, we will provide that information.

More On The Greek Font

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 20:31:12 GMT

More on the Greek font. In a previous post ( It's Greek To Me! March 18, 2023) we noted that Cursive Greek type appeared as a chancery script by Francesco Griffo in 1502 and lasted two hundred years. Robert Bringhurst notes that "chancery Greeks were cut by many artists from Garamond to Cason, but Neoclassical and Romantic designers . . . all returned to simpler cursive forms . . . in the English speaking world the cursive Greek most often seen is the one designed in 1806 by Richard Porson." This face has been the "standard Greek face for the Oxford Classical Texts for over a century." ( Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, Hartley & Marks, Version 3.1, 2005 , pp. 274, 278)

In fact, asking Google for the best Greek face to use, it points us to Porson Greek. Porson is a beautiful Unicode Font for Greek. It's not stiff, like many of the cleaner fonts, which are usually san serif. It is bold and easy to read and seems to more closely match the orthography in newer textbooks. (Jan 8, 2004)

In England, during the 1790’s, Cambridge University Press decided to procure a new set of Greek types. The university’s great scholar of Classics, Richard Porson was asked to produce a typeface based on his handsome handwriting and Richard Austin was commissioned to cut the types. The type was completed in 1808, after the untimely death of Porson the previous year. Its success was immediate and since then the classical editions in Great Britain and the U.S.A. use it, almost invariably. In 1913, Monotype released the typeface with some corrections, notably replacing the upright capitals suggested by Porson with inclined ones. In Greece the typeface was used under the name Pelasgika type. GFS Porson is based on the Monotype version, though using upright capitals, as in the original.

As we noted in our post on Fell Types, Oxford University Press used Porson's Greek typeface regularly and exclusively. In the Preface to The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250–1900 , by Arthur Quiller-Couch, a Greek quote is used. That quote is set in Porson Greek type.

What has interested me are the salient differences between the Porson type and succeeding Greek typefaces in the digital world. Note the insert from The Oxford Book of English Verse in different Greek faces.

The Englishman William Caslon punchcut many roman, italic, and non-Latin typefaces from 1720 until his death in 1766. At that time most types were being imported to England from Dutch sources, so Caslon was influenced by the characteristics of Dutch types. He did, however, achieve a level of craft that enabled his recognition as the first great English punchcutter. Caslon's roman became so popular that it was known as the script of kings, although on the other side of the political spectrum (and the ocean), the Americans used it for their Declaration of Independence in 1776. (myFonts.com)

Caslon's Double Pica Greek Sample. Note the flowing cursive style and the Greek's rho elongated descenders.

Lucida Grande's Greek can be found in all Macintosh X systems. It looks like Lucida sans, but has more glyphs.It covers Roman, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, Thai and Greek. Many of its 2800+ glyphs were added by Michael Everson to the original collection.

Many use the standard Times New Roman Greek lettering, as in the eBook version of The Oxford Book of English Verse. Older Macs, with the original LaserWriter, provided Symbol as a Greek font. "Symbol (often written as Σψμβολ in typeface) is one of the four standard fonts available on all PostScript -based printers, starting with Apple 's original LaserWriter (1985). It contains a complete unaccented Greek alphabet (upper and lower case) and a selection of commonly used mathematical symbols. Insofar as it fits into any standard classification, it is a serif font designed in the style of Times New Roman . Due to its non-standard character set, lack of diacritical characters, and type design inappropriate for continuous text, Symbol cannot easily be used for setting Greek language text, though it has been used for that purpose in the absence of proper Greek fonts. Its primary purpose is to typeset mathematical expressions."(Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Symbol_(typeface) )

Newest Decorative Font: Nabel Dado

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 19:10:21 GMT

CARE Typography is pleased to announce a new typeface — NabelDado — in standard black-and-white font formulation as well as colored SVG formats. Please see samples below. Order from cshanktype@gmail.com. Enjoy!

This font has been designed for maximum usability in your documents requiring a versal that speaks of decorative flair.

We are able to make this typeface with capitals of your choosing, in either standard black-and-white or yellow colored.

Dado is a historic font, No. 400, from Phillips Old Fashioned Type Book , Frederick Nelson Phillips, 1945 New York. Reproduced by CARE Typography 2025.

Historical Literary Fonts: The Fell Fonts

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 14:56:47 GMT

Historical Literary Fonts: The Fell Fonts

Rooted in John Fell's legacy at Oxford, these fonts inherit a rich history of learned printing, drawing inspiration from Dutch typefaces with contrasting weights and unique letterforms. The Fell type collection was a gift made to Oxford University by Dr. John Fell (1625–1686), Bishop of Oxford and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford. They were donated to the Oxford University Press (OUP) and became the foundation of its early printing identity — “He bought punches and matrices in Holland and Germany in 1670 and 1672 and entrusted his personal punchcutter, Peter de Walpergen, with the cut of the larger bodies. Igino Marini, revived some Fell types in 2004.”[1]

Why the Fell Types Matter

Fell Types represent pre-Caslon English typography. They form one of the earliest consistent typographic identities of a university press. They show how Dutch type design influenced English printing. Typographically, they were designed for reading, not display. This is important because they departed from the socialistic, anti-industrialization movement of the Arts & Crafts movement led by William Morris (SEE Blog Advances in Typography: A Historical Sketch (Part 2) , Nov. 20, 2025).

Much credit for the original fonts goes to Frederick Nelson Phillips and his work at The Arden Press, which became more commercially ambitious and influential. This press produced high-quality editions of classic and scholarly texts, collaborated with academics, editors, and publishers and continued refinement of typographic discipline.

Frederick Nelson Phillips

Frederick Nelson Phillips (c. 1875 – 1938) occupies a crucial transitional role between Arts and Crafts idealism and twentieth-century typographic rationalism, as well as between private press craftsmanship and professional publishing. For historians of printing, he represents a model of how tradition can be revived thoughtfully—without nostalgia, and without surrendering to industrial mediocrity.

Frederick Nelson Phillips was a British printer and typographic entrepreneur best known as the founder of The Florence Press and later The Arden Press. He played a significant role in the early twentieth-century revival of fine printing in Britain, working in the wake of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement, yet moving toward a more practical, commercially viable model of quality book production.

Although never as famous as Morris or later modernist typographers, Phillips exerted a quiet but lasting influence. He helped normalize the use of historical typefaces in serious publishing, bridging the gap between private press ideals and commercial book production. Phillips influenced later British typographic standards, particularly in academic publishing. He contributed to the preservation and renewed appreciation of early English type design. His work resonates strongly with later figures interested in typographic scholarship, including those associated with university presses and fine publishing.

The revived Igino Marini Fell fonts include IM Fell English, IM Fell French Canon, IM Fell Double Pica, and IM Fell Great Primer. These retain the irregularity and color of the originals, making them popular for historical and literary work.

Fell Roman Types, the core of the collection, were used for Latin, English, and scholarly prose. Major Romans included Fell Great Primer Roman, Fell Double Pica Roman, Fell Pica Roman, Fell English Roman, Fell Long Primer Roman, Fell Brevier Roman, and Fell Minion Roman.

Generally, Fell Roman types show broad, sturdy serifs, slightly irregular letterforms, and strong baseline emphasis. Particularly distinctive are capital J, the tail on capital Q, the 7 and the numeral 0. In the italic font note the capital Y, numbers 3, 7, 0 and the fancy ampersand and question mark.

These faces predate Caslon and influenced later British text typography. Fell Italic types were used alongside the Romans, but notably idiosyncratic. These Italics corresponded to the Roman sizes above (Pica, English, Brevier, etc.) They evidence narrow, steeply slanted forms, calligraphic influence, irregular widths, unusual entry strokes and a highly expressive lowercase. The Fell Italics are among the most distinctive and historically revealing of the collection.

An Example . The Oxford Book of English Verse (Arthur Quiller-Couch, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1925) is an excellent example of the Fell typefaces being used in publication.

The original paragraph is at the bottom of the sample, with Igino Marini Fell typefaces shown. Which face is closest to the original paragraph from the Oxford Book?

The Fell English face looks close but note the italic "T" on "Treasury." The Great Primer or Double Pica faces are closer to the original. In order to set the letter and word spacing appropriately, I used Adobe InDesign's Justification settings as below.

The Fell Flower is not from Igino Marini's Fell Flowers fonts but rather from CARE Typography's rendering of the concluding flower at the end of The Oxford Book .

Fell Language Fonts

Fell Greek Types

One of the most important scholarly assets of the Fell collection were Great Primer Greek, Pica Greek and smaller Greek sizes. The outstanding characteristics were dense, compact forms, extensive ligatures, polytonic diacritics and scholarly rather than literary tone. These Greeks were essential for classical and theological publishing at Oxford.

George Matthiopoulos notes that “in the 18th century, during the era of the cultural Enlightenment and aesthetic innovation in Europe, several University scholars, publishers and printers started increasingly the simplification of the Greek texts and the retiring of the old-style Greek fonts. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, cutting and typesetting the numerous Byzantine ligatures were abandoned altogether and a new stylistic paradigm appeared for the Greek scholarly editions in England, France and Germany.

Predictably, it followed the prevailing neoclassical fashion of maximum contrast between thick and thin strokes of their contemporary Latin fonts. Cambridge University Press commissioned a mildly oblique font based on Prof. Richard Porson’s much admired hand-writing, Firmin Didot introduced an upright, round Greek font in Paris and Karl Tauchnitz in Leipzig reprised with his also round, but excessively inclined letterforms; those three distinct styles became the almost exclusive Greek type used in each respective country until the mid-twentieth century for every philological, archeological or theological edition.”[2]

Karl Tauchnitz in Leipzig Sample Greek Texts

Gerry Leonidas notes on the typographical structure of the Porson face that “the design was a radical departure from contemporary styles—the curves are simplified and the structure and alignment of characters more regularized. The modulation of the strokes is more consistent, and there are some new interpretations, like the lunate epsilon, the kappa and the simpler circumflex. The terminals are varied: some taper, some end in drop-like bulbs, and some are sheared. The design is somewhat inconsistent in the balancing of white regions, both in closed counters and around open characters like the lambda. Appropriately for this style, there were no ligatures or contractions. Porson’s design showed the way forward for the next generation of Greek typefaces, re-stating the case for abandoning the grec-du-roi influence and regularizing the strokes of letterforms. It was widely copied (and modified) and still enjoys considerable success, albeit within Greece only for shorter runs of text.” [3] (For more on the development of the Greek font, SEE Blog It’s Greek To Me! , March 18, 2023)

Fell Hebrew Type was designed for biblical and theological scholarship. The letters have compact square forms, clear consonantal structure, and is optimized for learned readers rather than decorative use. Fell Arabic Type was rare and ambitious for its time, an early attempt at Arabic typography in England. It offered limited calligraphic sophistication.

Fell was motivated to “help pass on the knowledge and criticism that lived on the printed page.” Under his direction, the house published many classics of philosophy, philology and literature and the typography used in these early publications became known as the Fell types. Fell hired the best typographers and printers of the day from Holland, Germany and France and declared that “The foundation of all successe must be layd in doing things well, and I am sure that will not be don with English letters” (to Jenkins, 2 Dec. 1672).[4]

“The Fell types are now the pride—or one of the “prides”—of the Clarendon Press. Their revival was of real importance in modern printing. The Oxford Book of English Verse , the volumes in the Tudor and Stuart Library, the Trecentale Bodleianum of 1913, and the Catalogue of the Shakespeare Exhibition held in the Bodleian Library to commemorate the Death of Shakespeare (Oxford, 1916) are familiar examples of their admirable and effective modern use.”[5]

In conclusion, the Fell Types were a typographic archive, not a unified family. They were central to the history of English scholarly printing and offered a bridge between Renaissance type traditions and later British typographic refinement. They reward readers who value texture, rhythm, and historical authenticity over neutrality.

Sources

1. https://luc.devroye.org/fonts-43049.html

2. George D. Matthiopoulos, “Preserving Type Heritage: A Primer of Greek Typography, typeroom.eu , March 12, 2025)

3. Gerry Leonidas, A Primer on Greek Type Design, https://atypi.org/about-atypi/publications/type-journal/a-primer-on-greek-type-design/

4. https://www.sessions.edu/notes-on-design/type-in-history-the-fell-types/

5. https://www.c82.net/printing-types/chapters/21 — Revivals of Caslon and Fell Types, Chapter XXI, From Printing Types by Nicholas Rougeux.

Nothing New Under the Sun: A Look At Current Typographic Trends

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 02:17:29 GMT

Nothing New Under The Sun:

A Look at Current Typographic Trends

As a typographic historian of sorts, and owner of CARE Typography, a small design studio focusing on reviving historic and often missed typefaces, I read a number of type reports and books. Of special interest is the newsletter from the Monotype corporation highlighting trends and faces for today. (See https://bit.ly/3Y1R1BV )

A couple of statements in their latest reports by Phil Garnham, Creative Type Director, at Monotype got me thinking about culturally laced typographic styles and faces that have graced our historic type landscapes. He notes a “new universal style emerging: flat design in modern online brands, almost reverting to the minimalist style of five years past. Many companies are going for clean geometric style with type.”

This is hardly a new concept or trend. A deeper dive into the history of type design over the centuries helps us understand what may be happening. In the history of typography, on which I have written (See H. Carl Shank, Typographical Beauty Through the Ages: A Christian Perspective, Lulu.com, 2025), the visual dissonance of the Dadaist movement in type was replaced by the order of Constructivism and its functional accessible design principles. Art Deco gave way to Swiss type beauty with its readability and visual harmony in the faces of Helvetica and Univers. Grunge and Psychedelic type by Wes Wilson gave way to the sans serifs used universally today. Hippie children of the 60s grew up to be corporate CEOs of the 80s and 90s, shedding their anti-establishment and even destructive behaviors for the boardroom and nice houses with ordered yards and gardens.

This has been the story of all cultural movements, including typographic movements. They reflected their cultural morés of the times, but the bold, audacious, violent, raucous types always gave way to what we internally want and desire — a return to simplicity, functionality and order and type viability. From a theological viewpoint, the thought provoking words of the writer of Ecclesiastes of the Bible apply here — “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9, 10)

“Customers are seeking affinity with brands that seek justice in our world, and that goes beyond a brand’s mission. People want to see brands actively involved in solving societal problems.” The issues of climate change, diversity movements, equity and inclusion initiatives are seemingly new but typographically rehearse type’s movements from Gutenberg to today. Calligraphers and typographers have been dealing with cultural changes and shifts for ages. I applaud what Monotype and others are seeking to do with variable fonts and digital type, but I would historically caution us in the business not to place too much excitement and hubris after cultural trends.

Carl Shank

CARE Typography

December 2025

AI & Typography: A Christian-Theistic Look

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 16:03:33 GMT

AI & Typography: A Christian-Theistic Present Look

Monotype Corporation recently released their 2025 Report concerning Artificial Intelligence and Typography called Re-Vision (See https://bit.ly/4aEUePf ). This eReport looks at the various typographical, social and cultural issues surrounding AI and how it affects and impacts the craft and science of typography. A selected summary of the Report is available below.

What I want to do in this brief post is to address three questions that were raised in this Monotype report — What is it that we do that a machine will never be able to do? What is an essentially “human” typographic experience? Can AI be fully commanded, and interrogated, or will technology sanitize our vision and overthrow our own artistic hands?

While AI holds forth some fascinating and interesting scenarios for the future of typography, my own deep dive into the technology, as a pastor/theologian/ typographer has given me both an appreciation for the technology and suitable warnings for our humanity. A couple of seminars I conducted on AI have helped me frame the discussion with God-given “human” insights. The human concerns keep surfacing here — Will AI replace us in some significant way? Will AI even surpass us in its ability to accomplish things that we always thought were unique to human efforts? Will AI eliminate the Picasso’s? Or the Gutenberg’s? Or the Garamond’s? Or the Baskerville’s? Or the many other typographical giants through the centuries? Will AI robotics replace our relationships? How will AI integrate with our typographical and cultural journeys?

The specter of a post-human world where we have an informational pattern over material existence, and our bodies are an accident of history and unnecessary, where consciousness is merely a secondary result of our evolution, where the body is merely a prosthesis, an artificial part, where human beings can be wedded with intelligent machines, and finally where we are merely a “sum of our parts,” no longer needing divine intervention, guidance or creativity, looms before us in AI.

Christopher S. Penn, Almost Timely News , noted on August 3 of this year that “AI is advancing so rapidly that if your preferred tool or ecosystem doesn’t have a useful feature today that another platform does, there’s a very good chance in 3-6 months that your tool/ecosystem will. Overall, AI’s capabilities, in terms of the complexity of tasks it can handle, doubles roughly every 6 months. A task AI couldn’t do a year ago, it can probably do in some capacity today if the model’s architecture permits it.”

“The true menace of AI is not so much what it’s capable of doing today, but rather that it doesn’t rest. An AI program can learn, evolve, iterate, and work 24/7. Give it a job and it will toil sleeplessly until the task is complete. That’s a wonderful advantage if the job is, say, parsing cancer research data, but less so if it’s practicing and refining a creative craft that threatens to eventually put thousands of people out of work.” (Re-Vision Report, Monotype, Winter 2025)

As a Christian typographer and thinker, I am reminded of the biblical story of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11 — “This is autonomous self-aggrandizement and bringing God down to us rather than us worshipping him. Babel stood—and still stands today—as a type of the earthly city, in rebellion against God. . . . They name their city Bab-el, Akkadian for “gate of the gods,” but God makes their ambition a byword for babel: a near homonym for the Hebrew word meaning “confusion.” God gives Babel or Babylon a different destiny and meaning and forces his sovereign will on mankind.” (Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory )

To be made in God’s image means we are not just able to process and display, but we are called to create and express ourselves. This is a wonderful, glorious thing. But when we use that creativity to fashion something to think, speak, and create for us, we start to abdicate our role as Imago Dei and in a sense become less human. By delegating our God-given task to coding, we deny who we are and who God is.

The technology manager of the Seminary I attended noted this — “When the massive flood of AI-generated content drowns out both the well-crafted painting shared on Instagram and the random shower-thought posted to X, we might finally understand that the punishment for the idol maker is true. Our voices will be buried under the rising volume of AI-content, our vision will be blinded by the warping and blending of reality, and our hearing will be deafened by the noise of AI voices speaking AI-generated opinions.” ( Paul Quiram, Mgr. Ed Tech, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, PA)

Campbell goes on to say that “To recreate the work that designers have been doing since the days of illuminated manuscripts and the Gutenberg Bible is no simple feat,” Campbell rightly points out. “At this stage in the evolution of AI tools, the models built on statistical probabilities struggle to recreate the simple beauty of well-designed, meticulously crafted typography.”

What is it that we do that a machine will never be able to do?

What Monotype found out in their reporting about AI now is that the technology is clearly lacking in typographical preciseness and artistic coherence. “But for better or for worse, it turns out that AI is fairly bad at drawing letters. In a recent piece in The Atlantic (a piece that, it should be noted, was sponsored by Google), writer Drew Campbell observed that while AI knows many words and may already know all the words there are to know, it “stumbles” when “creating the literal letterforms that construct each syllable, clause, and paragraph.” (Monotype and see “Typography Reconsidered,” Drew Campbell, The Atlantic at https://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/google/typography-reconsidered/3886/)

In my own experimentation with AI tools in typographic design, I asked ChatGPT to give me a typeface in Rotunda rounded Gothic type of the 15 ^th century in the letters, ABCdeg . This is what it came up with. Looks “like” rounded Gothic, but not really. I also asked AI to give me those letters with the typeface of Romaine du Roi, a very carefully crafted typeface of the Enlightenment Period in the 1700s. It came up with these letters, a terrible rendering.

Of course, this does not mean that AI cannot ever duplicate these typographical periods and faces. But it does point to the need for “human” based typographical input and guidance and critique. Monotype’s conclusion — “Whether the work is done by our team or others in the industry, we believe human beings should remain central to typographic ideation.”

Christopher Penn offers four ethical tests or guards to be applied to AI which can easily apply to typographical standards and creations —"Respect — Does our use of AI respect the values we've established? Harm people? Devalue people? Accountability — Who is responsible for AI outputs? Does the AI dodge liability? Fairness — What known biases does any given AI model have? Transparency — The more transparency, interpretability, and explainability there is in any AI system, the safer it is. The more trustworthy it is.” ( Almost Timely News: The Ethics of AI by Christopher Penn, August 17, 2025)

“AI should not be feared, but designers are yet to form a consensus. What feels pertinent is that we as design “humans” define the value we bring to our role in ideation and execution. If nothing else, AI has prompted introspection on creative methodologies, a reappraisal of our relationship to technology.” (Monotype Report)

From a Christian ethical point of view, “We must engage these issues, rather than respond after their effects are widely felt. But we don’t have to face today or tomorrow with fear. God is sovereign and his Word is sufficient for every good work, so we are able to walk with confidence as we apply his Word to these challenges with wisdom and guided by his Spirit.” (Jason Thacker, The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity , Zondervan, 2020)

It is only fitting that we should give an AI generated summary of the Re-Vision Report by Monotype. Click on the image for a PDF Summary of that Report.

Variable Fonts: An Introduction

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 03:20:52 GMT

Variable Fonts: An Introduction

History & Use

“Variable fonts are a single font file that behaves like multiple fonts.” (John Hudson) The technology behind variable fonts has been around for a while. Starting in the 1990s, interpolation and extrapolation have been used to create different masters, and weights in typefaces. For example, by designing a regular and bold weight a semibold could be interpolated from the two masters.

Apple Computer, in its development of the Macintosh computer in the early 80’s, also introduced the Apple LaserWriter™ and the LaserWriter Plus. Using a new technology

called “Postscript,” licensed from Adobe Systems, a built-in font description language in the Laser-Writer’s ROM (read-only memory) converted screen fonts on the computer screen, through a mathematical process, to 300 dpi (dots-per-inch) output. (Exciting at the time!)

Users wanted, and soon got, true WYSIWYG (pronounced wizzywig — what-you-see-is-what-you get) operating environments. With the advent of Adobe’s ATM (Adobe

Type Manager™), and Apple’s TrueType fonts, the on screen font “jaggies” were replaced by the outline representation of the font, so that the screen faithfully represented the final printed output. Fonts could be “downloaded” per job to the Postscript printer, even if the printer did not have the specified fonts inherent in its ROM files.

QuickDraw

“QuickDraw” gave the added advantage of producing laser-like output even from a nonPostscript printer. With QuickDraw, the font outlines are processed by the computer and sent to the printer for output. Software packages now skew, bend, shrink, condense, expand, rotate and manipulate typeforms. Apple’s System 7.x and Windows 3.1x included several TrueType fonts that were installed with the system software.

Basic QuickDraw was designed for the earliest Mac models with their built-in black-and-white screens and was seen on systems such as the Macintosh Classic and Powerbook 100 computers. Color QuickDraw was introduced with the first Macintosh II systems, supporting up to 256 colors. 32-Bit Color QuickDraw was part of Mac System 7 and supported up to millions of colors.

QuickDrawGX added various curve-drawing commands and introduced TrueType as its basic font system. “The ability to do kerning, tracking, and justification, as well as ligatures and ornamental forms of various characters, is provided by the line layout routines, supported by the QuickDraw GX smart font format. The line layout routines work with the typographic information contained in the TrueType GX and Type 1 GX fonts to give you a ton of control over how text is placed on a page. Because QuickDraw GX typography is fully integrated with graphics, you can rotate, skew, and change the perspective of typographic shapes the same way you can geometric shapes. You can use the text shape to draw a line of text with one style. The glyph shape enables you to draw text in several styles and graphically manipulate each glyph.” (Getting Started With Quickdraw, Sep 1993)

When you click OK in a Print Dialogue box on your computer, the application for text specifies font, size, style and so forth. For graphic objects, the application specifies the shape, size, line weight, fill pattern, and other attributes. QuickDraw prepares a script of actions necessary to draw the whole page and is generic enough to work with any type of printer. For the LaserWriter, the driver translates the QuickDraw script into a Postscript program and sends that to the printer.

While many of its component features live on in the current Macintosh environment as OpenType Variable Fonts, GX itself was formally “killed” with the purchase of the NeXT system and the adoption of the Quartz imaging model in Mac OS X. GX proved too large, with its API (Application Programming Interface) demanding several books, and required speeds not available on the classic Mac 68000-based platforms, like the Mac Plus.

Multiple Masters Fonts

Multiple master fonts (or MM fonts) are an extension to Adobe Systems Type 1 PostScript fonts. Multiple master fonts contain two or more “masters,” that is, original font styles, and allow a user to interpolate between these masters along a range of continuous “axes.” Custom styles can then be generated from a single font file programmatically.

Most MM fonts support one or two (sometimes three) of the following variables — Weight (wt), Width (wd), Optical size (op) and sometimes Style. Width allows the character width to be extended or compressed. While other software allows for shrinking or widening type, the results from a multiple master font are superior. Vertical strokes in enlarging or reducing characters tend to be proportionally thicker or slimmer, giving an uneven appearance. MM fonts with a width axis are designed to scale appropriately.

Weight allows the character weight to be modified, typically from light or thin, through regular, to extra bold. Optical size allows the character shape to be modified based on how large it will appear to the reader. At small sizes, small details such as serifs and thin lines such as stems are typically bolder. The "x-height" (the height of a lower case "x") is also a larger proportion of the total font height, and the characters may be extended slightly. These changes are designed to make small type easier to read.

Style, the least used of the multiple master axes, allows any other font property to be continuously modified. One such example is changing the serif style from wedge (triangular) to slab (rectangular).

This technology failed for at least two reasons. First, users were forced to generate “instances” for each font variation, littering their hard drives with font bearing names, like MinioMMIt_519 wt 539 wd 42 op. This code was for the Minion Italic font with a weight of 519, a width of 539 and an optical size of 42.

The second reason for the MM discontinuance is that most font designers have generally preferred to release fonts in specific, individually fine-tuned weights and styles. Thus, the current Open Type Minion Pro font has 64 variations carefully crafted to suit most any typographic need and context.

Current application support for MM fonts is sparse. However, font design tools such as FontLab and FontForge can edit MM fonts, and can export them into other font formats as needed. Adobe Type Manager (ATM) is required for MM support on Windows and the "Classic" Mac OS (9 and below).

A technical note concerns a key question on which sizes to interpolate to. “In the Thesis typeface developed by Lucas de Groot (See BLOG Post Advances in Typography: Late Twentieth to Twenty-First Centuries A Historical Sketch (Part 3) December 1, 2025), de Groot's choice of weights to release was developed using an "interpolation theory". The optical interpolation b, in the three stems a (thinnest), b (interpolation) and c (thickest), is set to the geometric mean of a and c, i.e. b² = ac (as opposed to the linear arithmetic mean).” (Wikipedia) Popular MM Fonts — ITC Garamond MM, Minion MM, Myriad MM, Adobe Jenson MM.

Open Type Variable Fonts

Open Type Variable fonts build directly on the technology introduced to TrueType by Apple in the QuickDraw GX graphics environment. Of similar vintage, Adobe’s multiple master format approached similar concepts in a different way. How do we know that Variable Fonts don’t also have a declining future? The need for more compact dynamic webfonts is part of the answer. “Variable fonts also have the potential to enable new kinds of typography for electronic documents, responsive to things like device orientation or even viewing distance. Compact and faster fonts also provide significant advantages for embedding fonts in devices, especially for East Asian (CJK) and other fonts with very large glyph sets and character coverage. The smaller device and disc footprint of variable fonts has been a major factor in encouraging support for the technology in software companies.” ( https://medium.com/variable-fonts )

An Open Type Variable font contains one or more axes that each provide particular variation between different extremes of a typeface design. The format also allows for the possibility of intermediate designs, for the whole glyph set or for individual glyphs, to provide finer control over the design as it changes across the variations design space.

Unlike MM fonts, an Open Type Variable font contains only a single set of glyph outlines “and the other extremes or intermediate shapes are defined as deltas from those outlines. So, for example, a font may contain a set of glyph outlines that correspond to the regular weight and width of a typeface, and the lighter, heavier, narrower, and extended designs will be expressed in the font data as movements of outline nodes relative to that outline.” (Medium.com) Any position within the design space can be a named instance.

This is a sample of using a Variable Font in Adobe InDesign. Note the Width and Weight axes. (For Demo purposes only)

An Example. A client wants you to professionally typeset the following paragraph — "Aleka, the Norwegian dog, pal to Cinthia, is 2 3/9 years old. She has been adopted from a rescue center in Norway, badly treated, bruised and emotionally distraught. Cinthia nursed her back to life with the joys of being loved in her living. This dog travels everywhere with her owner." Her requirements are as follows — Use justified Minion type in a block 18 picas wide by 11 picas deep and in 14 point on automatic leading at 16.8 point. She wants you to use real fractions. The block must be easy to read and pleasing to the eye.

The draft below gives some options a professional typographer or printer might use. Notice in Example 1 all of the text required does not fit and the spacing between words is too extended. The fraction is okay using Minion Open Type Pro. Example 2 uses Minion Variable font. Note the darker type, thus easier to read, and the word spacing is pleasing to the eye. Example 3 goes back to Minion Pro but this time uses hyphenation. The problem is too many hyphens in this short block. Example 4 uses a Minion MM font with only one hyphen, but again the text is pleasing to the eye. Which one would you choose?

Two Variable Fonts highlighted in this piece are Roboto and Inter. A good place to see and experiment with variable fonts is AxisPraxis at https://www.axis-praxis.org/specimens/ . Note the insert on the FFMeta Demo Variable Font.

Creating a Variable Open Font, using Glyph software, can be found at https://glyphsapp.com/learn/creating-a-variable-font

This is a sample Variable font, FF Meta Variable, noted in axis-praxis.org. Note the axes on the right of the paragraph.

Advances in Typography: Late Twentieth to Twenty-First Centuries A Historical Sketch (Part 3)

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 18:47:51 GMT

Advances in Typography: Late Twentieth to Twenty-First Centuries

A Historical Sketch (Part 3)

Late Twentieth to Early Twenty-First Century: Corporate and Contemporary Digital

Jonathan Hoefler (b. 1970) is an American type designer known for influential typefaces such as Hoefler Text, Gotham, Knockout, and Mercury. Gotham, co-designed with Tobias Frere-Jones, gained international fame through its use in Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and has since become a staple in corporate and editorial branding.

Born in New York City, Hoefler’s early fascination with everyday typography led him to a self-taught career in type design. In 1989, he founded the Hoefler Type Foundry, quickly earning recognition with Champion Gothic for Sports Illustrated. His partnership with Roger Black and later Tobias Frere-Jones resulted in dozens of widely used typefaces.

Hoefler’s work is characterized by a blend of historical research and modern engineering, shaping digital typography standards. His typefaces are used by major publications, cultural institutions, and corporations worldwide. In 2021, Monotype acquired his company, marking a significant moment in the evolution of digital type design.

Hoefler’s approach has redefined contemporary type design, bridging historical revivals and modern usability. His influence extends across print and digital media, setting new standards for clarity, versatility, and typographic excellence.

Tobias Frere-Jones (b. 1970). Tobias Frere-Jones is a renowned American type designer whose work has profoundly shaped contemporary typography. Born on August 28, 1970, in New York City, Frere-Jones grew up in Brooklyn and pursued graphic design, earning a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1992.

After graduating from RISD, Frere-Jones joined the Font Bureau in Boston, where he quickly became a senior designer. During his tenure, he developed several successful typefaces that contributed to the foundry’s respected catalogue.

In 1996, Frere-Jones began teaching at the Yale School of Art, helping to develop the typeface-design program. His commitment to education has influenced a new generation of designers.

A pivotal moment in his career came in 1999 when he started collaborating with Jonathan Hoefler. Their partnership, formalized as “Hoefler & Frere-Jones” around 2005, resulted in the creation of typefaces for major clients, including magazines, cultural institutions, and corporations.

Some of Frere-Jones's most recognized typefaces include Gotham, a widely used and instantly recognizable face, a staple in corporate and civic design, Interstate, rooted in American vernacular lettering, and is favored for its clarity and versatility. Other faces include Whitney, Surveyor, Tungsten, which further showcase his meticulous approach and design strength.

After parting ways with Hoefler in 2014, Frere-Jones established his own foundry, Frere-Jones Type. The first retail family released under this label was Mallory in 2015, continuing his legacy of innovative and functional type design. Credit for Mallory Book is from https://www.onlinewebfonts.com/icon and is licensed by CC BY 4.0.

Eric Spiekermann (b. 1947) is a German designer, typographer, and educator who championed humanist sans-serifs for modern communication. Co-founder of FontShop and FontFont, he helped build the digital type distribution ecosystem. In 1989 he founded FontShop — one of the first digital font distributors. Over the years he has designed many influential typefaces (or font families / systems) — among them FF Meta, ITC Officina, FF Unit, and corporate or public-system typefaces (signage, wayfinding, corporate identity) for clients like companies, transit authorities, airports. Spiekermann is also an author of influential books and articles on typography, including the widely read Stop Stealing Sheep & find out how type works (original German edition 1982, first English edition 1987).

Lucas de Groot (b. 1963), a Dutch typographer, studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, the Hague, moved to Berline, working under Erik Spiekermann for a time and left to establish his own firm, FontFabrik, which became LucasFonts. He is especially known for his superfamily Thesis, TheSans, TheSerif, TheMix, TheAntiqua, plus others which is a comprehensive type system. He developed for Microsoft the Calibri and Consolas fonts. He also developed theoretical work on “interpolation” for font design, a method to generate multiple font weights/styles from master designs in a way that preserves optical balance and consistency.

Akira Kobayashi (b. 1960) is a Japanese typographer known for Avenir Next (with Frutiger), Optima Nova and other Linotype revivals. A central figure at Linotype, Kobayashi has directed many modern reinterpretations of classic typefaces and developed original work widely used in publishing and branding

The Twenty-First Century: Web, UI & Variable Font Era

UI stands for “digital user interface.” A good UI font is known for its legibility, readability and usability. Legibility refers to how well one individual letter or character can be distinguished from another in a typeface.

Legibility is everything, and choosing the right font will significantly impact the overall user experience of your mobile apps. If someone cannot discern between an 0 and an O, or if they’re squinting trying to read a line of text, then it’s a clear sign of incorrect typography. Readability refers to how words and blocks of text are arranged in a design. It’s all about spacing words and sentences to allow the user to easily interpret and understand content in a way that makes sense.

Christian Robertson (b. 1973). Christian completed the BFA program in Graphic Design at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT, and was a partner at Mansfield Design Company in American Fork, UT. He joined Google where he presently works. He is especially known for the Roboto font (2011) and Roboto Slab. He is Google’s flagship system typeface designer.

Roboto was the first typeface was created as the system font for its Android operating system, and released in 2011. The entire font family has been licensed under the Apache License. In 2014, Roboto was redesigned for Android 5.0. Most variants of Roboto have been licensed or re-licensed under Open Font License —Roboto including the default sans-seriffont), Roboto Condensed, Roboto Flex, Roboto Mono, and Roboto Serif.

Note that Roboto and Inter are what we call "variable fonts." A variable typeface (or variable font) is a single font file that behaves like many fonts in one. Instead of separate files for Regular , Bold , Condensed , Wide , Light , Black , etc., a variable typeface contains continuous ranges called axes that allow the designer or user to adjust typography with fine precision. A variable font uses the OpenType Font Variations technology (introduced in 2016). It includes multiple “masters” inside one file and lets you interpolate smoothly between them.

Instead of dozens of static fonts, one variable file reduces page load weight, simplifies family organization, and ensures consistent interpolation across styles. Common axes include weight (wght), from Thin to Black, width (wdth), Condensed to Expanded, optical size (opsz), optimized for small or large text, slant (slnt), italic switching (ital) and grad, indicating stroke contrast or thickness. Some typefaces include custom axes, like serif size, roundness, contrast or ascender length.

Designers use variable typefaces in print materials, fine-tuning weight for better type color on the page, adjusting width for line length control and optical sizing for headings versus captions. In Web formations and UI work, variable type is used for responsive text, accessibility (increasing stroke weight for legibility) and reducing the number of font files loaded. Branding uses include adaptable typographic systems and animated identities.

Rasmus Andersson (b. 1980s) is a Swedish type designer known for the typeface Inter (2017–2020). This face was designed as one of the most popular open-source UI typefaces for contemporary web and app design. Inter is engineered for readability at small sizes on screens.

Kris Sowersby (b. 1981) is a New Zealander and founder of Klim Type Foundry and one of the most respected designers working today. His work is known for typographic rigor and excellent text faces for editorial environments. He is known for the typefaces Karbon, National, Sohne and Tiempos

Nicole Dotin (b. 1980s) is a partner at Process Type Foundry. She is known for the typefaces Elena, Elena Sans and research-drive faces. Her work is praised for balance, clarity, and nuanced typographic color. Elena is a crisp, modern serif typeface. Designed for extended reading and medium-sized display copy, it avoids the stuffiness of historical text faces and doesn't overreach when it comes to contemporary detailing. It's a balanced, low-contrast typeface with economic proportions and works well in print or on screen.

Nadine Chahine (b. 1978) is a Lebanese type designer of Arabic type and multiscript typography. Formerly at Linotype; currently at I Love Typography. A major voice in global type design and readability research. She is known for the typefaces Koufiya, Arabic versions of Frutiger, Helvetica and Univers.

Advances in Typography: Twentieth Century A Historical Sketch (Part 2)

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 01:24:21 GMT

Mid-Century Modernism & Corporate Typography (1945–1980)

Designers like Jan Tschichold were foundational to many of the Swiss design principles. This style evolved from Constructivist, De Stijl and Bauhaus design principles, particularly the ideas of grid systems, sans-serif type and minimalism. Emerging in Switzerland during the 1940s and 1950s, this typography, also known as the International Typographic Style, directly responded to the type chaos of Dada and the stylization of Art Deco. The International Typographic Style (or the Swiss Style) in the 1950s and 1960s focused on grid systems, objective communication and sans-serifs. Key figures were Josef Muller-Brockmann, Emil Ruder and Armin Hofmann.

The Swiss style emphasized readability, visual harmony and universality. Clarity, objectivity and functionality were key components. Contributors included Max Miedinger, creator of the Helvetica typeface (1957 by Miedinger & Eduard Hoffmann), and Adrian Frutiger, creator of the Univers typeface in 1957, and Hermann Zapf, creator of Optima in 1958. Swiss style became the dominant graphic language of postwar corporate identity.

Other Blogs I have written noted the development of Helvetica ( “Helvetica’s Journey” July 13, 2024 ). Adrian Frutiger (1928–2015) was a Swiss typeface designer whose career spanned hot metal, phototypesetting and digital typesetting eras. Frutiger’s most famous designs, Univers, Frutiger and Avenir, are landmark sans-serif families spanning the three main genres of sans-serif typefaces —neogrotesque, humanist and geometric.

Univers is a clear, objective form suitable for typesetting of longer texts in the sans-serif style. Starting from old sketches from his student days at the School for the Applied Arts in Zurich, he created the Univers type family. Folded into the Linotype collection in the 1980s, Univers has been updated to Univers Next, available with 59 weights. This lasting legible font is suitable for almost any typographic need. It combines well with Old Style fonts like Janson, Meridien, and Sabon, Slab Serif fonts like Egyptienne F, Script and Brush fonts like Brush Script, Blackletter fonts like Duc De Berry, Grace, San Marco and even some fun fonts. Univers is not a “free” font and must be purchased from Linotype.

Other faces by Frutiger are Frutiger and Avenir. These fonts were designed to be legible, versatile and anonymous, avoiding stylistic “noise” to focus on clear communication. Swiss type used a systematized approach to typography, enabling consistent spacing, alignment and hierarchy, crucial for multilingual and complex layouts. Typography was seen as part of a harmonious, modern composition. Generous white space facilitated clarity and focus.

Swiss type used a systematized approach to typography, enabling consistent spacing, alignment and hierarchy, crucial for multilingual and complex layouts. Typography was seen as part of a harmonious, modern composition. Generous white space facilitated clarity and focus.

Hermann Zapf (1918–2015), a master of calligraphy and type design, produced enduring serif and sans-serif classics. His elegant letterforms influenced generations of designers. Zapf also pioneered early digital typography and computerized typesetting systems. Born in Nuremberg, Germany, his interest in lettering was sparked by a 1935 exhibition on Rudolf Koch, one of Germany’s great calligraphers. Zapf began self-teaching calligraphy using inexpensive pens and paper.

In 1938 he secured work as a retoucher at the Karl Ulrich & Co. printing firm in Frankfurt. Military service during WWII interrupted his career. After the war, Zapf resumed work as a calligrapher and book designer. Zapf was an early advocate for integrating computing into type design. He worked with Donald Knuth on the Metafontand TeX programs, and with computer scientists at Rochester Institute of Technology to develop digital typesetting systems. His work helped define the aesthetics and engineering of early digital fonts.

In 1947 Zapf joined the D. Stempel AG type foundry in Frankfurt. His exceptional skill in calligraphy and lettering led to a series of successful designs, including Palatino (1948–1950), a humanist serif influenced by Renaissance calligraphy, which became one of the most popular book typefaces of the twentieth century. Optima (1952–1955) is a serif-less Roman, somewhere between serif and sans-serif, inspired by stone-carved capitals in Florence, is widely used in corporate and monumental typography. Zapf Dingbats (1978) is a symbol and ornament set for ITC that became ubiquitous in early desktop publishing.

Mid-Twentieth Century: Phototype to Digital

Matthew Carter (b. 1937). Matthew Carter was one of the most important type designers bridging metal, phototype, and digital eras. Verdana and Georgia (1996) were engineered for screen legibility in early computing. His serif Miller and Galliard are widely used in publishing. He also crafted the Charter typeface.

Born in London to a printing historian father, Carter was exposed to typography early. He trained briefly at Oxford University, then apprenticed as a punchcutter at Enschedé in the Netherlands under P. H. Rädisch—one of the last traditional punchcutting masters. This grounding in physical type making shaped his sense of proportion and detail. He designed for ITC and co-founded Bitstream in 1981, the first digital type foundry. He produced screen-legible fonts for Microsoft in the 1990s. He was awarded a MacArthur “Genius Grant” in 2010.

Verdana has large x-height and open forms. In the mid-1990s, most existing typefaces were designed for print, not screens. As part of its Core Fonts for the Web project, Microsoft commissioned fonts that would be highly legible even at small sizes, work well on low-DPI monitors (typically around 72–96 DPI), and improve the appearance of text in browsers, apps, and interfaces. Verdana was Matthew Carter’s solution to these design challenges in 1996, alongside Georgia (a serif companion font). SAMPLE

Georgia is a serif companion face, highly legible at small digital sizes. “Georgia is a serif typeface designed in 1993 by Matthew Carter and hinted by Thomas Rickner for Microsoft. It was intended as a serif typeface that would appear elegant but legible when printed small or on low-resolution screens. The typeface is inspired by Scotch Roman designs of the nineteenth century and was based on designs for a print typeface on which Carter was working when contacted by Microsoft; this would be released under the name Miller the following year. The typeface's name referred to a tabloid headline — "Alien heads found in Georgia." (Wikipedia) SAMPLE

Galliard is based on the sixteenth-century type of Roger Granjon. According to Alexander Lawson, "The name Galliard stems from Granjon's own term for an 8-point font he cut about 1570. It undoubtedly refers to the style of the face, for the “galliard”was a lively dance of the period,” explaining what drew him to Granjon's work, Carter wrote on some of his more characteristic letterforms: "looking at them, adjectives like 'spirited, 'tense' and 'vigorous' come to mind...it is easy to admire Granjon's work." (Wikipedia) (SAMPLE)

“Bitstream Charter is a serif typeface designed by Matthew Carter in 1987 for Bitstream. Charter is based on Pierre-Simon Fournier’s characters (SEE my Blog “More Fournier,” August 2025), originating from the 18th century. Classified by Bitstream as a transitional-serif typeface (Bitstream Transitional 801), it also has features of a slab-serif face and is often classified as such. Charter was originally optimized for printing on the low-resolution 300 dpi laser printers of the 1980s, and remains suitable for printing on both modern high-resolution laser printers and inexpensive lower resolution inkjet printers due to its strong, legible design.” (Wikipedia)

Zuzana Licko (b. 1961) is a Slovak-American co-founder of Émigré Fonts, and a pioneer of early digital type. Initially creating low-resolution bitmap faces, she later explored revivals and experimental forms. Her Mrs Eaves (based on Baskerville) became a major design trend in the 1990s–2000s. She studied at UC Berkeley, majoring in graphic design. She gained early access to personal computers (including the Apple Macintosh) and began experimenting with bitmap type.

Major Typefaces include Matrix (1986), a hybrid serif designed on low-res Macintosh screens, Modula (1985), a geometric and modular face, Mrs. Eaves (1996), a humanist revival of Baskerville’s forms, and Filsofia (1996), a contemporary interpretation of Bodoni.

Neville Brody (b. 1957) is a British leading postmodern designer whose work on The Face magazine and various type families helped define the graphic look of the 1980s–1990s. He co-founded FontFont (1990) and pushed expressive digital typography into the mainstream. Brody studied at the London College of Printing (now London College of Communication). His early work was influenced by punk, Dada, and postmodern experimentalism. His layouts broke traditional grid systems, used expressive typography, and incorporated distressed and unconventional letterforms. He is known for Arcadia, FF Blur, Insignia and Typeface for Arena, The Face, and other magazines. Brody bridged expressive typography and global branding.

David Berlow (b. 1955) began his career at Mergenthaler Linotype in the late 1970s, working on digital type development. He later worked for the International Typeface Corporation (ITC). Berlow co-founded The Font Bureau (1989) with editorial designer Roger Black. Font Bureau became central to the typographic modernization of American newspapers, magazines, and media companies. Font Bureau has developed more than 300 new and revised type designs for The Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, Esquire, Rolling Stone, Hewlett Packard and others, with OEM work for Apple Computer Inc. and Microsoft Corporation. Berlow played a major role in digital type engineering, developing large, flexible font families, Digital Type Leadership, and is regarded as one of the most technically adept type designers of the digital era.

END PART 2

https://fontsinuse.com/type_designers/152/david-berlow

Advances in Typography: Twentieth Century (Part 1)

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:46:36 GMT

Advances in Typography: Twentieth Century

A Historical Sketch (Part 1 )

Early Twentieth Century: Form Follows Function

Bauhaus Precursor

The Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Foundation, est. 1907, Munich) was a pivotal German association of artists, architects, designers, and industrialists that advanced rational, industrial design and laid the foundation for modernist sans-serifs. The Werkbund emphasized functionalism, simplicity, honest use of materials, and alignment with industrial production, rejecting unnecessary ornamentation and anticipating the principle “form follows function.” Its purpose was to elevate German industrial products by integrating artistic excellence, technical innovation, and industrial manufacturing, summarized by the motto: “From work to form”—good design as a cultural and economic asset. Key founders included Hermann Muthesius, Peter Behrens, Fritz Schumacher, and Karl Schmidt.

Their goals were to enhance everyday objects through quality design, foster a unified visual culture in Germany, partner artists with industrial manufacturers, promote standardization and modern production techniques, and compete internationally in design excellence.

The Werkbund is recognized as a precursor to the Bauhaus and modern industrial design. Notable members included Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Peter Behrens. The organization established principles of functional, simplified forms, standardized mass production, and the concept of design as a cultural force. They hosted influential exhibitions, notably the 1914 Cologne Exhibition, as well as publishing journals and defining standards for high-quality design.

Futura & Geometric Modernism (1920s–1930s)

As we saw in my last post, between 1500 and 1900 typography evolved from Renaissance humanist forms to industrial mass production and artistic revival. Old style typefaces (like Garamond) moved to Transitional faces (like Baskerville) to Modern/Didone faces (like Didot and Bodoni) to Industrial display types (fat faces, slab serifs, sans serifs) to the Arts & Crafts revivals. Art Nouveau was a reaction against the academicism, eclecticism and historicism of nineteenth century architecture and decorative art. The new art movement had its roots in Britain, in the floral designs of William Morris, and in the Arts and Crafts movement founded by the pupils of Morris.

Under Art Nouveau, typography wasn’t just functional but rather integrated into the overall artistic composition of posters, magazines and books. Much of the art and even typefaces were hand-drawn, borrowing from calligraphy and even medieval scripts, adding a romantic quality to the resulting art.

Other characteristics of Art Nouveau were a sense of dynamism and movement, often given by asymmetry or whiplash lines, and the use of modern materials, particularly iron, glass, ceramics and later concrete, to create unusual forms and larger open spaces. SEE SAMPLES and (SEE Blog “Art Nouveau Typography,” September 6, 2025)

Peter Behrens, a founder and organizer of Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Foundation), unfortunately associated with the German Nazi party, was one of the most influential architects and designers of the early twentieth century, widely recognized as the pioneer of modern industrial design. Behrens designed trademarks that exist today, such as the iconic “Dem deutschen Volke” (To The German People) above the portal of the Reichstag building in Berlin. (See Photo)

In 1902 he created a new German type which served, for example, as the official German type for the world expositions in 1904 and 1910. He notes that for this type “he took the technical principle of the Gothic script, the stroke of the quill feather. The proportions of height and width and the boldness of the strokes of the Gothic letters were also decisive for me in producing a German character. A cohesive character could be hoped for by avoiding all non-necessities and by strictly carrying out the design principle of holding the quill at an angle.”[1] Behrens bridged Art Nouveau with modern graphic design in the Arts and Crafts Movement

Behrens Schrift (1901-1902, Jugendstil font at the Rudhardsche foundry in Offenbach. This typeface served, for example, as the official German type for the world expositions in 1904 and 1910. This is a digitized sample.

Then came World War 1 (1914–1918) and with it a devasting blow to societal hopes and standards. The utopianism of pre-war gave way to the skepticism of post war and the rise of German totalitarianism under Hitler. Culture here again invaded typography and typographic designs. World War 2 would further affect typographic design with the modernist move toward individualism and anti-Christian historic thought and standards.

This break with historic type formulations can be seen in the Dadaism movement. Disdain for convention marks the Dada period of typography, if we can rightly call it typography. Dadaists were influenced by Futurist typography, which celebrated energy and disorder. Whereas Futurists glorified progress, Dada questioned meaning itself.

This avant-garde movement rejected order and logic, which it regarded as having failed to prevent the catastrophic First World War. This frightfully horrific war trashed former utopian dreams of a wonderful, orderly and helpful society. Dada was nihilistic and used dynamic, non-linear text to express anger and emotion. The term “Dada” has no actual meaning. It is a childlike word used to describe lack of reason or logic in artwork and typography. ( SEE my BLOG “Theology of Type (2): Gutenberg to the Early 1900s,” November 1, 2025 for more Dada samples ).

Herbert Bayer (1900–1985) and Bauhaus

THE BAUHAUS was one of the most influential design schools of the twentieth century. Founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar, Germany in 1919, many of Europe’s leading artists and designers were on its faculty — Anni Albers, Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, Max Bill, Marcel Breuer, Johannes Itten, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, and Piet Mondrian to name a few. When the Nazis came to power in Germany, many of the staff emigrated to the United States to found the new Bauhaus in Chicago in 1937.

Sans-serif typefaces became the hallmark of Bauhaus typography. The clean, legible, geometric forms were modern, efficient and aligned with machine aesthetics. A leading typographer and organizer of Bauhaus was Herbert Bayer.

Herbert Bayer was an Austrian-American designer. After completing an apprenticeship in arts and crafts in Linz, Bayer enrolled at the Weimar Bauhaus from 1921 to 1924. Heavily influenced by Constructivism, as well as the painter Wassily Kandinsky, Bayer became the director of the Department of Typography and Advertising when the Bauhaus relocated to Dessau in 1925.

Dissatisfied with teaching, he moved to Berlin in 1928 where he set up a design studio. There, he created cutting-edge advertisements that were featured in popular magazines such as Vogue and covers for the monthly periodical Die neue Linie. Bayer immigrated to the United States in 1938 and became one of the most influential designers of the twentieth century at the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. While at Aspen, Robert Anderson, founder and president of the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) hired Bayer as a design consultant for his company. His work involved everything from designing buildings, interiors, corporate graphics, furnishings, and tapestries for various headquarters. [2]

The Universal Typeface, 1925, was a geometric alphabet based on a bar and circle designed by Bayer. In rejecting the archaic and complicated gothic alphabet, Bayer abolished upper and lower case alphabets and replaced them with a single case. He renounced all suggestions of calligraphy.

Other Bauhaus inspired type mostly from the late 1960s and early 1970s were typefaces like Harry (Mary Goldstein, 1960), Burko (David Burke, 1967), Blippo (Joe Tayor, 1969), Pump (Bob Newman, 1970), and Bauhaus (Ed Benguiat, 1969). The latter became ITC Bauhaus offered through Adobe type.

This Bauhaus Poster was offered as a practice sample by French & D'Andrade in their Type Project Book The sample above was designed in Adobe InDesign.

Bauhaus, of course, is not limited to Bauhaus typography but includes craft, technology and design thinking. Bauhaus posters often featured bold, sans-serif type, strong diagonal lines and clear visual hierarchy. They communicated modernity, efficiency and social progress. The Bauhaus vision was also applied to industrial design of logos, packaging, branding and products.

Wassily Kandinsky, one of the school’s founders, assigned the colors red, blue and yellow to the square, circle and triangle. A theoretical study of such colors and shapes was a major part of the curriculum. The “S” was particularly challenging in my Adobe InDesign program, as it is also in Adobe Illustrator, the suggested program to use. [3]

The Bauhaus typographic principles laid the foundation for the International Typographical Style (Swiss Style) and much of modern graphic design. The designer Josef Muller-Brockmann (1914–1996) was a pioneer of the International Typographic Style, with his simple designs and clean use of typography inspiring many graphic designers in the twenty-first century.[4] Bauhaus type aesthetics still influence UI/UX design and minimalist information design today.

Herbert Bayer stands as one of modernism’s most influential designers, synthesizing typography, graphic design, photography, architecture, and environmental design into a unified vision. His Universal typeface and Bauhaus typographic system remain central to design history curricula and continue to shape contemporary visual culture.

Jan Tschichold (1902–1974). German-Swiss typographer, calligrapher, teacher, and book designer Jan Tschichold wasborn in Leipzig to a sign-painter, He was trained in calligraphy and lettering at the Leipzig Academy. His seminal experience was attending the 1923 Bauhaus Exhibition, which redirected his career from classical calligraphy toward radical modernism. By the mid-1920s he became the leading spokesman for the avant-garde in typography.

His 1928 book Die Neue Typographie (The New Typography) became the manifesto of functionalist design. Its core principles were asymmetry instead of symmetry, sans-serif typefaces for modern communication, standardized paper sizes, hierarchy through weight, size and placement, photography favored over illustration and typography as functional, not decorative. This book codified European Modernist typography.

He designed numerous posters and layouts with dynamic diagonals, experimental sans-serifs with Akzidenz-Grotesk and Futura, using photomontages and mathematical grid structures.

Paul Renner (1878 – 1956) was born in Wernigerode, Germany, and initially trained as a painter and graphic artist before focusing on typography and design. Though influenced by early twentieth-century German design movements, especially Bauhaus philosophy, Renner was not formally affiliated with the Bauhaus school.

Renner worked as a graphic designer, educator, and type designer, actively promoting clarity, functionality, and simplicity in design. He taught at the Frankfurt School of Applied Arts (Städelschule), shaping future generations of designers and typographers.

During the Nazi regime, Renner’s modernist and progressive views conflicted with official aesthetics, presenting professional challenges. Nevertheless, he continued to contribute to typography and design theory throughout his career.

Futura (1927)— Renner’s most renowned typeface, Futura, is a geometric sans-serif defined by clean lines and shapes inspired by circles, triangles, and squares. It became a hallmark of modernist typography, widely used in advertising, publishing, and corporate identity, and reflects Bauhaus principles of functionality and efficiency. Beyond Futura, Renner designed additional typefaces and contributed to type standards and education in Germany, helping to establish the foundations of modern typography.

Renner authored influential works such as Typography: Form and Communication , emphasizing legibility, readability, and the role of type in visual communication. He advocated for a rational, structured approach to design that balanced practical and aesthetic considerations.

Futura remains one of the most widely used typefaces globally, influencing subsequent geometric sans-serifs. Renner is recognized for both his design work and his intellectual contributions to typography, bridging modernist design and effective typographic communication.

However, after fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933 and ultimately settling in Switzerland, Tschichold renounced strict modernism and turned toward classical, humane typography inspired by Renaissance book design. He embraced Garamond, Bembo and traditional serif types with balanced proportions, gentle hierarchy and classical page canons, such as the Van de Graaf Canon and the Golden Section (SEE my BLOG “Grids, Type and the Golden Ratio,” April 28, 2022)

The Van de Graaf Canon is a geometric method for constructing ideal proportions for a book page and its text block. The “circles” refer to one of the visual/analytic diagrams used to illustrate the proportional relationships. Originating from the 15th-century book designs, it creates harmonious margins and places the text block within a page using geometric diagonals, not numerical measurements.

Drawn out, the method produces overlapping diagonals and arcs—often represented with circles to show proportional relationships and to highlight how the text block relates to the page’s center. Such design results in classic proportions—typically wide outer and bottom margins, with the text block placed slightly above center—echoing Renaissance book design.

Poster in https://mcbcollection.com/jan-tschichold-designer-theorist-collector

From 1947–1949 he worked for Penguin Books, transforming the entire design system based on clarity, consistency, and typographic rigor.

Humanist Revival: Eric Gill (1882–1940)

Known for his typefaces Gill Sans, Perpetua and Joanna, Eric Gill blended modern simplicity with classical proportions. Gill was a stone carver, letterer and type designer and print maker whose work deeply shaped modern British typography and design.

His typefaces became some of the most recognizable and widely used type families of the 20th century. Gill moved to Ditchling, Sussex, where he joined with like-minded Catholic craftsmen to form a community centered on work, faith, and simplicity, later formalized as The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic (1920). His conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1913 deeply influenced his artistic philosophy. At the same time, Gill’s reputation has been radically reevaluated due to the disturbing revelations in his private diaries, published decades after his death, documenting sexual abuse and other serious misconduct.

Notes

1. In 1902, Peter Behrens (1869—1940), architect, designer and typographer, created a new ”German“ type which became very successful very quickly for the Rudhard’sche Gießerei (foundry which later became Gebr. Klingspor AG) in Offenbach am Main. It served, for example, as the official German type for the world expositions in 1904 and 1910. Behrens himself writes about the development of this type. https://www.dafont.com/behrensschrift.fontcom. Also, see Peter Behrens and Symbolisms of Industrial Design: The Case of AEG, https://pikark.com/en/listing/peter-behrens-industrial-design/

2. This summary taken from both https://thebayercenter.org/about-herbert-bayer/ and the Wikipedia article on Herbert Bayer.

3. Nigel French & Hugh D’Andrade, The Type Project Book: Typographic Projects to Sharpen Your Creative Skills & Diversify Your Portfolio (Pearson Education, Inc., 2021), 18–21.

4. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Müller-Brockmann .

END PART 1

Advances in Typography: A Historical Sketch (Part 2)

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 16:06:17 GMT

Industrial Revolution and Display Typography (1800–1870)

I have recently viewed the broadcasts of Great Canal Journeys, a narrated insight into Britain’s canals and waterways by two married and retired actors. They have been responsible for the restoration of a number of Britain’s canal systems. They noted that the Industrial Revolution in that country brought about the almost demise of the canals for moving products across the continent. The railroads took over much of the movement of goods from one place to another.

In much the same way, typography and printing were forever transformed by the Industrial Revolution. Britannica notes that “the Industrial Revolution changed the course of printing and typography not only by mechanizing a handicraft but also by greatly increasing the market for its wares. Inventors in the nineteenth century, in order to produce enough reading matter for a constantly growing and ever more literate population, had to solve a series of problems in paper production, composition, printing, and binding.”

Ottmar Mergenthaler’s Linotype machine (SHOWN), patented in 1884, and Tolbert Lanston’s Monotype machine (1885), speeded up the process of setting type and gave great flexibility in respect to line widths, type fonts and type sizes. “The Industrial Revolution was all about communicating with the masses. Through signs, posters, newspapers,, periodicals and advertisements, typefaces became larger and catchier, with bolder lettering and shading introducing experimental serif and sans serif faces. Ornamental typography was also another major highlight in this era.”[1] Printing became mass industrial, shifting from craft to mechanized production.

Fat faces by Robert Thorne and Slab Serifs (also called Egyptians) provided a starkly bold contrast to the popular text fonts of the period. Found on just about every billboard, poster, pamphlet and advertising vehicle of the day, slabs were designed to stand out from the crowd, a type that shouted, "look at me!" Slab serifs, also called Egyptian, antique, mechanistic or square serif, are characterized by usually thick, block like serifs.

Robert Thorne (1754–1820) became a leading figure in this industrial-era type. He created the first Fat Faces types, which were enlarged, bold Didone fonts used for advertising purposes, Thorowgood (1809), Thorne Shaded (1820), recut by Stephenson & Blake’s Karl Gomer in 1938–1940. INSERTs

Thorowgood’s Seven-line Grotesque, cut c. 1834 (its first appearance in a specimen is that year, and it does not appear in the specimen dated 1830), was one of the first condensed sans serif typefaces, and one of the first known with a lowercase. This is also the first recorded use of the term Grotesque, which would become a popular name for sans typefaces in the UK and in Germany. The type was copied and Thorowgood’s Grotesque and Egyptians appeared in specimens by 1835 in Prague, in what is now the Czech Republic.

Many of these letters seem typical of later condensed forms; for example, the flat-sided capital O and the typically flat-sided vertical tail of the R. The capital G with its lack of crossbar is also typical of the time. The lowercase has a large x-height; the external shapes are gently rounded, but the internal counters are completely flat. The c and e have greater variation in weight than normal, and the a with its large bowl, unusual counter, and a tail with a simple straight form (like the lowercase t) is not at all what we expect. [2]

Slab serifs (See my Blog “Slab Serif Font History” July 21, 2025) possess thick serifs, which are squared-off or slightly rounded, and almost the same weight as the main strokes. From a typographical standpoint, they have low contrast, with minimal difference between thick and thin strokes. Slab serifs can have a geometric or humanist structure, and can range from mechanical-looking to more organic. They are sturdy and legible, designed for impact and readability even at large sizes. Early examples were Antique and Clarendon.

There was an explosion in the range of new typefaces and letterforms to adapt to commercial use. Like the canals of Britain, much of the early typefaces, though honored, were overcome by the growth of display typefaces introduced by Lund Humphries and his printing house. It was not until 1815 when Vincent Figgins used Antique, a slab serif face, for commercial use.

Antique is characterized by the presence of slab serifs, which are nearly equal in width to the major strokes of the letter A. The serifs are unbracketed which means that the serifs attach to the strokes with an abrupt right angle transition (without any triangular or curved fillets in the corners). This typeface first appeared in metal type in 1815 in Figgins’ Type Foundry in England. Wood-type Antique was first produced in 1828 in the U.S. by Darius Wells when he began mass-producing wood-type. As the industry matured two parallel developments occurred. Several variations in Antique type style were created such as italics, tilting, outline, shaded, light face, condensed, and expanded type to various degrees. In addition, several derivative typefaces of Antique came to be created, including Clarendon, Antique Tuscan, Grecian, Latin, French Clarendon, Egyptian, Aldine, Columbia, and Ionic. [3]

Vincent Figgins, an English typefounder (1766–1844), was a key figure in commercial and poster typography of the nineteenth century. He published several books of type specimens, and designed Gresham (1792), Old English (1815), Figgins Shaded (1816), Figgins Tuscan (1817, digitized by HiH (2005)), Egiziano Black (1815) and Egyptian (1817). His slab serifs such as Egiziano served as a model for Ale Navarro's LC Merken (2019). The typeface Later Figgins resurfaces as Intertype and Intertype Bold around 1916. Figgins’ work inspired Matthew Carter’s Elephant (1992) [4]

Figgins Tuscan was released by the Figgins foundry around 1846. “By 1848 it already crossed the Atlantic and appeared in George Bruce’s catalogue. Until the late 1800s several American foundries, amongst them MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan [as Two-Line Great Primer Ornamented No. 5, 1885] offered this design before it fell into disregard at the turn of the century.”(The Pyte Foundry) Digital interpretations include Vidalia Sundshine NF (Nick’s Fonts, 2007) and Polymer.

Figgins Tuscan typeface opened the door to Tuscan styled typefaces. Fancy Tuscan letters quickly became so popular, they eventually came to represent the cluttered extremes of Victorian design. Foundries competed with each other to produce most extravagantly decorated letterforms. What is often overlooked is the long history of the Tuscan style. Early examples have been traced back to ancient Rome. Indeed, the characteristic bifurcation may have represented a fishtail to the early Christians, thus sharing in the roll of symbolic identification played by the simple drawing of a fish as a whole. Later trifurcation was developed as an alternate termination, followed by loops, full fishtails, curls, hooks and other fancy variations.

William Caslon IV (1780–1869) was an English typefounder who published the first sans serif type called “Egyptian” in 1816, initially little-used, but laid the foundation for later sans serif developments. Actually, Caslon printed the phrase “W CASLON JNR LETTERFOUNDER,” and from those letters a sans serif was developed. The typeface was cataloged under the name Two Lines English Egyptian – "Two Lines English" referring to its size (around 28 modern points) and "Egyptian" was the common name given to sans-serif lettering at the time. Considering its historical importance, the specimen is rather inconspicuously sandwiched between larger, more ornate, serifed titling capitals suggesting the foundry didn’t consider the design to be of any great significance or worthy of more prominence.

Sans-serif lettering in block capitals had been developing in popularity, initially due to interest in classical antiquity in which inscriptions often had minimal or no serifs, and came to be used by architect John Sloan and copied by others, particularly in signpainting. Historian James Mosley, the leading expert on early sans-serifs, has suggested in his book The Nymph and The Grot , that Soane's influence was crucial in spreading the idea of sans-serif letterforms around the end of the eighteenth century. However, it was some decades before a printing typeface would be released in this style, now commonly used. The name "Egyptian" had become commonly used in England by 1816 to describe this style of lettering. The name "Egyptian" may have originated from the image of sans-serifs being historical in style, the Egyptomania of the period and the "blocky" nature of ancient Egyptian architecture.

Several digital revivals of Caslon's Egyptian have been made, for commercial use by Miko McGinty, Cyrus Highsmith and Christian Schwartz of Font Bureau (adding a lower case invented by Schwartz) and for private use by Justin Howes and by James Mosley, both with a modified G. Howes' revival is used for signage at Dulwich Picture Gallery, designed by Soane. In 1987 metal was cast by Oxford University Press from the original matrices to print a special edition of reprinted type from the early nineteenth century crafted by Ian Mortimer. [5]

Mid to Late Nineteenth Century (1870–1900): Revival, Reform, and Modern Systems

William Morris (1834 –1896) was an Arts & Crafts designer who founded the Kelmscott Press (1891), reviving hand craftsmanship in printing. His work influenced the twentieth century private press and type revival movements. Lettering became a vehicle for breaking convention. Led by figures such as Morris, there was a decided reaction against industrialization, seeing machine-made goods as dehumanizing and ugly. Handcraftmanship, honesty in materials and utility fused with beauty made up much of what was called the Arts & Crafts Movement. That movement was rooted in medieval guild ideals and morality in design.

Morris in his essay on "Printing" emphasized these new points. He says that "It is discouraging to note that the improvement of the last fifty years is almost wholly confined to Great Britain. Here and there a book is printed in France or Germany with some pretension to good taste, but the general revival of the old forms has made no way in those countries. Italy is contentedly stagnant. America has produced a good many showy books, the typography, paper, and illustrations of which are, however, all wrong, oddity rather than rational beauty & meaning being apparently the thing sought for both in the letters and the illustrations."

On Typography he notes that "it is obvious that legibility is the first thing to be aimed at in the forms of the letters; this is best furthered by the avoidance of irrational swellings & spiky projections, and by the using of careful purity of line. Even the Caslon type when enlarged shows great short- comings in this respect: the ends of many of the letters such as the t and e are hooked up in a vulgar and meaningless way."

"Therefore, granted well-designed type, due spacing of the lines and words, and proper position of the page on the paper, all books might be at least comely and well looking : and if to these good qualities were added really beautiful ornament & pictures, printed books might once again illustrate to the full the position of our Society that a work of utility might be also a work of art, if we cared to make it so."

Devoting himself to the socialist cause, he regularly lectured at meetings across Britain, hoping to gain more converts, although was regularly criticized for doing so by the mainstream press. Politically, Morris was a staunch revolutionary socialist and anti-imperialist, and although raised a Christian, he came to be an atheist.

The Movement stressed simple, functional, and durable forms. with inspiration from nature but rendered in stylized, often geometric patterns (floral or foliate motifs). Heavy emphasis was placed on natural materials—wood, stone, textiles. Earthy colors and solid craftsmanship were key characteristics. Morris's ethos was that one should "have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

Morris created three main typefaces for the Kelmscott Press —Golden Type (roman), Troy Type (blackletter), and Chaucer Type (smaller blackletter). These remain his lasting contributions to typography. [6]

In Germany Morris’ closest counterpart was Rudolf Koch, (SEE the Blogs “Early German Typography, Parts 1 and 2,” Sep 22, 2025) who gathered around himself at Offenbach, where he taught at the Arts and Crafts School and designed types for the Klingspor foundry, a community of craftsmen who painted, worked in metal, wood, and stone, printed, and wrote. Above all a skilled penman, Koch made the written word the basis of his designs in any medium, whether tapestry or woodcut. A devout Christian, Koch, like the medieval craftsmen he admired, saw the Gothic style as a supreme manifestation of religious spirit; he was no mere imitator but an artist who freely reinterpreted in his types and books the traditional Fraktur type of Germany. Koch also created a number of modern types, among them sans serifs and romans.

The Didot point system was adopted in Europe and later in the United States. The ATF (American Type Founders) formed in 1892 consolidated numerous foundries. Early Garamond, Jenson and other Renaissance models inspired new designs.

Transition to Modern Typography (by 1900)

Early twentieth century type movements included Art Nouveau (SEE Blog “Art Nouveau Typography, Sep 6, 2025) featuring organic, decorative forms expressed in the archaic type styles of Grasset in France, Will Bradley in the United States, and Henry van de Velde in Belgium and Germany.

This signaled the end of metal type’s dominance with the beginning of machine typesetting in the Monotype and Linotype machines. However, in 1946, Louis Marius Moyroud and René Higonnet decided metal and wood type were so “last century” and introduced phototypesetting—a game-changer in typography. Instead of casting chunky metal or wood letters, this process used a photographic process, allowing text to be composed on film or paper.

I experienced some of this transition from typewriters and the cherished IBM Selectric to the IBM Executive typewriter, using special fonts and implementing true proportional spacing long before Adobe’s Postscript came about. The flying-ball Selectric used interchangeable balls, preparing the way for the IBM Composer, which allowed for proportional spacing and justified text. Then, the Macintosh came about with the massively large LaserWriter and the ImageWriter for home use. We all thought we died and went to printing heaven with a 300 dpi LaserWriter and Times and Helvetica fonts. Then came Postscript and the phototypesetting Itek and the rest is history.

Designers could now manipulate type with greater precision, and experiment with size, style, and spacing in ways that were previously impossible. The flexibility of phototypesetting allowed designers to integrate text and images more seamlessly, paving the way for more dynamic and complex layouts. This era expanded the creative possibilities of typography, bridging the gap between traditional methods and digital innovations.

Between 1500 and 1900 typography evolved from Renaissance humanist forms to industrial mass production and artistic revival. Old style typefaces (like Garamond) moved to Transitional faces (like Baskerville) to Modern/Didone faces (like Didot and Bodoni) to Industrial display types (fat faces, slab serifs, sans serifs) to the Arts & Crafts revivals. These developments shape nearly everything in modern type designs.

SOURCES

https://www.printmag.com/design-culture/evolution-typography-history/
https://commercialtype.com/about/collections/thorowgood_grotesque )
https://www.printmuseum.org/wood-type-antique
https://luc.devroye.org/fonts-32567.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caslon_Egyptian
From https://www.caretypography.com/art-nouveau-typography

Advances in Typography (1500–1900): A Historical Sketch (Part 1)

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 18:15:11 GMT

Advances in Typography (1500–1900)

A Historical Sketch (Part 1)

Early Renaissance (1500–1550)

We had noted in the Blog “What Happened After Gutenberg: 1460–1640” (November 8, 2025) that movable type spread across Europe beyond its German roots. Gothic Blackletter type, though still used for religious and legal documents, began to give way to Venetian old style humanist faces. Influenced by humanist handwriting and calligraphy, Aldus Manutius and Francesco Griffo developed italic type for compact books. National printing centers became established in Venice, Italy, Paris and Lyon, France, Basel, Germany and Antwerp in the Netherlands

The Renaissance, beginning in Italy in the fourteenth century, marked a revival of classical antiquity and a move toward humanism. This brought a renewed interest in the legible, flowing scripts of Roman and Greek antiquity, which were more readable and aesthetically simple compared to Gothic lettering. The development of the printing press (ca. 1440) by Johannes Gutenberg created a need for more versatile and legible typefaces. The emerging humanist values aligned with a preference for typefaces that resembled the clear, round, and graceful writing of ancient Roman scripts.\

The Italic typeface was introduced by Aldus Manutius in Venice around 1501. Italic type is a cursive font based on a stylized form of calligraphic handwriting. Along with Blackletter (See Blog Jan 16, 2025 Blackletter Type and Universities) and roman type, italic has served as one of the major typefaces in the history of Western typography.

Italics takes notable influences from hand drawn calligraphy, with italic letters normally slanted slightly to the right. Upper case letters may have typographic swashes, flourishes inspired by ornate calligraphy. The name “italic” comes from their Italian use, to replace documents traditionally written in a hand-written style called chancery hand. Notice also the small “end point bowls” on some of the letters, where the ink pen stopped for a second.

While modern italics are often more condensed than roman types, historian Harry Carter describes Manutius' italic as about the same width as roman type. To replicate handwriting, Griffo cut at least sixty-five tied letters (ligatures) in the Aldine Dante and Virgil of 1501. Italic typefaces of the following century used varying but reduced numbers of ligatures.

Manutius sought to create more compressed elegant typefaces that could fit more text on a page, catering to the rising demand for smaller, portable books. Italic was based on the handwriting of Niccolò de’ Niccoli, a Renaissance scholar and calligrapher. Italic typefaces are defined by their slanted, cursive-like appearance, with letters that have a flowing, dynamic quality. It allowed for more text to be fitted on the page and mimicked the handwriting style of humanist scholars, like the handwriting of Petrarch.

The common italic “slope” was introduced in the sixteenth century — “The first printer known to have used them was Johann or Johannes Singriener in Vienna in 1524, and the practice spread to Germany, France and Belgium. Particularly influential in the switch to sloped capitals as a general practice was Robert Granjon, a prolific and extremely precise French punchcutter particularly renowned for his skill in cutting italics. Vervliet comments that among punchcutters in France "the main name associated with the change is Granjon's.” (Wikipedia on Italic Type)

The insertion of an italic typeface alongside a roman face would wait until later to distinguish portions of a book not properly belonging to the work, such as introductions, prefaces, indexes, and notes; the text itself being in Roman. Later, it was used in the text for quotations ; and finally served the double part of emphasizing certain words. Italic type was not only more elegant than the Gothic but also more efficient in terms of space. It became the preferred choice for printed texts that emphasized classical learning, philosophy, poetry, and humanist literature. Italic was initially used for entire texts but later became more common for emphasis alongside Roman type.

Aldine Italic type does make an appearance in a much larger folio edition of 1500: The Epistole of St. Catherine of Siena , set within a beautiful woodcut illustration (not so the feet) of St. Catherine herself. The italic appears printed across the open book and heart in either hand. Interestingly, the book was commissioned by Margherita Ugelheimer, widow of Peter Ugelheimer, former business partner and close friend to Nicholas Jenson ( https://ilovetypography.com/2014/11/25/notes-first-italic/ )

Bringhurst notes that “Early italic fonts had only modest slope and were designed to be used with upright roman capitals. There are some beautiful fifteenth-century manuscript italics with no slope whatsoever, and some excellent typographic versions, old and new, that slope as little as 2° or 3°. Yet others slope as much as 20°. . . . Renaissance italics were designed for continuous reading, and modern italics based on similar principles tend to have similar virtues. Baroque and Neoclassical italics were designed to serve as secondary faces only, and are best left in that role. Sloped romans, as a general rule, are even more devotedly subsidiary faces. Their slope makes sense only as a temporary perturbation of the upright roman. (Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style , 54–56)

The characteristics of the Renaissance italic letter can be summarized as follows (Bringhurst, 114)

• stems vertical or of fairly even slope, not exceeding 10 degrees

• bowls generally elliptical

• light, modulated stroke

• humanist axis (slanted axis)

An amazing 111 Garamond typefaces are sold by Linotype alone, including the Stempel, Adobe, EF, #3, IC and BE families Other implementations include Garamont Amsterdam by Scangraphic , and the URW Garamond family (1983).

This period saw the growth of typefounding as an independent trade separate from printing. Garamond’s old style typefaces spread across Europe.

Late Renaissance (1550–1600)

Claude Garamond (1499–1561), whose romans and italics became European standards, a French type designer, publisher and punch-cutter, worked with the typefounder Geoffroy Tory by 1520. His old style roman fonts, cut from 1531 onward, surpassed the existing romans of the period in grace and clarity.

His Greek type set the pattern for Greek printing until the early nineteenth century. His first type is uded in the book, Paraphrasis in Elegantiarum Libros Laurentii Vallae by Erasmus. In 1540, King Francis commissioned Garamond to cut a Greek type. After Garamond’s death in 1561, Christophe Plantin from Antwerp, along with the Le Bé type foundry and the Frankfurt foundry, Egenolff-Bermer, acquire many of Garamond’s original faces.

Early Baroque (1600–1700)

Transitional influences began in typography with increasing standardization in letterforms and punctuation. Dutch typefounders, the Elzevirs and Christoffel van Dijck, create slightly darker, more compact romans which are used widely in scholarly publishing. Greater contrast appears between thick and thin lines with more vertical stress.

Christoffel van Dijck (died 1669) was a German-born Dutch punchcutter and typefounder. Van Dijck's type was widely used at a time when Amsterdam had become a center for printing. Van Dijck became the most prominent type-founder of his time in the Netherlands, cutting type in roman, italic, blackletter, Armenian, music type and printers’ flowers. Van Dijck worked in a style later described by Fournier as the goût Hollandois or Dutch taste which favored darker type on the page and stronger contrast than earlier types in the Garamond style from the French renaissance. Digital recreations include DTL Elzevir (1992) and Custodia (2002–06). DTL Elzevir (Gerard Daniels) is based on a study of several cuttings from Christoffel Van Dijck. Dutch Type Library mentions that it is mainly based on the Augustijn Romeyn, a cut found on a 1682 type specimen issued by Daniel Elsevier's widow (hence the name DTL Elzevir) showing some typefaces from Van Dijck and others.

Gerard Unger's Hollander (1983) is based on a study of the typography used in seventeenth century books using typefaces cut by van Dijck and possible Dirck Voskens. OurType's Custodia, designed by Fred Smeijers, is a single-weight roman, with italic and matching small caps, with a seventeenth-century flavor. It was made in 2002 for use in the publications of the Custodia Foundation. Dutch Textura (1681), in versions called Augusteyn Duyts and Mediaen Duyts.

Enlightenment and Transitional Types (1700–1780)

In this period, typography becomes more rational and geometric. Transitional typefaces emerge, like John Baskerville’s high contrast type with sharp serifs and on smooth paper with improved printing ink.

A major typographic contribution in this age came from Romain du Roi (the King’s Roman”). Developed in France in 1692 and commissioned by Louis XIV, this typeface reveals a distinct shift in style, with an increased emphasis on verticality and increased contrast between thick and thin elements, a style that influenced the Transitional typefaces of Pierre Simon Fournier and John Baskerville.

The Romain du Roi was the result of rational, carefully grid-crafted designs. The capital letters were drawn on 8×8 grids, the lowercase letters on rectangular grids. The committee's designs were engraved by Louis Simonneau. Punches for the metal type were cut by Philippe Grandjean, who took some liberty with his type, to moderate the cold geometry of the designs. The type was first used for Médailles sur les principaux événements du règne de Louis le Grand.

The Romain du Roi had serifs on both left and right sides at the top of ⟨b, d, h, i, k, l⟩. ⟨l⟩ had an extra serif to the left at the mean line to distinguish it from capital ⟨I). It has 108 variations, with Thin, High, Light, Medium, Bold and all the Italics. A sample is noted here. Precision and poetic elegance moves us typographically forward in these faces.

A commission consulted the most beautiful books, the authoritative manuals, as well as many collections and type specimens, identifying the best that has been done since the origins of the printing press. It examined the incunabula of Mainz, Rome, Venice, Paris, the most beautiful printed books of the Angelier, the Estienne, the Wechel, the Elzevier, the theoretical treatises of the géométriciens de la lettre (letter geometricians)— Luca Pacioli, Sigismondo Fanti, Albert Dürer, Geoffroy Tory, Ludovico degli Arrighi, contemporary calligraphic collections, such as those of Louis Senault and Jean-Baptiste Alais, and so forth. The committee was particularly concerned with measuring the proportions between the different sizes of letters, following a numbering system very close to the typographic point. The proportion of the letters in their width is also the subject of precise calculations, apparently referring to the Romans of Jannon ⁴ in large sizes owned by the Imprimerie royale. (https://typofonderie.com/gazette/le-romain-du-roi-the-exclusive-typeface-of-louis-xiv)

John Baskerville (1706–1775), an English businessman, invented “wove paper,” considerably smoother than “laid paper” and allows for sharper printing results. Such paper is a paper type in which papermakers would weave materials like thin brass wires together to form a mesh. They would then cast the paper pulp onto the woven mesh.

Baskerville took seven years to complete his first book, an edition of Virgil. His typefaces, admired by Benjamin Franklin, added wide margins and leading between lines. He was appointed printer to the University of Cambridge in 1758. Although an avowed atheist, he printed The Book of Common Prayer in 1762 and a folio Bible in 1763.

Virgil, Publii Virgilii Maronis Bucolica, Georgica, et Aeneis (Birminghamiae: Typis Johannis Baskerville, 1757 [i.e. 1771]).From Princeton EDU

In our history of typography series, Pierre-Simon Fournier (1712–1768) was a French typographer and type designer, renowned for his contributions to the field of typography in the 18th century. He is best known for his work in creating typefaces that reflected the elegance and sophistication of the time.

Fournier's work in type design focused on creating typefaces that were both visually appealing and functional. His types were characterized by their clarity, beauty, and legibility. The typeface Fournier is an aristocratic roman typeface. It is transitional, almost modern, in character, with a distinct French flavor, but with more grace and style than traditional French oldstyle designs. This modern character influenced the later work of Bodoni.

One of Fournier's significant contributions to typography was his establishment of a typographic point system. He invented a system that standardized measurements for type, which provided consistency and made it easier for printers to produce high-quality texts. This innovation helped printers achieve consistency in their work. Fournier published a seminal work in the history of typography titled Manuel de la Typographie (Manual of Typography, two volumes published in 1764 and 1766), which included detailed descriptions of his typefaces along with examples.

The Neoclassical/Modern Era (1780–1850)

This has been called the Didone era in typography. Type now took on extreme contrast, with flat unbracketed serifs and vertical stress. Key designers of the period were Firmin Didot from France and Giambattista Bodoni from Italy. The style reflected Enlightenment rationalism and early industrial aesthetics. These faces became popular in fine press printing and luxury books.

Firmin Didot (1761–1853) assumed responsibility for his father’s, Francois–Ambroise Didot’s (1730–1804), typefoundry. Francois-Ambroise “altered the standard of type design by allowing greater contrast between thick and thin letters. He improved upon the Fournier standard of measurement for punch cutting and mold making; the Didot point system of 72 points to the French inch became the standard unit of type measurement.” (Britannica)

Firmin designed the Didot typeface. He also invented stereotypes (plates cast from printing surfaces) and was thus able to publish low-priced editions of French, Italian, and English books. Napoleon appointed him director of the imperial foundry, a position he held until his death.

Bodoni printed many important works, the most famous of which were his fine editions of the writings of Horace and Virgil in 1791 and 1793, respectively, and Homer’s Iliad in 1808.

Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813), the son of a printer, went to Rome, serving an apprenticeship at the press of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, the missionary arm of the Roman Catholic church. “He was gradually won over to the typographical theories of a French printer, Pierre Didot, however, and by 1787 was printing pages almost devoid of decoration and containing modern typefaces of his own design.

The typeface that retained the Bodoni name appeared in 1790. Of the many books that he produced during this period, the best known is his Manuale Tipografico (1788; “Inventory of Types”), a folio collection of 291 roman and italic typefaces, along with samples of Russian, Greek, and other types.” (Britannica)

SOURCES

Firmin Didot in Britannica
Roman du Roi in https://typofonderie.com/gazette/le-romain-du-roi-the-exclusive-typeface-of-louis-xiv AND https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romain_du_Roi
Baskerville in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Baskerville AND https://productiontype.com/article/john-baskerville-1706-1775
Van Dijck in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoffel_van_Dijck
Garamond in https://luc.devroye.org/fonts-26351.html) AND https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Garamond )
Italics in https://luc.devroye.org/fonts-30540.html AND The Printers’ Handbook of Trade Recipes, Hints & Suggestions Relating to Letterpress and Lithographic Printing, Bookbinding, Stationery, Engraving, Etc., compiled by Charles Thomas Jacobi, London, 1891, AND Talbot Baines Reed, A History of the Old English Letter Foundries (London, 1887) AND Theodore Devinne, The Practice of Typography (New York: The Century Co., 1902) AND Wikipedia on Italics and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldus_Manutius AND https://ilovetypography.com/2014/11/25/notes-first-italic/ AND Bringhurst The Elements of Typographic Style 1992 edition, Hartley & Marks, Vancouver B.C.

Type After Gutenberg: A Historical Sketch

Sat, 08 Nov 2025 16:07:25 GMT

What Happened to Type After Gutenberg?

A Brief Historical Sketch from 1460-1640

At the end of the 15th century, German printing was at the forefront of a revolutionary transformation in Europe, driven by the invention of the movable-type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century. This development had a profound impact on culture, education, and the dissemination of knowledge. By the end of the century, Germany had become one of the key centers of printing in Europe, particularly in cities like Mainz, Nuremberg, and Augsburg.

Books printed before 1501 are referred to as incunabula . German printers produced a significant portion of the incunabula, with many focusing on religious texts such as the Bible, liturgical works, and theological treatises. Secular works, including classical texts, legal documents, and scientific works, also gained prominence towards the end of the century.

Incunabular typography can be said to have two major sources of inspiration —fifteenth century scribes and German typecutters, the second group of which drew largely on (and sometimes coincided with) the first. Fifteenth-century typography was characterized by both continuity and innovation. Typecutters like Nicolas Jenson and Johan Veldener found themselves highly influential in their regions, designing typefaces for many printers, but scribes also contributed their weight to the design of typography.

German printers played a key role in developing early typefaces. However, they were not the only typeface creators and users. There were altogether in the Netherlands twenty-two towns where books were issued before 1500. When printing had once been introduced it spread rapidly, all but three towns starting within the first ten years. Jacob Gibbons notes that types “changed hands” and were sold or rented across Europe, Germany to Italy and France, France and the Rhine valley to England, the Netherlands to England and France to the Netherlands. Type founding and paper making were international businesses. Typography became a vehicle of cultural exchange in late medieval and early modern Europe. Thus typography was as mobile as the printing press itself in fifteenth century Europe, and perhaps a more subtle carrier of cultural, regional, national, and even personal identity.

One of the most popular typeface was Blackletter (also called Gothic script or Fraktur), which dominated printed works in Germany during this period. The dense and elaborate script was particularly suited to religious and formal texts. However, that Gothic Blackletter script was developed with nuances across Europe. Gutenberg’s textura quadrata face, used in printing his famous Bible, became Gutenberg textura used in university and legal settings. Albrecht Pfister produced his own typeface, somewhat distinct from Gutenberg, though possibly derived from it.

Ulrich Zell used Fust and Schoeffer’s Durandus typeface. Rotunda type became a readable alternative to Gutenberg’s. Zainer’s Cotico Antiqua was used until 1485. The Schwabacher type was a dense but softer face, paving the way until the Fraktur face in the sixteenth century and beyond.

By 1500, there were over 1,000 printers operating in various German cities, making Germany a leading hub for the printing industry. Notable printing centers included: Mainz—The birthplace of Gutenberg’s press; Nuremberg — An important center for both printing and intellectual activity; and, Augsburg—A commercial and printing hub.

What is often lost in typographical history in the years closely following Gutenberg are the important printers and typographers in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Spain, England, Austria, Sweden, Holland, Denmark, Scotland, Mexico, Ireland and the United States who furthered the cause of typography and printed works. This Blog serves as a historical sketch of a number of these important people.

John Mentel

Timeline: 1460

Johannes Mentelin (1410–1478) was a pioneering German printer and bookseller. In 1466 he printed and published the first German language Bible in Strasbourg. Among the predominantly theological and philosophical works in Latin, he offered the Latin edition of the Bible in 1460 and 1463, works of Augustine, Aquinas, Aristotle, John Chrysostom, Jerome and Albertus Magnus. Although Mentelin cannot be cited as the inventor of the art of printing books, he was nevertheless one of the most skillful of the early typographers.

H. Eggesteyn was a partner for some time with the printer Mentel at Strasbourg. Both were thus contemporaries of Gutenburg (1400-1468) the inventor of metal types, and, therefore, must have derived their knowledge of the new art and mystery clandestinely, or otherwise, from him or from his partners, Fust and Schoeffer.

Mentel’s type is conspicuous by being a simplified Gothic round hand. Some original features occur in the capital letters, giving both flourishing Gothic and simple Roman lapidary style.

Albrecht Pfister

Timeline: 1461

Albrecht Pfister (1420–1466) was one of the first European printers to use moveable type, printing books in the German language and notably the first to use woodcuts in 1461 to illustrate German language books. He obtained the necessary printing types from Gutenberg’s workshop. These types were used in Bamberg in the late 1450s for a new edition of the Latin Bible, the second after Gutenberg’s own edition. He published and signed his works (unlike Gutenberg) which included two editions of the religious work, Der Ackermann aus Bohmen , in German, two editions of Ulrich Boner’s Der Edelstein in German, two editions of Biblia pauperum in German, a History of Joseph, Daniel, Judith and Esther in German and an edition of the Belial of Jacobus de Teramo in German.

He was heavily influenced by Gutenberg’s typefaces, but there are noticeable and subtle differences between the two. Note the Pfister type sample. “Incidentally, Pfister was among the first to print in the vernacular. Of the three editions of an illustrated Bible, Biblia pauperum , or Paupers’ Bible, that he published between 1462 and 1463, two were in German, one in Latin. Prior to its typographic appearance, the Biblia pauperum had already proven incredibly popular as a xylographic or blockbook.” [https://ilovetypography.com/2015/11/10/the-first-illustrated-books/)]

Ulrich Zell

Timeline: 1464

Zell learned printing from the establishment of Johann Fust and Peter Schoffer and was printing at Cologne as early as 1463. His printing works can be traced to 1502. About 120 of his publications are known. Most of his books were textbooks in quarto form for the university, along with an undated edition of the Latin Bible in two volumes. In 1489 he published St. Augustine, On The Trinity and the City of God in folio edition.

His type was similar to the Durandus and Clements types of Fust and Schoffer. What is historically important about Zell is his claim preserved in the Chronicle of Cologne in 1499 that 1450 was the very beginning of machine printing, that Gutenberg was the inventor, and that the first book printed was the Vulgate, or the Latin Bible.

Schweinheim & Pannartz

Timeline: 1465

Conrad Schweinheim (or Schwanheim or Sweynheim, died 1477) and Arnold Pannartz were ecclesiastics and the first printers of Italy. A printing press for books was established at the Abbey of Subiaco in 1464, moved to Rome in 1467. At Subiaco they published three books, Cicero’s De Oratore, the Opera of Lactantius and Augustine’s

De Civitate Dei — The City of God . During 1464–72 they produced over 12,000 copies of thirty–seven works, mostly the classics and the Church fathers. Sweynheim was the typesetter of the outfit. In spite of their skill and printing volume, they needed and received papal monetary assistance. The two dissolved their partnership in 1472, with Sweynheim working until he died as engraver on the maps of the Cosmography of Ptolem y. He was the first to apply copper engraving to the maps. Sweynheim was in close connection with Mainz until his death.

The dies cut by Sweynheim embody the preliminary steps of the present type for Latin characters. His capitals are the first to show the forms used in Roman inscriptions on stone. His smaller letters repeat the characters used in manuscripts of the ninth to tenth centuries. He cast the first Greek type, found in his third book, that of Lactantius. Note the sample page with the use of Greek type from Divinarum institutionum libri septem printed in 1430.

The seven books of the Diuinae institutiones, are the most important work by Lactantius, Christian author and advisor to Roman emperor, Constantine the Great.
They are an apologetic treatise that includes a defense of Christianity and a criticism of pagan religion, philosophy and morals. Greek Interlinear used.

Günther Zainer

Timeline: 1468

Gunther Zainer (died 1478) introduced printing to Augsburg, Germany in 1468. He produced about 80 books, including two German editions of the Bible and the first printed calendar. He also printed the first large illustrated book, Jacobus de Voragine’s Legenda aurea with 131 woodcuts.

Zainer used two Gothic types and three Romans. His Roman types are striking, with his first Roman of 1472 leaving behind the Gothic influences of early Roman typography. Note the “H” with the “pearl” in the crossbar.

Initial from the German Bible, printed by Zainer in Augsburg in 1477.

Zainer Type Samples below.

John de Spira

Timeline: 1469

Along with his brother, Wendelin, John or Johann von Speyer (also de Spira) were German printers in Venice from 1468 to 1477. Early in 1460–61 Johann appears as a “goldsmith” and in September 1469 he was granted the first “monopoly” of printing in Venice by the Venetian Senate. He issued Cicero’s Epistolae ad familiars in 1469 and also the first edition of Pliny’s Historia naturalis . Johann died during the printing of Augustine’s De Civitae Dei with his brother completing it. In 1477 he published Mirror of the Virgin in Blackletter type.

As to the type, Spira 110R Proto-Roman was first used by Johann for Cicero’s work. See the sample offered with an Open Type license.

Ulrich Gering

Martin Crantz

Michael Friburger

Timeline: 1470

These three partners established the first printing press in France. Invited to Paris in 1469 by the Rector of the Sorbonne, Johann Heynlin, and his colleague Guillaume Fichet, Gering together with Michael Friburger and Martin Crantz set up a printing press within the Sorbonne to produce texts selected and edited by his patrons. The press produced twenty-two works between 1470 and 1472. Gering is thought to have made the first typeface in France in the 1470s.

The Martin Crantz font has been expanded to meet the demands of modern day use but it also contains a number of specialized glyphs that allow for the recreation of text in the manner of his day with such characters as the -rum abbreviation and other handy Renaissance oddities. Since this face was designed prior to 1501 there is no italic variant in keeping with the spirit of historical accuracy.

Bernado Cennini

Timeline: 1471

Bernardo Cennini (1414/15 – 1498) was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor and early printer of Florence, Italy. He produced the first book printed at Florence. Seeing some printed books, Cennini thought out the procedure for himself, cast his own type font, and working with others produced the first of the incunabula printed at Florence in 1471. The book was the Commentary of Virgil by Maurus Servius Honoratus. Rather than the predominant religious works of the period, early Florentine printing focused on classical texts, grammars and other humanistic works.

Nicolas Ketelaer

Gerard de Leempt

Timeline: 1473

The names of Nicolaus Ketelaer and Gerard de Leempt have been linked up with the early stages of the printed book in the Netherlands. Indeed, they are recorded in the colophon of the oldest dated book printed in the Northern Netherlands: the Historia Scholastica by Petrus Comestor. (SEE INSERT) In the copy which must have been acquired by the Canons Regular of St. Augustine in Utrecht shortly after its appearance, the colophon reads — Explicit secunda pars hystorie scholastice: que est de novo testamento. Impressain traiecto inferiori: per magistros Nycholaum ketelaer et Gherardum de Leempt M°cccc°lxxiii.

The work was written around 1170 by the theologian Peter Comestor. Originally composed in Latin but quickly translated into French and other vernacular languages, the text paraphrases and comments on Christian stories mostly taken from the Bible. It tells a universalizing history of humankind from a Christian perspective, encompassing episodes from the creation of the world to Christ’s ascension.

No fewer than 33 other books came out of this printer’s workshop, including Eusebius’s Historia ecclesiastica , printed in 1474. During the fifteenth century printing was introduced into twenty-one towns in the Netherlands, the presses of Antwerp and Louvain being the most important, while those of Deventer were very prolific. Among individual printers John of Westphalia, who worked for over twenty years at Louvain, and Gerard Leeu, who worked for seven years at Gouda. The Utrecht Psalter is the most famous medieval manuscript in the Netherlands—in 2015 it was included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World RegisterNew Paragraph

Colard Mansion

Timeline: 1474

Working in Bruges from 1457 to 1484, Colard Mansion produced many books and manuscripts, the most famous being De consolatione philosophiae (Consolation of Philosophy) . The Cambridge copy is decorated beautifully by hand with illustrations based on those in a later edition printed by Arend de Keysere in Ghent in 1485 in Dutch. Scholars suggest that copies of de Keysere’s edition and this copy were probably decorated in the same workshop by a team of miniaturists. Mansion began printing in around 1475–6, collaborating with the English composer, William Caxton.

He had two fonts and produced two formats of printed books, the medium-sized quarto and the large and luxurious f olio. Twenty-three full texts survive his work.

William Caxton

Timeline: 1477

Caxton’s career actually began as a textile merchant in Bruges, becoming acting governor of the Merchant Adventurers in the Low Countries. His first translation was that of a popular French romance. He set up a printing press in Bruges and published his translation of The Recuyell , the first printed book in the English language. His printing of The Game and Play of Chess Moralised was the first printed book in English to make use of woodcuts. Returning to England in 1476, he set up a printing shop at Westminster and published a number of boks including The Canterbury Tales . Over the course of fourteen years, he printed more than 70 books.

In 1477 Dictes and Wise Sayings of the Philosophers was printed. The Pilgrimage of the Soul was printed in 1483 and served as one of the prototypes of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress . Caxton printed the Statutes of Henry VII in 1492, the first collection of English laws ever printed. They comprise the enactments of the first three Parliaments of Henry VII.

The typefaces used by Caxton were all varieties of blackletter or gothic type. His earlier works were set in an early form of French lettre bâtarde . By 1490, he had acquired a more round and open typeface, a textura originally used by the Parisian printer Antoine Verard and later favored by Caxton's successor, Wynkyn de Worde. Fonts named after Caxton were the Caxton Initials by Frederick Goudy in 1905 and the ITC Caxton Roman family.

Nicolas Spindeler

Timeline: 1478

Nicolaus Spindeler was a German printer born in Zwickau (Saxony, Germany) and settled in Spain in the third quarter of the 15th century. In 1475 he may have been working in Zaragoza with Mateo Flandro, in the company of Pedro Brun, although some historians doubt this. After the dissolution of this brief partnership, he moved to Tortosa with Pedro Brun, where in 1477 he printed Nicolai Perotti's book Rudimenta grammaticae, using the Gothic typefaces inherited from the partnership the three printers had established.

Theoderic Rood

Timeline: 1478

Johann Snell

Timeline: 1483

Rood was a printer of incunabula at Oxford, England between the years of 1481–1484. Johann Snell, a German printer, served his apprenticeship with the Brotherhood of St. Michael and was an independent printer and bookbinder in the 1480s. Bishop Karl Ronnov had him print a short prayer book, Breviarium Ottoniense , and he also printed De obsidione et bello Rhodiano , about the Turkish siege of the island of Rhodes. These are the first books printed in Denmark.

John Winterburger

Timeline: 1482

Johannes Winterburger played a major role in establishing Vienna as a center of scholarly printing, particularly connected to the newly founded University of Vienna’s humanist community. He is first documented in 1492, just as the city’s intellectual and theological life was gaining academic momentum. By the early 1500s, Winterburger was the principal printer of the University of Vienna.

His press specialized in theological works, humanist scholarship highlighting Conrad Celtis, Johann Cuspinian and other Viennese humanists, liturgical books and legal and official texts for Austria and nearby territories. His books are characterized by high-quality Gothic typefaces, later supplemented with more refined Roman types as humanism influenced Viennese scholarship, the use of woodcut illustrations and decorated initials, often produced by local artists and large-format liturgical printing, requiring technical precision to align musical notation and chant text (a difficult task in early printing).

ChatGPT notes that Winterburger is sometimes compared to Anton Koberger in Nuremberg for scale and professional standards.

Missa de requiem, Johannes Winterburger, 1499 in

Luna Library, Manchester, England

Gothofridus de Ghemen

Timeline: 1493

Gothofridus (Gotfred of Ghemen) was the first known printer to settle in Copenhagen, active at the turn of the 16th century. Sources place his press in Copenhagen in the 1490s–1509/1510 period. He produced mainly religious and devotional works for the Danish market (examples in surviving catalogues include prayer books and other devotional prints). A Copenhagen imprint from 1509 is documented. De Ghemen is usually credited as the first printer established in Denmark, introducing movable-type printing to Copenhagen and helping bring printed liturgical and devotional literature to Danish readers. His press marks and a handful of surviving imprints are the primary evidence for his activity.

Androw Myllar

Timeline: 1507

Myllar was the first Scottish printer in the early 1500s. Myllar together with Walter Chepman were granted a patent by James IV to establish a printing press in Scotland. The first book known to have been printed in Scotland was The Complaint of the Black Knight.

Juan Cromberger

Timeline: 1540

The home of the first printing press and shop was at the corner of Moneda and Licenciado Primo Verdad streets in Mexico City in 1539. The Seville-based publisher, Juan Cromberger with an Italian printer Juan Pablos printed vice regal and Church related documents. At least thirty-five books came out of this shop between 1539 and 1560.

Humphrey Powell

Timeline: 1551

Printing was introduced to Ireland when the London printer Humphrey Powell as give twenty pounds by the King’s Privy Council in Westminster in 1571. The first book was his Boke of the common praier in 1551.

“Powell's Boke of the common praier was printed in English using Roman type. Twenty years later, Queen Elizabeth I, then monarch of England and Ireland, paid for a set of Irish type to be cut under the direction of John Kearney, the Treasurer of St Patrick's Cathedral. This type was used to print the first book printed in the Irish language, the Aibidil gaoidheilge, & caiticiosma , an Irish alphabet and catechism. Elizabeth I's purpose in supporting this venture was to promote the evangelization of the many Irish speakers among the island's population.”

Stephen Daye (1594–1668)

Timeline: 1639

Daye emigrated from England to the English colony of Massachusetts Bay, becoming with his son the first printer of colonial America. His press printed the Bay Psalm Book in 1640, the first book printed in the present day United States. More than a century after Daye's death, his legacy found renewed fame in Vermont, when his printing press came into the possession of printers Judah Spooner and Timothy Green, who used it to publish the state's first newspaper in Westminster, Vermont, The Vermont Gazette , or Green Mountain Post-Boy , on February 12, 1781. In 1932 the Stephen Daye Press was instituted, publishing local poets and writers notable to Vermont history, including Elliott Merrick, Mark Whalon and Walter Hard. The press closed in December 1942.

SOURCES

Incunabula at https://expositions.nlr.ru/ve/RA5466/swiss-incunabula
New Advent on Mentel at www.newadvent.com
Pfister at (https://ilovetypography.com/2015/11/10/the-first-illustrated-books/) and
https://www.staatsbibliothek-bamberg.de/en/article/albrecht-pfister-and-the-earliest-printed-books-in-german-from-bamberg/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht_Pfister
Zell at (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrich_Zell)
Sweynheim at https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11444b.htm and https://luc.devroye.org/fonts-36767.html
Sample Lactantius https://digitalarchive.rds.ie/items/show/4046
Zainer at https://ilovetypography.com/2014/02/08/unusual-fifteenth-century-fonts/#:~:text=Günther%20Zainer%20used%20two%20Gothic,produced%20during%20the%20fifteenth%20century .
Spira at https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=309 ) and (https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14215a.htm and https://github.com/anrt-type/GoticoAntiqua
Crantz at https://ilovetypography.com/2016/04/18/the-first-roman-fonts/
Nicolas Ketelaer & Gerard de Leempt at The Invention of Printing / A Collection of Facts and Opinions, Descriptive of Early Prints and Playing Cards, the Block-Books of the Fifteenth Century, the Legend of Lourens Janszoon Coster, of Haarlem, and the Work of John Gutenberg and His Associates, Theodore Low De Vinne. Also Article by GISELA GERRITSEN-GEYWITZ, Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2001. Also https://www.musinskyrarebooks.com/images/upload/e-list-13.pdf . Also Early Printed Books By E. Gordon Duff, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd. MDCCCXCIII. Also Movable Type, Movable Printers: Printers and Typography as Agents of Cultural Exchange in Fifteenth-Century Europe by Jacob A. Gibbons, 2014, Book and Digital Media Studies MA Thesis. Also David McKitterick, Print, Manuscript and the Search for Order 1450-‐1830 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
Mansion at https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-INC-00001-F-00003-00001-03304/1
Rood at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theoderic_Rood
Snell at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Snell
Myllar at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androw_Myllar
Cromberger at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_the_First_Print_Shop_in_the_Americas
Powell at https://www.tcd.ie/library/exhibitions/directors-choice/first-book-in-irish/
Daye at Wikipedia

Theology of Type (3): The Twentieth Century (Part 2)

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 20:22:43 GMT

SWISS TYPE BEAUTY

DESIGNERS LIKE JAN TSCHICHOLD were foundational to many of the Swiss design principles. This style evolved from Constructivist, De Stijl and Bauhaus design principles, particularly the ideas of grid systems, sans-serif type and minimalism. Emerging in Switzerland during the 1940s and 1950s, this typography, also known as the International Typographic Style, directly responded to the type chaos of Dada and the stylization of Art Deco.

The Journey of Helvetica

We all use Helvetica. In fact, some say it has been overused through modern years. Helvetica derives its powerful simplicity and display qualities from the 1896 typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk. “The design originates from Royal Grotesk light by Ferdinand Theinhardt who also supplied the regular, medium and bold weights. Throughout the years, Berthold has expanded this extremely popular and versatile family. AG Super was developed in 1968 by Günter Gerhard Lange and is an excellent choice for headlines. In 2001, Günter Gerhard Lange added more weights for Berthold including Super Italic and Extra Bold italic.”[1]

“Helvetica is a twentieth-century Swiss revision of a late nineteenth century German Realist face. The first weights were drawn in 1956 by Max Miedinger, based on the Berthold Foundry’s old Odd-job Sans-serif, or Akzidenz Grotesk, as it is called in German. The heavy, unmodulated line and tiny aperture evoke an image of uncultivated strength, force and persistence. The very light weights issued in recent years have done much to reduce Helvetica’s coarseness but little to increase its readability.”[2]

The font comparison chart here indicates the often missed, yet important legibility differences, in variations of Helvetica, and how they compare with traditional Arial and the sans-serif font I like best, Formata. The obvious typeface difference among the fonts is that the Bold Formata font is decidedly bold, contrasting with the bolds of the three Helvetica samples as well as the Arial bold. To correct this, Helvetica in later additions added Helvetica Extra Bold and even Black.

Note the stem of the “G” in all three Helvetica font versions contrasted with the lack of a stem in the Arial “G” and the Formata capital “G.” The Helvetica stems take their cue from the original Akzidenz-Grotesk 1896 font.

The little “tail” on the stem of the capital “R” is noticeable in both the original Helvetica and the Neue Helvetica fonts. However, it has been removed in the newer Helvetica Now edition. The Arial “R” is quite different than the Helvetica models. Note also the tail on the “a” in Helvetica renditions.

The “Q” in all Helvetica versions remain the same, but departs from its original Akzidenz-Grotesk rendering and certainly different than the Formata bold “Q.” Note also the slant on the Arial “t” and the difference between its “1” and the Helvetica numeral “1” as well as the Formata “1.”

The upper “a” stem in the Formata font differs from the other font sample in that it is not as curled as them. The Formata ampersand (“&”) is also constructed differently than the others.

While such differences may seem slight and even uninteresting, to the trained eye they are noticeable and make significant readable differences in overall legibility and appearance.

However, Helvetica never goes away. In fact, it has made a comeback in Monotype’s Helvetica Now font and the newest Helvetica Now Variable fonts, crafted by Max Miedinger, Charles Nix, Monotype Studio, Friedrich Althausen, Malou Verlomme, Jan Hendrik Weber, and Emilios Theofanous. Faced with the demand to upgrade the face, these type designers wanted to maintain the original qualities of clarity, simplicity and neutrality while updating it for the demands of contemporary design and branding.

Helvetica Now comprises 96 fonts, consisting of three distinct optical sizes: Micro, Text and Display, all in two widths. Each one has been carefully tailored to the demands of its size

The Univers Typeface

Adrian Frutiger (1928–2015) was Swiss typeface designer whose career spanned hot metal, phototypesetting and digital typesetting eras. Frutiger’s most famous designs, Univers, Frutiger and Avenir, are landmark sans-serif families spanning the three main genres of sans-serif typefaces —neogrotesque, humanist and geometric.

As you can well imagine, Swiss typefaces became the standard for corporate design, with Helvetica, in particular, adopted by forms and organizations worldwide for its neutrality and professionalism.

Magazines, journals and brochures have used such type for its legibility and clean structure. Posters composed by Swiss graphic designers use bold sans-serif type, strong alignment and minimalist color palettes. Scientific precision between text and image is the key here.

Helvetica and /or Univers typefaces are used in subway systems, airports and road signage. Advertising adopted Swiss typography for technology, finance and pharmaceuticals to convey credibility, modernity and objectivity.

Swiss type is fantastically beautiful. Far from being cold or rigid, such type sets the standard for modern visual culture. It displays the touch of God the Creator in its gratuitous nature, reflecting the eternal gratuity and self-giving of the Trinity as reflected in his creation.

In fact, Adrian Frutiger was noted to be a Calvinist, following the teachings of John Calvin, the genius behind Reformed theology and philosophy. Swiss type’s God-centered nature and creative order is typographically apparent. Printing was not neutral for Calvin. It was both a moral and spiritual force. It was a vocation, like any other, meant to glorify God by spreading truth and serving the Church.

SOURCES

From myfonts.com.
Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style (Hartley & Marks, 1992 edition), 93.

Theology of Type (3): The Twentieth Century (Part 1)

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 19:26:10 GMT

CONSTRUCTIVISM (1915-1934)

Typography in Constructivism was a rational, disciplined and ideologically charged tool. It served society, especially early Russian forces, and reflected the spirit of the machine age. Constructivism redefined the role of art, design, and typography. Unlike Dadaism’s chaos and anti-art stance, constructivism type, favoring horizontal and vertical axes, creating a clean, mathematical visual language, was highly rational, utilitarian, and politically driven. ChatGPT notes that the movement’s legacy endures in its clarity, structure and purpose-driven design that define much of modern typographic practice. Constructivist movement produced strong, sans-serif (without feet) fonts like the typeface molot . Like Dadaism in some aspect, typography was bold, in-your-face, promoting Suprematism’s geometric abstraction and Futurism’s emphasis on dynamism.[1]

The beauty of Constructivism lies in its purpose driven uniformity and its legacy to the Bauhaus movement. Bold, clean lines of sans-serif type continue to influence poster and movement designers today. Jan Tschichold’s approach to typography was transformed after his first visit to the Bauhaus exhibition at Weimar. He became a leading advocate of Modernist design practices. But he was mostly interested in the practicality of typography. He developed the Sabon typeface, used by Bradbury Thompson in setting the Washburn College Bible.

In early Russia, theology was deeply Orthodox, mystical, and rooted in the lived experience of the Church. God was understood primarily through worship, icons, and ascetic practice, not abstract reasoning. Russian Christianity emphasized the mystery of God, the sanctity of the Church, and the union of divine and human through Christ. Typography was dominated by old-style Cyrillic typefaces rooted in religious and imperial traditions.

However, in the early 1900s a decisive shift toward functionalism and social progress dominated typography and art in Russia. This was a shift away from religious, God centered roots and into more Marxist oriented politics. Beauty in typography in its gratuitous form, reflecting the eternal gratuity and self-giving of the Trinity, was replaced by the State. Diversity was sacrificed for typographical uniformity.

BAUHAUS (1919-1933)

BAUHAUS was one of the most influential design schools of the twentieth century. Founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar, Germany in 1919, many of Europe’s leading artists and designers were on its faculty.

When the Nazis came to power in Germany, many of the staff emigrated to the United States to found the new Bauhaus in Chicago in 1937.

The Bauhaus movement treated type not as a decorative element but as a functional, modern communication tool, closely aligned with industrial progress and rational design principles, where form follows function in sans-serif typefaces. The idea was to make typography visually engaging and informative, while also respecting the economy of space and structure. Sans-serif typefaces became the hallmark of Bauhaus typography. The clean, legible, geometric forms were modern, efficient and aligned with machine aesthetics. A leading typographer and organizer of Bauhaus was Herbert Bayer.

The Bauhaus typographic principles laid the foundation for the International Typographical Style (Swiss Style) and much of modern graphic design. The designer Josef Muller-Brockmann (1914–1996) was a pioneer of the International Typographic Style, with his simple designs and clean use of typography inspiring many graphic designers in the twenty-first century.³ Bauhaus type aesthetics still influence UI/UX design and minimalist information design today.

Is Bauhaus beautiful typographically? Its clean lines, geometrically styled logos and posters, and crisp sans-serif type styles might suggest so. The evidence for a Christian based beauty of this style is as minimal as its minimalistic design standards. While unity and uniformity in type style is at the maximum, diversity is lacking in the type.

We believe as Christians that the sovereign, objective God oversees and reveals creativity to all things so that nothing happens, including Bauhaus, by what is called pure contingency. Otherwise all creativity is lost in the swirl of chance, a place where anything and everything happens “just because,” violating the existence and meaning of everything — "As the absolute and independent existence of God determines the derivative existence of the universe, so the absolute meaning that God has for himself implies that the meaning of every fact in the universe must be related to God."[2]

And this includes The Bauhaus with its many designers and artists.

ART DECO (1919-1939)

DRAMATIC, BOLD AND STYLISH typefaces in the Art Deco period mirrored the golden age of cinema. From the 1920s to the early 1940s, after World War One, this type and art style embraced elegance, ornamentation and stylization. Known initially as “le style moderne” or “Jazz Moderne,” the style received its current name in 1968. Art Deco originated in a time of intense aesthetic experimentation. Art movements such as the Bauhaus, Constructivism, Cubism, De Stijl, Futurism, Orphism, and Surrealism helped define the style’s inherent modernism.

De Stijl (1917-1931) ( SEE BLOG Typography and Religion in the De Stijl Movement, July 8, 2025 )— It should therefore be no surprise that De Stijl with its ideas of grid systems, sans-serif type and minimalism had its roots in spiritual thought and philosophy. However, unlike early typography and art, De Stijl sought to remove the “particular” (the individual, the emotional, the narrative) and express the “universal” — timeless and absolute truths through plastic means (form, color, and space). Led by a belief system rooted in Eastern religions, occult practices, esoteric traditions, like Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, reincarnation and “secret” teachings, this syncretistic teaching led Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) to develop Neo-Plasticism, the theoretical backbone of De Stijl.

Typefaces that developed from De Stijl included Architype van der Leck designed by Bart van der Leck for the Dutch magazine Flax, a journal of the De Stijl art movement. Bart van der Leck was a Dutch painter and designer. With Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondriaan he founded the De Stijl (abstract, geometric) art movement. In 1930, he was commissioned by Jo de Leeuw, owner of the prestigious Dutch department store Metz&Co. to design interiors, window packaging, branding and advertising. For these print materials van der Leck developed a rectilinear geometrically constructed alphabet

The danger of De Stijl in its rejection of nature-based forms or figuration, diagonal lines, curved forms, ornamentation and emotional or symbolic expression was that it laid the groundwork for modernist design principles, particularly in graphic design, furniture, architecture and typography. In divorcing the individual “particular” from the abstract “universal” it dichotomized them, creating a modernistic rift between faith and reason

“Whereas modernity dichotomizes the universal and the particular, with the result that the universal becomes abstract and disembodied and the particular becomes of only local interest and useful only as a means for accessing the universal, the Bible diagonalizes that false dichotomy and brings the particular and the universal into harmony. The calling of Abram [Genesis 12:1–3] is “a particularistic means towards a universalistic end. . . God’s promise is realized not in the movement away from Abram’s particularity to an abstract absolute devoid of all specific traits but in the incorporation of particular Abram in a promise made to all particular people in their particularity. The universal comes down into the local without destroying its particularity.” [3]

Many Art Deco typefaces were based on simple shapes, such as triangles, circles and rectangles, but combined into elegant, futuristic forms. It was the machine age gone glamorous.

The art deco period celebrated modernity, luxury and progress in bold, geometric and decorative type.

Art Deco marked the rise of display type — typefaces intended for large headings, signage, and advertising. Art Deco fonts like Broadway, Futura Display and Metropolis became iconic of the period. Note that the letterforms were stylized with angular, elongated lines, sharp corners, stepped forms and symmetrical embellishments. They were visually heavy, strong and yet, like the font Broadway, conveyed sophistication and style. Movie posters and theater marquees featured such typefaces.

Typography in the Art Deco period was ornamental, geometric and celebratory. It reflected the optimism, luxury and modernity of the interwar years, combining traditional craftsmanship with industrial precision. Art Deco was meant to dazzle — perfect for the jazz age, cinema, and the dawn of mass consumerism. (ChatGPT)

Psychedelic typography “reflected the spiritual, musical, and drug-influenced culture of the mid to late 1960s —an aesthetic born of rebellion, hallucination, and sensory overload.” (ChartGPT) This was type meant to provoke and overwhelm its readers.

Wrapping words around free flowing areas in order to fill up space is the mark of Wes Wilson’s Psychedelic typeface. This face was in direct and distinct contradiction to the highly legible and clear Swiss type that preceded it.

Wes Wilson disappeared from the San Francisco scene as quickly as he and his contemporaries and their highly individual art form breezed in, heading for the Ozark mountains in Missouri in the early 1970s to live, apparently, a reclusive lifestyle. His legacy though is an incredible art form that forty-five years on is revered as truly classic of its time. Wilson’s style is also known as the Fillmore Poster lettering style.[4]

Psychedelic typography was countercultural, 1960s hippie driven, anti-establishment politics with a fascination for Eastern mysticism, altered consciousness and surrealist art. The San Francisco music scene played a dominant role in popularizing the style. This style was designed to overwhelm, mesmerize and provoke. According to Wilson, “It was a time of enlightenment. In the 60s, we used to think of Utopia as something that was really going to happen.”[5]

Psychedelic art drew from Art Nouveau, notably the ornate lettering of artists like Alphonse Mucha, Surrealism, and Pop Art.

Typography became warped, hand-drawn, dense and illegible by design. Letterforms melted, twisted and expanded to become part of the image chosen. Designers used vibrating contours, contrasting colors and optical illusions to mimic the psychedelic experiences. Other faces that were based on Wilson’s psychedelic lettering were Mojo by Jim Parkinson (1966), Butterfield by David Balle, 1993, Genie and Jonah by Rebecca Alaccari, 2006, Roller Poster by HiH, 2006, and Peace and Love Solid by Leslie Cabarga.[6]

Such type was also featured in underground newspapers, aligning with the counterculture’s anti-mainstream messaging. Typography extended into fashion branding, poster prints, drug culture paraphernalia and festivals. Such type was visual shorthand for rebellion and alternative consciousness. This type was about emotional impact, chaos and fusion of text and image, as ChatGPT says, “a typographical trip in itself!”

Psychedelic type influenced later nontraditional typography and movements like punk, grunge and rave. Today such elements are used to evoke nostalgia, surrealism and emotional intensity.

Interestingly, such a period and its typographical chaos has faded into the background of modern culture. The hippies of the 1960s are the business tycoons and CEOs of today’s wealthiest corporations. The stars of the movie, Field of Dreams, hearken back to their hippie college days as they have settled on an Iowa farm to resurrect a 1920s baseball team. They become outraged at a local school’s possible censure discussion of Catcher In The Rye, a book J.D. Salinger highlighting the struggles of growing up and preserving authenticity in a world that feels phony or shallow.

The question of beauty haunts psychedelic typography. Is cultural revolution fostered by such type a description of beauty that beckons us into the presence of God? While some far Eastern mystics might say and think so, I doubt the connection. The God of order, truth, and right and wrong does not inhabit chaotic alternative consciousness through drug induced trances and flights of fancy. This is why the 1960s did not last, and most of the hippies that I know forsook such a fast and free-loving lifestyle. It is also why psychedelic typography is only seen in limited retro art today.

RUB DOWN, HURRY UP LETRASET type was all the rage in Punk typography and artistry. Popular type faces that were used in Punk typography were the common Courier, Times, Time Bold Italic, Poplar (which is what this versal is in) and Helvetica Condensed, all available on rub down transfer sheets of the 1970s.

Punk type borrowed from Dada, Constructivism and situationist thinking, particularly in its use of cut-up text and ransom-note styling. Rejecting the grid systems of modernist design, Punk embraced disorder, distortion and noise. It was hand-made, urgent and gritty, sometimes illegible and always confrontational. It was fueled by do-it-yourself (DIY)ethics, anti-authoritarianism and the desire for disruption norms.

In an interview of the typographer and designer Sarah Hyndman in London in 2016, she described the DIY sense of Punk typography this way — “There was no style– it’s all the types that were being used in the 1970s, but ripped up and mashed together in a mismatching way, then thrown back down on a page with felt tip scribbles. There was definitely no attention to kerning or leading. The theme that runs through is just this DIY immediacy.”[7]

David Carson became a leading figure in post-modern graphic design. Trained as a sociologist and a professional surfer, Carson drew inspiration from surf culture, skateboarding, and an understanding of texture and movement in composition. He is most famous for his editorial design for magazines like Ray Gun (1992–1995), where layouts and typesetting challenge traditional magazine grid structures and pure functionality.[8]

Such typography also inspired later subcultures like hardcore, riot grrl, and DIY zine culture. Hardcore subcultural operates with a strong “us against the world” feeling, a lifestyle that abstains from alcohol, drugs and sometimes casual sex, and often aligns with ant-fascism, anti-capitalism, environmentalism and social justice campaigns.

I would say that its “ugliness” typographically forces us to see God’s world in its desperate sin-ridden condition and the cross of Christ as its only answer. While this post is not meant as a theological treatise or evangelistic tract, typography like punk causes us not to overlook the depth and weight of the human sinful condition without the presence of God.

SOURCES

Founded by Kazimir Malevich, suprematism focused on pure abstraction and basic geometric forms and limited colors. Art was reduced to pure feeling and form. The imitation of natural shapes was rejected in suprematism.
Quote from Cornelius Van Til, philosopher and former professor, at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, PA by Pierce Taylor Hibbs, “Beauty Always Beckons.” Westminster Magazine (Vol. 5, Issue 2, Spring 2025), 28.
Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture, Zondervan Academic, 2022, 233-234.
Note by Luc Devroye in https://luc.devroye.org/fonts-51665.html.
In the Wikipedia article on Robert Wesley Wilson in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wes_Wilson.
Luc Devroye.
From an interview in the UK at https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/24-30-october-2016/sarah-hyndman-punk-anti-helvetica/.
From ChatGPT about David Carson.

Theology of Type (2): Gutenberg to Early 1900s

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:28:56 GMT

Theology of Type (2): Gutenberg to Early 1900s

William Skeen in his 1872 Early Typography celebrated what he called “The Art Sublime” referring to typography and its use for divine illumination —

I seek, Disciple of the Art;

That to the famed Teutonic three

Just meeds of praise may given be;

That all aright the men may know

To whom Typography we owe;

The men whose names immortal ring,

Whose gifts transcendent blessings bring,

Whose monuments in every land

By wisdom rear’d, heart-honor’d stand,

Inscribed in tongues of every clime —

“Inventors of the Art Sublime!”[1]

Skeen pontificates that “to this Art, as it was invented and perfected in Europe in the Fifteenth century, the epithets Divine and Noble have not untruly been applied.”[2] "It is Divine, inasmuch as it is one of the grand instruments in the hands of Providence for the regeneration of fallen humanity. By it the mightiest movement the world has ever seen since the days when the Apostolic Twelve went about “turning it upside down,” — the Great Reformation of the Sixteenth century, — was mainly effected. Without it the Word of God could not have been diffused, as it has been, is being, and will continue to be, to every nation and tribe and people and tongue throughout the world.”[3]

We are made by our Creator to be “sensory-rich,” and our typographic history unfolds this in stunning and diverse ways. As one writer has so eloquently said "Holy Scripture calls us to inhabit an ordered world of creation and providence that is sensory rich, but we suffer what we may regard as spiritual sensory deprivation. And the more we discover the depth, scope and lush richness of the divinely ordered real world, the more we discover the impoverishment of the modern condition."[4]

Even the briefest of surveys and historical typographic study will reveal the theology of type. The depth, scope and richness of typography through the centuries displays either the beauty God has given this world, or the resistance to such beauty.

The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century was deeply tied to advancements in typography and printing, which played a crucial role in spreading reformist ideas. Some major typographical advances during this period include the use of the printing press of Johann Gutenberg around 1440 which had revolutionized printing. Printers improved the efficiency of moveable type, making it faster and easier to print large numbers of religious pamphlets, tracts and Bibles.

Instead of obscure Latin, reformers like Martin Luther advocated for scripture and religious texts in local, common languages. The Blackletter face Fraktur was a Gothic script used in German-speaking areas. The more humanist Roman type gained traditional use in parts of Europe.

Woodcut illustrations like those of Lucas Cranach the Elder, who supported Martin Luther, complemented printed texts, making complex religious ideas and theological concepts more accessible to a largely illiterate population. There were greater efforts in standardizing spelling and grammar studies and books. Printing advancements enabled the production of smaller, more affordable Bibles.

These typographical innovations, combined with the theological upheaval of the Reformation, transformed the way people accessed and engaged with religious texts, ultimately shaping modern literacy and communication.

GUTENBERG ERA TYPOGRAPHY (1450 +)

Scribes in pre-Gutenberg times labored for years creating wonderful typographic art, such as in the Landsifarne Gospels. Typography in Gutenberg’s pre-Victorian days spoke of craftsmanship, classical ideals and typographic innovation. From Printers Marks, as we saw in Part 1 of this study, to blackletter fonts to humanist typefaces, typography became more refined, rational, and mathematically structured.

The term “University” in relation to blackletter fonts typically refers to the use of these fonts in academic and religious contexts during the Middle Ages, and later in formal academic environments where tradition, authority, and history are emphasized. The most notable “University” blackletter fonts are linked to the old European universities and have been used in documents, manuscripts, and crests. Three traditionally common faces were Textura, Fraktur and Rotunda.

Blackletter type is gratuitous in that it makes the Triune God available to the masses of the times. Instead of God’s revelation locked up in monasteries and for only the favored few, everyone could now read the Bible in their own language, not merely ancient Latin.

Blackletter objectifies God in the sense that we have written revelation, not obscure mystical teachings. Blackletter, however, fails at typological differences, making it hard to read and decipher at times for moderns. Blackletter was desirable in the period in which it was used. Blackletter type certainly crossed geographical and language backgrounds in Europe and England and beyond. It was a boundary-crossing typeface. Lastly, blackletter was “fitting” for the times. It would be, of course, succeeded by more legible and elegant typefaces.

One of the most beautiful italic typefaces is Baskerville. Designed in 1757 by John Baskerville in Birmingham, England, Baskerville Italic demonstrates the outstanding qualities of harmony, precision and readability. “At a time when books in England were generally printed to a low standard, using typefaces of conservative design, Baskerville sought to offer books created to higher-quality methods of printing than any before, using carefully made, level presses, a high quality of ink and very smooth paper pressed after printing to a glazed, gleaming finish.”[5]

Along with Blackletter and roman type, italics has served as one of the major typefaces in the history of Western typography. Italic takes notable influences from hand drawn calligraphy, with italic letters normally slanted slightly to the right. Upper case letters may have typographic swashes, flourishes inspired by ornate calligraphy. The name “italic” comes from their Italian use, to replace documents traditionally written in a hand-written style called chancery hand. Italic typefaces are defined by their slanted, cursive-like appearance, with letters that have a flowing, dynamic quality. It allowed for more text to be fitted on the page and mimicked the handwriting style of humanist scholars, like the handwriting of Petrarch.

Italic typefaces were originally used separate from the roman face. In fact, Aldus Manutius wedded the italic face with small roman capitals in his Virgil of 1501 . Aldus was the first to suggest the printing of a polyglot Bible, a Bible with multiple versions. However, the first polyglot work ever printed was a Psalter, the literary work of Augustin Justinian, a Corsican bishop, of eight columns, each a different translation in Genoa, Italy in 1516.

VICTORIAN BEAUTY (1837–1901)

The heavy ornamentation of the Victorian period gave us decorative and fancy type, with a trend toward expressiveness over readability in display typography. Printers would mix multiple typefaces on a single page or poster to catch the eye. The Industrial Revolution facilitated the mass production of such printing. Type was used to create hierarchy and drama with little concern for typographic minimalism.

Type styles that emerged in the Victorian period included Egyptian slab serif, like this Alfa Slab One font and Rockwell.

Would we consider Victorian type beautiful? The lack of white space and forced, bold, and audacious design ideas and posters might challenge the quality of proportion, unity, variety, symmetry, harmony, intricacy, delicacy, simplicity and suggestiveness — the description of “fittingness.” Its desirability had limited appeal historically. Yet, this era above all was strongly rooted in the objective in its demands to be noticed and speaking loudly to us of the rule of God in life and thought. It was “really there” boldly and powerfully there. So, in many senses, for at least a period of time, Victorian type was theologically beautiful and eventful.

ART NOUVEAU (1890–1910)

Art Nouveau typography was more art than rigid form with curvilinear, elegant, and stylized lettering forms, sometimes with asymmetrical or unconventional shapes. Typefaces mimicked natural shapes, like vines, tendrils and flowers, as in the P22 Art Nouveau Extras glyphs featured.

Typography wasn’t just functional but rather integrated into the overall artistic composition of posters, magazines and books. Much of the art and even typefaces were hand-drawn, borrowing from calligraphy and even medieval scripts, adding a romantic quality to the resulting art.

Art Nouveau was a reaction against the academicism, eclecticism and historicism of nineteenth century architecture and decorative art. The new art movement had its roots in Britain, in the floral designs of William Morris, and in the Arts and Crafts movement founded by the pupils of Morris. The Grasset Typeface from Lewis F. Day’s Alphabets Old and New , London, 1910, shows that art nouveau flair for which these men were famous. The font has been digitized by CARE Typography.

Famous examples include the works of Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939), a Czech painter, illustrator and graphic artist. He was known for his decorative theatrical posters, especially those of Sarah Bernhardt, a French stage actress of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Wikipedia notes that he became devoutly religious — “For me, the notions of painting, going to church, and music are so closely knit that often I cannot decide whether I like church for its music, or music for its place in the mystery which it accompanies.”[6] At the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900 he depicted a future society in the Balkans where Catholic and Orthodox Christians and Muslims lived in harmony together. Mucha was a devoted Catholic mystic — “I had not found any real satisfaction in my old kind of work. I saw that my way was to be found elsewhere, little bit higher. I sought a way to spread the light which reached further into even the darkest corners. I didn’t have to look for very long. The Pater Noster (Lord’s Prayer): why not give the words a pictorial expression?[7]

Is Art Nouveau theologically beautiful? I start with the subjective opening quote from Nigel French and Hugh D’Andrade in The Type Project Book: Typographic Projects To Sharpen Your Creative Skills & Diversify Your Portfolio (Pearson Education, 2021) that you either love it or hate it. And many people love the organic, flowing flowers and stems and fancy type that adorns Art Nouveau posters and advertisements. However, looking more deeply at our starting description of God honoring beauty, we can make several observations.

A few of the Art Nouveau designers did attempt to bring glory to God and reflect his creation as a gift. Others not so much, especially Behrens. Art Nouveau certainly illustrated the principle of harmony or unity of expression as well as diversity. Art Nouveau crossed geographical and social boundaries well. Some of it was “fitting” in terms of beauty and objectifiably outstanding, like the Behrens designs. Art Nouveau served as a graphical and artistic bridge to later graphic arts.

Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Beer Belly of the Weimar Republic,

Hannah Höch, 1919

Hugo Ball’s famous Karawane (1916), composed of invented words, emphasized performance and phonetics over readability —

Karawane

jolifanto bambla o falli bambla

großiga m’pfa habla horem

egiga goramen

higo bloiko russula huju

hollaka hollala

anlogo bung

blago bung blago bung

bosso fataka

ü üü ü

schampa wulla wussa olobo

hej tatta gorem

eschige zunbada

wulubu ssubudu uluwu ssubudu

tumba ba-umf

kusa gauma

ba - umf

DADAISM (1916-1918)

The avant-garde movement of Dadaism used type to express anti-establishment sentiment. This avant-garde movement rejected order and logic, which it regarded as having failed to prevent the catastrophic First World War. This frightfully horrific war trashed former utopian dreams of a wonderful, orderly and helpful society. Dada was nihilistic and used dynamic, non-linear text to express anger and emotion. The term “Dada” has no actual meaning. It is a childlike word used to describe lack of reason or logic in artwork and typography.

Dada undermined the rules and distinctions between reading and viewing. Meaning was derived from form, not syntax. Dada artists used type in manifestos that were typographically explosive and politically provocative. Logic and coherence were readily attacked. Type danced, shouted and clashed. Type disrupted, questioned and awakened. Dada’s typographic innovations laid the groundwork for later movements like Surrealism, Situationism, Fluxus and Punk graphic design.

A leading Dada magazine of the period, Die Aktion (“The Action”), emphasized literary Expressionism and was published between 1911 and 1932 in Berlin. It stood for socialistic left-wing politics.

Later Situationists resistance to society is called in the French détournement , the tactic of taking something that exists and changing it to give a different message to that which was originally intended. Dada typography and adherents were Situationists in typography.

In the Dadaists rejection of order and logic in typography, using as many different fonts they wanted, and liberating typography from the grid of letter press, printing horizontally, vertically and diagonally on the same page, their rejectionist typography inspired the visual arts, literature, and theater. That influence is still being felt today.

Difference and distance typographically in Dadaism could under God be made to reflect the unity and diversity of God. God providentially has used Dadaist typography to challenge, to awaken, to express the disorder in this sin-fallen world. Typography was no longer passive, but performative, disruptive and deeply expressive. Type can speak, in other words, in ways that grab our attention about the disorder of this world and even point us to the God who rules over such disorder.

Perhaps Dadaism’s ultimate function was to force us away from our neatly contrived autonomy and consider what makes us who we are. Type and typography would never be the same after Dadaism. In modern graphic design, especially Swiss typography, echoes of Dada’s experimentation live on, though often more refined. This type-based rebellion lasts!

SOURCES

(Note that much of this info from the author’s Typographical Beauty Through the Ages: A Christian Perspective , Lulu Press, 2025)

1. William Skeen, Early Typography (Colombo: Ceylon, 1872), opening poem.

2. Skeen, 11–12.

3. Skeen, 12–13.)

4. Mark A. Garcia, “The World of the Word of God,” Westminster Magazine (Vol. 2, Issue 2, Spring 2025), 11.

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baskerville

6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Mucha.

7. Ibid.

Theology of Type (1): Printers Marks Expanded

Sat, 25 Oct 2025 20:14:08 GMT

Theology of Type . What does typography have to do with theology? Actually, quite a lot. It is significant that early typography had strong religious roots, especially Christian European roots. Many of these typographers and printers believed and lived from a worldview filled with the Divine. The history of typography operates out of a viewpoint of creativity that goes back to an overriding faith in God.

Early Printers' Marks reveal a strong Christian theological stance. Printers’ Marks are symbols or logos that have been used as trademarks by early printers, starting in the fifteenth century. Before the introduction of copyrights, printers’ marks legitimized a printer’s work. Copyright legislation would not be introduced until the eighteenth century.

Such marks usually appeared on the last page of a printed work. The first known mark can be found on the Mainz Psalter, produced by Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer in 1457. This mark depicted two shields bearing a saltire, a diagonal cross and a chevron surrounded by three stars. At the outset these were marks of the printer, but the practice was gradually adopted by publishers.

In early works a statement at the end listed the date of completion and the location. Sometimes the name of the printer or scribe or their initials were included. In printing and typography this is called a colophon, derived from the Greek word κολοφών, meaning summit, or finishing touch. The printer’s mark was added and gradually moved to the title page of the book.

The earliest marks were simple designs produced by using a woodcut stamp. Maggie Patton in her excellent introduction to printers’ marks notes that “the design of a printer’s mark used visual puns, wordplay or sometimes a rebus, a puzzle combining illustrations and letters to depict a motto or printer’s initials. Sacred symbols, the cross and the orb, real and mythical animals, heraldic symbols, and scientific instruments were used in thousands of combinations. The sixteenth century was the highpoint for printers’ marks, when lavish illustrations incorporating a printer’s mark decorated title pages.

Many famous images and symbols originate from printers’ marks. The design used by Venetian printer Aldus Manutius depicts a dolphin wrapped around an anchor. The printer’s mark used by French printer Robert Estienne shows a man standing by an olive tree, symbolising the tree of knowledge. Christophe Plantin, in Antwerp, used a pair of compasses held by a hand extending from a bank of clouds, the compass points signifying labour and constancy.” [1]

An extensive work on printers’ marks written by William Roberts in 1893 ( Printers’ Marks: A Chapter in the History of Typography ) showcases a number of printers through the centuries and their trademarks. His work has been reproduced by Project Gutenberg as an eBook.[2]

Roberts grudgingly admits the definite and extensive theological and biblical references made in these early printers and typographers. He reluctantly admits that "i t will not be necessary to enter deeply into the motives which induced so many of the old printers and booksellers to select either their devices or the illustrations of their Marks from biblical sources; and it must suffice to say that, if the object is frequently hidden to us to-day, the fact of the extent of their employment cannot be controverted."[3]

Quotations used by these early printers reference the Bible and biblical values. He quotes — "P. de Sartières, Bourges, ' Tout se passe fors dieu' (everthing happens except God) of J. Lambert, ' A espoir en dieu ' (to hope in God) of Prigent Calvarin, ' Deum time, pauperes sustine, finem respice ' (Fear God, support the poor, look to the end) and several from the Psalms, such as that of C. Nourry, called Le Prince, ' Cor contritum et humiliatum deus non despicies ' (A broken and humbled heart, O God, you will not despise) of P. De Saincte-Lucie, also called Le Prince, ' Oculi mei semper ad dominum ' (My eyes are always on the Lord).

And of J. Temporal (all three Lyons printers), ' Tangit montes et fumigant ,' (It touches mountains and they smoke) in which the design is quite in keeping with the motto; in one case at least, S. Nivelle, one of the commandments is made use of, ' Honora patrem tuum, et matrem tuam, ut sis longævus super terram .' (Honor you father and your mother, that you may live long on the earth) Here, too, we may include the mottoes of B. Rigaud, ' A foy entiere cœur volant ' (With whole faith, flying heart) S. De Colines, ' Eripiam et glorificabo eum ' (I will rescue and glorify him) and of Benoist Bounyn, Lyons, ' Labores manum tuarum quia manducabis beatus es et bene tibi erit .' (You will work with your hands because you will eat. You will be blessed and it will be well with you).

Among the mottoes of early English printers, the most notable, partly for its dual source, and as one of our earliest examples, is that of William Faques; one sentence, ' Melius est modicum justo super divitias peccatorum multas ,' (better is the little of the just than the great riches of sinners) is taken from Psalm xxxvii. verse 16; and the second, ' Melior est patiens viro forti, et qui dominat ,' (Better is a patient man than a strong man, and he who rule over) comes from Proverbs xvi., verse 32. The motto of Richard Grafton has already been quoted; that of John Reynes was ' Redemptoris mundi arma ' (the arms of the Redeemer of the world) and John Wolfe, ' Vbique floret .' (it blooms everywhere)."[4]

These were not just passing traditions of the period, but whole hearted convictional statements made into Printers Marks and printing devices.

Printers’ Marks: The Crosses

There is an extensive use of the symbol of a cross on many of the earliest printers’ marks. In researching and digitally reproducing these marks, as a typographer and theologian, I find Roberts’ discussion of this phase of printers’ marks unfortunate and demeaning. He says that “there are many points which will forever remain in the region of doubt and obscurity. Tradition is proverbially difficult to eradicate; and all the glamour which surrounds the history of the Cross, and which found expression in, among other popular books, the Legenda Aurea, maintained all its pristine force and attractiveness down to the end of the sixteenth century. The invention of printing and the gradual enlightenment of mankind did much in reducing these legends into their proper place.” [5]

He goes on to question the marks with these words — “Why at the extreme top of the cross is the lateral line formed into a sort of triangular four? Why, without this inexplicable sign, has the cross a number of cyphers, two, or even three, cross-bars? Why should the tail of the cypher 4 itself be traversed by one or sometimes two perpendicular bars which themselves would appear to form another cross of another kind? Why, among the ornamental accessories, do certain species of stars form several crosses, entangled or isolated? Why, at the base of the cross is the V duplicated?" All these are problems which it would be exceedingly difficult to solve with satisfaction.” [6]

In my own study and exploration of these cross marks, what I have found is that the symbolism of the cross at the top with a globe and initials at the bottom indicated a humble submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ over the earth and its inhabitants, inclusive of the printers themselves. Many of these symbols were crafted by religious men who, instead of capitulating to the times, wanted to express their faith stance for all to see.

Thus, the cross mark, as Roberts has to point out, is “a very striking proof of what M. Delalain calls "la persistance de la croix." It has appeared in all forms and in almost every conceivable shape. Its presence may be taken as indicating a deference and a submission to, as well as a respect for, the Christian religion, and M. Delalain is of the opinion that the sign " eu pour origine l'affliation à une confrérie religieuse. " [7]

The earliest printer’s mark by Fust and Schoeffer in 1457 indicated a diagonal cross. It was placed as a colophon at the end of the Psalter printing, the second work of Gutenberg.

The Somachi Fathers operated a press, being a Catholic Order founded for men in Italy in the sixteenth century. Providing staff for boys’ homes and serving 95 parishes, as well as other ministries, their printer’s mark signaled a devotion to the Cross.

John Siberch (1476–1554) was the first Cambridge printer and an associate of Erasmus. He had links with some of the key figures in North European printing and bookselling and, in turn, formed connections with leading theologians and scholars like Erasmus. Wikipedia notes that Siberch knew “the authors, translators and dedicatees who comprised many of the major contemporary figures of church, state and academia, including bishops John Fisher of Rochester and Nicholas West of Ely, Richard Pace, Secretary of State to Henry VIII, the royal physician Thomas Linacre and, above all, the great humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus and his circle, while the books touched upon significant issues of the day, such as religious reform and the new humanist learning.” [8]

The St Alban’s Press was the third printing press established in England in 1479 as part of the Benedictine Monastery of St Albans, clearly a religious establishment that promoted the Cross as central to their printing. Erhart Oglin was a German printer focusing on printing music. In 1512 he was the first printer in Germany to produce “a printed sheet music, the Deutsche Liederbuch , which contains 43 German sacred and secular songs as well as six Latin songs.” [9]

Juan Rosenbach was a Spanish printer whose printer’s mark can be seen in the Library of Congress today. The evident Cross stands over a sacred “h” perhaps referencing ancient Horus. [10]

Bernardino Giolito de Ferrari, known as Stagnino, used at least three printers’ marks with variations — “The device employed most often is reproduced here from his edition of the Roman missal, printed April 7, 1511: the letter B is enclosed within a heart, surmounted by a cross; the staff of the cross pierces the letter S. While the letters B and S presumably identify the printer, an alternate device shows the figure of St. Bernardino of Siena (1380-1444), an Observant Franciscan friar, with similar initials. Stagnino's mark represented the saint with the IS monogram and three cast-off miters, symbolizing the three bishoprics he rejected in order to continue preaching his popular sermons against Catholic heresy and immorality.” [11] Indeed, a profoundly religious use of the mark.

The mark of Hercules Nani, with the Cross, above three hills or mountains, may imply meditation and heavenly communion — “The Mountains of Myrrh and the Hills of Frankincense, to which the writer of the Song of Solomon says he will retreat, are ideally the same as those ‘silver mountains’ over which, according to Sir Walter Raleigh, ‘My soul, like quiet palmer/ Travelleth towards the land of heaven.’ Among the Jews the three-peaked Mount Olivet was esteemed to be holy, and accounted to be the residence of the Deity.” [10] The point here is that this printer’s mark indicates much more than a mere cultural convenience or capitulation to the period.

Modern uses of printers’ marks continue, with the examples below of the Banner of Truth Trust and Reformation Heritage Books. Both printers' marks have a deeply religious meaning and message. Often these marks are on the copyright or title page of the book today. They may also adorn the cover of such books.

CARE Typography has meticulously digitized these Cross marks and made them available as a typeface for your use. They are public domain images, free to use with the attribution — Digitized by CARE Typography, 2024.

Sources

[1] Maggie Patton, “The Printer’s Mark: That Curious Penguin on the Spine of Your Favorite Paperback Isn’t There Just for Decoration,” Openbook , Autumn 2022.

[2] William Roberts, The Project Gutenberg Ebook of Printers’ Marks , June 1, 2008, Ebook #25663, from inages made available by The Internet Archive.

[3] Roberts, pp. 24–26

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] “the persistence of the cross;” “originated from affiliation with a religious brotherhood” quoted by Roberts, 24.

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Siberch

[9] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erhart_Öglin

[10] Harold Bayley, The Lost Language of Symbolism: An Inquiry Into the Origin of Certain Letters. Words, Names, Fairy Tales, Folklore, Etc. , 1912, p. 161, from Internet Archive Books.

[11] Library Quarterly Information, Community , Policy, Vol. 83, No 1, pp. 39–41, The University of Chicago, 2023.

[12] Bayley, Lost Language of Symbolism , 35.

Calligraphy & Typography

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 23:27:47 GMT

Calligraphy & Typography. Calligraphy, the art of beautiful handwriting, has a long and rich history that spans cultures, religions, and centuries. It developed not only as a means of communication but also as a form of artistic expression, religious devotion, and cultural preservation. While typography is not calligraphy, with much of type carefully structured, straight-backed and neatly drawn and focused on lettering for printing readability, both art forms involve visual expression of language. Both focus on the shape, proportion and beauty of letters. Both reflect religious, historical and cultural influences on writing styles. Both are used for artistic and decorative purposes in design, and much of type has been greatly influenced by calligraphic styles. Yet, they differ significantly in their methods, purposes and tools.

Calligraphy is the art of hand drawn, beautiful writing, while typography focuses on the design and arrangement of type letters for print or digital use. Calligraphy is created manually with pens, brushes, or quills, while type is created digitally or mechanically using typefaces. Traditional tools used in calligraphy include dip pens, brushes and ink, while type is formed with digital or physical lettering. Calligraphy is highly expressive and free flowing, while type is usually uniform and consistent across all characters. Calligraphy is usually done for decorative and personal use, while typography is often constructed and used for mass communication in books, websites and signage. Mediums for calligraphy include paper, parchment, walls, while typography focuses on print and digital media. Yet, the roots of much of type comes from the wealth of history and styling offered by calligraphy. CARE Typography has been able with Font Lab's tools like Fontographer, to translate fine calligraphy into usable typefaces, even for the modern market tastes.

The fine art of calligraphy is highlighted in the background to this post in the 2018 calligraphic rendering of the Scripture, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:25a) by Calligraphy for Christ ( https://www.calligraphyforchrist.com/ ). Such beautiful religious typographic pieces actually begin not with the Gutenberg era in 1450 but with the ancient Chinese.

Chinese Beginnings . Long before Gutenberg in 1450, printing from moveable type was invented in China in the 1040s by the scholarly engineer Bi Sheng. Fêng Tao, who a century or more after the beginning of block printing improved the art and applied it to new uses, is usually regarded by Chinese as the inventor of printing, and holds much the same place in Chinese history that Gutenberg holds in that of Europe. From his day printing became a fine art.

Chinese calligraphy is among the oldest and most continuously practiced forms of calligraphy, from the second millennium BC. The precise origins of Chinese printing remain obscure. Religious seals had been used since long before the Han period (202 BC–220 AD), and the Chinese had later used large seals carved from hardwood to reduplicate Taoist religious charms in large numbers. Small wooden stamps similar to those employed in printing textile patterns were used for the replication of images of the Buddha. (Twitchett, 13)*

In Chinese calligraphy and typography, each character is considered to occupy a square space of equal size, the characters being arranged in vertical columns, usually separated in traditional printing by a fine line. The Chinese compositor was thus faced with none of the complexities of spacing and layout that confront the Western typographer. This "block printing" method lasted and remained standard even into modern times.

The blocks for fine printing were made from a hard close-grained wood, usually pear or jujube. The surface was prepared with a sort of size. The copy for the page to be printed was written by a copyist on a very thin paper, and this was laid face down on the surface of the block while the size was still wet. The engraver then cut the block around the characters. A page printed in this way could thus reproduce any style of calligraphy, or any mixture of styles, any size or variety of sizes of character, and could equally easily accommodate both text and illustrations. The blocks could be corrected by recutting, by inserting plugs into the block and recutting over them, and by minor trimming.(Twitchett, 70)

Chinese calligraphy developed as both a visual and spiritual art form. Writing was done with brush and ink on paper or silk. Notable calligraphers included Ouyang Xun (557–641 BC), a Tang Dynasty master of what is called "regular script." During the Tang Dynasty, he was a censor and scholar at the Hongwen Academy, where he taught calligraphy. He later became the Imperial Calligrapher and inscribed several major imperial steles.

Wang Xizhi (303–361 BC), known as the "Sage of Calligraphy," produced "On the Seventeenth Day," a selection of twenty-nine letters under the sponsorship of the Tang emperor Taizong. (Print above from Wikipedia) (www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/39899)

Yan Zhenqing (709–785) was known for his bold and dynamic style. Su Shi (1037–1101), a scholar and poet, practiced expressive cursive calligraphy. Wikipedia notes that approximately 2,700 poems and 800 letters penned by Su Shi have been preserved to date. His mastery spanned across various forms, including the shi , ci and fu styles of poetry, as well as prose, calligraphy, and painting. While a significant portion of his poetry is in the shi format, it is his 350 ci style poems that largely cemented his poetic legacy.

It should be noted that Chinese calligraphy involves a graphic language of a very small number of simple

stroke shapes combined into more complex glyphs. There is a particular way to make dots, horizontal lines, vertical lines, lines angled left, lines angled right, corners and endings of lines. (Judith Sutcliffe) In fact, there are five styles of script in Chinese calligraphy, the seal script, clerical script, regular script, running script and cursive. Characters are written top to bottom, left to right, and horizontal to vertical. There are eight different types of strokes, and each has a specific way they should be drawn.

"It is an art of turning square Chinese characters into expressive images by varying the speed and pressure of a pointed Chinese brush. By controlling the concentration of ink, the thickness and adsorptivity of the paper, and the flexibility of the brush, the artist is free to produce an infinite variety of styles and forms. In contrast to western calligraphy, diffusing ink blots and dry brush strokes are viewed as a natural expression rather than a fault. While western calligraphy often pursues font-like uniformity, Chinese calligraphy emphasizes more on expressing one’s emotions." (www.chinaonlinemuseum.com/ calligraphy.php)

Japanese & Korean Calligraphy . Both Japanese and Korean calligraphy developed from Chinese roots. As in all early calligraphic forms and writings, such calligraphy was heavily influenced by Buddhism. Kukai (774–835) was a monk who brought Chinese calligraphy to Japan. His importance in Japanese Buddhism has developed stories and legends, one of them which attributes the kana syllabary to him, with which the Japanese language is written to this day. Ono no Michikaze (894–966) took a first step in Japanizing the art of calligraphy from China, with strong influence from Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi.Fujiwara no Kozei (1100s) popularized calligraphic styles imported from China. He was called the master of the "way of writing." Kim Jeong-hui (1786–1856) in Korea developed the Chusa style, merging Chinese and Korean aesthetics.

Early Christian Calligraphy/Typography. Greek classical and Byzantine scripts, along with the Roman script, were important in developing western calligraphy and later typography. The development of uncial and half-uncial scripts has been covered in detail in my Typography Through the Years (Lulu Press, 2024) in the chapters on "The Alphabet" and "Pre-Gutenberg Printing." Monks in that period preserved ancient knowledge through scriptoria in monasteries, with lavishly decorated religious texts like the Book of Kells and Lindisfarne Gospels. Carolingian Minuscule was developed under Charlemagne, with uniform and legible script that influenced later Latin typefaces.

Blackletter or Gothic script was derived from medieval European calligraphy (12th–17th centuries). Typefaces that developed from such calligraphy included Fraktur, Old English Text and Gothic typefaces. These strong, angular, dense forms have been used in formal documents, diplomas and even newspaper mastheads today, like the New York Times.

Italic Script. Derived from Italian Renaissance calligraphy (15th century), scribes in Rome and Florence began using what we call italics , or slanted letters for faster writing. The Renaissance, beginning in Italy in the fourteenth century, marked a revival of classical antiquity and a move toward humanism. This brought a renewed interest in the legible, flowing scripts of Roman and Greek antiquity, which were more readable and aesthetically simple compared to Gothic lettering. The development of the printing press (ca. 1440) by Johannes Gutenberg created a need for more versatile and legible typefaces. The emerging humanist values aligned with a preference for typefaces that resembled the clear, round, and graceful writing of ancient Roman scripts.

The Italic typeface was introduced by Aldus Manutius in Venice around 1501. Manutius, a prominent printer and publisher, sought to create more compact and elegant typefaces that could fit more text on a page, catering to the rising demand for smaller, portable books. Italic was based on the handwriting of Niccolò de’ Niccoli, a Renaissance scholar and calligrapher. Italic typefaces are defined by their slanted, cursive-like appearance, with letters that have a flowing, dynamic quality. It allowed for more text to be fitted on the page and mimicked the handwriting style of humanist scholars.

Italic type was not only more elegant than the Gothic but also more efficient in terms of space. It became the preferred choice for printed texts that emphasized classical learning, philosophy, poetry, and humanist literature. Italic was initially used for entire texts but later became more common for emphasis (such as book titles, headings, or foreign phrases) alongside Roman type.

Typefaces developed from this italics period include Zapfino, Palatino Italic, Adobe Jenson Italic.

Roman Capitals/Humanist Script . Ancient Roman inscriptions and Renaissance humanist writing inspired calligraphy that later translated to typefaces such as Trajan, Garamond and Bembo. Roman square capitals seen on monuments, like Trajan's Column, started to appear in book titles as well as classical or academic branding.

Copperplate Script . Derived from English Roundhand calligraphy in the 18th century, copperplate script was created with a pointed pen and pressure sensitive strokes and widely used in formal writing. Such script is often found in wedding invitations, certificates and branding for luxury items. Typefaces emerging from such script include Bickham Script, Edwardian Script and Snell Roundhand.

Brush Script . Brush Script calligraphy derives from modern brush calligraphy. Popular in the mid-twentieth century America for retro posters, signage and casual branding, its typefaces include Brush Script MT, Pacifico and Freestyle Script.

A concluding note. It is significant that early calligraphy along with typography had strong religious roots, whether that be Christian European roots or Chinese Buddhist roots or Islamic Koran rootings. Many of these calligraphers, along with their typography counterparts, believed and lived from a worldview filled with the Divine. While modern calligraphy has perhaps deviated from these religious roots, there are still calligraphers and typographers that operate out of a viewpoint of creativity that goes back to their faith in God. That is certainly true of this typographer!

Early German Typography (Part 2)

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 23:58:30 GMT

Herbert Hoffmann, Albert Bruckner, Max Hertwig, and Rudolf Koch collaborated on a typographic “atlas” or specimen book titled Hoffmanns Schriftatlas: Das Schriftschaffen der Gegenwart in Alphabeten und Anwendungen (1930) ( Hoffmann’s Type Atlas: Contemporary Type Creation in Alphabets and Applications ) Also distributed in France under the title Alphabets by Herbert Hoffman and other collaborators by Arts et Métiers Graphiques magazine, it is a specimen of alphabets, initials, monograms, logos and other typographic forms from early German typography. The atlas captures typographic modernism in Germany around that time, including influences of the Bauhaus and the modernist movement. It is considered a rich visual record of type and lettering design in that period, showing both experimental and traditional forms.

In Part One of this series, we investigated the typography of early Germany through the lens of Rudolf Koch, Louis Oppenheim, E.R. Weiss, Lucian Bernhard, Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens, and Bernard Naudin. In this Part Two we revisit the typography of Ernst Deutsch, Friedrich Heinrichsen, Benjamin Krebs Nachfolger, Maria Ballé, Margarete Leins, Anna Simons and take a brief visit to the Ecole des Arts et Metiers in Stuttgart.

Ernst Deutsch (1887–1938). Born in Vienna, Austria, Ernst Deutsch first worked as a costume designer and studied under Gustav Klimt. In Paris, he worked he worked on costumes for Coco Chanel, before moving to the United States in 1929, where he changed his name to Ernst Dryden and was employed from 1933 onwards as a costume designer for Universal, Columbia and Selznick in Hollywood. He died in Los Angeles in 1938

In typography, Deutsch designed Tango Kursiv (1913), Tango Antiqua and Tango Antiqua Halbfelt (1916). He was known for designing display lettering and poster typography, especially in the pre-World War One period. Digital revivals have been offered by Nick Curtis in his Rhumba Script NF, a free revival of Tango Kursiv, and Oliver Weiss in his WF Paletti in 2016–2017. Deutsch fonts have strong display orientation, with elegant, somewhat decorative, but still relatively clean visual style. We also see the influence of early twentieth-century graphic design movements in Europe in the Art Nouveau/Jugenstil, poster arts, and his exposure to Paris-based design sensibilities

This is a photograph of the typecase for Tango-Antiqua. It was captured by Albert-Jan Pool in Wetzig's Handbuch Der Schriftarten from 1926 in visiting Katharina Jesdinsky's print workshop in Kiel in 2017.

Friedrich Heinrichsen (1901–1980) . Heinrichsen worked as a typographer and graphic artist. Part of his training came under Rudolf Koch, becoming his assistant in Offenbach in 1924. After World War Two he taught typography, was involved in rebuilding efforts and worked on industrial, advertising and church commissions.

His best known typeface is Gotenburg. Gotenburg is a “broken grotesque” style font, referencing old blackletter or fractured styles and sans/grotesque styles for letter forms. Gotenburg comes in Gotenburg Bold and decorative variants in Gotenburg A and B. He also designed the Heinrichsen-Kanzlei face. As part of the Offenbach School, he emphasized craftsmanship, calligraphic roots and the integration of letter-forms with ornamentation and strong design sensibilities.

Benjamin Krebs Nachfolger (or just Krebs Nachf) founded one of the significant German foundries in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It produced many typeface designs, especially what is referred to as blackletter (“Fraktur”) and early sans-serif (Grotesks) as well as display and decorative type. Blackletter faces included Normale Fraktur, Neue Fraktur, Kunstler Gottisch, Psalter Gottisch and Kaiser Gottisch. A history of Krebs Nachf was written by Gustav Mori in 1916. The firm was taken over by Ludwig & Mayer, and then Klingspor and finally by Stempel in 1933.

Maria Ballé was one of the first female type designers. While the exact date of her work is not clearly known, references suggest it wa during the 1920s. She created the face called Ballé Initials for the Bauer Type Foundry. She along with Margarete Leins (Stuttgart) and Anna Simons (Munich) were some of the few women typographers of the period. Leins contributed to calligraphy and decorative lettering, participating in the resurgence of handcraft in typography influenced by Jugendstil and the Arts & Crafts movement. Simons translations of Johnston’s work and her teaching helped establish a modern German calligraphic tradition. She influenced Rudolph Koch and others in early twentieth century calligraphic renaissance.

Ecole des Arts et Metiers de Stuttgart (State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart). A public fine art university in Stuttgart, Germany, founded in 1761. By 1950 you could study painting, glass painting, sculpture, free and applied graphics, interior and furniture design (″Innenarchitektur und Möbelbau"), textiles, ceramics, metal and art teaching, and professors included Trude Barth, Otto Baum, Willi Baumeister , Walter Brudi, Rudolf Daudert, Hans Fegers, Eugen Funk, Gerhard Gollwitzer, Peter Otto Heim, Manfred Henninger, Karl Hils, Eberhard Krauß, Hans Meid, Hugo Peters, Karl Rössing, Harmi Ruland, Hermann Sohn, Karl Hans Walter, Hans Warnecke, Kurt Wehlte, Hans Wentzel, Karl Wiehl and Rudolf Yelin. A sample of an early twentieth century art/typography piece highlighting the alphabet is included in Alphabets . (Wikipedia)

Early German Typography (Part 1)

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 19:05:43 GMT

EARLY GERMAN TYPOGRAPHY

A Historical Sketch (Part 1)

CARE Typography has investigated and revived some of the alphabets in this book, giving alphabetic examples of typefaces long since forgotten or discarded along the way. This blog highlights some of those typefaces along with their creators and later digitizers.

Rudolf Koch (1876–1934). As one of the featured type designers, Koch’s work gives weight and prestige to the anthology. He was a calligrapher, type designer and teacher at the Offenbach School of Design. Renowned for his deeply spiritual and expressive approach to lettering, he blended Gothic traditions with modern, expressive calligraphic forms. His notable typefaces included Kabel, Koch Antiqua and Wilhelm-Klingspor-Schrift as the displays show.

Louis Oppenheim (1879–1936) . Oppenheim produced Berthold Block (1926), a heavy, geometric sans serif used widely in advertising pieces. He was strongly associated with early modernist German design, especially display typography. He was a pioneer of expressive and bold typographic forms in commercial graphics. Berthold Block has a chunky design suitable for headings, with short descenders allowing tight line spacing. Typographer Stephen Coles describes it as a “soft but substantial display face with compact dimensions and an organic appearance.”

The original metal design was intentionally “distressed,” matching the effect of worn type. Berthold Block was released in 1908, with Berthold later adding additional weights and styles, along with phototypesetting versions. It was often used by Praktiker and the Whitechapel Art Gallery for branding in the 1970s and 80s. In the late 1970s, Berthold re-released three lighter-weight fonts derived from the Block design as a mini-family named "Berliner Grotesk" for phototypesetting, with the font redraw carried out by Erik Spiekermann .

A variety of digitizations of Block exist, including by Berthold and successor companies and by Bitstream (the condensed weight only). Paratype of Moscow released an expansion with Cyrillic characters in 1997. Matthew Butterick’s Hermes, first released by Font Bureau, and later self-released, is a loose adaptation also inspired by other German grotesque typefaces of the period, adding lighter weights and unicase features. (From Wikipedia) The sample provided is from Adobe Systems 1992 named Block Berthold Regular 400. Block Berthold is a registered trademark of H. Berthold AG.

The Fanfare typeface was also designed by Oppenheim and published by the URW Type Foundry and released on MyFonts in 2001. This face also appeared in the Alphabets book.

Ernst Rudolf Weiss (1875–1942) . Weiss was a type designer, artist and book designer. He blended humanist serif forms with classical calligraphic qualities, creating elegant book typefaces. He was known for his refined and readable type. Weiss Antiqua and Weiss Initialen display how readable and exacting his faces were. Ludwig Mayer (1879–1972) established Ludwig & Mayer type foundry in Frankfurt, which published work by many significant type designers, including E.R. Weiss

Lucian Bernhard (1883–1972) . Bernhard was a graphic and type designer and art director who produced Bernhard Antiqua, Bernhard Gothic and Bernhard Modern. Bernhard Gothic is a family of geometric sans serif faces designed in 1929 for ATF (American Type Founders), with five variations produced in over two years. Bernhard Gothic is more organic and less regular than other geometric typefaces, including Futura and Kabel. The sample shown is OPTIBernhard Gothic Heavy, available from fontmeme.com and fontsgeek.com. OPTI is a label used by Castcraft for digital fonts produced around the early 1990s. Technically, many were likely based on the copies Castcraft had made for phototype. Luc Devroye notes that the company is long defunct with ethical issues having produced fonts of subpar quality ( https://luc.devroye.org/fonts-27506.html ).

Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens (1878–1956) . Kleukens was a calligrapher and type designer known for elegant type and lettering rooted in tradition but with a modern sensibility. He created Rudina and F.W. Kleukens-Antiqua. He worked closely with Koch and contributed to the German book and type design renaissance in the early 1900s.

Bernard Naudin (Bernard Étienne Hubert Naudin) (1876–1946) . Naudin was a French artist, known mostly for his work as a painter, draftsman, engraver and caricaturist, but he also made contributions to type design. In 1910, Georges Peignot of the Peignot/Deberny & Peignot foundry, asked Naudin to design a new typeface. Working from his own handwriting, Naudin designed and engraved Naudin Roman and Italic as well as Naudin Champlevé.

Naudin also designed Tradition, which formed the basis of the Scriptorium decorative script font family Interlude (2001). Champlevé was revived in 2006 by Ari Rafaeli. Woodley Park designed by Nick Curtis in 2001 is also based on Naudin Champlevé. Naudin’s typefaces did not enjoy great success at the time, but other designers have drawn inspiration from his decorative style. His merging of engraving, ornamentation, and artistic illustration into type design gives him an interesting hybrid status of part fine-arts engraver with part typographer.

END PART ONE. In the next installment we shall consider the early German works of Ernst Deutsch, Friedrich Heinrichsen, Benjamin Krebs Nachf, and the three women typographers, Maria Ballé , Anna Simons and Margarete Leins. We shall also note the Ecole des Arts et Metiers de Stuttgart.

Art Nouveau Typography

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 15:07:37 GMT

Art Nouveau fonts grew out of the late 19th-century Art Nouveau movement (c. 1890–1910), which sought to break away from academic, historicist styles and create a new art for the modern age. The style flourished across Europe and America in architecture, furniture, illustration, and typography. In lettering, Art Nouveau embraced organic forms, flowing curves, floral motifs, and asymmetry, reflecting the movement’s fascination with natural growth and hand-drawn ornament.

Art Nouveau took its name from the Maison de l'Art Nouveau, a Parisian gallery that exhibited the works of artists and designers who were associated with the movement. The style was characterized by flowing, curvilinear forms inspired by natural shapes and motifs such as flowers, vines, and insects. It also incorporated elements from other artistic traditions, such as Japanese art and the Arts and Crafts movement.

Art Nouveau was particularly popular in Europe, where it influenced a wide range of artistic disciplines, including architecture, interior design, furniture, jewelry, and graphic design. Some of the most notable Art Nouveau architects included Hector Guimard, Antoni Gaudí, and Victor Horta, while artists such as Alphonse Mucha, Aubrey Beardsley, and Gustav Klimt were celebrated for their decorative and ornamental works.

Art Nouveau declined in popularity after World War I, as artists and designers began to embrace new, more modernist styles. However, its influence can still be seen in many aspects of contemporary design, and it remains an important and influential movement in the history of art and design.

Origins & Background . By the 1880s, the heavy blackletter of Germany and the strict Didone and transitional serifs dominating print (Bodoni, Didot) felt outdated for avant-garde artists. Lettering became a vehicle for breaking convention. Led by figures such as William Morris (1834–1896), there was a decided reaction against industrialization, seeing machine-made goods as dehumanizing and ugly. Handcraftmanship, honesty in materials and utility fused with beauty made up much of what was called the Arts & Crafts Movement. That movement was rooted in medieval guild ideals and morality in design.

On Typography he notes that "it is obvious that legibility is the firSt thing to be aimed at in the forms of the letters; this is best furthered by the avoidance of irrational swellings & spiky projections, and by the using of careful purity of line. Even the Caslon type when enlarged shows great short- comings in this respect: the ends of many of the letters such as the t and e are hooked up in a vulgar and meaningless way."

Even the use of the paper on which the type was printed did not escape his criticism — "The paper that is used for ordinary books is exceedingly bad even in this country [Britain], but is beaten in the race for vileness by that made in America, which is the worst conceivable. There seems to be no reason why ordinary paper should not be better made, even allowing the necessity for a very low price ; but any improvement must be based on showing openly that the cheap article is cheap, e.g. the cheap paper should not sacrifice toughness and durability to a smooth & white surface, which should be indications of a delicacy of material and manufacture which would of necessity increase its cost."

Art Nouveau Type . (1890-1914) While The Arts and Crafts Movement was about honest, handcrafted simplicity rooted in morality and tradition, Art Nouveau embraced ornament, sensuality, and new modern aesthetics, often using industrial methods for decorative ends. This new art movement had its roots in Britain, in the floral designs of William Morris , and in the Arts and Crafts movement founded by the pupils of Morris. It rejected imitation of past styles, but embraced modernity and innovation. It celebrated the idea that art should unify with life—“total art” (Gesamtkunstwerk). Art Nouveau was open to new technologies (iron, glass, print posters). Ornament as beauty, unifying art and life was the key idea.

Characteristics of Art Nouveau Lettering

Curvilinear strokes (“whiplash” lines).
Organic ornament: vines, flowers, tendrils.
Highly stylized serifs and terminals (sometimes melting into plant-like extensions).
Heavy contrast between thick and thin strokes.
Asymmetry and playful letter proportions.
Often uppercase-dominant, designed for display.

Eugène Grasset created hand-lettered alphabets (1890s) for posters and books. He was influential in developing curvilinear, decorative forms. Grasset taught design at the École Guérin from 1890 to 1903, at the École d’Art graphique in the rue Madame from 1903 to 1904, at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière from 1904 to 1913, and at the École Estienne in Paris. Grasset had freely adapted the alphabet of Nicolas Jenson (1471) with the intention of using it to print a book on his own method for ornamental composition, inspired by the courses he gave to the Guérin school.

Auriol (1901, George Auriol, France). Produced by G. Peignot et Fils foundry, was one of the most widely used Art Nouveau fonts in Paris. It was inspired by Japanese calligraphy. Japanese calligraphy, called Shodo or Shuji, heavily influenced Art Nouveau type.

Japanese woodblock prints ( Japonisme ) introduced flowing lines, asymmetry, and decorative motifs. Japonisme is a French term coined in the late nineteenth century and refers to the popularity and influence of Japanese art and design among a number of Western European artists in the nineteenth century following the forced reopening of foreign trade with Japan in 1858. Japonisme was first described by French art critic and collector Philippe Burty in 1872.

While the effects of the trend were likely most pronounced in the visual arts, they extended to architecture, landscaping and gardening, and clothing. Even the performing arts were affected; Gilbert and Sullivan 's The Mikado is perhaps the best example.

Otto Eckmann (1900) created Eckmannschrift, one of the first typefaces specifically associated with Art Nouveau. Influenced by Japanese art and medieval calligraphy. Eckmann used woodblock print for his work on Jugend magazine similar to Japanese prints and later-adapted French styles. Eckmann's work differed from others in the Art Nouveau movement in that he used dimensionality in his designs, where most designers used a flat look Eckmann's work shows a clear background, middle-ground and foreground. From 1900 to 1902, he designed the fonts Eckmann (in 1900) and Fette Eckmann (in 1902), probably the most common Jugendstil fonts still in use. Eckmann was also proficient in tile design and furniture design.

Peter Behrens (1901) designed Behrens Antiqua and other lettering styles—bridging Art Nouveau to modernism. Peter Behrens (1868 – 1940) was a leading German architect, graphic and industrial designer, best known for his early pioneering AEG Turbine Hall in Berlin in 1909. He had a long career, designing objects, typefaces, and important buildings in a range of styles from the 1900s to the 1930s. He was a founding member of the German Werkbund in 1907, when he also began designing for AEG, pioneered corporate design, graphic design, producing typefaces, objects, and buildings for the company.

Rudolf Koch (slightly later, 1900s) blended Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau) with medieval forms.

In the United States, Will Bradley (b. 1895) was largely self-taught as an artist. Bradley executed a number of designs to promote The Chap-Book , a short-lived but important publication based in Chicago. His 1894 design for Chap-Book , titled "The Twins," has been called the first American Art Nouveau poster. This and other posters for the magazine brought him widespread recognition and popularity. Bradley was well acquainted with the stylistic innovations of his European counterparts. Like many French artists, he borrowed stylistic elements from Japanese prints, working in flat, broad color planes and cropped forms. He appropriated the whiplash curves of the Art Nouveau movement so dominant in Europe at the turn of the century and was influenced by the work of the English illustrator Aubrey Beardsley.

Arnold Böcklin (1904, Germany, still popular in the 1970s hippie revival) – eccentric, ornamental, and perhaps the most widely recognized Art Nouveau revival type. Arnold Böcklin (1827 – 1901) was a Swiss Symbolist painter. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting . Schirmer, who recognized in him a student of exceptional promise, sent him to Antwerp and Brussels , where he copied the works of Flemish and Dutch masters. Böcklin then went to Paris , worked at the Louvre , and painted several landscapes.

Arnold 3556 is a typeface for display use that was designed in 1904 by Schriftgiesserei Otto Weisert foundry. Probably the best-known Art Nouveau typeface, the font had a renaissance in the 1960s and 1970s as part of the general Art Nouveau revival in popular design. Its influence can be seen in the work of illustrators such as Roger Dean and the Stuckist artist Paul Harvey , and on Donovan's 1960's album cover.

Arnold Böcklin is highly stylized, following Art Nouveau aesthetic principles in vogue at the time of its design. Many letters feature an unorthodox bottom-heavy contrast, and are adorned with swooping, botanical ornaments. The underlying skeletons of the letterforms are primarily based on classical Roman forms, but occasionally borrow from Uncial and Blackletter, as seen in letters like “H”, “N”, “M”, as well as the single-story “g” and the looped “k”. Due to its highly ornamental nature, Arnold Böcklin is primarily suitable for typesetting at large display sizes.

Pencraft and other display alphabets (ATF, Barnhart Bros. & Spindler), U.S. foundries issued ornamental Art Nouveau types for advertising. Pencraft , from Intellecta Design has a mixed source. The capitals were inspired in “Swagger Capitals”, an original design from Carl Stephen Junge, at Barnhart Brothers & Spindler. Carl was an illustrator and poster designer in Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s, who lived from 1880.

Pencraft has a long history in the North-American typography. It was first designed by Hermann Ihlenburg, born in Germany in 1843, where he studied art and worked for several German type foundries. He emigrated to the USA in 1866 and worked for the L. Johnson & Co. foundry, later MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan. Ihlenburg died July 31, 1905 in Philadelphia. Sidney Gaunt, working as a type designer for Barnhart Brothers & Spindler foundry, in Chicago, added in 1914 the Pencraft Oldstyle series (BB&S later ATF). Pencraft , from Intellecta, is a free-interpretation from Pencraft Specials, an ornamental variation (with few lowercase, an incomplete alphabete) from Pencraft Oldstyle series, as displayed in the BBS catalog from 1922. The research and development of this font is work by Chyrllene K, a new, and welcome designer at Intellecta,

By 1910, Art Nouveau was fading. It was seen as overly decorative and was replaced by Art Deco, Plakatstil (poster style), and modernist sans-serifs (e.g., Futura, 1927). Still, Art Nouveau typefaces remained popular in advertising for certain luxury goods. In the 1960s–70s counterculture revival, fonts like Arnold Böcklin were rediscovered and associated with psychedelic posters, bringing Art Nouveau back into fashion.

In short: Art Nouveau fonts were display-oriented, highly decorative, and tied to the broader artistic revolt against rigid academic styles. Fonts like Eckmann, Auriol, Bradley, and Arnold Böcklin remain the most recognizable products of the period.

Ornamental Gothics

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 20:14:00 GMT

Gothics History. Gothic typefaces are a broad group of styles rooted in medieval calligraphy and evolved into distinct print types during and after the invention of movable type via Gutenberg in the 15th century. They are sometimes confusingly named. In Europe “Gothic” usually refers to blackletter (medieval scripts), while in the U.S. “Gothic” often refers to sans-serif typefaces since the 1830s.

Gothic script is a broad term for the entire family of medieval European scripts that developed from Carolingian minuscule around the twelfth century. “Minuscules” are lower case letters as distinct from capital letters, or uncials. Type developed in the sixth through tenth centuries with modern lettering evolving from Carolingian scripts. The Emperor Charlemagne used these letters as an educational standard.

These densely packed scripts featured tall, narrow letterforms, strong vertical emphasis, sharp, angular connections, a dramatic thick/thin contrast and minimal spacing between letters. Gothic-inspired fonts create immediate medieval impact and work beautifully for titles, logos, and short display text. They are used today in Fantasy Gaming, Historical Projects, Themed Entertainment (like the Renaissance Fair), Book Design, Certificates, Breweries and Distilleries. Jack Nolan, a professional graphics designer, has provided a fetching display of such faces in his "33 Medieval Fonts Perfect for ‘Ye Olde’ Designs in 2025."(1)

Substyles
Substyles of Gothic script developed in several major typefaces — Textura, Rotunda, Schwabacher, and Fraktur. Textura (Textualis) has very dense, upright, tall little-spaced letters with sharp, angular strokes and minimal curves. The vertical emphasis offers almost no slant and there are diamond-shaped serifs at stroke ends.

Textura was used in the Gutenberg Bible along with other formal and liturgical documents. Old English Text has heavily borrowed from Textura Quadrata. (I have traced some of this history in two books I wrote — Bible Typography: A History of Bible Printing and Versions , and Typographical Beauty Through the Ages: A Christian Perspective , both available from Lulu Press [lulu.com]or on Amazon.)

Rotunda , with its rounded bowls and more open counters, is rounder and more open than Textura, thus, easier to read. It has softer curves and fewer broken strokes, more spacing between letters and blends elements of Carolingian minuscule with Gothic verticality. Rotunda was mostly used in southern Europe and Italy.

Schwabacher was a transitional form between Textura and Fraktur, with moderate curves. It has round lowercase letters, more flowing that Textura but denser than Rotunda. Distinctive shapes are “g” and “s.” This face was popular in German books in the late fifteenth – sixteenth centuries.

Fraktur , the most famous German blackletter type, was widely used from the 16th to early 20th century. It has broken yet ornate strokes with both sharp and curved elements. Tall ascenders and elaborate capitals made it the official German type in publications and newspapers until World War II. Its Nazi associations and use with German nationalism due to its use in Nazi propaganda makes it suspect in politically sensitive contexts.

Modern revivals have seen these historic Gothic faces used in diplomas, certificates, beer labels, metal bands, and logos. Old English Text (see Below), Engravers Old English and Cloister Black are favorite faces. These Gothics were gradually replaced by Roman typefaces for readability. Nazi Germany’s later ban on Fraktur in 1941 ended its official use.

Gothics & Old English Typefaces . There is often confusion between Gothic Blackletter faces and what we call Old English type. What we can say is that All “Old English” fonts are Gothic, but not all Gothic fonts are “Old English.” The true Old English language was never written in what we call “Old English font” today—that name is a modern typographic misnomer.

The term “Old English” in typography usually refers to blackletter styles, particularly Textura Quadrata. However, this is somewhat misleading as the actual Old English language (Anglo-Saxon, used from the fifth through eleventh centuries) was typically written in Insular scripts, which look quite different from the later blackletter styles many associate with “Old English” typography. “Old English” was actually the language of the Anglo-Saxons until the mid 1100s and they had nothing to do with Blackletter. Centuries after Blackletter’s initial emergence, “Old English Text” was the name of a font by Monotype that mimicked eleventh century Textura.

Modern Old English fonts include Old English Text MT, which is based on Textura Quadrata, often with decorative capitals, Cloister Black, Engravers Old English, used on diplomas and wedding invitations, and a number of Ornamental variations with type foundries sometimes adding swashes, outline versions, or engraved shading to classic blackletter faces, such as those in the Faust Gothic typeface.

Ornamental Gothic Fonts . Ornamental Gothic fonts possess elaborate capitals, initial letters that are often highly decorated, with swirls, flourishes, or foliage (sometimes called “Lombardic capitals” when round). These capitals may contain internal ornamentation such as hatching, shading, or miniature drawings. A fine example is the font found in C.A. Faust’s 75 New Alphabets in showcasing a Modified Gothic Alphabet, by G. DeFelice, New York City. This font has been digitally recreated and adapted for use by CARE Typography. It is available for purchase and use.

Such ornamental fonts have intricate strokes, with stems and crossbars that may include spur-like extensions, curls, or diamond finials. Pen strokes often show “broken” or “fractured” angles that create a textured look. Thick verticals and thin connecting lines give a dramatic texture. Many ornamental Gothic faces accentuate this contrast with embellished serifs or small spikes. Some of these fonts have decorative ligatures, letters are frequently joined in ornate ligatures (e.g., “ct,” “st,” “Th”). These ligatures may have extra curves or swoops that fill the space between letters.

Ornamental caps may use color and gold in original manuscripts. Historically, ornamental Gothic scripts in illuminated manuscripts often included red, blue, or gold initials, with pen-drawn filigree or “trailing vines” (called flourishing or “rinceaux”).

Modern American Gothics. “Gothic typefaces” in American usage historically refer not to medieval blackletter scripts (as in Europe), but to sans-serif typefaces, especially from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. American printers and foundries used the term “Gothic” for what we’d now simply call sans-serifs.

As early as the 1830s, “Gothic” became the standard name for sans-serif display faces. They were mostly used for advertising, posters, and signage rather than book typography. Key features included condensed proportions, simple strokes, minimal contrast, and sometimes quirky letterforms. Boston Gothic (c. 1837) was one of the earliest American sans-serifs. Franklin Gothic (1902, Morris Fuller Benton, ATF) with its heavy, industrial feel, became a dominant American sans-serif for headlines. News Gothic (1908, Benton, ATF) was lighter and more neutral than Franklin Gothic, ideal for newspaper text and display.

Trade Gothic (1948, Jackson Burke, Linotype) is a workhorse sans used heavily in advertising and newspaper headlines. It is more irregular and “lively” than the geometric European faces (like Futura). Gothic No. 13 / Highway Gothic (FHWA Series, 1940s–50s) was designed by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration for road signage. It is functional and legible at distance and speed rather than stylish.

Gotham, an example of late twentieth century Neo-Gothics (2000, Hoefler & Frere-Jones), is based on mid-20th century American sign lettering and architectural sans-serifs. It gained fame in Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign branding. Gotham’s designer notes that “Gotham celebrates the attractive and unassuming lettering of the city. New York is teeming with such letters, handmade sans serifs that share a common underlying structure, an engineer’s idea of “basic lettering” that transcends both the characteristics of their materials and the mannerisms of their makers. These are the cast bronze numbers that give office doorways their authority, and the markings on cornerstones whose neutral and equable style defies the passage of time. They’re the matter-of-fact neon signs that emblazon liquor stores and pharmacies, and the names of proprietors plainly painted on delivery trucks. These letters are straightforward and non-negotiable, yet possessed of great personality, and often expertly made. And although designers have lived with them for more than half a century, they remarkably went unrevived until 2000, when we introduced Gotham.”

SOURCES

(1). 33 Medieval Fonts Perfect for ‘Ye Olde’ Designs in 2025

Jack Nolan Updated Jul 23, 2025

https://designworklife.com/medieval-f onts-fantasy-or-renaissance-flair/

He highlights Silvermoon, Goldiwak, The Quironax, Synthetic Stone, Dragonhelm, Inkwell Scribe, Dragonit, Cikond, Hortens, Black Kinger, Black Baron Typeface, NCL Jurgen Farbache, Basefigh, Raven Hell Round, Iron Steel, Odd Times, Enigmatic Waesbendly (Modern Blackletter), Falcone, Enchant, Marcus, Windshire, Fenrir Gothic, Ambrosia, Heraldic Shadows, The Hero King Typeface, Raven Hell Regular, Wicked Knight, Lordish Blackletter, The White Knight (my second choice), Distropiax (3rd choice), King Castle, Moleta, Othelie.

More Fournier

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 14:27:28 GMT

(UPDATE FROM POST DECEMBER 23, 2024) Pierre-Simon Fournier — In our history of typography series, Pierre-Simon Fournier (1712–1768) was a French typographer and type designer, renowned for his contributions to the field of typography in the 18th century. He is best known for his work in creating typefaces that reflected the elegance and sophistication of the time.

Fournier published a seminal work in the history of typography titled Manuel de la Typographie ( Manual of Typography , two volumes published in 1764 and 1766), which included detailed descriptions of his typefaces along with examples. This work served as a reference for printers and typographers. The Introduction gives an overview of the principles of typography. In his Classification of typefaces, Fournier emphasizes the distinction between different styles, such as Roman, Italic, and Gothic types. The manual includes practical tips for setting type, including spacing, alignment, and layout, aimed at improving the quality of printed materials. Fournier includes numerous type specimens, showcasing his designs and providing examples of how different types can be used effectively in printing. Throughout the text, Fournier discusses the historical development of typography and its evolution, reflecting on the influence of various cultures and periods on the art of type.

Other contemporaries elsewhere, such as J.M. Fleischman and J. Enschedé, started imitating Fournier's style. In the 1750s, his career was at its peak. He advised royalty in Sweden and Sradinia on types, and set up a printing shop for Madame de Pompadour. He developed musical types in cooperation with J.G.I. Breitkopf in 1756. Fournier's designs influenced future generations of typographers and established a foundation for modern type design. His methods and styles contributed to the evolution of typography, leading to the development of various typefaces we see today.

The ORNAMENTS display is a careful digitized reproduction by CARE Typography of Fournier's original ad as seen in the "Fournier Specimen Book" by Lanston Monotype, 1927, in London.

“Fournier or Fournier Le Jeune, with the exception of the figures, is a reproduction of Le Fournier Le Jeune originally cut in France in 1768 […] and revived in 1913 [by G. Deberny]. ATF secured the American rights in 1926.” [ McGrew 1993 ]

Also offered by the Amsterdam Type Foundry as Gravure verziert.

Digitally revived by Paul D. Hunt for LTC as LTC Fournier Le Jeune, featuring “more elaborate ‘Vogue Initials’ caps which were offered by ATF in 1920s.” [ P22 ] Latter were designed by Clarence Pearson Hornung in 1923. [ Reichardt 2011 ]

Alan Jay Prescott created APT New June (1996) based on Fournier le Jeune. In 2007, Tjorbjörn Olsson ( T4 ) created Museum Fournier , inspired by a set of Rococo capitals designed by Pierre Simon Fournier le Jeune, ca. 1760. The Castcraft version of Fournier is called OPTI Fourquet . Joshua Darden's Corundum Text (2006) and typeface Griesshammer's free font Source Serif (2014, Adobe) are also based on Fournier. The ambitious PS Fournier (2016, Stéphane Elbaz) is perhaps one of the best digital revivals. At B&P Swiss Typefaces, François Rappo published New Fournier (2011) based on the typography of Pierre-Simon Fournier. It comes in 24 styles.

Overall, Pierre-Simon Fournier's impact on typography is significant, as he helped to shape the standards of type design and usage in the 18th century, leaving a lasting mark on the field.

A Cross Inspired Typeface

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 18:55:28 GMT

A Cross Inspired Typeface. CARE Typography has been able to craft a typeface of Christian crosses from the history of the Christian Church throughout the world. We named it CrossesTwo to simply distinguish it from other writings. It is a FREE font, available to all who ask. Christian crosses are used widely in churches, on top of church buildings, on bibles, in heraldry, in personal jewelry, on hilltops, and elsewhere as an attestation or other symbol of Christianity. Crosses are a prominent feature of Christian cemeteries , either carved on gravestones or as sculpted stelae . Because of this, planting small crosses is sometimes used in countries of Christian culture to mark the site of fatal accidents. Not far from where we are, there is a huge Christian cross built by a Virginia church marking not merely the site of the church building, but announcing the central message of the Bible there.

Christian crosses are powerful symbols that convey theological meaning, cultural identity, and historical legacy. Over centuries, many distinct styles of the cross have developed across Christian traditions, regions, and periods. Some of the most prominent crosses are the traditional Latin Cross (Letter "L" in CrossesTwo typeface), where the vertical beam extends beyond the horizontal cross bar, the Greek Cross , a cross with four arms of equal length (Letter "V" in the typeface), the Orthodox (Eastern) Cross (Letter small "o" in typeface), with three horizontal bars — the top for the inscription (INRI), the middle for the hands, and the slanted bottom bar for the footrest, the Celtic Cross (Letter "1" in the typeface), which is a Latin cross with a circular ring connecting the arms. The traditional Latin cross symbolizes the crucifixion of Jesus, with the empty cross signaling that He rose again from the dead, and is used in Western Christianity, Roman Catholic, Protestant, and many global Christian contexts.

The Greek Cross is common in early Christian art and Byzantine Christianity and used in Eastern Orthodox, Byzantine, and early Christian monuments and mosaics. In the Orthodox Eastern Cross the slanted bar represents the two thieves crucified beside Christ — one rose to heaven, the other descended. It is used in Russian, Greek, Serbian, and other Eastern Orthodox Churches. The Celtic Cross had its origins in early medieval Ireland and Britain, associated with Celtic Christianity. It has been used in Irish Christianity, Anglican, some Protestant denominations, and decorative gravestones.

The Coptic Cross (Letter "5" in the typeface and note Letter "e" where the Ethiopian Cross is a close match to the new Coptic Cross) is a a variation with intricate, symmetrical designs — sometimes with equal arms or surrounded by circles. It is used by Christians in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Jerusalem Cross (Letter "j" in the typeface) has a large central cross surrounded by four smaller Greek crosses, used by the Crusades in the eleventh century, is the Heraldic symbol of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and used by Franciscans and in modern Jerusalem-related contexts. The Russian Orthodox Cross (Letter "o" in the typeface) Features three horizontal bars — top (INRI), middle (hands), and slanted bottom (feet). The Tau Cross (Letters "T" and "t" in the typeface) is shaped like the Greek letter tau and has been adopted by St. Anthony and Franciscans to symbolize Old Testament sacrifices and God's protection (Ezekiel 9:4).

St. Andrew's Cross (Saltire) (Letter "s" in the typeface) is an X-shaped cross from the tradition that Andrew the Apostle was crucified on a diagonal cross. It is the symbol of Scotland and the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Papal Cross (Letter "P" in the typeface) is a vertical staff with three horizontal bars, decreasing in length, representing the pope’s triple office: bishop of Rome, patriarch of the West, and successor of Peter. The Cross of Lorraine (Letter "l" in the typeface) is a vertical bar crossed by two horizontal bars — the lower one longer, has been used in Western Europe during the Crusades and was a symbol of French resistance in World War 2. The Patriarchal Cross (Letter "p" in the typeface) is similar to the Cross of Lorraine, but primarily associated with ecclesiastical hierarchy, and used by archbishops and patriarchs in Eastern and Western churches.

Each cross reflects regional theological emphases, cultural aesthetics, and historical developments. While the Latin Cross remains the universal Christian emblem, the variety in form reveals Christianity's global and historical richness. Note the CrossesTwo typeface below with the description of these and many other crosses. (Credit for the opening image is given to Matteo Corti - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Muiredach_s_Cross.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1393567)

Slab Serif Font History

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 17:12:34 GMT

Slab Serifs. Born in Great Britain in the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s, slab fonts, or slab serif fonts, provided a beefy and starkly bold contrast to text fonts that were popular. Found on just about every billboard, poster, pamphlet and advertising vehicle of the day, slabs were designed to stand out from the crowd, a type that shouted, "look at me!" Slab serifs, also called Egyptian, antique, mechanistic or square serif, are characterized by usually thick, block like serifs.

Slab serifs possess thick serifs, which are squared-off or slightly rounded, and almost the same weight as the main strokes. From a typographical standpoint, they have low contrast, with minimal difference between thick and thin strokes. Slab serifs can have a geometric or humanist structure, and can range from mechanical-looking to more organic. They are sturdy and legible, designed for impact and readability even at large sizes. Early examples were Antique and Clarendon.

ANTIQUE . The first commercially available slab serif , or Egyptian, typeface—called “Antique”—appeared in 1815 and was designed by Vincent Figgins. They were more attention-grabbing than more traditional serifs. The primary characteristic of slab serif fonts is the lack of curvature on the serifs.

After the first slab serif typeface was released, they quickly grew in popularity early in the 19th century, alongside the rise in printed advertising. Some slab serifs were developed specifically to be used at larger sizes for printed matter like posters. This was a departure from earlier large-scale type designs, which adapted existing forms of book type.

CLARENDON. The first slab serif fonts appeared at the beginning of industrialization in Great Britain in 1820. Clarendon and Ionic became the names for this new development in England, known as English Egyptienne elsewhere in Europe. Clarendon is also the name of a particular font of this style, which, thanks to its clear, objective and timeless forms, never lost its contemporary feel. In small point sizes Clarendon is still a legible font and in larger print, its individual style attracts attention.

Although Clarendon itself was created by Robert Besley in 1845, it is inspired by the typeface Antique, one of the original slab serifs. While Clarendon and Antique share a similar flavor, Clarendon's addition of bracketed serifs, the gentile curves connecting the serif to the body of the letter, gives it the ability to work better inline of a body of text with other serifed fonts as well as giving it its softer and more approachable feel. It quickly became one of the most popular typefaces of its time period and to the point where today we rather quickly associate it with turn of the century England and in the U.S., the old west.

There were a few Clarendons — a thick-faced condensed type with heavy serifs. The original Clarendon is an English slab-serif created in in the 1830s by Robert Besley for Fann and later Thorowgood and Co. type founders. A version was made into a wood typeface and also was reworked in metal by the Monotype Corporation foundry in 1935. Hermann Eidenbenz and Edouard Hoffmann made their own version based on Besley’s original design in 1953. The Craw Clarendon family designed by Freeman Craw was released by American Type Founders in 1955, with light, bold and condensed variants. Fortune or Volta, a very modern version of Clarendon, was designed by Konrad Friedrich Bauer and Walter Baum for the Bauer Type Foundry, in 1955, adding an italic in the medium weight. Aldo Novarese drew the Egizio family, a Clarendon by any other name for the Nebiolo foundry in Turin, Italy in 1958. (From https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/clarendon/ )

BLICK FREEHAND. Built on innovation and creativity, BLICK is a company of firsts. Dick Blick's first catalog originated in 1911 in the form of a small pamphlet issued by the company's founders, Dick and Grace Blick. Our first product was a lettering pen, the Payzant, which quickly became a bestseller. The Freehand typeface featured in C.A. Faust's 75 New Typefaces in 1912 was penned by Blick using the Payzant. The Blick's first warehouse was their kitchen, and their first shipping department was the Galesburg, Illinois post office where they would send out their daily shipments. See dickblick.com for more information.

Egyptian/Egyptienne — mostly used for slab-serifs generally, although first used by the Caslon Foundry in naming their sans-serif , the first made. Continued to be used as a name for "geometric" slab-serifs appearing in the twentieth century, and so several geometric slab-serifs had Egyptian-themed names, including Memphis , Cairo and Karna k.

Memphis is a slab-serif typeface designed by Rudolf Wolf and released in 1929 by the Stempel Type Foundry .

Memphis is a "geometric" slab serif, reflecting the style of German geometric sans-serifs (in particular Futura ) which had attracted considerable attention, and adapting the design to the slab serif structure. Its structure is strictly monoline, with a "single-storey" 'a' similar to blackletter or handwriting , in an almost-perfect circle. It was released in several weights and with alternative characters such as swashes , which digitisations have mostly not included.

Memphis has an Egyptian name, in reference to the fact that early slab serifs were often called "Egyptians" as an exoticism by nineteenth-century typefounders.

Memphis and other similar designs were popular in printing during the hot metal typesetting period

Ionic — in the nineteenth century used as a name for slab-serifs. In the twentieth century this term became used to mean text faces with some Clarendon-style features, because of an influential body text face of this name from Linotype - this followed from previous faces of the same name only slightly bolder than text proportions from Miller & Richard .

Egyptienne is a slab serif typeface designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1956. The design was influenced by the Clarendon model of slabs that originated in 1845. Egyptienne has a large x-height and, unlike Clarendon, contains italics so it can work well for setting body text . The typeface has been a classic, go-to slab serif for over 50 years but doesn’t seem to be used much on the web, with other humanist slabs such as Adelle being more popular.

ROCKWELL. The Rockwell family is a fine example of this appealing and eminently usable type style. This is a design that is both robust and adaptable. Marked by the flat top-serifs on the cap A, unusual Q tail and high-legibility two-storied lowercase a, Rockwell has a bit of handmade charm that distinguishes it from the cool, more modern interpretations of the slab serif style. The family is excellent for branding, headlines and other display uses. The simple shapes and hearty serifs also make it a good choice for short blocks of textual content in both print and on-screen environments. The light and bold weights are perfect for setting blocks of text copy, while the extra bold and condensed designs bring authority to display copy. Throw in a little color, and you amp up Rockwell’s messaging power. Rockwell’s large x-height, simple character shapes and open counters, make for an exceptionally legible design. It should not, however, be set so tight that its serifs touch, as this will erode legibility and impair readability. A benefit to Rockwell’s slab serifs, however, is that the design combines beautifully with both sans serif typefaces and a variety of serif designs. (MyFonts.com)

ROBOTO SLAB. Roboto has a dual nature. It has a mechanical skeleton and the forms are largely geometric. At the same time, the font features friendly and open curves. While some grotesks distort their letterforms to force a rigid rhythm, Roboto doesn’t compromise, allowing letters to be settled into their natural width. This makes for a more natural reading rhythm more commonly found in humanist and serif types.

Roboto has a dual nature. It has a mechanical skeleton and the forms are largely geometric. At the same time, the font features friendly and open curves. While some grotesks distort their letterforms to force a rigid rhythm, Roboto doesn't compromise, allowing letters to be settled into their natural width. Roboto Typeface is popular among designers because of its versatility and readability. It is designed to work well on all platforms, including mobile, web, and print. Its open and friendly curves make it easy to read, while its mechanical skeleton gives it a solid structure.

SERIFA. Serifa is a slab serif typeface family created by Adrian Frutiger in 1967. The typeface is based on the Univers family. It was most prominently featured in the logo of Montgomery Ward from 1982 to 1992 and again in the revived online store. It was also used in the campaign ads for Ross Perot 's 1992 Presidential campaign and from 1982 to late 1987 on the graphics of various CBS News programming, and for the local news programs at the CBS owned-and-operated television stations (as well as several affiliates). In 2014 Jake Tilson used it in the NT signage to complement the NT logo. Serifa is also used in nearly all of the College Board's communications and exams.

Museo Slab (from Adobe)

Jos Buivenga lives and works in Arnhem. He started designing type in 1994 and started his exljbris Font Foundry ten years later. He is most known for his Museo font family and also for the way he markets his typefaces. This OpenType font family comes in five weights and offers supports CE languages and even esperanto. Besides ligatures, contextual alternatives, stylistic alternates, fractions and proportional/tabular figures MUSEO also has a 'case' feature for case sensative forms. Museo Slab supports a very wide range in languages and is a complete OpenType typeface. Each weight counts 455 glyphs. You can find detailed info in the Museo Slab PDF specimen . Museo Slab is spaced and kerned with Igino Marini's wonderful iKern service.

ARVO (Google)

This Font Software is licensed under the SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1 . This license is available as FAQ at https://openfontlicense.org .

COURIER. Howard G. “Bud” Kettler, worked as a type designer for IBM in the 1950s. He designed corporate logos, special-purpose fonts, like the Bell Gothic, and a number of typewriter fonts. He was tasked with the job of designing a typeface that was “weightier” than the fine lines of Pica and Elite that were being used at the time.

Dirk Stratton, in Aldus Magazine noted that Kettler in the mid-1950s designed the face we call Courier — “He based its geometry on nineteenth century Egyptian typefaces, slab-serifs they are called, and made them work on the typewriter.”¹ IBM never assigned a trademark to the face and it has been in the public domain ever since. Kettler was proud of his work — “A letter can be just an ordinary messenger [that was thought to be the desired name] or it can be the courier which radiates dignity, prestige and stability.”² The Courier typeface was born.

Even the renowned Robert Bringhurst in The Elements of Typographic Style acknowledges Courier’s long standing usefulness — “And on the principle that a good hamburger is better than a bad souffle, even monospace typewriter fonts - such as IBM Courier and Prestige, which are models of their kind - remain well worth considering for routine work on laser printers.” (Robert Bringhurst, Elements of Typographic Style (Hartley & Marks, 1992 edition), 90–91.)

As a monospaced font, Courier found usefulness in computer programming and became the industry standard for screenplays written in 12-point Courier, called Courier Screenplay. The typeface Courier New was used until January 2004 by the federal government, being replaced by 14-point Times New Roman typeface. The iterations and variants of Courier have been many, including Courier New, Courier Screenplay, Courier Prime, Dark Courier, Courier 10 BT, Courier Final Draft and Courier LT Round Font.

Pen-Lettering History

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 20:14:00 GMT

Pen-drawn lettering lies at the heart of Western typographic tradition. From Roman capitals to digital script fonts, its influence persists in the balance, rhythm, and grace of letterforms—whether carved in stone, printed in books, or drawn by hand on a modern tablet.

The history of pen-drawn lettering in typography is deeply intertwined with the broader evolution of writing, calligraphy, and type design. It represents a key bridge between handwritten traditions and mechanical or digital type. Key characteristics of Pen-Drawn Lettering include stroke contrast, from broad-nib or pointed-pen techniques, fluid cures and terminals, which are naturally shaped by hand movement, and the human touch of imperfections, variation and expression.

Although allied with Calligraphy, pen-lettering has distinct differences. Calligraphy illustrates the art of writing with specific strokes, while pen-lettering focuses on the art of drawing letters. Calligraphy shows writing in one continuous flow while in pen-lettering letters are stylized individually. Calligraphy relies on pressure for thick/thin strokes while pen-lettering is drawn and shaded manually. It is harder to fix mistakes in calligraphy. Thus, the word "typography" in calligraphy is written in one flowing motion, using a brush pen, adjusting pressure to get thick and thin lines. In pen-lettering the word "typography" is done by drawing each letter as a mini-illustration, perhaps outlining it and adding embellishments. However, both calligraphy and pen-lettering share similar histories and are at least partners in typography.

The plates below give an overall history of pen-lettering. Enjoy!

SOURCES

ChatGPT on "calligraphy" and "pen lettering"

https://luc.devroye.org/fonts-32497.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnston_(typeface))

P22 Type Foundry and MyFonts.com for typeface descriptions

https://www.calligraphersguild.org/sheila-waters

Настина Сказка - мир макраме мастера vk.com/nastinaskazka on Pinterest

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/3588874697522020/visual-search/?cropSource=5&surfaceType=flashlight&rs=deep_linking lettering on Pinterest

http://www.lettercult.com/archives/2853 featuring David Croy on Pinterest

H. Carl Shank, Typography Through the Years , Lulu Press, 2024

Lewis F. Day, Alphabets Old and New , London, 1910.

Maggie Patton, “The Printer’s Mark: That Curious Penguin on the Spine of Your Favorite Paperback Isn’t There Just for Decoration,” Openbook , Autumn 2022.

William Roberts, The Project Gutenberg Ebook of Printers’ Marks, June 1, 2008, Ebook #25663, from inages made available by The Internet Archive.

Charles Ayers Faust, Faust's 75 New Alphabets , C.W. Braithewait Co., 1912

Digitizing Faust

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 11:37:58 GMT

Charles Ayers Faust (b. 1860) was an American calligrapher and typographic designer known primarily for his 1912 compendium Faust’s 75 New Alphabets , a richly illustrated manual of lettering techniques. Published in Chicago by the C. W. Braithewait Company, this 72‑page volume is now in the public domain. CARE Typography, in its mission to digitally restore older typography, has restored some of Faust's designs for the modern type world. 75 unique alphabets for artistic lettering, including brush, air-brush, air-pencil, relief, stencil, marking, shading, and both ornate (Payzant, Soennecken) and practical “common pen” styles. They are Highly visual, serving as both an instructional guide and inspirational specimen book for sign-writers, designers, artists, and printers of the early 20th century.

As a historical reference these pen inspired drawings offer a snapshot of commercial and decorative lettering techniques before the rise of digital typography. They are still used today by lettering artists and calligraphers looking for period-authentic styles. The pen styles range from Art Nouveau (2 styles) to large poster display type to fancy pen lettering.

A note about the payzant pen. The Payzant pen is a specialized broad-edged lettering pen associated with expressive calligraphy, particularly for display and titling purposes. It's named after Canadian calligrapher, artist and educator Douglas Payzant , who popularized a unique, energetic, and highly legible script style using this tool in the mid-20th century. Payzant was known for his expressive, rhythmic lettering, developing a distinctive style that emphasized rapid execution, clarity and boldness, and a sense of liveliness. His style was especially influential in the 1960s–1980s during a resurgence in interest in expressive pen-lettering techniques. The pen techniques included flowing and natural stroke sequences, wide verticals versus narrow horizontals, legible but informal, and designed for large-scale lettering such as in sketchbooks , scrapbooks , and decorative journal pages. It was perfect for posters, title pages, and public signage due to its bold strokes and was c ommonly used in manual layouts, advertising mockups, and theatre/film title art.

CARE Typography has digitized some of these pen lettering samples from Faust, seeking to retain the descriptive flair and flavor of the lettering. They are available as a package or as select fonts. Contact CARE Typography at cshanktype@gmail.com for ordering and prices.

Typography and Religion in the De Stijl Movement

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 00:29:09 GMT

The De Stijl (Dutch for “The Style”) typographical and art movement emerged around 1917 and significantly influenced modern art, design and thought itself. In the wake of the chaos of World War I, the movement sought to express a new vision of harmony and order. De Stijl was not just an art style, but a comprehensive aesthetic philosophy. It sought universal beauty, as abstracted from individual beauty, and a visual language and typography based on simplicity, geometry and primary colors, namely red, blue and yellow.

Its core characteristics were the use of straight horizonal and vertical lines, the use of rectangles and squares, an emphasis on asymmetry, and the favoring of pure abstraction. De Stijl was deeply influenced by the philosophy of Neo-Plasticism, a theory developed by Piet Mondrian, which sought to depict reality in a pure, universal form. Behind this philosophy was the religious thrust of Theosophy, particularly the spiritual writings of Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891) and Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925).

Typography and art have always been influenced by religious thought.(1) The early monks before Gutenberg’s printing press, carefully penned religious inspired versals (opening letters to written works). The Lindisfarne Gospels composed in the eighth century featured fantastic hand-crafted art and lettering. Printers in the Gutenberg era wrote books with what are called “printers’ marks,” symbolizing the cross of Christ with a globe and initials at the bottom indicating a humble submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ over the earth and its inhabitants, inclusive of the printers themselves.(2)

Victorian ornamentation advanced type and art that spoke loudly of the rule of God in life and thought. Art Nouveau artists like Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939) gave us posters from a devoutly religious Catholic lifestyle — “For me, the notions of painting, going to church, and music are so closely knit that often I cannot decide whether I like church for its music, or music for its place in the mystery which it accompanies.” The movement of Dadaism gave way to the beauty of Constructivism, which in turn birthed Bauhaus functionalism and eventually Swiss Type beauty in the enduring work of the religious Calvinist, Adrian Fruitger and the Univers typeface.(3)

It should therefore be no surprise that De Stijl with its ideas of grid systems, sans-serif type and minimalism had its roots in spiritual thought and philosophy. However, unlike early typography and art, De Stijl sought to remove the “particular” (the individual, the emotional, the narrative) and express the “universal” — timeless and absolute truths through plastic means (form, color, and space). Led by a belief system rooted in Eastern religions, occult practices, esoteric traditions, like Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, reincarnation and “secret” teachings, this syncretistic teaching led Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) to develop Neo-Plasticism, the theoretical backbone of De Stijl.

Christian teaching does not accept Theosophy or Steiner’s Anthroposophy as compatible with biblical faith. While these systems might use Christian language, they redefine its core truths. They are spiritually misleading, even dangerous, to Christian standards in denying the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, the reliability of the Bible, and the personal nature of God. Christ was much more than a spiritual being who was incarnated in the man Jesus of Nazareth. Christianity is not one of several valid spiritual paths. Jesus himself said He alone is “the way, the truth and the life” and the only way to God the Father. (John 14:6)

Major players in the De Stijl movement included Theo van Doesburg (1882–1931), its founder and key propagandist, Piet Mondrian, who developed the theoretical backbone of De Stijl, Gerrit Rietveld (1888–1964), famous for the Red and Blue Chair (1918–1923), Bart van der Leck (1876–1958), who developed a distinctive visual language of simplified forms and bold color. Additional players included Robert van’t Hoff, an architect who influenced Frank Lloyd Wright and J.J.O. Oud who applied architectural De Stijl ideas to social housing.

Typefaces inspired by van der Leck include Kinesis (2018, Rian Hughes), a modular headline font, constructed from white, black and grey overlapping rectangles. Hughes maintains that Kinesis were forays into purely pen-written forms and the extra-rational decision of being in the “zone” when working. Under the name Device he now provides design and illustration for the advertising, entertainment, publishing and media industries, working from Richmond, UK as a comic book artist. He has written and drawn comics for 2000AD and Batman: Black and White , and designed logos for James Bond, the X-Men, Superman, Hed Kandi and The Avengers.(See his artwork below). He creates mostly display type. The typeface Salvation (a potato cut font) is from him and the Kano font.

Rietveld Fatface (2007, Dries Wiewauters) and SM Maxeville (2017, Soft Machine) also flow from De Stijl. SM Maxeville is a sans-serif typeface designed in 2017 by Dutch designer Mark Niemeijer. The design was inspired by the De Stijl art movement and features distinctive, quirky forms such as the vertical tail on the y and the oversized square dots on the i . This neo-grotesk typeface family with geometric properties is available in a regular style as well as a constructed stencil cut style, each with matching italics. There are 14 styles and 2 weights available from SM Foundry, a digital type foundry in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands.(www.s-m.nu)

Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) was the most famous De Stijl artist, known for his iconic grid-based paintings using primary colors and black lines. Mondrian explained his philosophy of Neo-Plasticism in his 1917 essay “Neo-Plasticism in Pictorial Art.” See his Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow."

Gerrit Rietveld was an architect and furniture designer who combined minimalist structure with dynamic use of color and space.

Interestingly, De Stijl as a typographical and art movement began to fracture in the late 1920s over ideological and aesthetic disagreements between Mondrian and van Doesburg. Van Doesburg’s death in 1931 effectively marked the end of De Stijl as a cohesive movement.

Sources

(1) This is ably demonstrated in my book Typographical Beauty Through the Ages , Lulu Press, 2025.

(2) Early Printers marks have been digitized and are available from CARE Typography.

(3). From Typographical Beauty Through the Ages , "Swiss Type Beauty," 107ff.

(4) Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture, Zondervan Academic, 2022, 233-234.

Font Restoration Mechanics

Tue, 13 May 2025 19:21:43 GMT

Font Restoration Mechanics. Let me begin by giving an example from the world of theology, my first love and profession. Many people, even many non-Christian people, know that we are saved “by faith.” But faith in what or who? Well, faith in God. But this is imprecise. It is faith in Jesus Christ the Bible tells us. But once again, this too can be mistaken as just an intellectual nod of the mind toward Jesus without a real life change or transformation. More detailed biblical discussion, with appropriate distinctions, must be made so that we don’t make “faith” a human, works-based activity we do to please God. Or some existential “experience” with no definable qualities. Digging even deeper, faith saves no one, though it is absolutely necessary for salvation. It is Jesus Christ who saves. Faith becomes an “instrument” of salvation. Theologians have been unpacking this salvation “by faith alone” for centuries. Books and “how-to” sermons have been written and preached and taught here. Do you see the tremendous amount of refinement that “faith” requires? Precise typography claims similar distinctions and refinements in letter development and typeface creation.

CARE Typography has been able to restore older hand-drawn fonts from various sources to modern digital typefaces. One of those most prolific sources has been from Alphabets Old and New — For The Use of Craftsmen, With An Introductory Essay on ‘Art in the Alphabet’” by Lewis F. Day, London, 1910.There is a wealth of older fonts shown by Day, one of them being a Roman Forum font from an old Roman Forum engraving.

It might be thought that to copy and paste the letters and import them into a font design program, like FontLab’s Fontographer, is simple and rather straight-forward. Not so. From a font designer’s work, the transfer from a screenshot of an old book to a clear and professional open type font (SEE my Blog on “Open Type Fonts” in “More About Fonts” March 9, 2021) takes care and lots of work. It is both tedious and time intensive. The details of such work are often overlooked. Here’s an inside look at such work.

The restored Roman Forum Capitals typeface. Let’s take the Capital M. Using Fontographer, we need a precisely scanned letter form. So, we take a computer picture of the page from Day, as shown in the image. However, each letter of this picture must be captured in is own frame. We therefore isolate M and save it as a JPEG file for import into Fontographer.

However, behind the scenes is the fact that the saved M in jpeg format is only in 72 dpi (dots per inch — SEE my Blog on “All About Color” September 5, 2022), a far less precise tracing than what is needed for a good scan for Fontographer. In fact, if we simply copy this M image without any other transformative work, and ask Fontographer to trace the image we get a very distorted M character. And, if we enlarge the M image captured in 72 dpi, we get a jagged image, and if ported into Fontographer, more distortions are evident. We could, perhaps, try to clean up the distorted M image in Fontographer, but that is clearly too tedious and results in an “unclean” character.

One of the first rules in scanning an image for Fontographer is that the image must be clear and free of image blurs or incidentals. All images need to fit into the 1000 mm Fontographer character box (800 height and 200 for those letters that go below the baseline). Since these capital letters do not go below the baseline, we do not have to worry about character descents.

The problem is with the fine lines in the M image. They don’t translate well. Consequently, I had to redraw the M image in a design program (like InDesign from Adobe) for the crisp and clear lines of the M. Then, saving that redrawing as a JPEG, I could scan it into Fontographer, whose automatic tracing technique produced an M like the original drawing. Every letter has to be done this way. They then need to be sized to fit the required character spacing in Fontographer. I told you it would be time intensive.

Letter spacing and kerning come next, so that letters typed together look like they belong together. More information on this process can be found in my Blog — “Kern, Kern, Kern October 21, 2023.” Adobe’s InDesign program will metrically and optically kern letters so that they appear well together. This is not true, however, in Word documents and others.

We end up with a properly spaced Roman Forum Font, with crisp clear letters at any size.

Wide Is Beautiful

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 16:59:37 GMT

Wide Is Beautiful What makes a typeface beautiful? Aesthetically pleasing fonts or typefaces have differing qualities that make them suitable and beautiful in different contexts and uses. I have chosen six (6) wide or "extended" font faces to highlight the inherent beauty and usability of such type. The samples chosen range from well used Adobe fonts to a specialty antique wide font CARE Typography crafted from an old fashioned type book published by Frederick Nelson Phillips, Inc of New York back in 1945.

Blackoak. Blackoak is an Adobe font face d esigned by Joy Redick from Adobe Originals. Blackoak has been adapted from proofs of wood type from the collection at the Smithsonian Institution, has slab serifs and extremely wide letterforms. Used sparingly, Blackoak makes an arresting display type.

The Adobe Originals program started in 1989 as an in-house type foundry at Adobe, brought together to create original typefaces of exemplary design quality, technical fidelity, and aesthetic longevity. Today the Type team's mission is to make sophisticated and even experimental typefaces that explore the possibilities of design and technology. Typefaces released as Adobe Originals are the result of years of work and study, regarded as industry standards for the ambition and quality of their development.

Federal. Designed by Erik van Blokland. From LettError. Instantly recognizable as the voice of a nation, Federal Regular is an amalgam of massive triangular serifs and curvaceous counters. An asset to all documentation whether analog or digital, the high-contrast letters are a proclamation of fiduciary responsibility. In type we trust.

HWT Roman Extended. Designed by Jim Lyles, Miranda Roth, and William Hamilton Page. From Hamilton Wood Type Collection. HWT Roman Extended Fatface is credited to Robert Thorne just after 1800 in England, is considered to be the first type style designed specifically for display, rather than for book work.

English punchcutter and typefounder (1754-1820, North London), designer of the first fat typefaces, founder of the Fann Street Foundry in 1794 and active until his death in 1820, when his foundry was sold to William Thorowgood a few months after his death. Designer of one of the first fat didone typefaces, Thorowgood (1809), and of Thorne Shaded (1820; Thorne Shaded was part of the Reed foundry material, had defective matrices, so Stephenson&Blake had it recut by Karl Gomer in 1938-1940). As metal typeface, Thorowgood was featured in 1953 by Stephenson and Blake.

Quoting from the typophile wiki : In 1794 Robert Thorne purchased the foundry of Thomas Cottrell, a former employee of the original William Caslon, which had been founded in 1757 when Cottrell and Joseph Jackson were fired in a wage dispute. By 1798 Thorne had replaced all of Cottrell's types with his own designs and in 1801 was the first type founder to begin showing the fat typeface types. He went on to design many popular display typefaces. He also moved the foundry to Fann St. renaming it the Fann Street Foundry. Upon Thorne's death in 1820 the foundry was purchased at auction by William Thorowgood using money he had won in a lottery though he was never involved in the type founding business. Subsequently many of the types identified as Thorowgood's are actually the designs of Robert Thorne. Author of Specimen of Printing types (1794, 1803, 1814). (Information from https://luc.devroye.org/fonts-24776.html )

Hamilton Wood Type Collection, established in 2012, is a joint venture between P22 Type Foundry and the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum. The founding goal was to safeguard a typographic era and make classic wood type designs available as digital fonts for modern audiences.

This historical collection of serif revivals, sans reinterpretations, decorative embellishments, script reclamations, and original chromatic designs is stunningly relevant and usable for any imaginative design practice.

Maldrone. Designed by Barbara Lind. From Adobe Originals.

Madrone is an Adobe Originals typeface designed by Barbara Lind in 1991. Madrone was digitized from proofs of the wood type collection in the National Museum of American History in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. A fat face roman, Madrone is typical of popular early nineteenth-century styles. Fat face types are characterized by their squatness and extreme letter width; one familiar version of this design is Bodoni Ultra Bold. Madrone is eye-catching for display uses in advertising and packaging.

Postino. Designed by Tim Donaldson. From Adobe Originals.

Tim Donaldson, creator of Banshee and Coriander, brings us Postino - a quirky display type modeled roughly on the typewriter face, Courier. Sturdy yet playful, Postino is aptly named by the Italian word for postman or courier. Skimming through a back issue of Visible Language (a journal about written language), Tim was taken aback by the robust beauty of an emboldened Courier typeface. The book designer had used the face to make "cheeky little headlines and they looked superb." Tim decided the world needed a typeface like this but one that "poked its tongue out" even a bit more, while still wearing its functional clothes. After doodling for some time, Postino and its Italic companion worked their way into being on Tim's computer screen. Not-entirely-serious headlines, CD covers, children's books, and advertising copy are all excellent uses for punchy Postino. U.S. Patent Design 415,518.

Antique Wide. Antique Wide is one of the historic fonts advertised by Frederick Nelson Phillips in his Old Fashioned Type Book (1945). CARE Typography has digitized this face as part of its ongoing mission to bring to light typefaces that have long since been forgotten or unused but played an important role in text and advertising pieces in days past. This is a serif "fat" face with shortened verticals, a full face with numerals and minuscules.

This website offers a number of rediscovered and digitized faces from pen and hand written type faces of the past. You are invited to check us out and order any number of these faces for your own use in today's world.

Italics

Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:14:36 GMT

Italics . Typography historically received its most valuable improvements from the printers of Italy giving us three text-letters of greatest usefulness : (1) the Roman typeface, first founded by Sweinheym and Pannartz in 1465, and afterward perfected by Jenson at Venice in 147 1 ; (2) Italic and (3) Small Capitals, introduced together by Aldus Manutius at Venice in 1501. The first volume entirely in Greek was printed at Milan in 1476 ; the first book entirely in Hebrew, at Soncino in 1488.

The transition from Gothic to Italic typefaces was part of the broader evolution of typography that took place during the Renaissance period, driven by shifts in cultural, aesthetic, and technological factors. Gothic script was primarily used for religious texts, legal documents, and early printed books like the Gutenberg Bible. It symbolized tradition, formality, and authority. Gothic, was characterized by its dense, angular, and ornate letters, often with sharp vertical strokes, tight spacing, and elaborate flourishes. It was designed to mimic the style of manuscript writing at the time.

While modern italics are often more condensed than roman types , historian Harry Carter describes Manutius' italic as about the same width as roman type. To replicate handwriting, Griffo cut at least sixty-five tied letters ( ligatures ) in the Aldine Dante and Virgil of 1501. Italic typefaces of the following century used varying but reduced numbers of ligatures

Manutius, a prominent printer and publisher, sought to create more compressed elegant typefaces that could fit more text on a page, catering to the rising demand for smaller, portable books. Italic was based on the handwriting of Niccolò de’ Niccoli, a Renaissance scholar and calligrapher. Italic typefaces are defined by their slanted, cursive-like appearance, with letters that have a flowing, dynamic quality. It allowed for more text to be fitted on the page and mimicked the handwriting style of humanist scholars, like the handwriting of Petrarch.

The common italic “slope” was introduced in the sixteenth century — “The first printer known to have used them was Johann or Johannes Singriener in Vienna in 1524, and the practice spread to Germany, France and Belgium. Particularly influential in the switch to sloped capitals as a general practice was Robert Granjon , a prolific and extremely precise French punchcutter particularly renowned for his skill in cutting italics. Vervliet comments that among punchcutters in France "the main name associated with the change is Granjon's.” (Wikipedia on Italic Type)

Note that the italic face used in Aldus’ Virgil of 1501 (SEE SAMPLE) is separated from the small Roman caps on the margins. Here we have a demonstration of how the ancient italic face was duly distinct from time-honored regular type. It is also a demonstration that entire texts, not just words or captions or call-outs, were written and printed in all italics. The insertion of an italic typeface alongside a roman face would wait until later to distinguish portions of a book not properly belonging to the work, such as introductions, prefaces, indexes, and notes ; the text itself being in Roman. Later, it was used in the text for quotations ; and finally served the double part of emphasizing certain words.

It is not easy to fix the period at which the Roman and Italic became united and interdependent. Very few English works occur printed wholly in Italic, and there seems little doubt that before the close of the sixteenth century the founders cast Roman and Italic together as one fount. The Italic has undergone fewer marked changes than the Roman. Indeed, in many of the early foundries, and till a later date, one face of Italic served for two or more Romans of the same body. We find the same Italic side by side with a broad-faced Roman in one book, and a lean-faced in another. Frequently the same face is made to serve not only for its correct body, but for the bodies next above or below it, so that we may find an Italic of the Brevier face cast respectively on Brevier, Bourgeois, and Minion bodies.

This admixture of italic with Roman faces were noticeable. Chief variation would have been the capital letters and the long-tailed letters of the lower case. Due to Dutch influence the way was paved to the formal, tidy italics of a Caslon. The reform of the long f and its combinations is usually credited to John Bell, who discarded the long f in his British Theatre, about 1791. In 1749 Ames had done the same thing in his Typographical Antiquities and was labelled an eccentric.

MORE ABOUT ALDUS MANUTIUS. Aldus Manutius (ca. 1450–1515), a native of Bassiano, Italy, was a scholar and teacher for whom printing represented a further means of disseminating classical languages and literature. Establishing a press in Venice in 1494, Aldus printed Greek and Latin classics as well as the works of contemporary writers, including immigrant scholars from Thessaloniki and Constantinople. Aldus published the editio princeps of the complete works of Aristotle in five volumes between 1495 and 1498, the last volume of which is held by Bridwell Library. It was the largest work to be printed in Greek since the beginning of printing with moveable type in Europe. Each section opens with an elaborate woodcut initial and decorative headpiece. The Aldine Press produced nine comedies of Aristophanes in 1498, and Pietro Bembo edited Petrarch's poems that Manutius published in July 1501. In addition to editing Greek manuscripts, Manutius corrected and improved texts originally published in Florence , Rome, and Milan ( https://bridwell.omeka.net/exhibits/show/earlygreek/classics/firstaristotle )

Aldine Italic type does make an appearance — albeit a very brief one — in a much larger folio edition of 1500: The Epistole of St. Catherine of Siena (ISTC: ic00281000 ), set within a beautiful woodcut illustration (not so the feet) of St. Catherine herself. The italic appears printed across the open book and heart in either hand. Interestingly, the book was commissioned by Margherita Ugelheimer, widow of Peter Ugelheimer, former business partner and close friend to Nicholas Jenson ( https://ilovetypography.com/2014/11/25/notes-first-italic/ )

“The Venetian Senate gave Aldus exclusive right to its use, a patent confirmed by three successive Popes , but it was widely counterfeited as early as 1502. ^[ Griffo, who had left Venice in a business dispute, cut a version for printer Girolamo "Gershom" Soncino , and other copies appeared in Italy and in Lyons . The Italians called the character Aldino, while others called it Italic. Italics spread rapidly; historian H. D. L. Vervliet dates the first production of italics in Paris to 1512. (Wikipedia)

The characteristics of the Renaissance italic letter can be summarized as follows (Bringhurst, 114)

• stems vertical or of fairly even slope, not exceeding 10 degrees

• bowls generally elliptical

• light, modulated stroke

• humanist axis (slanted axis)

Using Italics. Italic typefaces were originally used separate from the roman face. In fact, Aldus wedded the italic face with small roman capitals in his Virgil of 1501 as noted. The custom of combining italic and roman in the same line “using italic to emphasize individual words and mark classes of information, developed late in the sixteenth century and flowered in the seventeenth. Baroque typographers liked the extra activity this mixing of fonts gave to the page, and the convention proved so useful that no subsequent change of taste has ever driven it entirely away. Modulation between roman and italic is now a basic and routine typographical technique, much the same as modulation in music between major and minor keys.” (Bringhurst)

Many so-called italics are not true italics but rather sloped romans, as is the case in the sample Helvetica. As Bringhurst points out, sloped romans as italics have wider lettering than their roman counterparts. Baroque and Neoclassical italics serve as secondary faces only. Sloped romans are even more subsidiary faces. It should be pointed out that a sloped roman is not a true italic at all, just a roman with a slope. The English Neoclassical face Baskerville has a rationalist axis (straight up and down). Helvetica has seen a number of recent revisions. Times Roman is an historical pastiche drawn by Victor Lardent for Stanley Morison in London in 1931. Bringhurst notes that “The roman has a humanist axis but Mannerist proportions, Baroque weight, and a sharp, Neoclassical finish. The italic has a rationalist axis, but in other respects it matches point for point the eclecticism of the roman." (Bringhurst, 93)

Italics use today range from emphasis (“He is the only person here.”) or stress in speech to titles of works, including books, albums, plays, movies or periodicals. While an underscore or quotes are often substitutes for italics, the desire is to use true italics whenever possible. The names of ships ( The Titanic ), foreign words ( Homo sapiens ), newspapers and magazines ( New York Times and The Atlantic ), defining terms, especially technical terms, algebraic symbols (the answer is x =2 ), mathematical constants and gene names in biology use italics. Italics are used in comics, and older writings use italics like in the King James Version of the Bible to de-emphasize words that have no equivalent in the original text but are necessary in the English translation (God saw the light, that it was good). Mentioning a word as an example of a word uses italics (The word the is an article)

SOURCES

Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, 1992 edition

https://luc.devroye.org/fonts-30540.html

The Printers’ Handbook of Trade Recipes, Hints & Suggestions Relating to Letterpress and Lithographic Printing, Bookbinding, Stationery, Engraving, Etc. , compiled by Charles Thomas Jacobi, London, 1891,

Talbot Reed, A History of the Old English Letter Foundries with Notes , 1887

Theodore Low De Vinne, The Practice of Typography , 1902

Wikipedia on Italic and Manutius

https://bridwell.omeka.net/exhibits/show/earlygreek/classics/firstaristotle#:~:

https://ilovetypography.com/2014/11/25/notes-first-italic/

Sketch & Hand Drawn Lettering

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 19:47:20 GMT

Sketch & Hand Drawn Lettering. The history of font development includes a wealth of calligraphic fonts and artistically crafted hand drawn typefaces. A number of these lettering fonts have been drawn and submitted by smaller type foundries and entrepreneurs seeking to make their mark in the font world. A casual look at ChatGPT gives some idea as to their source and character. Fonts that mimic pencil drawings often have a hand-sketched, textured, or rough-lined appearance. These fonts are great for artistic projects, children's books, casual branding, or creative typography. The sample fonts below are mostly given for personal use only, use on personal invitations and so forth, but some have been made available for commercial use as well. They demonstrate the wide range of hand drawn fonts available for use and purchase.

Sketch Block Bold shown here is a free version font. This font is a rough, hand drawn font that looks like it was shaded with a pencil. Sketch Block Bold is a trademark of Lukas Bischoff. Copyright (c) 2009 by Lukas Bischoff. All rights reserved.

Pencil Pete font below is a playful, loose pencil-style font with a sketched feel offered by JOEBOB Graphics as a shareware font.

Chalk and Graphite inspired fonts are hand drawn specialty fonts that are perfect for a school themed design. Chalk Hand Lettering mimics a pencil or chalkboard look.

Graphite STD , available in nine flavors, is designed to look like it was drawn with a soft pencil. This is a professionally drawn font by David Siegel. David Siegel earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a master’s degree in digital typography from Stanford. In 1985, he assisted Hermann Zapf in the production of the Euler typeface for the American Mathematical Society. In the mid-1990’s he collaborated with Hermann Zapf in the production of Zapf’s typeface, Linotype Zapfino. It has been part of the Adobe Originals program started in 1989 as an in-house type foundry at Adobe, brought together to create original typefaces of exemplary design quality, technical fidelity, and aesthetic longevity.

Today the Type team’s mission is to make sophisticated and even experimental typefaces that explore the possibilities of design and technology. Typefaces released as Adobe Originals are the result of years of work and study, regarded as industry standards for the ambition and quality of their development.

Doodle and Scribble fonts are also hand drawn and use a freehand style about them. Skribble is a messy, yet readable font with a hand-drawn aesthetic. KG Sketch mimics quick, freehand writing with a natural pencil look. The Penciling font shown below is an old type hand drawn font from Phillips Old Fashioned Type Book, New York, 1945 and has been revived by CARE Typography. The resurgence of interest in hand-lettering and calligraphy has led to a boom in custom and artisanal fonts. Designers often blend calligraphic influences with modern digital tools to create unique typefaces.

Four Old Playful Fancy Fonts

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 19:10:12 GMT

Four Old Playful Fancy Fonts . CARE Typography is pleased in its historical search for antique inspired fonts to introduce digitized versions of Harper and Mikado, a Gutenberg typeface and Lacrosse. Unlike their modern counterparts, these fonts are display only fanciful fonts of a bygone era in typography. However, they exude a rich history of font development that should not be forgotten in our search for the new, the sleek, the up-to-date in type. They have been developed from the rich typographic heritage of Phillips Old Fashioned Type Book published in 1945 by Frederick Nelson Phillips, Inc, in New York. This volume has caught my historic typographic eye for its plethora of ancient font styles and formulations.

The Harper446 font is especially playful, with its curly capitals, its specialized "Q" capital and, of course, its flavorful and playful small case lettering, with the raised c, e and o letters and the odd looking "g." This is obviously not a text font, but can uses in artful decorative work.

The Mikado231 font does not at all look like the variations of the typeface called "Mikado" in typography history. As that history notes, "Mikado was apparently inspired by Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera of the same name. The show opened in London in March of 1885 and in New York later that same year. According to Nicolete Gray in her classic book on ornamented typefaces, the English foundry of Sir Charles Reed and Son introduced a metal type called “Japanese” also in 1885. She characterized this typeface and other oriental based typefaces as superficial in their foreign influence. Nonetheless it appears that it was later copied by several of the American Wood-type companies. The 1906 Hamilton wood-type specimen catalog shows four versions of this design; one by Hamilton and three by acquired companies. The versions by Wells, and Morgans & Wilcox are called Mikado. The Hamilton and Page versions use model numbers 204 and 156 respectively. It is difficult to determine the specific dates when this particular wood-type was introduced, but the earliest wood-type catalog I could find showing Mikado is the 1888 Page catalog. Our sample “WINTER” is a 15 line unstamped type most similar to the Hamilton version. Incidentally, another English foundry, Miller and Richard introduced a metal typeface in 1887, also named Mikado. That typeface is totally different than the one presented here." (https://www.printmuseum.org/wood-type-mikado).

This Mikado adaptation has straight angular E, F, G, K, T and even raised W, X, Y in the capitals. Note the falling stems of C, L, and lower c, e, h, m and n. Again, this playful font can be used sparingly in advertisement copy and flavorful playbills.

The Gutenberg700 font is again from the Phillips book samples. Note the dotted C, U, V, small g and zero. The ampersand is also interesting. Curly serifs are used in A, J, L, S. The numerals are classic old school numerals. This Gutenberg rendering is unlike any classic Gutenberg typeface that has been presented.

The LacrossePhillips font has a cute left hanging serif on the capitals. It is a bold faced font, both in the upper and lower case. It is a full font offering upper and lower case lettering, numerals and other marks.

These fonts are available from CARE Typography at care typography.com at NO COST. They are free to purchase and use.

Blackletter Type & Universities

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 20:34:50 GMT

Blackletter Type & Universities . The use of blackletter fonts in academic contexts dates back to the medieval period and is deeply tied to the history of early European universities. Fonts like Fraktur, Textura, and Gothic were the norm in the academic world until the rise of modern typefaces in the 18th and 19th centuries. Even today, many universities, particularly in Germany and England, continue to incorporate elements of blackletter design into their official documents, crests, and seals. These fonts serve as a link to the academic traditions of the past, evoking a sense of scholarly authority, history, and prestige that remains integral to the identity of many academic institutions.

The Blackletter typeface style, often associated with the gothic or medieval period, has a fascinating history in the context of universities and academic institutions. The term "University" in relation to blackletter fonts typically refers to the use of these fonts in academic and religious contexts during the Middle Ages, and later in formal academic environments where tradition, authority, and history are emphasized. The most notable "University" blackletter fonts are linked to the old European universities and have been used in documents, manuscripts, and crests. The University of Leipzig in Germany, founded in the early 15th century, was one of the first to adopt blackletter fonts in its printed materials and documents. The university's early academic works were published in blackletter typefaces, which was consistent with the typographic style of the time. Although blackletter fonts have largely been replaced by more modern typefaces (like serif and sans-serif) in contemporary university branding, some institutions still use elements of blackletter fonts in their logos or crests to emphasize tradition, heritage, and historical continuity.

Harvard University (USA) uses a variation of the blackletter style in its iconic Harvard shield, which incorporates a stylized version of the blackletter form in the letter "H" and other aspects of its heraldic design. The blackletter-style elements in the logo give the university an air of tradition and scholarship. Similarly, Oxford University and Cambridge University in the UK have incorporated blackletter fonts or medieval script influences in certain documents, seals, and emblems.

Many universities, particularly in Europe, still use blackletter-inspired fonts in their formal graduation certificates, academic diplomas, and official titles. These fonts are not used for everyday communications but remain symbols of academic distinction, formal documents, and prestigious traditions. For instance, in Germany, Fraktur or Textura fonts may still appear in official publications or university documents to honor the historical roots of higher education.

What Is Blackletter? Blackletter, also known as Gothic script, emerged in Western Europe around the 12th century, during the medieval period. It was the dominant script used for writing and printing for several centuries, particularly in manuscripts produced by monks in monasteries. Blackletter fonts are distinguished by their sharp, angular strokes, tightly spaced letters, and intricate designs, which made them both highly decorative and somewhat difficult to read. The style was heavily influenced by the insular script, a form of handwriting that evolved in the British Isles, as well as by the Carolingian minuscule used in the Holy Roman Empire.

Blackletter fonts were widely used in early printed books, particularly in Germany, where the printing press was first developed. In the early days of academic education in Europe, blackletter fonts were the primary typefaces used in university textbooks, religious texts, and documents. Three types of Blackletter typefaces were commonly used — Fraktur, Textura, and Rotunda.

Fraktur, notably Fette Fraktur. A bold and heavy version of Fraktur, commonly used in German-speaking countries for official academic, legal, and religious documents. Fraktur is one of the most iconic forms of blackletter, developed in the early 16th century by the German printer Johan Gutenberg and later popularized by German printing traditions. This specific style of blackletter was used extensively in Germany, especially in academic works, religious texts, and printed books. Many German universities, such as Heidelberg University, adopted Fraktur fonts for their academic works, titles, and official documentation. The use of Fraktur in these contexts emphasized a strong link to the medieval scholastic tradition.

This font is one of the most used broken letter fonts today. Fette Fraktur is used to invoke a nostalgic or rustic feeling and found often on restaurants with hearty homemade food’ or breweries who use the good old recipes’ of the founder. The font was designed in the 19th century and from the beginning intended as an advertisement typeface. The lower case letters have a gothic character with only the ornamental flourishes making them broken letters, while the capital letters are more characteristic of broken letter typefaces. One could say Fette Fraktur is a true mix of styles, not unusual for typefaces created at the turn of the 19th century. (Linotype Design Studio, myfonts.com)

Textura, namely Gutenberg Textura . originating around the 14th and 15th centuries in Northern Europe, particularly in the Low Countries and Germany. This style was used extensively in manuscripts and printed books, and became one of the most prominent typefaces during the Gutenberg era. The Textura style is closely associated with medieval illuminated manuscripts, which were commonly used by universities, particularly in the University of Paris and Oxford University, to preserve important religious and scholarly texts.

Today, blackletter fonts are mainly used decoratively. If you want to communicate a feeling of old-world quality or nostalgia, blackletter fonts are the preferred choice – use them on signs, in brochures or on invitation cards. “Gutenberg Textura Pro” is a classic blackletter font of its epoch which inspires you to create vintage-looking designs with ease.

Rotunda. ** "An early expression of rotunda was the so called Littera Bononiensis , a hand developed at Bologna University and soon employed at the University of Padua and elsewhere in northern Italy. At the time Bologna was the major European centre of manuscript production for works of canon and civil law and it is noteworthy that as many as 139 scribes were recorded in Bologna just for the years 1265–1268. Canon and civil law were subjects that had to be mastered by ecclesiastics, notaries and anyone in charge of public offices all over Europe; thus rotunda script was well-known in northern Europe since the 13th century.

Rotunda shows important differences from Textura. They both display bold letters, with short ascenders and descenders and a high contrast between thick and thin strokes (‘shading’, to use the palaeographer’s term). But unlike textura, rotunda letters can be rather wide — they lack textura’s compactness — and have curves in the bowls (b, c, d, e, h, o, p, q and s), though some angularity is often found in letters a and g. Finally, in rotunda there is no sign of the typical gothic treatment of the feet of the letters, the diamond-shaped terminals that are found at the baseline of textura letters.

The earliest known rotunda type is the big face, suitable for headings and titles, employed by Ulrich Han in Rome from 1467 onwards (Han 150G, c. 21 pt). The earliest book set entirely in rotunda was a treatise on canon law printed by Vindelinus de Spira in 1471, Panormitanus’s Lectura super primo et secundo Decretalium. The text was set in Spira 99G (14 pt), the earliest known rotunda type for text, while the bigger Spira 200G (c. 28 pt) was used for headlines. Vindelinus had the right intuition: notaries and ecclesiastics who had to master civil and canon law had been used to reading books written in rotunda script for centuries. But in 1470–1473 some printers in Venice — including Spira himself — issued legal treatises in roman, the only type that was available at their presses. It was a miscalculation of the taste of the readers: evidently roman type was not what readers of legal books preferred because after 1474 legal textbooks or treatises were set in rotunda type.

It seems that after a few enthusiastic and confused early years, around the mid-1470s, the printers’ awareness of the market sharpened: probably — as Petrucci suggests — they looked more closely at the Italian book tradition which had already established different graphic models for each literary genre long before printing [Petrucci, pp. 144–145]. From that moment onwards, at least in Venice, the subject of the books defined its graphical aspect, notably the type in which the book was set. We have mentioned legal books, but in the following decades also religious (bibles, sermons, psalters, theological and devotional literature), scientific (including Aristotle and the scholastic philosophers) and many vernacular works were normally printed in rotunda type."

While blackletter fonts are no longer commonly used in modern-day academic writing or publications, their historical connection to the foundations of Western education ensures that they maintain a place of respect in university iconography and formal certificates. Many academic traditions—such as graduation ceremonies and formal university proclamations—still incorporate blackletter fonts to underscore their connection to ancient and medieval learning traditions.

*Courtesy ChatGPT

**Riccardo Olocco, "Notes on the rotunda types of the Renaissance," CAST, June 23, 2020

Seven Revived Fonts

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 19:55:04 GMT

Seven Revived Fonts. CARE Typography is pleased to introduce seven fonts, revived from Phillips Old Fashioned Type Book (New York, 1945). The CrayonetteCare font has been ably presented elsewhere by David Jonathan Ross as Crayonette DTR ( https://djr.com/notes/crayonette-djr-font-of-the-month ) in 2017 and is also available on Adobe fonts. Crayonette was designed by Henry Brehmer in 1889 and first issued by Philadelphia’s Keystone Type Foundry. It is a weird and wonderful Victorian design that, to Ross's knowledge, had never received a suitable digital revival. And thanks to research by Indra Kupferschmid , he also found out that Crayonette came in an Inline version as well, and also appeared under various other names such as Almah, Columbian Italic, Fantaisie, Italienne Cursiv, and Zierschrift. The CrayonetteCare font version here has been digitized by CARE Typography using the Phillip's font samples book, sample #30C.

The DaintyCare font (Sample #775 from Phillips) is a light an airy typeface with both Caps and smaller case lettering. What is notable is the distinctive "Q" and "Z" letters. Note also the capital "H" and the unique ampersand "&" of the font. The GlypticCare typeface does not have all the numerals and is primarily a caps only font. The fancy ampersand is to be noted in this rendering. Glyptic is an ornamented Latin serif designed in 1878 by Herman Ihlenburg and issued by the Philadelphia type foundry Mackellar, Smiths and Jordan. David Ross produced a fine rendering of the Glyptic font and it is also available on Adobe fonts.

The PenelopeCare font is a decorative typeface digitized from the Phillips book of old fonts. Its original version of all caps was designed and offered by Typographer Mediengestaltung, by Dieter Steffmann, Kreuztal, Germany, and is part of a package of 357 old time fonts. A more developed rendering has been offered by Dan Solo of Solotype in Cleveland in 2004 on myfonts.com. That version is $19.95 from MyFonts. Steffmann has offered Penelope as a free font, for both personal and commercial use. He writes — "For several years, I have completed not only erroneous public domain fonts, but I have digitized or vectorized complete fonts. Nowadays, even high-quality fonts are available and affordable for everyone. Therefore, I have specialized in collecting and digitizing "blackletter" (Fraktur) fonts, which have no market value to large font houses because of insufficient demand, and are therefore generally not available for purchase. Since I consider fonts to be cultural heritage, I do not agree with their commercialization. Fonts once made out of metal type obviously had a price along with their metal value, and the cost of designing, cutting and casting is convincing, particularly since the buyer also acquired ownership of the purchased fonts! Anyone who believes that they can buy a magazine now a days and then have the property acquired as in the times of metal setting, is wrong: The font foundries only sell "licenses" for a file of nothing but "zeros and ones" with no real material value, and the buyer usually does not become the owner, but only a licensee! For all these reasons I am giving out my fonts to everyone for free for commercial purposes without any restrictions and I hope you enjoy in these fonts as much as I and many other font-friends around the world do!" The PenelopeCare font is therefore free to all who want it from CARE Typography.

The Antique Pointed Caps font (#56C from Phillips) with numerals is a bold, blackletter font with distinctive squared off edges. The Old Flemish font (#18 from Phillips) has the telling characteristics of pre-Victorian days with abundant flourishes. The Ornament91 font has slim lines and accented flourishes. These seven fonts are also available from CARE Typography and can be ordered from our email site — cshanktype@gmail.com — for a small fee. They can also be ordered as a group for $35.

Early American Printing & Type Foundries

Sat, 04 Jan 2025 16:02:20 GMT

Early American Printing & Type Foundries.* Printing was introduced into America at Mexico by the Viceroy Mendoza in 1536. The first book printed was the Escala Espiritual de San Juan Climaco , of which no copy is known to exist; but the oldest American book now extant is the Manual de Adultos , dated 1540, of which only the last four leaves are to be found in the library of the Cathedral of Toledo. The name of the earliest printer is a matter of question.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, is entitled to the distinction of having the first printing-press in North America, which was under the charge of Stephen Daye. For this press the colony was mainly indebted to the Rev. Jesse Glover, a non-conformist minister possessed of a considerable estate, who had left England to settle among his friends in Massachusetts. Some gentlemen of Amsterdam also “gave towards furnishing of a printing-press with letters, forty-nine pounds and nothing more.” This was about 1638. The first book issued was the Bay Psalm-Book , in 1640.

The first book issued in the Middle Colonies was an Almanac , printed by William Bradford in 1685, near Philadelphia. Bradford was sent from England in 1682 by William Penn. As the government of Pennsylvania became very restrictive in regard to the press, Bradford in 1693 moved to New York, and was appointed printer to that colony, where he established in 1725 the New York Gazette, the first newspaper published there. He died May 23, 1752, after an active and useful life of eighty-nine years. The first paper-mill in America was established near Germantown, Pa, in 1690, by William Rittenhouse.

The first newspaper in America was the Boston NewsLetter , which was first issued by John Campbell on Monday, April 24, 1704. It was regularly published for nearly seventy-two years. The second was the Boston Gazette , begun December 21, 1719. The third was the American Weekly Mercury, issued in Philadelphia, by Andrew Bradford, on December 22, 1719. James Franklin, an elder brother of Benjamin, established the New England Courant , August 17, 1721. The oldest living paper of the United States is the New Hampshire Gazette , published at Portsmouth, now (Oct. 7, 1877) one hundred and twenty-one years old. The North American United States Gazette leads the existing daily press of this country in point of antiquity. It is the successor of the Pennsylvania Packet , (begun in 1771 and becoming a daily paper in 1784), and was the chief commercial journal of Philadelphia. According to Holmes's American Annals, about 200 newspapers were printed in the United States in the year 1801, of which seventeen were issued daily, seven three times a week, thirty twice a week, and one hundred forty six weekly. There must also have been at the same time as many as sixty offices engaged in miscellaneous printing. The whole business had increased threefold in eleven years.

Type Foundries in Early America. A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. Before digital typography, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood typefaces for hand typesetting and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and Monotype, for letterpress printers. Today's digital type foundries accumulate and distribute typefaces (typically as digitized fonts) created by type designers who may either be freelancers operating their own independent foundry, or employed by a foundry. Type foundries may also provide custom type design services.

A foundry, principally for German type, was established at Germantown, Pennsylvania, about the year 1735, by Christopher Saur, (or Sower,) a printer, who executed in German the first quarto Bible printed in America, as well as other valuable works in the German language. Three editions of the Bible were printed, in the years 1743, 1763, and l776, the latter two by his son. In 1739, Saur also published a newspaper in Germantown. An abortive attempt was made about 1768 to set up a foundry at Boston by a Mr. Mitchelson from Scotland, and another in Connecticut in 1769 by Abel Buel. In 1775, Dr. Franklin brought from Europe to Philadelphia the materials for a foundry, but little use of them was made.

John Baine, a type-founder of Edinburgh, sent a relative to this country with tools for a foundry. At the close of the Revolutionary War, his son came over himself. They carried on the business until 1790, when Mr. Baine died, and returned to Scotland. Dutch founder, Adam G. Mappa, settled at New York about 1787, and cast Dutch and German faces, as well as Roman styles.

Another type-foundry was put in successful operation in Baltimore, about 1805, by Samuel Sower & Co. It had in it some molds and matrices which had been used by Christopher Sower, who had printed in Germantown, near Philadelphia, and cast his own types. He printed with German characters; but now the foundry was revived with excellent Roman and Italic letters, and among other extraordinary things it had the size called Diamond, with a smaller face than had ever been cast before. It was the smallest type in the world at that time. The early Diamond typeface, sometimes referred to in the context of early American printing, has distinct characteristics that arose during the period of its use. The Diamond typeface was typically used in very small sizes, often referred to as “diamond” in the context of type sizes. This made it popular for compact printing formats, such as almanacs and pocket-sized books. Early versions often featured condensed letterforms, allowing more text to fit into a limited space while maintaining legibility.

The design often included sharp angles and geometric forms which contributed to its distinctive look. The early characters tended to have minimal contrast between thick and thin strokes, which was a hallmark of types from this period, contributing to a more unified visual appearance. Some variations of the Diamond typeface featured ornamental serifs or embellishments, reflecting the decorative style of the time. Despite its small size, the diamond typeface maintained a level of legibility that was crucial for effectively conveying information in smaller prints. These characteristics made early Diamond types particularly suitable for the practical needs of printing in early America, as they balanced elegance and functionality in small formats.

In 1811, Elihu White established a type-foundry in New York. He had been long engaged, in connection with Mr. Wing, in the manufacture of printing types at Hartford, Connecticut, upon a plan of their own invention, by which twenty or thirty letters were cast at once; but, abandoning that invention, he adopted the bid plan of casting and having a good assortment of faces and bodies, his removal to New York was a great convenience to its printers, and they gave him a very satisfactory support. But the principal business in type-founding still continued for some years to be done in Philadelphia.

A bid plan for type casting, typically used in the context of typography and printing, outlines the proposed approach and costs associated with creating typefaces through the casting process. In a “bid plan” was included the Project Scope, which clearly defined the extent of the type casting project, including the number of typefaces to be created, specific styles (serif, sans-serif, display, etc.), and any custom requirements. Details for the materials to be used, such as alloys for metal type, and any specific preferences for typeface characteristics (weight, width, etc.) were part of the plan. The Plan outlined the type of casting techniques to be employed, whether traditional hand casting or later modern digital methods, with explanations for choices made, timelines and milestones for project completion, cost breakdowns, quality control measures, revisions and approvals, delivery methods and a communication plan throughout the project. A well-developed bid plan ensured clarity and set expectations for all parties involved in a type casting project, facilitating smooth collaboration and successful outcomes.

In 1813, another type-foundry was begun in the city of New York, by D. & G. Bruce, principally to cast types for their own use. They had carried on book-printing for seven years, and had now become acquainted with the stereotype art.

Their first font was Bourgeois (SEE SAMPLES) with which they cast two sets of plates of the New Testament, (the Common School Testament,) having sold one of these to Matthew Carey, of Philadelphia, retaining the other for their own business. But these were not completed until 1814. The process of stereotyping was also used, however, entirely different from that of ordinary type-founding, and it was, therefore, generally carried on as a separate function for one molder, one caster, and three finishers, who, among them, completed, on an average, fifty pages of octavo per day, a traditional book format that refers to the size for pages used in the printing of early books in which a large sheet of paper or parchment is folded three times to produce eight leaves.

Stereotyping in printing is a historic method that transforms a printed page into a durable and reusable type form. This process gained prominence in the nineteenth century and involved creating a solid, cast plate from a mold of a page of type. The concept is derived from earlier practices of creating molds for typesetting. Initially, individual letters were set in a frame to print pages, which was time-consuming.

The process typically involved several steps: (1) Making a Matrix: A page of type was first covered with a soft material (often a mixture of chalk and glue) to form a relief of the letters; (2) Casting: Once the matrix was made, it was used to cast a plate – usually made of lead or a lead alloy – which reproduced the entire page at once; and, (3) Printing: This cast plate could then be used in a printing press, allowing for the same page to be printed multiple times without needing to reset individual type.

Stereotyping enabled printers to produce large quantities of copies quickly, making it particularly advantageous for newspapers and books. Unlike movable type, which could wear out or break, stereotype plates were more durable and could withstand heavier printing processes. It significantly reduced printing costs and time, making it easier to distribute literature more widely.

Stereotyping was widely used until the advent of offset printing and modern digital techniques in the twentieth century. It played a critical role in the democratization of printed materials, making publications more accessible to the masses. Overall, stereotyping marked a pivotal advancement in the history of printing technology, setting the stage for further innovations in the publishing industry.

John Watts, of England, also commenced stereotyping in New York in 1813, and completed the Westminster Catechismthat year, a volume of 120 pages. David Bruce invented the planing-machine for equalizing the thickness of stereotype plates, which became used in every stereotype foundry in the United States.

In 1818, or soon after, a type foundry was established in Boston, also in Cincinnati, principally through the enterprise of the late Elihu White, who, having the means of multiplying matrices with facility, took this method for the extension of his business. Others followed his example, and type-foundries were established in Albany, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Louisville, and St. Louis, with several additional in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

The business, in fact, was overdone, and failures and suppressions took place, as competition reduced the prices of types. The mode of type-founding within forty years underwent important changes, which must no doubt were considered improvements

The first successful type-casting machine was invented by David Bruce, Jr., of New York, and was patented March 17, 1838. The patent was sold to George Bruce, and the machines were used by him until 1845. David Bruce meanwhile patented another machine in 1843, which, with new improvements, patented two years later, gave entire satisfaction, and was in general use in American foundries. By Bruce's machine, three

times the quantity of type that was cast by Binny & Ronaldson's improved mold was now cast in a given time, and nearly five times the quantity that had been cast by the common hand-mold eighty years previously.

This improvement passed into Europe, and adopted by most of the German type-founders. However, in Great Britain for some time it found little favor. A so-called “automatic machine,” for casting and finishing type, invented by Johnson & Atkinson, was in operation in London, but its rate of production seemed to be less than that of the American machine, while, from its multiform operations, the proportion of imperfect type increased.

MACHINE CASTING. In machine-casting, a pump forces the fluid metal into the mold and matrix, and gives a sharper outline to the letter than was formerly given. The practice of casting a single type one at a time became popular. The first idea of this machine originated with William M. Johnson, who obtained a patent for it in 1828.

Machine casting in printing refers to the process of automatically casting type and other printing elements using machinery rather than traditional hand-setting techniques. It revolutionized the printing industry by increasing efficiency and reducing labor costs. The origins of machine casting can be traced back to the late nineteenth century when manual typesetting was labor-intensive and time-consuming. The first notable machine for casting type was the Monotype machine, developed in the 1880s by Tolbert Lanston. It allowed for the creation of type using a keyboard and a casting mechanism (See Picture).

In 1886, the Linotype machine was invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler (See Picture), which took the concept of machine casting further. It enabled the simultaneous casting of an entire line of type from molten metal. This invention significantly transformed newspaper and book printing, allowing for faster production and more complex typography.

Throughout the twentieth century, improvements were made in both Monotype and Linotype systems, and additional machines were developed, leading to the ability to produce more intricate designs and varying typefaces efficiently.

With the rise of phototypesetting and digital printing technologies in the late twentieth century, machine casting became less common. However, its influence remains in modern printing methods.

Machine casting drastically reduced the time required to set type compared to manual methods. The machines produced uniform type pieces, ensuring consistency across printed materials. It minimized the need for skilled typesetters, allowing for a more streamlined production process. Machine casting marked a significant advancement in the printing industry, providing enhanced speed and efficiency that paved the way for more modern printing technologies.

Elihu White put it into use in his type-foundry, and persevered in using and trying to improve it as long as he lived; but he did not succeed in removing the greatest fault, which was a hollowness in the body of the types cast by it, that inclined them to sink under the pressure of the printing press.

Protection afforded by patent laws checked the piratical production of matrices by electrotyping (except in plain faces, a practice still pursued by unprincipled type-founders,) and the leading founders in this country were encouraged to produce types of new styles which in beauty and ingenuity surpassed those of foreign origin.

Four type-foundries sprung up in Boston, five in New York, one in Buffalo, three in Philadelphia, two in Baltimore, two in Cincinnati, four in Chicago, one in Milwaukee, two in St. Louis one in Richmond, one at St. Paul, and one in California, in all, twenty-seven. These foundries not only supplied the printers of the United States, but most of the printers in Canada, some in the British West India Islands, Mexico, the Spanish and Danish and South America. American type, in quality, style, and finish, equaled, if not superior, to any made in Europe.

*SOURCES

Phillips’ Old Fashioned Type Book —showings, alphabetical and otherwise, of approximately one thousand odd fonts of old-fashioned, exotic, ancient and antique type faces, old-time printers' ornaments, borders, cuts, &c., many old specimens of printing, advertisements, bills, labels, &c., old reprints of history & other interesting data on printing & typography of long ago, Frederic Nelson Phillips, New York, 1945.

ChatGPT on "Stereotyping," "Bid Planning," "Machine Casting"

Pierre-Simon Fournier

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:20:05 GMT

Pierre-Simon Fournier (pronounced in French for-nya [long a]) — In our history of typography series, Pierre-Simon Fournier (1712–1768) was a French typographer and type designer, renowned for his contributions to the field of typography in the 18th century. He is best known for his work in creating typefaces that reflected the elegance and sophistication of the time.

Fournier's work in type design focused on creating typefaces that were both visually appealing and functional. His types were characterized by their clarity, beauty, and legibility. The typeface Fournier is an aristocratic roman typeface ( See Samples Below ). It is transitional, almost modern, in character, with a distinct French flavor, but with more grace and style than traditional French oldstyle designs. This modern character influenced the later work of Bodoni.( See Sample Below )

Legacy: The Fournier MT family by Monotype (1924-1925) was based on the types cut by Pierre-Simon Fournier (ca. 1742) and was called St Augustin Ordinaire in Fournier's Manuel Typographique . Narcissus-Roman (1995, Font Bureau) is based on a 1745 design of Simon Pierre Fournier, and a 1921 version of it called Narcissus by Walter Tiemann for Klingspor, and was digitized by Brian Lucid in 1995. Jim Spiece's version is called Narcissus SG . In 1768, he designed an ornamental all caps face, which Peignot produced as Fournier le Jeune. More elaborate caps were added by ATF in the 1920s, and the current digital version by P22/Lanston, also called Fournier le Jeune , is based on that [see LTC Fournier Le Jeune ]. Alan Jay Prescott created APT New June (1996) based on Fournier le Jeune. In 2007, Tjorbjörn Olsson ( T4 ) created Museum Fournier , inspired by a set of Rococo capitals designed by Pierre Simon Fournier le Jeune, ca. 1760. The Castcraft version of Fournier is called OPTI Fourquet. Joshua Darden's Corundum Text (2006) and typeface Griesshammer's free font Source Serif (2014, Adobe) are also based on Fournier. The ambitious PS Fournier ( See Below ) (2016, Stéphane Elbaz) is perhaps one of the best digital revivals. At B&P Swiss Typefaces, François Rappo published New Fournier (2011) based on the typography of Pierre-Simon Fournier. It comes in 24 styles.

Overall, Pierre-Simon Fournier's impact on typography is significant, as he helped to shape the standards of type design and usage in the 18th century, leaving a lasting mark on the field.

(ChatGPT and https://luc.devroye.org/fonts-37262.html)

Art In The Alphabet: What AI Cannot Give Us

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 15:47:11 GMT

Art in the Alphabet:

What AI Cannot Give Us

I am a student of typographic history. In fact, I have pulled together a book on this history ( Typography Through The Years: A Selected History ) available from most booksellers. This book is filled with digitized fonts from earlier years, many not generally available in the open printing and typography trades. They represent hours of careful labor redrawing or copying the pen written works of earlier typographers, like Lewis F. Day (See his Alphabets Old and New, London, 1910 or earlier).

Does AI (artificial intelligence) help us or even substitute for us the work and beauty that goes into historic calligraphy and font histories? As with many people in many businesses and professions, I have used AI (especially ChatGPT and Claude) to access information files and reduce the time formerly spent in libraries or even online searches. That has been true even in my preaching and teaching as a theologian and retired pastor and consultant (See my extended BLOGs, “AI and the Ministry: The Uses and Abuses of Artificial Intelligence” and “AI and the Brethren in Christ: Hallucinations & Corrections” in www.carlshankconsulting.com ).

Indeed, there are multiple copyright issues associated with AI generated feeds. In my BLOG on “Copyright Do’s and Don’t’s” Oct 23, 2023) I noted the following — “Right now, in the courts, there are lawsuits pending against big time AI players such as GitHub and Microsoft and Open AI seeking to see whether or not AI created materials are subject to copyright violations and piracy on a level not seen since the Napster violations in the 1990s. Getty Images have filed a suit against Stable Diffusion, an AI art developing tool, claiming that its images are too close to the real thing and thus violate copyright laws. This is far from "Fair Use" standards. The Clarkson Law Firm has two class action suits against OpenAI and Google claiming that AI "stole" copyrighted materials from their creators. Moreover, the U.S. Copyright office has ruled that AI cannot be considered an "author," since only a person can be an author.

Additionally, Internet Archive ( https://archive.org/ ) has filed with the commission investigating AI and copyrights. They do not support any additional laws specifically targeting AI. They write — "Our high level view is that copyright law has been adapting to disruptive technologies since its earliest days and our existing copyright law is adequate to meet the disruptions of today. In particular, copyright’s flexible fair use provision deals well with the fact-specific nature of new technologies, and has already addressed earlier innovations in machine learning and text-and-data mining. So while Generative AI presents a host of policy challenges that may prompt different kinds of legislative reform, we do not see that new copyright laws are needed to respond to Generative AI today."

More courts and Congress will have to argue it out. Suffice it to say at this juncture, that using AI to re-create an illustration or an entire book may involve copyright breaches. Be careful in using the technology to bypass coded laws. There are still many pitfalls, however, and many ways AI cannot help us. There are many who would agree with me in this “short-cutting” our way to beautiful and usable fonts and faces.

My recent foray into AI revealed the following about developing historic early fonts, say from a craftsman like Lewis F. Day, by ChatGPT —

“To create a typeface inspired by Lewis F. Day's decorative design style and the typography of sixteenth and seventeenth-century printing, we'd need to combine key elements from both sources.

1. Lewis F. Day's Influence:

Ornamentation: Lewis F. Day was known for his intricate decorative designs, inspired by Gothic and Renaissance motifs. His work often emphasized geometric and nature-inspired patterns.
Flourishes: Day's aesthetic would inspire flourishes around characters, especially in capital letters or title work, where borders or embellishments could be incorporated.
Symmetry and Balance: His designs usually kept a strong sense of order and symmetry, meaning that the typeface could integrate balanced, stylized serifs or carefully positioned decorations.

2. Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Printing Influences:

Old Style Serifs: Early printing typefaces like Garamond or Caslon, which were common in this period, feature elegant, moderate contrast between thick and thin strokes, and serifs with soft, rounded edges. These fonts have a warm and timeless feel.
Ligatures: In keeping with old typesetting practices, ligatures (like "fi", "fl", etc.) would be an essential feature.
Hand-Pressed Imperfections: The text could have slight irregularities to evoke the hand-pressed, metal-type printing look of that era, with slight ink spread or irregular edges on the characters.
Decorative Initials: Sixteenth and seventeenth-century printing often incorporated large, intricate drop capitals, which can be revisited with ornamentation similar to Lewis F. Day’s floral or geometric designs.

Key Elements for Typeface:

Character Design:
Incorporate Old Style serif structure with moderate contrast in stroke weights.
Slight ink spread effect for a hand-pressed look.
Ornamentation:
Incorporate Day's floral and geometric patterns as flourishes on capital letters.
Consider decorative borders on certain initials or for titles.
Ligatures & Swashes:
Use swashes on certain letterforms, especially for f, g, h, k, and long descenders.
Drop Caps:
Design large, decorative drop caps that feature intricate floral or scroll designs, combining Day’s Victorian influence with sixteenth-century engravings.

This typeface would feel both classic and ornamental, paying homage to the elegance of early print typography with the decorative touch that Lewis F. Day often brought to his work.”

While a sample of Day’s work in generalized pre-Victorian and Victorian era times can be previewed (badly, I would say) on AI (through Claude.ai, for instance), an actual typeface and its construction eludes AI, at least for now. First, the description above makes little sense unless I have been immersed in viewing Lewis F. Day's samples and history. And then, secondly, the descriptors are too vague and undefined. There is not merely one typestyle either in Victorian England or in Day's works. Take a look at the uncials (alphabetic capitals) below for a wide variety of what AI has tried to describe.

The penned and hand drawn letters represented by Day and digitized by CARE Typography cannot be reproduced by AI, no matter how precise the tool. Moreover, accurate letter spacing and hinting and all the features that make up even a hand drawn font are not AI reproducible, nor in the range of AI generated feeds. And, to do so, would probably violate image-drawn copyrightable feeds.

Conclusions. What does all of this mean for the typographer or printer or publisher?

Do the hard work! Type formation takes significant time and effort and drawing and re-drawing, tweaking until the letters and letter spacings and kerning and everything is right and readable. AI will not do such work for you.
Seek permission for its use . This is always the best and most honorable course of action. You may have to contact the publisher, who then in turn may contact the writer. I did this for a study guide I wrote on a book from Oxford Press in England on the life and work of Jonathan Edwards, the great early American theologian in New England. While it was only a study guide with excerpts on which to comment, and for church study and use exclusively, the Press required a contractural engagement that lasted for one year with a limited number of copies that could be printed and made available, even for religious study and use. It would have cost me hundreds of dollars. I declined and went another route with some of the material.
Use legitimate free sources for photos and images . I use dreamstime.com in their free portfolios for the background photos and images for a number of book covers I have crafted. There are other legitimate sources in iStock, for instance. Licensing uses and rules apply to most of these freebies. And give credit for where credit is due, even for the freebies. The Lewis F. Day’s Alphabets Old and New and its samples are in the public domain now.
Use your own work and photos . I know this requires substantial time and effort, but it is usually the right thing to do. I put together a historical calendar of the Lancaster PA area using photos I personally took.
Use the old "buyer beware" adage here . Are you willing to risk your site being taken down, or getting a cease and desist letter, a bill or actually being sued through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which can be very, very costly. People actually make a living on book royalties and selling or licensing their work. Poaching their work for pleasure or profit is unacceptable. Extensis has an entire section on font use and licensing (www.extensis.com).

Conclusion #2. For all Christians and people of faith, we need to heed the apostle Paul’s admonition in the Bible that “Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible but not everything is constructive.” (1 Corinthians 10:23) Yes, Paul is talking about Christian liberty and eating of food that was devoted to idols of his day, but the principle remains. What we CAN do is not always what we SHOULD do. This involves the use of AI in our churches and ministries.

Second, beware of the “Babel influence.” You do remember the construction of a tower built by early peoples to reach to heaven in Genesis 11 — “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” Christopher Watkin notes in his massive study, Biblical Critical Theory: How The Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture , “rather than playing a role in God’s story (filling the earth and subduing it), these people want God to play a supporting role in their story, as the heavenly antagonist who is ultimately beholden to, or vanquished through, their heroic self-aggrandizement.” (208-9) This is sinful autonomy. This is humankind globalization of power and wealth and achievement. This is what AI could promise if misused and misapplied. We need to always see the inherent temptation in AI drawing us away from God and dependence on God.

Third, know the times and the promises and pitfalls of artificial intelligence. Get on ChatGPT 4 and Claude.ai and other AI tools. Find out how they work and can work for you. Use them biblically and intelligently and wisely. Be aware that your people are using AI all the time where they live and work, even if you don’t. In other words, be “smart” about AI and its growing use and influence — and keep the dependence on God strong and sure.

Sources

Lewis F. Day’s Alphabets Old and New , London, 1910 edition.

Sara Hawkins, “Copyright Fair Use and How It Works for Online Images,” https://bit.ly/3YyNMCW

Lucie Růžičková , "Ai and Copyright: The Legal Landscape," https://bit.ly/3Ao5zDw .

Gibble, Kraybill & Hess, Attorneys in Lancaster, PA, https://gkh.com/protecting-copyrights-vs-protecting-trademarks/

Lewis F. Day's Summary

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 15:13:32 GMT

Lewis F. Day's Alphabetic Summary . This is the last post of Day's Alphabets Old and New (London, 1910), highlighting a summary picture of his alphabetic font offerings in the book. Other Blogs investigate the font backgrounds and development of Day's fonts. CARE Typography has meticulously digitized many of Day's typographic offerings. They are available, either individually, or as a set for a modest cost. Contact cshanktype@gmail.com for prices and ordering. Additionally, CARE Typography is offering a beautifully crafted printed summary in a font binder, along with their newest book, Typography Through the Years: A Selected History . This selection gives a carefully researched history of typography and an extensive sampling of historic faces, both old and new.

Lewis Foreman Day (1845-1910) was an influential English designer, author, and lecturer who played a significant role in the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became a prolific designer, working across various mediums including wallpaper, textiles, stained glass, pottery, and metalwork. Day advocated for the integration of form and function, emphasizing the importance of practicality in design alongside aesthetic considerations. His work and writings contributed significantly to the development of British design education and theory in the late Victorian era.

His book, Alphabets Old and New , published in London, in 1910 gives sterling examples of his typography work. Day's approach to design, blending traditional craftsmanship with modern industrial techniques, helped shape the transition from Victorian aesthetics to more modern design principles. CARE Typography has digitized a number of the font faces in the book for modern use and aesthetic appeal. The typefaces below illustrate the beauty and craftsmanship of Day which can contribute to modern typography.

Reviving Old Fonts

Wed, 11 Sep 2024 18:07:03 GMT

Reviving Old Fonts . Lewis Foreman Day (1845-1910) was an influential English designer, author, and lecturer who played a significant role in the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became a prolific designer, working across various mediums including wallpaper, textiles, stained glass, pottery, and metalwork. Day advocated for the integration of form and function, emphasizing the importance of practicality in design alongside aesthetic considerations. His work and writings contributed significantly to the development of British design education and theory in the late Victorian era.

These mostly pen drawn typefaces have been digitized by CARE Typography using Fontographer to make them available as usable fonts. Caps or Unicals are often used in display faces and advertising. Some of these classic faces can enliven your printing and advertising projects. They are available, either individually, or as a set, for a modest fee. Contact CARE Typography for more information and ordering, email cshanktype@gmail.com .

Roman Forum Regular . Day notes these as ROMAN LETTERS cut in marble. From inscriptions in the Forum at Rome. Characteristically chisel work. CARE Typography made the copying and digitizing of these capitals more precise using Adobe InDesign and Fontographer.

The Roman Forum (Forum Romanum in Latin) was the political, social, and economic heart of ancient Rome, serving as the central public space for much of the city's history. It was a place of great significance where triumphal processions, elections, public speeches, trials, and commercial activities took place. The development of the Roman Forum spans many centuries, reflecting the growth and transformation of Rome from a monarchy to a republic, and ultimately to an empire.

German Bell Font from Hildesheim . Note the traditional Gothic capitals style, with the flairs on the "J" and the alternate "A." Included is the symbol for the ancient Christian Cross.

Hildesheim is a historic city located in Lower Saxony, Germany, known for its rich history, cultural heritage, and medieval architecture. Here’s a detailed overview of the city: Hildesheim is situated about 30 km southeast of Hanover, near the northern foothills of the Harz Mountains. The Innerste River flows through the city.

Hildesheim has a long history dating back over a thousand years. The city was founded in 815 AD when Emperor Louis the Pious, the son of Charlemagne, established a bishopric here. It developed as a significant religious center during the Middle Ages. During the 11th century, Hildesheim became an important ecclesiastical center. Several Romanesque churches were built, which have become famous for their architecture and cultural significance.

See the fancy graphic below. 224078382 © British Library Commons | Dreamstime.com

Italic Offerings. The transition from Gothic to Italic typefaces was part of the broader evolution of typography that took place during the Renaissance period, driven by shifts in cultural, aesthetic, and technological factors. Gothic script was primarily used for religious texts, legal documents, and early printed books like the Gutenberg Bible. It symbolized tradition, formality, and authority. Gothic type, as seen in my previous Blogs, was characterized by its dense, angular, and ornate letters, often with sharp vertical strokes, tight spacing, and elaborate flourishes. It was designed to mimic the style of manuscript writing at the time.

The Renaissance, beginning in Italy in the 14th century, marked a revival of classical antiquity and a move toward humanism. This brought a renewed interest in the legible, flowing scripts of Roman and Greek antiquity, which were more readable and aesthetically simple compared to Gothic lettering. The development of the printing press (ca. 1440) by Johannes Gutenberg created a need for more versatile and legible typefaces. The emerging humanist values aligned with a preference for typefaces that resembled the clear, round, and graceful writing of ancient Roman scripts.

The Italic typeface was introduced by Aldus Manutius in Venice around 1501. Manutius, a prominent printer and publisher, sought to create more compact and elegant typefaces that could fit more text on a page, catering to the rising demand for smaller, portable books. Italic was based on the handwriting of Niccolò de' Niccoli, a Renaissance scholar and calligrapher. Italic typefaces are defined by their slanted, cursive-like appearance, with letters that have a flowing, dynamic quality. It allowed for more text to be fitted on the page and mimicked the handwriting style of humanist scholars.

Italic type was not only more elegant than the Gothic but also more efficient in terms of space. It became the preferred choice for printed texts that emphasized classical learning, philosophy, poetry, and humanist literature. Italic was initially used for entire texts but later became more common for emphasis (such as book titles, headings, or foreign phrases) alongside Roman type. While Italic and Roman typefaces became dominant in Italy and spread throughout Europe, Gothic typefaces continued to be used in northern Europe, especially in Germany, until the 18th century. However, Gothic script gradually became associated with tradition and older religious or legal texts, while Italic and Roman types became synonymous with modern, humanist, and scholarly work.

Today, the transition from Gothic to Italic and Roman typefaces represents one of the key shifts in the history of typography, reflecting both technological advancements and cultural changes that valued clarity, readability, and classical elegance.

Walter West. Walter West was an influential typographer known for his innovative approach to type design and his contributions to the field of modern typography. While specific detailed records about his life and career may be sparse, West was often celebrated for blending traditional craftsmanship with contemporary aesthetics in his work. His designs typically showcased a deep understanding of typographic history while incorporating modern readability and functionality.

West's work is often cited in the context of the broader movement towards clearer, more legible typefaces in print and digital media, reflecting the changing needs of design as it shifted into the 21st century. His focus on the user experience in design and the importance of type in communication earned him a notable reputation in the design community.

Flemish Printers . Christophe Plantin (1520–1589). Plantin was one of the most prominent printers of the 16th century, and his work had a lasting impact on printing in Europe. Born in France, Plantin moved to Antwerp, which was then a thriving hub of commerce and culture. He founded the Plantin Press (Plantin-Moretus), which became one of the most successful printing houses in Europe. Plantin is best known for publishing the Polyglot Bible, one of the most ambitious and influential religious texts of the time. His printing house, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is still preserved as a museum.

The Moretus Family. After Plantin's death, the business was inherited by his son-in-law, Jan Moretus (1543–1610), who continued his legacy. The Moretus family maintained the Plantin Press for several generations, producing high-quality books and playing a major role in spreading printed works across Europe. The Moretus family was known for its skilled typography and meticulous attention to detail in book design

Dirk Martens (c. 1447–1534). Dirk Martens was one of the earliest Flemish printers and a pioneer of printing in the Low Countries. He established printing presses in cities like Aalst and Antwerp and was responsible for publishing key humanist works by Erasmus and Thomas More. His efforts helped make Antwerp a major center of printing and humanist thought during the Renaissance.

Jan van Ghelen (1512–1560). Jan van Ghelen was another prominent Flemish printer, especially known for his work in printing almanacs and religious works. He operated in Antwerp and was a central figure in the print industry during the mid-16th century. Van Ghelen is remembered for his editions of religious and scientific works, which were highly regarded across Europe. These Flemish printers were not just businesspeople but also cultural figures who contributed to the dissemination of knowledge, humanism, and the arts during the Renaissance and early modern periods. Their work helped shape the future of European literature and typography.

English Influences . By the late 16th century, London had become the central hub of printing in England. Several prominent printers and publishers emerged during the Elizabethan era, contributing to the spread of Renaissance ideas. Among them were Richard Grafton, who printed the first Bible in English, and John Day, who specialized in Protestant literature.

Christopher Barker, the Queen’s Printer, held exclusive rights to print official government documents, as well as Bibles and prayer books, which gave him immense influence. His son, Robert Barker, would go on to print the famous King James Bible in 1611.

Typography and Typefaces . The dominant typefaces used in Elizabethan printing were blackletter (Gothic) and roman types. Blackletter, with its dense and elaborate strokes, was widely used for religious and official documents, giving an air of authority and tradition. However, as Renaissance humanist ideas spread, roman typefaces (more legible and less ornate) began to gain popularity for non-religious texts, scholarly works, and poetry.

Printers like John Day were instrumental in promoting the use of roman type for English texts, which helped move England toward a more modern typographic style. Italic type was also occasionally used for emphasis or prefaces, adding variety to the page layouts.

Foreign Language Fonts . Lewis F. Day includes in his survey of alphabetic fonts, both Hebrew and Greek lettering. While they both do not include all of the accented marks professional language fonts offer, they do provide clear and clean and crisp typefaces to use as a base for both languages. The Greek offering above includes Greek Initials from a book printed at Basel from wood engravings with obvious serif faces. The small letters are part of my original Greek font work for the Zondervan corporation back in the early 1990s. The Hebrew Consonants font consists of the twenty two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Notice the outstanding rendering of the Hebrew letters.

Sources

ChatGPT

Lewis F. Day's Alphabets Old and New , London, 1910

An Art Nouveau Font

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 16:53:22 GMT

An Art Nouveau Font. Grasset Regular. Eugène Samuel Grasset (25 May 1845 – 23 October 1917) was a Swiss decorative artist who worked in Paris, France in a variety of creative design fields during the Belle Époque . He is considered a pioneer in Art Nouveau design.

Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art , especially the decorative arts . It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and flowers. Other characteristics of Art Nouveau were a sense of dynamism and movement, often given by asymmetry or whiplash lines , and the use of modern materials, particularly iron, glass, ceramics and later concrete, to create unusual forms and larger open spaces. It was popular between 1890 and 1910 during the Belle Époque period, and was a reaction against the academicism , eclecticism and historicism of 19th century architecture and decorative art. The new art movement had its roots in Britain, in the floral designs of William Morris , and in the Arts and Crafts movement founded by the pupils of Morris.

New technologies in printing and publishing allowed Art Nouveau to quickly reach a global audience. Art magazines, illustrated with photographs and colour lithographs , played an essential role in popularizing the new style. The Studio in England, Arts et idèes and Art et décoration in France, and Jugend in Germany allowed the style to spread rapidly to all corners of Europe. Aubrey Beardsley in England, and Eugène Grasset , Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec , and Félix Vallotton achieved international recognition as illustrators.

Grasset taught design at the École Guérin from 1890 to 1903, at the École d’Art graphique in the rue Madame from 1903 to 1904, at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière from 1904 to 1913, and at the École Estienne in Paris. Grasset had freely adapted the alphabet of Nicolas Jenson (1471) with the intention of using it to print a book on his own method for ornamental composition, inspired by the courses he gave to the Guérin school. Georges Peignot acquired Grasset's alphabet and obtained an official patent on 7 October 1897 for the typeface under the name, "Grasset". He then gave Henri Parmentier, the workshop's punchcutter, the mission to engrave it. (Wikipedia)

Maurice Pillard Verneuil (29 April 1869 – 21 September 1942) was a French artist and decorator in the Art nouveau movement. He was born in Saint-Quentin, France . Maurice Pillard Verneuil learned his trade from the Swiss designer Eugène Grasset . Maurice Pillard Verneuil then went on to become a well-known artist and designer . He was inspired by Japanese art and nature, particularly the sea. He is known for his contribution to the art deco movement and, in particular, his use of bold, floral designs in ceramic tiles , wallpapers and other furnishing textiles .

His designs covered both the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods subsequently transitioning into his much acclaimed geometric patterns. Verneuil also produced numerous poster works in France alongside the well-known artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec and Chéret. Other collaborators included Armand Point , René Juste, Alfons Mucha and Mathurin Méheut . (Wikipedia)

The Grasset Typeface below from Lewis F.Day's Alphabets Old and New, London, 1910, shows that art nouveau flair for which these men were famous. The font has been digitized by CARE Typography and is offered with a number of other historic fonts for a modest fee. Contact cshanktype@gmail.com for details.

Historic Font Sets

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 19:57:30 GMT

Lewis F. Day's book, Alphabets Old and New , published in London, in 1910 gives sterling examples of his typography work. Day's approach to design, blending traditional craftsmanship with modern industrial techniques, helped shape the transition from Victorian aesthetics to more modern design principles. CARE Typography has digitized a number of the font faces in the book for modern use and aesthetic appeal. The typefaces below illustrate the beauty and craftsmanship of Day which can contribute to modern typography.

These carefully drawn typefaces have been digitized by CARE Typography using Fontographer to make them available as usable fonts. Caps or Unicals are often used in display faces and advertising. These usable font sets, with both caps and lower case letters, are available. Some of these classic faces can enliven your printing and advertising projects. They are available, either individually, or as a set, for a modest fee. Contact CARE Typography cshanktype@gmail.com for more information and ordering.

Crane StoryBook Font. Walter Crane (1845–1915) was a prominent English artist and illustrator of children's literature. Renowned for his imaginative and colorful illustrations in children's literature, he is often regarded as one of the most influential figures in the development of children's book illustration during the late 19th century, alongside notable contemporaries like Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway. His early influences included the Pre-Raphaelite movement and the Arts and Crafts Movement, particularly through his collaboration with William Morris. Crane's work is characterized by vibrant nursery motifs and decorative arts, which significantly shaped the genre of children's illustrated literature. He illustrated numerous classic tales, including The Faerie Queene and various nursery rhymes, and his style was heavily influenced by Japanese prints and Gothic art.

In 1862, his picture "The Lady of Shalott" was exhibited at the Royal Academy , but the academy steadily refused his maturer work and after the opening of the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877, he ceased to send pictures to Burlington House . In 1863 the printer Edmund Evans employed Crane to illustrate yellowbacks , and in 1865 they began to collaborate on toy books of nursery rhymes and fairy tales . From 1865 to 1876 Crane and Evans produced two to three toy books each year. In 1864 he began to illustrate a series of sixpenny toy books of nursery rhymes in three colours for Edmund Evans. He was allowed more freedom in a series beginning with The Frog Prince (1874) which showed markedly the influence of Japanese art.

I was introduced to Crane through Lewis F. Day's book, Alphabets Old and New: For the Use of Craftsmen (B.T. Batsford, London, 1910). In that book, Day gave a number of superb diagrams of fonts developed through the ages of typography. While Nick Curtis of Nick's Fonts, produced Crane Titling NF in 2006 (available in MyFonts), CARE Typography digitized Crane's unique alphabet and joined it to previously published font offerings, StoryBook and Fairy Tale fonts, ((See Blog, Dec 15, 2003) because of his children's book interests. The resulting Crane StoryBook font is a goldmine for children's book authors and printers. Crane Fancy Regular is another font offering designed by Walter Crane. Both fonts are available from CARE Typography for a nominal fee. Contact caretypography.com .

The Lewis Day Fancy Font. Day says this typeface was drawn straight off a pen by the author. It is termed a "modern" font. Note the extra lower swash on the lower case "d" and "g" and the special upper case "A" and "Q." The "E" and "e" are leftovers from the Gothic font age.

The Percy Font. Percy John Delf Smith (March 1882 – 30 October 1948) was a British artist who worked in engraving, painting, lettering , calligraphy and book design. He studied at Camberwell and the Central Schools of Arts and Crafts. His instructor in lettering at Camberwell was Edward Johnson, an extremely influential calligrapher and lettering artist whose Arts and Crafts movement style of lettering and use of Roman capitals had a strong influence on Delf Smith's career.

Delf Smith then established a career as a lettering artist and teaching the topic, publishing Lettering & Writing , a slipcase of lettering models, in 1908. His teacher and mentor, Edward Johnson, wrote that "The Roman capitals have held the supreme place among letters for readableness and beauty. They are the best forms for the grandest and most important inscriptions. Delf Smith shared this style, naming his workshop the Roman Lettering Company and commenting that Roman lettering has "content and atmosphere, and good examples convey a sense of stability and satisfaction." (wikipedia) Note the slightly upturned bottom serifs and what are called the "old style" numerals.

Weekes Modern Font. J.W. Weekes is a notable figure in the field of printing and print media. His work primarily revolves around the technical and historical aspects of printing technology. Weekes has contributed significantly to the understanding and advancement of printing processes, materials, and the evolution of print media.

His expertise includes a deep knowledge of traditional printing methods such as letterpress and offset printing, as well as modern digital printing technologies. Weekes is known for his research on the impact of printing technology on media and communication, exploring how advancements in printing have influenced both the production and dissemination of information.

He was well-regarded among his peers and had a significant impact on the printing community in the Ottawa Valley. Weekes was known for his expertise in the art of printing, which he practiced professionally. His reputation as a skilled printer was acknowledged by his contemporaries, and he was a respected member of the typographical union. Weekes has authored several influential works on printing history and technology, shedding light on how printing practices have evolved over time and their implications for contemporary media. His contributions are valuable to both academics and professionals in the printing industry, providing insights into the technical and historical dimensions of this important field.

Letterer from the last part of the 19th century. Examples of his alphabets (taken from the 1910 book by Lewis Foreman Day entitled Alphabets Old and New ) include Modern Roman , another Modern Roman , and Modern Roman Block (sans serif). Crane Titling NF (2006, Nick Curtis) is a digital typeface with medieval-inspired uppercase letters drawn by famed book illustrator Walter Crane. The charming quirky lowercase letters are from alphabets in that 1910 book drawn by J. W. Weekes.

The Weekes Modern Font was digitized by CARE Typography from samples in Lewis F. Day's book. The small letters (minuscules) can be found in Crane Titling NF by Nick Curtis in MyFonts. The capitals (manuscules) are found in my rendering below along with the small letters. CARE is offering this typeface for a minimal fee. Contact www.caretypography.com for details and downloading.

Grasset French Font. Eugène Grasset (1845–1917) was a Swiss-born graphic designer and decorative artist, often considered one of the pioneers of the Art Nouveau movement. He was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, and later moved to France, where he became highly influential in both the fine and applied arts.Grasset is best known for his contributions to poster art and book illustration. His posters, particularly for advertising, were striking in their use of bold colors, stylized figures, and decorative patterns, often inspired by medieval and Gothic art. One of his most famous works is the poster for "La Belle Jardinière," a well-known Parisian department store.

In addition to his graphic work, Grasset designed stained glass, textiles, and even furniture, exemplifying the Art Nouveau philosophy of integrating art into everyday life. He also taught at the École Estienne in Paris, influencing a new generation of designers.

Eugène Grasset's work remains celebrated for its elegance and for helping to shape the aesthetic of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His influence can be seen in both the fine arts and in the development of modern graphic design.

Classic Caps

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 19:36:38 GMT

Classic Caps. Lewis Foreman Day (1845-1910) was an influential English designer, author, and lecturer who played a significant role in the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became a prolific designer, working across various mediums including wallpaper, textiles, stained glass, pottery, and metalwork. He authored numerous books on design, including The Anatomy of Pattern (1887), The Planning of Ornament (1887), and Nature in Ornament (1892), which became important references for designers and students. Day advocated for the integration of form and function, emphasizing the importance of practicality in design alongside aesthetic considerations. His work and writings contributed significantly to the development of British design education and theory in the late Victorian era.

These mostly pen drawn typefaces have been digitized by CARE Typography using Fontographer to make them available as usable fonts. Caps or Unicals are often used in display faces and advertising. Some of these classic faces can enliven your printing and advertising projects. They are available, either individually, or as a set, for a modest fee. Contact CARE Typography cshanktype@gmail.com for more information and ordering.

Curione Font. Ludovico Curione (1503–1569) was an influential figure in the field of printing and publishing during the Renaissance. He was an Italian scholar, humanist, and printer who made significant contributions to the dissemination of classical and contemporary works. Curione was born in a period of rapid intellectual and cultural development, and his work reflected the growing emphasis on classical learning and humanist ideals.

Curione was particularly known for his role in editing and publishing works that were crucial to the Renaissance revival of classical texts. He was involved in the publication of important Greek and Latin texts, including works by ancient philosophers, poets, and historians. His efforts helped to preserve and spread classical knowledge, which was central to the humanist movement of the time.

One of his notable achievements was his work on the publication of the Opera omnia of the Greek philosopher Proclus, as well as his contributions to the edition of the Corpus Christianorum . His work was highly regarded for its scholarly rigor and accuracy, and he became a prominent figure in the scholarly community of his time.

Curione’s impact on the field of printing extended beyond his own publications; he was part of a broader movement that transformed the way knowledge was produced and shared. His contributions helped to establish standards for scholarly editing and set a precedent for future generations of scholars and printers. Overall, Ludovico Curione is remembered as a key figure in the history of printing and publishing, whose work played a crucial role in the Renaissance and the preservation and dissemination of classical and humanist texts.(ChatGPT)

Sebastiano Serlio, an Italian Mannerist architect, engraver and painter of the sixteenth century, designed some of the most refined variants of the classic Roman letters—the prototypical Italian Renaissance roman alphabet, also known as Serlio's Alphabet. Born in Bologna in 1475, he died in 1554. He was part of the Italian team building the Palace of Fontainebleau.

This font digitized by CARE Typography from Day's Panels, notes the flourishing tail of the "Q" letter. Note also the tail of the letter "R." The serifs are precise and inviting. There are a few roman capital fonts in the digital age. These include Serlio (1990, Linotype), Sentian (Novel Fonts) and Opti Serlio (Castcraft).

The modern font Serlio has been digitally produced by Linotype. Note that the tail on this Linotype "Q" does not match the flourishing tail on the original "Q" above. Serlio is a fine digital Titling typeface. OptiSerlio has been copyrighted by Castcraft Software, Inc. 1990-1991, but is available for personal use by many other companies.

Vinycomb Fourteenth Century. This century, as modeled by Victorian calligraphic artist, John Vinycomb, an internationally acknowledged expert in heraldry, saw the number of carefully drawn alphabets delivering a "skeleton" of lettering with all letters of equal stroke width in his Modern Sans font.

He also drew a number of other alphabets, Italian 14th Century Capitals, Modern Roman French Style and Modern Roman Italics OldStyle. The 14th Century Italian Caps are digitized by CARE Typography from Day's book. Dick Pope in 2012 created the digital typefaces LFD Thin French 208 and LFD 14th C Italian 75 from Day's panels. In 2020 Paul Hardin released LDN Queenstown at London Type.

Seventeenth Century. The sample provided by Day is noted by the short middle stems in the "E" and "F" letters. This has also been digitized by CARE Typography. These capital letters are from a rare writing book, says Lewis Day. They stand out as fine samples of Roman serif type.

LFD Fancy Alphabet Font . It is Modern Gothic Capitals digitized from Day's book by CARE Typography. Lewis Day introduces this font with the words — "Meant to be fanciful, but not to do any great violence to accepted form. An alphabet in which there is the least approach to design is always in danger of being considered illegible. Legibility is for the most part the paramount consideration; but there are cases, however rare, in which it is permitted even to hide the meaning so long as it is there, for those whom it may concern."

Weekes Old Sans. J.W. Weekes produced a "sans serif" (without feet) modern Roman block font, miscalled "Egyptian" as Day notes in his book. Weeks was a letterer from the last part of the 19th century. Examples of his alphabets, taken from the 1910 book by Lewis Foreman Day, include Modern Roman and Modern Roman Block. Crane TitlingNF by Nick Curtis in 2006 is a digital typeface with medieval-inspired uppercase letters drawn by famed book illustrator Walter Crane. This Modern Roman Block font, called Old Sans in the diagram, has been digitized from Day's book by CARE Typography.

J.W. Weekes is a distinguished typographer and printer renowned for his contributions to the art and craft of typography. With a deep appreciation for the historical and aesthetic aspects of print design, Weekes has dedicated his career to advancing the standards of typographic excellence.

His work is characterized by a meticulous attention to detail and a commitment to blending traditional techniques with modern innovations.

Weekes' expertise spans a range of disciplines within the field, including type design, letterpress printing, and bookbinding. His innovative approach to typography has earned him recognition in various design and print media, and his projects often reflect a deep respect for the craft's rich heritage.

In addition to his professional work, Weekes is a p assionate advocate for the preservation of traditional printing methods and the promotion of typographic education. His contributions to workshops, publications, and conferences have helped to inspire a new generation of designers and printers. (Chat GPT)

The Bingen Font. This is a typeface developed from Day's Alphabets Old and New taken from stone masons in the old German town of Bingen. Bingen am Rhein, often simply called Bingen, is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The settlement's original name was Bingium, a Celtic word that may have meant "hole in the rock" a description of the shoal behind the Mäuseturm, known as the Binger Loch. Bingen was the starting point for the Via Ausonia, a Roman military road that linked the town with Trier . Bingen is well known for, among other things, the story about the Mouse Tower , in which the Bishop of Hatto I of Mainz was allegedly eaten by mice. Saint Hildegard von Bingen , an important polymath , abbess , mystic and musician , one of the most influential medieval composers and one of the earliest Western composers whose music is widely preserved and performed, was born 40 km away from Bingen, in Bermersheim vor der Höhe . Bingen am Rhein was also the birthplace of the celebrated poet Stefan George , along with many other influential figures. (Wikipedia & Claude.ai)

Pearce Caps. W.A. Pearce was a prominent figure in the printing industry, especially noted for his contributions during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although not as widely recognized today, his work was significant in the development and advancement of printing technologies and practices of his time.

Pearce was known for his innovation in printing techniques, including the use of advanced machinery and methods that improved efficiency and quality in print production. He was involved in publishing various materials, including books, newspapers, and other printed media. His work contributed to the dissemination of information and literature during his era.

Pearce’s contributions to the technical aspects of printing were significant. He was involved in the development and implementation of new printing technologies that helped shape the modern printing industry.

Although detailed records of his life and career are limited, Pearce’s impact on the printing industry is recognized through his advancements in printing technology and the quality of his publications.

Waldram Caps. B. Waldram is a notable figure in the field of printing, particularly recognized for his contributions to the development and enhancement of printing technologies. His work has had a significant impact on modern printing practices, with a focus on improving efficiency, quality, and sustainability in the industry.

Waldram’s career in printing began with a strong foundation in mechanical engineering, which he applied to innovate various aspects of printing machinery and processes. His expertise spans a range of printing techniques, including offset, digital, and flexographic printing. Through his research and development efforts, he has been instrumental in advancing the capabilities of printing presses, optimizing print quality, and reducing waste.

One of Waldram’s key contributions is his work on developing more environmentally friendly printing solutions. He has been involved in creating and promoting technologies that reduce the environmental footprint of printing operations, such as eco-friendly inks and energy-efficient printing systems. In addition to his technical achievements, Waldram has been a prominent figure in industry associations and has shared his knowledge through publications and presentations at conferences. His commitment to advancing the printing industry has earned him recognition and respect from peers and professionals alike.

Overall, B. Waldram’s influence in the field of printing is marked by his dedication to innovation and sustainability, making him a significant contributor to the evolution of modern printing practices.

Louvre Caps. The Louvre Museum, located in Paris, France, is one of the world's largest and most famous art museums. Originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under King Philippe Auguste, it was transformed into a royal palace in the 16th century. In 1793, during the French Revolution, it was opened as a public museum.

The Louvre's architecture is a striking blend of historical styles, with its most notable feature being the glass pyramid entrance designed by architect I. M. Pei, which was inaugurated in 1989. This modern addition contrasts sharply with the surrounding classical and Renaissance buildings, creating a visually intriguing juxtaposition.

Inside, the Louvre houses an extensive collection of art and historical artifacts, spanning from ancient civilizations to the 19th century. Among its most celebrated works are Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," the ancient Greek statue of the "Venus de Milo," and Eugène Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People." The museum's vast collection is divided into eight departments, including Near Eastern Antiquities, Egyptian Antiquities, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities, and Paintings.

Lewis Day recorded a tapestry of lettering in the L ouvre, which he provided in his Old and New Alphabets book. These are French inspired letterings that reveal a carefully refined narrow ambiance and are more art than functional letters.

Yciar Spanish Caps. Juan de Juan de Yciar was a notable Spanish calligrapher and mathematician who lived in the 16th century. Born around 1515–1520 in Durango, Biscay, part of the Basque Country in Spain, Yciar was primarily known for his work in calligraphy and penmanship. In 1548, he published Arte subtilissima, por la cual se enseña a escribir perfectamente ( The Subtlest Art, by which Perfect Writing is Taught) , one of the first printed writing manuals in Spain. This manual was highly influential and went through multiple editions. It included various typefaces and alphabets, as well as instructions on how to make quills and prepare ink.

Yciar was also a mathematician. He published works on arithmetic and geometry, including Libro intitulado Arithmetica practica (Book Entitled Practical Arithmetic) in 1549. He worked as a writing master in Zaragoza, where he taught calligraphy and mathematics. Yciar's work contributed significantly to the standardization of handwriting in Spain during the Renaissance period. The sample font above from Day highlights Spanish Gothic capitals from Yciar's Writing Book.

English Gothic Caps . Uncial is a majuscule script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from the 4th to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes . Uncial letters were used to write Greek and Latin , as well as Gothic . Around AD 600, flourishes and exaggerations of the basic strokes began to appear in more manuscripts. Ascenders and descenders were the first major alterations, followed by twists of the tool in the basic stroke and overlapping. Certain characteristics include relatively narrow F, P, I while M, N. and U are relatively broad. The letter R has a long, curved shoulder. E is formed with a curved stroke. In the sample to the right, the fancy swishes are apparent in the A, H, J and K letters. Note especially the tail on the Q and the P and Y lettering.

Lewis F. Day's Alphabets Old and New (London, 1910) is a treasure trove of fantastic historic typefaces. From the Arundel and Lansdowne manuscripts in the British Museum, Day provides an English Gothic font, drawn near the end of the 12th century. These letters often framed the opening paragraphs of a book or story.

Fancy Gothic continues with the Bible Script capitals (my designation). Day notes these caps are from the inscription upon a bronze bell at Hildesheim in 1270 AD. The Psalter Caps are Gothic uncials from a Psalter from St. Albans, now in the British Museum, from the 13th century. Again note the tail on the A, Q and R letters. Many of these letters were pen drawn calligraphic masterpieces in their day.

These uncials have been carefully digitized by CARE Typography and provided in modern font settings.

Numbers in Typography

Mon, 26 Aug 2024 18:07:32 GMT

Numbers In Typography

Personal Background . I am a minister by calling and a self-trained typographer. Yet, I was also trained to be a mathematician by my college degree in mathematics. Indeed, before seminary days, I was a mathematics teaching assistant at the University of Maryland for a season. Numbers have played a significant role in my training and development, both as a theologian and typographer. It is for this reason that I found the sample numerals in Lewis F. Day’s Alphabets Old and New (London, 1910) fascinating and important to the development of type and fonts.

Numbers and Numerals. First things first. We must distinguish between “numbers” and the symbols that represent them as “numerals.” A number is a mathematical object used to count , measure , and label . The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words . More universally, individual numbers can be represented by symbols , called numerals; for example, "5" is a numeral that represents the number five .

The current symbols we use for numbers, namely 0,1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 9, only came about in practice in the late 14th and early 15th century in Western European civilization. Before these Arabic symbols, the Egyptians invented the first ciphered numeral system, and the Greeks followed by mapping their counting numbers onto Ionian and Doric alphabets. Roman numerals, a system that used combinations of letters from the Roman alphabet, remained dominant in Europe until the spread of the superior Hindu–Arabic numeral system around the late 14th century, and the Hindu–Arabic numeral system remains the most common system for representing numbers in the world today.

Numbers were indicated by Egyptian hieroglyphics, Hebrew and Greek letters and the classic Roman numerals. As a schoolboy, I had to learn the Roman numeral system, thus, 1= I, 5 = V, 10 = X, L = 50, C = 100, D = 500, M = 1000. Such a numeral system only gradually faded over time, with Roman numerals often seen on current day clock faces, monuments and buildings and copyright dates on the title screens of movies and television programs. MCM, signifying "a thousand, and a hundred less than another thousand", means 1900, so 1912 is written MCMXII. For the years of the current (21st) century, MM indicates 2000; this year is MMXXIV (2024).

The Arabic Numerals. The Arabic numerals found their way into Europe some time during the 12th century via the Italian scholar and mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci (1170 – 1250) who grew up in North Africa and is credited for bringing the decimal system to Europe. Although he died two centuries before Gutenberg, Fibonacci introduced Arabic numerals to northern Italian scribes. His 13th-century work Liber Abaci was crucial in making Arabic numerals known throughout Europe; however, their use in Europe was largely confined to Northern Italy until the invention of the printing press in the 15th century.

The adoption of these numerals in England lagged behind their European counterparts, with the beginning of the 17th century as the date of their universal acceptance. The numerals, as we know them, or even as they were written in the 15th century, do not bear any marked resemblance to the genuine Arabic. Numbers 1 and 9, and the all-important cypher, 0, are the only Eastern figures which seem to claim direct oriental ancestry.

The Numeral 0 . You will note in a typographical study of numerals that the numeral “0” is often missing in the earliest studies and writings. As late as the 15th century, the numeral zero was regarded as umbre et encombre, “dark and encumbered,” and its German name, Null, is derived from the idea that it is nulla figura, not a “real” figure. The mathematician Fibonacci used the term zephyrum. This became zefiro in Italian, and was then contracted to zero in Venetian. The Italian word zefiro was already in existence (meaning "west wind" from Latin and Greek Zephyrus ) and may have influenced the spelling when transcribing Arabic ṣifr. The Indian system includes the zero, permitting complicated mathematical operations. Indian sources have called zero shunya, “emptiness,”, that is, an emptiness that fills the lines between numbers and thus makes it easy to distinguish the position of a number in terms of units, tens and so forth.

Numerology. We cannot study numbers and numerals without taking note of their typological importance. Numerals meant something to many peoples throughout the ages. In early Greek, still existing in Hebrew and Arabic, the Arabic alphabet follows the old Semitic sequence of letters, called abjad. Each letter has a twofold meaning, allowing one to develop relations between names, meaningful words and numbers.

The number “666” in the Bible in the Book of Revelation is a model case. Found in Revelation 13:18 — “This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.” — many Bible scholars have sought to unmask the significance of such a number combination.

Some have said it represents the “Nero Caesar,” that is, if the final letter is omitted to give the Latin spelling of the name so that the total is 616, an acceptable variant reading of the text.

However, Leon Morris in his excellent commentary on Revelation notes that “to get this result we must use the Greek form of the Latin name, transliterated into Hebrew characters, and with a variant spelling at that (the vowel letter y has to be omitted from qysr). This solution has its attractions, but no-one has shown why a Hebrew name with an unusual spelling should be employed in a Greek writing.” (Leon Morris, The Revelation of St. John, Tyndale Series Commentaries)

He would suggest that “we should understand the expression purely in terms of the symbolism of numbers. If we take the sum of the values represented by the letters of the name IēsousN, the Greek name ‘Jesus’, it comes to 888; each digit is one more than seven, the perfect number. But 666 yields the opposite phenomenon, for each digit falls short. The number may be meant to indicate not an individual, but a persistent falling short,” that the unregenerate man is persistently evil.

Philosophy of Numbers. It may seem obvious that 1 + 1 = 2, that the Euclidean system of doing and thinking about numbers has codified the numeral system. Up to the latter part of the 19th century, mathematics operated with axioms and rules of Euclidean geometry. For example, two points define a straight line. It was presupposed that there existed only one coherent analysis of numbers, line, space and so forth. “1+1 = 2 is true” went unquestioned for the most part.

With the rise of the Enlightenment and Rationalism, along with the variant theologies of German Rationalism, and skepticism in the theological sphere, came an explosion of new mathematics. The theory of infinite numbers was introduced. Negative, complex and irrational numbers entered mathematical activity. Euclidean geometry became quite inadequate. For the first time in great measure, the problem of consistency came up.

The Law of Contradiction no longer held true. Thus, in Riemannian geometry, through a given point outside a line no parallel to it can be drawn! And the nightmare began! There was no way to prove mathematical consistency with itself because even if all the theorems of a system were logically true, we don’t have all the theorems at hand. Perhaps the next one may contradict them all! Axioms outside the range of finite or infinite cannot be known. This pointed to the unsolvable dilemma of consistency. The terms “point,” “line,” “between” became meaningless.

Bertram Russell said that “pure mathematics is the subject in which we do not know what we are talking about, or whether what we are saying is true.” God, after all, if He does exist, might be playing a grand hoax. After the last mathematician dies, the last equation written, the last problem solved, He would deny all such work and have completely different truths about numbers than what we have now. We see this struggle in René Descartes work on methodical doubt.

I am convinced that 1 + 1 = 2 and am satisfied that a God of order and consistency has so ordained it to be so. The Bible says in Colossians 1:17 that “And he [Jesus Christ] is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” To “cohere” in verse 17 implies consistency. So, 1 + 1 = 2 is true because ultimately God has in fact ordained and revealed it to be truth.

The apologist Cornelius Van Til has said, “The scientist is guilty when he handles nature as though it were a grab-bag tossed into his lap by chance instead of the estate of the Creator-Redeemer.” (Cornelius Van Til, The Doctrine of Scripture)

The examples below are digitized samples from the 15th century onwards drawn from Day’s book.

Typographic Signposts

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 19:14:11 GMT

Typographic Signposts Reading the history of typography and writing has become a fascinating joy for me. The richness and diversity of typographic innovation is marvelous and instructive and often mirrors the cultural milieu of the period. One fascinating book I recently read is the 1910 Alphabets Old And New by Lewis F. Day (B.T. Batsford, London, 1910). Lewis F. Day (1845–1910) was a prominent British designer and author known for his contributions to decorative arts and design during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best remembered for his work in the Arts and Crafts Movement, a design philosophy that emphasized craftsmanship, simplicity, and the beauty of natural materials.

Day was educated at the South Kensington School of Art, where he honed his skills and developed a deep appreciation for historical design styles. He became well-versed in a variety of design techniques and materials, which he employed in his own work as well as in his writings. One of his most significant contributions was his writing. Day authored several influential books on design, including "The Book of Ornament" and "The Grammar of Ornament," which were widely read and respected in design circles. These works provided detailed insights into the principles of design, drawing on a range of historical styles and cultural influences.

In addition to his written work, Day was involved in various design projects, including ceramics and textiles. His designs were characterized by their careful attention to detail and a deep understanding of historical and contemporary styles. Day's legacy is evident in the continued relevance of his design principles and writings, which have influenced subsequent generations of designers and craftsmen. His work remains an important reference for those interested in the intersection of history, aesthetics, and craftsmanship in design.

In his Alphabets Old and New , Day provides typographic examples and traces the development of the typographical alphabet from earliest times. Starting with the 6th century lettering, Day provides examples of alphabetic lettering through the 14th, 16th, 17th and on into modern typography of his period. The digitized samples below are drawn from Day's book and provide a visually satisfying typographic history.

Sixth Century As I mentioned in earlier Blogs (SEE Ancient Alphabets, Oct 28, 2023), along with a pictorial history of type ( Typography: Pictorial History , May 15, 2024), a pictorial history of the development of printing machines (Typography: A History of Machines , March 12, 2023), printers marks (About Printers Marks: Highlighting Crosses , March 15, 2024) and old Bible typographic versals ( Old Bible Typography Versals, April 19, 2024) writing moved from scribal pens and diligent artists to actual letters, mostly capital letters at this point. The sixth century sample comes from illuminated manuscripts from English, Irish or Anglo-Saxon sources. Note the beginning of ascenders and descenders, the Gothic "E" and "M" and fancy "D, G and H."

Eighth Century . Scribal art can be seen in the Book of Kells, a copy of the Gospels written. This early lettering example comes from the eighth century. Kells was a monastery founded by St. Columbo.

Tenth Century The tenth century saw the increasing development of Roman type of letters. These manuscript letters more nearly resemble the orthodox Roman character, with exception of D, E, G, P, U, in which Gothic characteristics begin to appear, and perhaps a hint of future minuscule (small letters) forms. Note the backward "Z" which I consider an anomaly.

Twelfth Century. The twelfth century continued with Gothic style caps. Note the "E" and "M" as well as the flourishes on the English pen created caps, especially on the "Q." There are alternates as well with some of the letters, which I have included below. On the German alternates, note the "T" and the "P" alternates with what looks like a cross. This continues the old tradition of Printers Marks with crosses, now in letter form.

8th Century Galician. Galician (Galego) is a language spoken primarily in the region of Galicia in northwestern Spain. It is closely related to Portuguese, as both languages evolved from the medieval Galician-Portuguese language spoken in this region during the Middle Ages. Here is an overview of Galician, covering its history, linguistic characteristics, and cultural significance:

Galician developed from Vulgar Latin, the same root as many other Romance languages. It emerged in the early Middle Ages (around the 9th century) in the northwest Iberian Peninsula, where the Kingdom of Galicia played a key role in medieval Spain.

From the 12th to the 14th century, Galician and Portuguese were essentially the same language. During this time, it was the language of lyric poetry and courtly culture across the Iberian Peninsula. Over time, the political separation of Galicia from Portugal (following the creation of the Kingdom of Portugal) led to the divergence of the two languages, with Galician increasingly influenced by Spanish, while Portuguese evolved separately.

After the 15th century, Galician’s prestige declined as Spanish became the dominant administrative and cultural language in Galicia. However, in the 19th century, there was a revival of Galician, particularly with the Rexurdimento (Resurgence), a cultural movement aimed at restoring the prestige of the Galician language.

The Royal Galician Academy (Real Academia Galega) is the main body that regulates the language, setting orthographic and grammatical norms. The Galician language is a cornerstone of Galician identity, and many cultural expressions, such as folk music, poetry, and literature, are closely tied to the language. Notable authors like Rosalía de Castro and Manuel Rivas have written in Galician, contributing to its literary tradition.

Fourteenth Century This century, as modeled by Victorian calligraphic artist, John Vinycomb, an internationally acknowledged expert in heraldry, saw the number of carefully drawn alphabets delivering a "skeleton" of lettering with all letters of equal stroke width in his Modern Sans font.

Fifteenth Century . More extreme fonts are produced as in the sample below. Note the Gothic styled "D, " "E," and "M." Lewis Day notes these are painted initials from Germany around 1480.

Sixteenth Century Sebastiano Serlio, an Italian Mannerist architect, engraver and painter of the sixteenth century, designed some of the most refined variants of the classic Roman letters—the prototypical Italian Renaissance roman alphabet, also known as Serlio's Alphabet. Born in Bologna in 1475, he died in 1554. He was part of the Italian team building the Palace of Fontainebleau.

German Blackletter Fonts . At the end of the 15th century, German printing was at the forefront of a revolutionary transformation in Europe, driven by the invention of the movable-type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century. This development had a profound impact on culture, education, and the dissemination of knowledge. By the end of the century, Germany had become one of the key centers of printing in Europe, particularly in cities like Mainz, Nuremberg, and Augsburg.

Books printed before 1501 are referred to as incunabula. German printers produced a significant portion of the incunabula, with many focusing on religious texts such as the Bible, liturgical works, and theological treatises. Secular works, including classical texts, legal documents, and scientific works, also gained prominence towards the end of the century.

German printers played a key role in developing early typefaces. One of the most popular was Blackletter (also called Gothic script or Fraktur), which dominated printed works in Germany during this period. The dense and elaborate script was particularly suited to religious and formal texts.

Seventeenth Century The sample provided by Day is noted by the short middle stems in the "E" and "F" letters. This has also been digitized by CARE Typography. These capital letters are from a rare writing book, says Lewis Day. They stand out as fine samples of Roman serif type.

Percy John Delf Smith (March 1882 – 30 October 1948) was a British artist who worked in engraving, painting, lettering , calligraphy and book design. He studied at Camberwell and the Central Schools of Arts and Crafts. His instructor in lettering at Camberwell was Edward Johnson, an extremely influential calligrapher and lettering artist whose Arts and Crafts movement style of lettering and use of Roman capitals had a strong influence on Delf Smith's career.

J.W. Weekes produced a "sans serif" (without feet) modern Roman block font, miscalled "Egyptian" as Day notes in his book. Weeks was a letterer from the last part of the 19th century. Examples of his alphabets, taken from the 1910 book by Lewis Foreman Day, include Modern Roman and Modern Roman Block. Crane TitlingNF by Nick Curtis in 2006 is a digital typeface with medieval-inspired uppercase letters drawn by famed book illustrator Walter Crane. This Modern Roman Block font, called Old Sans in the diagram, has been digitized from Day's book by CARE Typography.

His work is characterized by a meticulous attention to detail and a commitment to blending traditional techniques with modern innovations.

In addition to his professional work, Weekes is a passionate advocate for the preservation of traditional printing methods and the promotion of typographic education. His contributions to workshops, publications, and conferences have helped to inspire a new generation of designers and printers. (Chat GPT)

The final choice titling font I have named the Fancy Alphabet Font. It is Modern Gothic Capitals digitized from Day's book by CARE Typography. Lewis Day introduces this font with the words — "Meant to be fanciful, but not to do any great violence to accepted form. An alphabet in which there is the least approach to design is always in danger of being considered illegible. Legibility is for the most part the paramount consideration; but there are cases, however rare, in which it is permitted even to hide the meaning so long as it is there, for those whom it may concern."

All About Ampersands

Mon, 12 Aug 2024 19:06:50 GMT

To help pay my way through seminary, I painted the outsides of old Philadelphia homes in the summers. During those months of fighting off bees and wasps and enduring the heat of summer work, I often ran across very intricate fascia trim designs from the Victorian era. These fascinating and complex designs represented the work of the craftsmen of older days and required time intensive sanding and repainting. I usually ignored, and sometimes complained, about such fancy decorative pieces.

Ampersand History. Like these carefully crafted pieces, ampersands, symbols derived from the Latin or French et , meaning and , are one of the oldest alphabetic abbreviations. In The Printer's Handbook of Trade Recipes (Charles Thomas Jacobi, London, 1891), t he “character and ” or “ short and ” as it is known among printers, has the title "ampersand" in the dictionaries, where it is said to be “a corruption of and , per se and , ie. and , by itself and .” It was originally formed as may be seen in some old-style italic fonts of today — of a combination of the capitals E and T, making the French and Latin word “et,“ signifying “and.” Its preferred use is in connecting firm and corporation names, and it is sometimes permitted in display lines where the whole word cannot be inserted. The famous typographer, Robert Bringhurst, notes that "since the ampersand is more often used in display work than in ordinary text, the more creative versions are often the more useful." ( The Elements of Typographic Style )

One of the first examples of an ampersand appears on a piece of papyrus from about 45 A.D. Written in an early Roman capital cursive (the handwriting of the time), it shows the ligature ET. A sample of Pompeian graffiti from 79 A.D. also shows a combination of the capitals E and T, and is again written in early Roman script. The ampersand is generally interchangeable with "and." This is why “etc.” can sometimes be seen written as “&c.” Interestingly, there are a number of versions of the word in various British dialects: ampussy, ampusand, amsiam .

The Ligature ET Actually, the ampersand is what is called a ligature , first adopted with the invention of printing in the early 15th century, which occurs when two or more letterforms are written or printed as one unit. Generally, ligatures replace characters that occur next to each other when they overlap. One of the most common ligatures is “fi" (f plus i). Because the dot of the i interferes with the loop of the lowercase f, when they are printed next to each other, the two letters are combined into a single glyph with the dot absorbed into the f, or eliminated. Frank Romano in the August 2004 Issue of Electronic Publishing notes that "ligatures were originally used by medieval scribes to increase writing speed. A 14th century manuscript included hundreds of ligatures and early typefaces used ligatures to emulate the appearance of hand-lettered manuscripts. Gutenberg’s font had 292 glyphs—most of them 2- and 3-letter ligatures to fool Bible buyers into thinking it was handwritten. Most ligatures fell out of common use except for the five f-ligtures (fi, ff, fl, ffi, ffl), and the two dipthongs in upper- and lowercase (Æ and Œ). Only recently has computer-based typesetting had automated ligatures."

Bringhurst notes in his callout about ampersands that earlier typographers made liberal use of them — "The 16th century French printer Christophe Plantin sometimes uses four quite different ampersands in the course of a single paragraph, even when setting something as unwhimsical as the eight-volume polylingual Bible on which he risked his fortune and to which he devoted more than six years of his life." (Elements of Typographic Style, 78) (For more on Plantin, See my Blog on "Early Printing and Typography — An Extended Early History," July 10, 2024)

But even earlier than the printed page were scribal calligraphic writings, in which the combination E T was a ligature from the 8th century onward, depending on the calligrapher's handwriting style. We see an early form of the ligature in the Cancellaresca fonts used by calligraphers in the 1400s, In one of its historically five variants, Cancellaresca was the handwriting of Titian, Michelangelo and Raphael, of Bembo, Aldus, Lorenzo de Medici and many others. Arnold Bank notes in his lecture, From Calligraphy and Its Influence in the Time of Plantin , that this well-used calligraphic font "was also the official business and correspondence script of the scholars and writers engaged in the secretarial departments of those court and papal chanceries requiring at this time a literary style of Latin composition for which the usual secretary and mercantile hands were considered unsuited."

Encyclopedia Britannica notes that "cancellaresca corsiva, in calligraphy, script that in the 16th century became the vehicle of the New Learning throughout Christendom. It developed during the preceding century out of the antica corsiva, which had been perfected by the scribes of the papal chancery. As written by the calligrapher and printer Ludovico degli Arrighi of Vicenza in the early decades of the 16th century, the cancellaresca corsiva can range from eye-arresting contrasts of Gothic-like thick and thin strokes to a delicate, supple monotone tracery. Arrighi’s ascending letters, rather than terminating in serifs as in earlier versions, wave plumelike to the right, offset by the leftward swing of the descenders. Lively yet disciplined, responsive to various cuts of nib and speeds of movement, the cancellaresca corsiva was revived under the popular name italic in the 20th century for personal, primarily decorative purposes." (Britannica.com)

Gilles Le Corre, born in 1950 in Nantes, France, is an engraver and calligrapher who rediscovered this typeface and gave us the 1491 Cancellaresca font family. The 1610 Cancellaresca font family was " inspired by the “Cancellaresca moderna ” type, which was calligraphed by Francesco Periccioli (published in 1610 in Siena, Italy). It was entirely handwritten by the designer for each circumstance, using quill pen and medieval ink on a rough paper, with added characters as accented ones and a lot of ligatures with respect for the original design." (MyFonts.com) Alan Meeks designed Cancellaresca Script, a decorative typeface in 1982, The 2010 Cancellaresca font family was inspired by the Cancellaresca pattern (look at the 1491 Cancellaresca and 1610 Cancellaresca), in particular Spanish one, from Francisco Lucas, who was working in the late 1500s. It is a modern variation, including West European accented characters and a lot of initial and final alternates. The sampling below shows the ampersand choices redrafted by Gilles Le Corre (GLC). Along with the opening selection of digitally reproduced ampersands of the 7th–16th centuries, we have a choice selection of ET ligatures, ampersands, that have survived the test of time.

The Poetica typeface family, designed by Robert Slimbach of Adobe and based on Cancelleresca, has 58 ampersands (one more than Heinz catsup). Some typefaces have especially beautiful ampersands—the italic ampersands for Garamond, Minion, Janson, Meridien, Baskerville, and Caslon are gorgeous. With the appearance of slab serif and sans serif typefaces in the 19th century, typefounders preferred the roman version of the ampersand in italic as well as roman styles. Ampersand usage varies from language to language.

Sources

Arnold Bank, Calligraphy and Its Influence in the Time of Plantin , Visiting Lecturer at the Royal College of Art, London, www.dbnl.org .

Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style , Hartley & Marks, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2005.

Charles Thomas Jacobi, compiler, The Printers’ Handbook of Trade Recipes, Hints & Suggestions Relating to Letterpress and Lithographic Printing, Bookbinding, Stationery, Engraving, Etc. , London, 1891

Frank Romano, From Ampersands to Interrobangs, Electronic Publishing , August 2004

Stephen Moye, Fontographer: Type By Design (MIS Press:1995)

Various font articles from MyFonts.com

About Sans Serif Fonts

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 15:43:51 GMT

About Sans Serif Fonts. Whether we realize it or not, our alphabet began as sans serif characters. “Sans-serif” is a French term meaning “without feet.” Most type you read is what is called “serif” text, or text with feet. The “feet” are the little stems at the end of characters that make up a large part of textual materials. They make the reading legible, easy to digest, and allow the least eye strain for longer reading periods.

Sans Serif fonts can be seen on Sumerian Clay tablets (3000–2076 BC) and later on Greek stone tablets and headstones. “The first sans serif Roman letters were gold jewelry engravings that date from 700 BC, when the city of Rome was nothing but straw and mud huts.” (Steve Kennedy, “Facts-o-Type,” Typeworld , September 15, 1991)

Nicolette Gray in A History of Lettering (David Godine Publishers, 1986 and in the U.K. by Phaidon Press Limited) says that “the idea does not seem to have been pursued until the end of the eighteenth century, when it was taken up as part of the revival of Greek architecture . . . in the next century it was used in a very different context and as a different conception.” (173) By the turn of the century, a whole collection of sans serif types, called “grotesques had been generally accepted for use in advertising and promotional printing.” (Kennedy) In Victorian England, sans serif faces were used as an architectural lettering, on pubs and shops. Bringhurst points out that the first unserifed (sans serif) type was cut by William Caslon in London, in 1816, consisting of capitals only. Such faces were first cut in Germany in the 1830s.

Block capitals in typography refer to uppercase letters that are often used in a clear, straightforward style. They're typically characterized by their uniform height and consistent stroke width, which makes them highly legible. This style is often used for headings, titles, and signs where readability is crucial.

In more technical terms, block capitals might be contrasted with other letter forms like italics or script fonts, which have more variation in stroke width and slant. Block capitals are often used in contexts where a clean, no-nonsense appearance is desired, such as in legal documents, certain types of signage, or any place where clarity is paramount. Note the example below by W.A. Pearce, a prominent figure in the printing industry, especially noted for his contributions during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although not as widely recognized today, his work was significant in the development and advancement of printing technologies and practices of his time.

These typefaces were generally disdained by book publishers and looked upon as beneath the types used for printing. Most of these faces were dark, coarse and tightly closed and illegible in smaller point sizes. Original Helvetica and Franklin Gothic are instances, “cultural souvenirs of the bleakest days of the Industrial Revolution.” (Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style , 188–189) Sans serif fonts were seen only as “utility” fonts — “The introduction of some modification of line width is almost always required to give it any subtlety of design. We have seen that some experiments were made in the fifteenth century . . . but the idea does not seem to have been pursued until this century [twentieth], when it has been used in type designs such as Optima.” (Gray, 173)

The Bauhaus School for Architecture and the Applied Arts was opened in 1919 by Walter Gropius and emphasized the primary role of function in design, thus excluding the serifs. A number of typographers allied themselves with the Bauhaus school, and the resulting controversy between serifs and sans serifs simply amplified type design.

The typeface, Erbar , designed by Josef Erbar in 1913, was the first of the new German gothic types to disturb conservative printing traditionalists — “Erbar along with Koch’s Kabel and Renner’s Futura became the model for the European and American typefounders flood of sans serifs which were to follow.” (Kennedy) Note the Erbar font on the right. It is a well-proportioned font, with the capital M straight sided with a middle V. Caps E, F, L, T are narrow. The ascender of the lower case t is angled, providing an impetus for other sans serif gothics that followed to do the same.

Kabel was designed by Rudolf Koch (1927–30) in Offenbach, Germany. The lighter weights have a small x-height, with the eye in the original black weight too large. The International Typeface Corporation (ITC) redesigned Kabel in the 1980s to make the font more uniform throughout, functioning better at smaller sizes and with text. The font was named to commemorate the first transatlantic telegraph cable. Note the splayed M with a sharp apex, the lower case g with an open bowl and the ear extending to the right. Ascenders are tall and terminals are cut at an angle. The ampersand is sized to fit the intermediate figure height. Kabel became a popular geometric sans serif face. It served as an inspiration for many more sans serifs that followed. Indeed, the study of the light strokes of archaic Greek inscriptions, with their large aperture, geometric typographic meditation on the circle and the line, and the study of Renaissance calligraphy and humanistic form helped propel sans serifs to greater subtlety and usability.

Futura , designed by Paul Renner in 1924–26 in Frankfurt, is a geometric sans serif font. The stroke is carefully shaped to give it optical balance. Futura’s popularity was unprecedented. Monotype even released alternate characters to make Gill Sans more Futura-like — “The European cloning of Futura was joined when a French typefounder released an electroplated copy of Futura, which they named Europe.” (Kennedy) Note the capital M is splayed and the mid strokes extend to the baseline. The tail of the Q is straight. The lower case a is one-storied; the tail of the g is open, and the lower case u has the same design as its capital.

Gill Sans, designed by Eric Gill, was the British answer to the large amount of sans serifs inspired by Renner’s Futura. “Gill based his type on Edward Johnson’s sans serif which was designed as signage for the London Underground in 1916.” (Kennedy) The Gill Sans font is more readable and legible of all modern sans serif fonts. Kennedy says that “a close inspection of Gill Sans reveals that its legibility comes from its austerity, and Gill’s experience as a stone cutter.” Note that the inside white space in the capital G gives this character its form. The aperture is large. The lower case g’s ear protrudes horizontally. The cap M is straight sided, with a short V’d and based on classic roman letterforms. Books have been set with Gill Sans.

Spartan is Mergenthaler Linotype’s unlicensed version of Futura, copied weight by weight from Bauer. It was produced in 1939 when the sans serif typeface Metro failed to gain a significant share of the market, and was later adopted by American Type Foundries (ATF). The small sizes of Book and Heavy cut for classified are original. American type foundries wanted sans serif typefaces to compete with popular European faces that were being imported to this country. To say that Spartan is similar to Renner’s Futura is understating the case. Copying of fonts by competitors happened all the time.

Frutiger , designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1975 and issued by Mergenthaler, gave airport visitors clear signage at the Charles DeGalle Airport in France. It works well with his text typeface, Méridien. Note its balance and openness — Frutiger decided instead to make a new sans serif typeface that would be suitable for the specific legibility requirements of airport signage: easy recognition from the distances and angles of driving and walking. The resulting font was in accord with the modern architecture of the airport. In 1976, he expanded and completed the family for D. Stempel AG in conjunction with Linotype.” (myfonts.com)

Formata , designed by Bernd Mollenstadt and issued by Berthold in 1984, presents a very readable and pleasing font. I like this font very much, with its subtle and asymmetrical taper — “Instead of linear severity common to many sans serifs, Formata offers curved strokes and interesting details that are subtle in smaller sizes but distinguishable in larger sizes, thus, appropriate for both text and display. The family has an extensive weight range complimented by small caps, old style figures, fractions and the Euro symbol for both the normal and condensed versions.” (myfonts.com)

Franklin Gothic is a nineteenth century font, a “quintessential American sans for more than a century. Designed by Morris Fuller Benton and released in 1905 by American Type Founders, Franklin Gothic quickly stood out in the crowded field of sans-serif types, gaining an enduring popularity. Benton’s original design was a display face in a single weight. It had a bold, direct solidity, yet conveyed plenty of character. A modern typeface in the tradition of 19th-century grotesques, Franklin Gothic was drawn with a distinctive contrast in stroke weight, giving it a unique personality among the more mono-linear appearance of later geometric and neo-grotesque sans-serif types.” (myfonts.com)

Meta Pro , designed by Erik Spiekermann and issued by FontShop in1991, gives us compact and erect forms, with the “stroke subtly modulated, and the ends of the stems slightly bent and cropped at an angle, giving a faint reminiscence of serifs.” (Bringhurst, 191) The family’s weights range from Light to Black in Compressed, Condensed, and Normal and is ideally suited for book text, editorial and publishing as well as poster and billboards. (myfonts.com) Note the sample text below and its readability.

Optima , designed by Hermann Zapf in 1952–55 and issued by both Stempel and Linotype, is a true sans serif font with Neoclassical influences — “Although Optima is almost always grouped with sans serif typefaces, it should be considered a serifless roman. True to its Roman heritage, Optima has wide, full-bodied characters – especially in the capitals. Only the E, F and L deviate with narrow forms. Consistent with other Zapf designs, the cap S in Optima appears slightly top-heavy with a slight tilt to the right. The M is splayed, and the N, like a serif design, has light vertical strokes. The lowercase a and g in Optima are high-legibility two-storied designs.” There is a matching Greek text font that was issued in 1971.

Shannon was designed by Kris Holmes and Janice Prescott Fishman and presented by Compugraphic in 1981. In typographer’s terms, Shannon has a humanist axis and large aperture. It draws its shapes from the letterforms in the Book of Kells (See Below), a handwritten Irish text which dates back to the 8th century.

Stone Sans , designed by Sumner Stone and issued by Adobe in 1987 and by ITC in 1989, is a “sans serif of variable axis, large aperture, large x-height and subtle modulation of the stroke.” (Bringhurst, 192) It is part of a wide ranging family of typefaces, including serifed, unserifed, informal and phonetic faces, giving it expensive typographic and printing capabilities. Stone worked together with Bob Ishi (“Ishi” in Japanese means “stone”) of Adobe to create the Stone family fonts. Stone sans is very legible and can be used widely.

Syntax , a Linotype font, was “developed by Hans Eduard Meier in 1968 and presented by the font foundry D. Stempel AG. Its figures are based on Old Face characters but have a distinctive, modern design.” (myfonts.com) It is a true neohumanist sans serif, giving us Renaissance forms. The 11 degree sloping of the italic and the half degree slope of the roman face lends the font a dynamic feel. Bringhurst notes that “an extended Syntax character set, intended specifically for setting Native American languages, was designed in 1981 by Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes.” (192)

This brief survey of sans serif faces allows us to trace their history while appreciating their usability in various forms of print. A number of these faces can be used in textual matter, even long texts, without losing readability or legibility. Frederick Goudy notes in his Typologia that “I firmly believe that the best types for our use must be newer letter forms based on the shapes fixed by tradition, fresh expressions into which new life and vigor have been infused, creating new types which are characterized by severe restraint and which exhibit the poise and reposeful quality that are always pleasing.” (42) The best sans serif typefaces honor such an observation.

Resources

Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style (Hartley & Marks, 1992 edition)

Alex Brown, “Type Renaissance: A Primer on Digital Type,” in Macworld , July 1991.

Frederick Goudy, Typologia: Studies in Type Design & Type Making With Comments on the Invention of Typography • The First Types Legibility and Fine Printing (Berkeley, CA: Univ of California Press, 1977 edition)

Nicolete Gray, A History of Lettering: Creative Experiment and Letter Identity (Boston: David Godine Pub., 1986 USA Edition)

Steve Kennedy, “Facts-o-Type,” in Typeworld , September 15, 1991.

https://www.myfonts.com

Dignified Courier

Mon, 15 Jul 2024 21:05:01 GMT

Dignified Courier. This blog is written in the Courier Prime typeface. Note how "typewriter-like" it writes and reads. Typography is a form of communication. Back in the day when I worked in a suburban D.C. print shop, I would select and pick a type ball that was used on an IBM Composer, and then wed that output with rub-on type headlines. Later I used an Itek typesetting machine for the headlines. Perhaps some of you recall those days of print shop work.

There were, of course, a number of type balls we used on the Composer — Bold Courier, Business Script, Contemporary, Calligraphy, Headline, Advocate, Prestige Pica 72, Courier 12 and Courier 12 Italic among others. Diligent typists would rapidly change the balls and prepare the text for photographing and printing. We were all used to typewriters and cherished the IBM Selectric typewriter. The IBM Executive typewriter came about in 1954, using special fonts and implementing true proportional spacing long before Postscript came about. The flying-ball Selectric used interchangeable balls, preparing the way for the IBM Composer, which allowed for proportional spacing and justified text.

Then the Macintosh came about with the massively large LaserWriter (remember how large that machine was!) and the ImageWriter for home use. We all thought that we died and went to printing heaven with a 300 dpi LaserWriter and Times and Helvetica fonts included. Postscript came along and the traditional Courier typeface became obsolete.

Howard G. "Bud" Kettler, worked as a type designer for IBM in the 1950s. He designed corporate logos, special-purpose fonts, like the Bell Gothic, and a number of typewriter fonts. He was tasked with the job of designing a typeface that was "weightier" than the fine lines of Pica and Elite that were being used at the time. Dirk Stratton, in the March/April 1992 Aldus Magazine noted that Kettler in the mid-1950s designed the face we call Courier — "He based its geometry on nineteenth century Egyptian typefaces, slab-serifs they are called, and made them work on the typewriter." IBM never assigned a trademark to the face and it has been in the public domain ever since. Kettler was proud of his work — "A letter can be just an ordinary messenger [that was thought to be the desired name] or it can be the courier which radiates dignity, prestige and stability." The Courier typeface was born. Even the renowned Robert Bringhurst in The Elements of Typographic Style acknowledges Courier's long standing usefulness — "And on the principle that a good hamburger is better than a bad souffle, even monospace typewriter fonts - such as IBM Courier and Prestige, which are models of their kind - remain well worth considering for routine work on laser printers." ( Elements of Typographic Style , Hartley & Marks, 1992 edition, 90–91)

Produced by Monotype, Courier New appeared quite a bit "thinner" than regular Courier. Wikipedia notes that "Its thin appearance when printed on paper owes to its being 'digitized directly from the golf ball of the IBM Selectric ' without accounting for the visual weight normally added by the typewriter 's ink ribbon. ClearType rendering technology includes a hack to make the font appear more legible on screens, though printouts retain the thin look." It comes in four font renderings — Courier New, Courier New Italic, Courier New Bold and Courier New Bold Italic.

Courier Screenplay was developed for Fade In Professional Screenwriting Software. It offers the legibility of Courier 10BT with line counts favored by screenwriters. Fade In Pro's website says that this is "A Courier font that is strong, well-balanced for reading, and excellent for printed and PDF scripts. (Plus your readers will be grateful to you for not using Courier New.)" (fadein pro.com)

Courier Ragged Font was designed by Lloyd Springer of the TypeArt Foundry, Inc.in 2007."Over the years, TypeArt(R) fonts have become popular with designers all around the world and can be seen in action on books and magazines, in film and television, on CDs and posters, and on a wide variety of other products. The TypeArt Foundry Inc. is the home of the electronic newsletter POINT SIZE, which provides customers and enthusiasts with typographic ideas, tips, and information about new releases and special offers." (MyFonts.com)

The Courier 10 Pitch BT font, released by Bitstream, and designed by Howard Kettler, is heavier than Courier New and more closely approximates the look of the original Courier type on paper. This is the default Courier on most Linux distributions. The Courier LT Round family was also designed by Kettler and is available from Linotype.

Courier Prime "developed by Alan Dague-Greene with funding from John August and Quote-Unquote Apps, includes a true Italic style. Courier Prime matches the metrics of Courier Final Draft,with some design changes and improvements aimed at greater legibility and beauty." (Wikipedia)

Dark Courier is not a bold font, but rather a normal weight typeface developed as a TrueType face by the Hewlett-Packard corporation and chosen by them because the Courier New alternative was "too thin."

Courier Final Draft, a version of the Courier 10 BT, was developed for the Final Draft screenwriting program. Default setting yield 55 lines per page.

These fonts and their lettering are included in the images below. Howard Kettler is proud of the face, noting that "I personally feel that the type style can stand on its own merits under any conditions . . . It is a good typeface, if I say so myself." ("Courier of Dignity," Dirk Stratton, Aldus Magazine , March/April 1992.

Helvetica's Journey

Sat, 13 Jul 2024 19:51:38 GMT

Back in October 2023 (Blog Oct. 19, 2023) I noted several professional typographers comments about Helvetica — In the July/August 1995 edition of Adobe Magazine , Robin Williams, a noted typographer, says Helvetica, though immensely popular in the 60s and 70s, became passé. Like the beehive hairdo, Helvetica is continuously used but creates a tired and dated look. He says, "Just because it's on your computer doesn't mean you have to use it. The greatest single thing you could do for your publications is to invest in another sans serif ("without feet") face, one with a strong, bold black version in its family. As with all trends, Helvetica will someday be back in style—in about two hundred years." He gives in another article some alternatives to Helvetica — ITC Franklin Gothic, Futura, Gill Sans and ITC Stone Sans as examples. And Daniel Will Harris in "Add Impact to Type" in the magazine Technique , March/April 1994 issue, suggests a wide range of alternatives to Helvetica — Agfa Roti's Sans, Avenue, Eras, Formata, Franklin Gothic, Frutiger, Gill Sans, ITC Goudy Sans, Lucida Sans, Optima, Shannon or Univers. We explored some of those substitute fonts at that point.

Helvetica's Journey . Helvetica derives its powerful simplicity and display qualities from the 1896 typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk. "The design originates from Royal Grotesk light by Ferdinand Theinhardt who also supplied the regular, medium and bold weights. Throughout the years, Berthold has expanded this extremely popular and versatile family. AG Super was developed in 1968 by Günter Gerhard Lange and is an excellent choice for headlines. In 2001, Günter Gerhard Lange added more weights for Berthold including Super Italic and Extra Bold italic." (MyFonts.com)

Martin Silvertant from medium.com cites three problems that have plagued Helvetica over the years. First, the original Helvetica face is not as contemporary as we would imagine, since it is a take-off from the 1896 Akzidenz-Grotesk face. Then, it is not that legible in small point sizes.

Note the original Helvetica on the left as it goes from large display to a smaller text size. The letters seem squeezed together and not very readable or legible. Legibility is the ease at which letters can be differentiated from each other. In the case of Helvetica, some characters are quite hard to tell apart. With its closed letter forms, it was simply a terrible choice for body text. Indeed, the renowned typographer, Robert Bringhurst, notes, "It would be possible, in fact, to make a detailed chart of lowercase letterforms, plotting their inherent resistance to letterspacing. . . . Around the middle of the list, we would find other unserifed faces, such as Helvetica, in which nothing more than wishful thinking bonds the letters to each other. (Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style , Hartley & Marks, 1992 edition, 31) Consequently, we were advised to not use this typeface in textual materials. The advice was to use it as a sans-serif face in headline text and then use a suitable serif typeface for the text.

Max Miedinger from Linotype then sought to add some more readable quality to the Helevetica face, calling it Neue Helvetica — "Neue Helvetica® is a melding of aesthetic and technical refinements that result in superior design proportions, improved legibility and an expanded range of uses beyond the original Helvetica typefaces. Neue Helvetica World fonts enable the setting of pan-European languages, in addition to Arabic, Armenian, Cyrillic, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Thai and Vietnamese. The Cyrillic fonts include full support of the Unicode block, including characters for Bulgarian, Mazedonian, Serbian and Ukrainian." (MyFonts.com) Again, Bringhurst's critique is that "not all of these derivative Cyrillics can claim to be distinguished designs, and few are suited to running text." (Bringhurst, 206)

"Helvetica is a twentieth-century Swiss revision of a late nineteenth century German Realist face. The first weights were drawn in 1956 by Max Miedinger, based on the Berthold Foundry's old Odd-job Sanserif, or Akzidenz Grotesk, as it is called in German. The heavy, unmodulated line and tiny aperture evoke an image of uncultivated strength, force and persistence. The very light weights issued in recent years have done much to reduce Helvetica's coarseness but little to increase its readability." (Bringhurst, 93)

The third issue with Helvetica was its lack of proper hinting. Typeface hinting at its most basic level is "a method of defining exactly which pixels are turned on in order to create the best possible character bitmap shape at small sizes and low resolutions. Since it is a glyph's outline that determines which pixels will constitute a character bitmap at a given size, it is often necessary to modify the outline to create a good bitmap image; in effect modifying the outline until the desired combination of pixels is turned on. A hint is a mathematical instruction added to the font to distort a character's outline at particular sizes. Technically, hints result in operations which modify a contours' scaled control point co-ordinates before the outline is scan converted." (learn.microsoft.com) Rules are assigned to the typeface in terms of where each pixel is located, which depends on the size of the text and the resolution of your screen. In a Macintosh environment, the rendering engine takes care of the pixels. In a Windows computing context, how well typefaces render depends on the original hinting of the typeface itself. Both computing engines can produce blurry or unreadable results. The hinting of Neue Helvetica is better, but not as precise nor as well-defined as that in the Monotype face of Helvetica Now, noted above.

The font comparison chart to the right indicates the often missed, yet important legibility differences, in variations of Helvetica and how they compare with tradition Arial and the sans-serif font I like best, Formata. The obvious typeface difference among the fonts is that the Bold Formata font is decidedly bold, contrasting with the bolds of the three Helvetica samples as well as the Arial bold. To correct this, Helvetica in later additions added Helvetica Extra Bold and even Black.

Note the stem of the "G" in all three Helvetica font versions contrasted with the lack of a stem in the Arial "G" and the Formata capital "G." The Helvetica stems take their cue from the original Akzidenz-Grotesk 1896 font.

The little "tail" on the stem of the capital "R" is noticeable in both the original Helvetica and the Neue Helvetica fonts. However, it has been removed in the newer Helvetica Now edition. The Arial "R" is quite different than the Helvetica models. Note also the tail on the "a" in Helvetica renditions.

The "Q" in all Helvetica versions remain the same, but departs from its original Akzidenz-Grotesk rendering and certainly different than the Formata bold "Q." Note also the slant on the Arial "t" and the difference between its "1" and the Helvetica numeral "1" as well as the Formata "1."

The upper "a" stem in the Formata font differs from the other font sample in that it is not as curled as them. The Formata ampersand ("&") is also constructed differently than the others.

While such differences may seem slight and even uninteresting, to the trained eye they are noticeable and make significant readable differences in overall legibility and appearance.

However, Helvetica never goes away. In fact, it has made a comeback in Monotype's Helvetica Now font and the newest Helvetica Now Variable fonts , crafted by Max Miedinger , Charles Nix , NULL Monotype Studio , Friedrich Althausen , Malou Verlomme , Jan Hendrik Weber , and Emilios Theofanous . Faced with the demand to upgrade the face, these type designers wanted to maintain the original qualities of clarity, simplicity and neutrality "while updating it for the demands of contemporary design and branding. Helvetica Now comprises 96 fonts, consisting of three distinct optical sizes: Micro, Text and Display, all in two widths. Each one has been carefully tailored to the demands of its size —

"The larger Display versions are drawn to show off the subtlety of Helvetica and spaced with headlines in mind, while the Text sizes focus on legibility, using robust strokes and comfortably loose spaces. The Micro sizes address an issue Helvetica has long faced – that of being 'micro type challenged'. In the past, the typeface struggled to be legible at tiny sizes because of its compactness and closed apertures. Helvetica Now's Micro designs are simplified and exaggerated to maintain the impression of Helvetica in tiny type, and their spacing is loose, providing remarkable legibility at microscopic sizes and in low-res environments. There's also an extensive set of alternates, which allow designers the opportunity to experiment with and adapt Helvetica's tone of voice. This includes a hooked version of the lowercase l (addressing a common complaint that the capital I and lowercase l are indistinguishable) as well as a rounded G, and a straight-legged R, a single storey a and a lowercase u without a trailing serif. In the past, designers had to nudge, trim and contort the design to create stylish display-type lockups with Helvetica. Helvetica Now Display was designed and spaced with those modifications in mind—saving effort and providing more consistent (and more stylish) results." (from Monotype's website)

Then in 2021, more updates were made — "Helvetica Now 2.0 includes 96 fonts in three distinct optical sizes (Micro, Text, and Display), now with 48 new condensed weights. The Helvetica Now Variable fonts include even more: 144 instances—48 normal, 48 condensed, and 48 compressed. Helvetica Now Variable gives you over a million new Helvetica styles in one state-of-the-art font file (over two-and-a-half million with italics!)." The samples on the right give some idea of the power and strength of this new variable derivation of Helvetica Now.

"Each one of the Helvetica Now static fonts has been carefully tailored to the demands of its size. The larger Display versions are drawn to show off the subtlety of Helvetica and spaced with headlines in mind, while the Text sizes focus on legibility, using robust strokes and comfortably loose spaces. Helvetica Now's Micro designs are simplified and exaggerated to maintain the impression of Helvetica in tiny type. There's also an extensive set of alternates, which allow designers the opportunity to experiment with and adapt Helvetica's tone of voice. The new Condensed weights put more type into smaller spaces—for intense emphasis, sophisticated contrast, or just everyday space-fitting. Helvetica Now 2.0 is, quite simply, more: more versatility; more power; and more creative possibilities."

The sheer cost of this newer Helvetica font is prohibitive to the individual designer like myself and smaller typesetting offices. For larger firms with plenty of design use for different weights and styles of Helvetica, the Helvetica Now Variable fonts, in both regular text and italic, are eminently useful.

Early Printing & Typography: An Extended Early History

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 14:23:12 GMT

Early Printing and Typography —

An Extended Early History

In previous Blogs I investigated the history and development of the alphabet (Ancient Alphabets, Oct 28, 2023), along with a pictorial history of type (Typography: Pictorial History, May 15, 2024), a pictorial history of the development of printing machines (Typography: A History of Machines, March 12, 2023), printers marks (About Printers Marks: Highlighting Crosses, March 15, 2024) and old Bible typographic versals (Old Bible Typography Versals, April 19, 2024). The history of typography and printing is rich and extensive —and interesting. The following summary of early printing and typography gives a picture of the long, and sometimes tedious, history of such printing.

Most people somewhat familiar with the history and development of printing believe, with substantial reason, that printing and the development of typography began with Johannes Gutenberg and his invention of the printing press in or around 1440. Indeed, a sculpture of Gutenberg was made by David Angers in 1839, celebrating the “light that was made.” Alexander Lawson maintains that rather than Gutenberg inventing printing, he merely mechanized it — "In fact, he should be credited with the origination of interchangeable parts with his concept of single type letters." (Typographic Journey—Craft to Computer, Typeworld , July 1, 1992). Gutenberg studiously followed his scribal predecessors in printing the Bible for popular use.

But like other historical events, and especially typography history, there is much more to the story that needs to be told. The question is not whether presses of different kinds were already known before Gutenberg. Indeed, long before printing in Europe, the general mode of printing in China had always been from wooden blocks, yet separable letters, known to them as early as the eleventh century.

In the Chinese King-Li period (1041–1048), a blacksmith named Pi-ching invented a manner of printing with “ho-pan,” or tablets formed of moveable types. On a fine and glutinous earth, formed into plates, Pi-ching engraved the characters most in use. Each character formed a type. He burnt these in the fire to harden them. In printing, he took a frame of iron, divided interiorly and perpendicularly by strips of the same metal. He laid this on a table of sheet iron coated with a fusible gum of resin, wax and lime. He inserted the types, placing them one against the other. Each filled frame formed a tablet. Brought near to the fire, the gum melted, after which a level piece of wood was pressed forcibly on the surface of the types. The tablets were then printed from in the usual manner.

Twenty-five hundred years before the Christian era, Egyptians wrote on papyrus. The inner portion of the plant was stripped, the strips laid across each other, pressed and dried. These squares were then joined together to form a long strip, which was rolled around a rod. One of the oldest books on record, The Book of the Dead, came from such a procedure. Many other books on religion, law, medicine were written. The Hindus used skins and palm leaves, and writings in sanscrit were most likely done in temples by Brahmin priests. The Vedas, sacred writings as old as 2000 BC, formed a large part of the literature. Hebrews wrote on stones and animal skins, preserving much of the Old Testament of the Bible. Scribes in the Middle Ages copied manuscripts, preserving Christianity in those dark times.

Scribal art can be seen in the famous Book of Kells , a copy of the Gospels written in the seventeenth century. It is notable because of the excellence of its decoration, the endless variety of initial letters, and the careful lettering. This was probably produced in the monastery of Kells, founded by St. Colombo. In such manuscripts, what is notable is the gold, red and blue lettering. (See Sample on Right)

Typographers in Europe and the western world used frames, or coffins, made of planks of wood, in which rectangular hollows were cut the size of the pages to be printed, and these types, after having been string together, were placed in horizontal lines. Before this, printing of block books was done by placing the paper on an inked surface and rubbing the back. Simply constructed presses, prototypes of the modern hand press, were used for printing playing cards and image prints. They were then colored by means of stencils. A French made printing card, dated 1423, is 8 x 11 inches in size and is the oldest dated specimen of such printing. Such means gave us the word “printing.” The Biblia Pauperum (Bible of the Poor) was another block book prior to the invention of typography.

The Speculum Humanse Salvationis ( Mirror of Human Salvation ) represents the transition from block books to type printed books. Of the sixty-three pages, twenty are printed from wood blocks and forty-three from separate types. It consists of rhymed Latin couplets that show how events in the Old Testament prefigured events in the New Testament. The image on the left is from Austria, about 1370.

Then comes Gutenberg and his grand invention or use of the printing press and the art of typography. But there has been a lot of historical discussion as to whether Gutenberg was the first printer. Indeed, some scholars have given the credit to another person in another country prior to 1450. The claims of Holland were presented about 1566 by Hadrian Junius, or Adrian the Younger, dubbed by others as the “Coster Legend.” The claim is that a Dutch edition of the Mirror of Salvation was printed with separate types cut from wood. Four editions, two in Latin and two in Dutch, are known to exist, all printed from types except twenty pages of the second edition, which are printed from engraved blocks.

Gerard Meerman in 1765 published Origines Typographical , concluding that typography was invented by Laurens Coster, a sheriff at various times between 1422 and 1434, who used separate wood types about 1428 or 1430 and was robbed by Johann Gensfleisch, elder brother of Gutenberg, who carried the art to Mainz. For a number of years, Coster was given equal honors with Gutenberg as the inventor of typography. However, a study by Anton Van der Linde in the 1800s argued that Coster’s cause had been misrepresented by Koning and others. While there may be some truth to the Coster story, the proofs are weak and the identity of Coster was never settled. Gutenberg, on the other hand, is shown by innumerable records to be the probable inventor of separate mental types and the inventor of typography, most likely in Strasburg rather than Mainz

Johann Gutenberg . Born in Mainz, Germany about 1399, Gutenberg moved with his family to Strasburg around 1420 because of civil strife in Mainz. In 1450 Gutenberg went to Johann Fust, a citizen of Mainz, and borrowed needed money for his printing operation. Gutenberg reneged on the loan and was brought before the town court, and Fust secured the printing presses and books from the house of Gutenberg. The records indicate that Gutenberg printed with separate metal types at Mainz, during the years 1450–1455. Of course, his greatest achievement was the famous Forty-Two Line Bible , consisting of thirteen hundred pages, about twelve by sixteen inches, two columns to the page, with the columns containing forty-two lines. The typeface is in today’s sizes 20-point book Gothic lettering. Gutenberg died in 1468. Along with Johann Fust, Gutenberg’s printing associate, Peter Schaeffer, became a partner in the business. They produced a Psalter , the first book with a printed date of August 14, 1457.

So, how were the letters made? Gutenberg found a way of stamping the shapes of every letter of the Latin alphabet in what they called “matrices.” From these matrices they cast their letters in copper or tin, hard enough to be printed on. The matrices consisted of a number of small troughs of uniform length, each one the size, in regard to depth and thickness, of the shape of a letter. These shapes were stamped into a prepared mold of clay or plaster. The fused metal was poured into these matrices.

A testimony to Gutenberg’s printing developments and tenacity was recorded by Wimpheling, a German educator and theologian (1450–1528) — “His sense of duty to his convictions was manifested in his boundless faith in the ultimate success of his inventions ; his courage was dauntless; no difficulties could deter him from following the path he was resolved upon pursuing ; his diligence was unwearied; his perseverance indomitable. In spite of numerous failures, or what seemed such to men less hopeful than himself, he constantly attracted new friends and supporters, as old ones fell away. Losses, lawsuits and ingratitude dogged each step of his career; but he triumphed over every difficulty; saw the Art he had invented become the means of bringing fortunes to men who had at different times been his associates and opponents; and died esteemed and honored by the sovereign of his native city. Well did he realize the truth of the inspired proverb of the Royal Hebrew sage, — ‘Seest thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings ; he shall not stand before mean men.’" (Skeen, Early Typography , 196–7)

Sir Edward Creasy of Ceylon wrote — “The circulation of printed books created hosts of readers, who otherwise would have remained ignorant of any kind of literature, ancient or modern. It gave an immeasurable increase to the weight of public opinion. It stimulated discovery. It promoted discussion. of opinion difficult, and generally impossible. It shook to the very base every institution that was founded on fraud, or upheld by unjust force. It gave also weapons to those who seek violent changes merely from the love of innovation and violence. Among the numerous causes which co-operated in giving European history the altered character which we discover in it during and after the close of the fifteenth century, none have been more operative than the invention of moveable types.” (Skeen, 199–200)

Post-Gutenberg . Nicolas Jenson (1420–1480) developed the roman style typeface and studied printing under Gutenberg. The printed roman lowercase face took on the proportions, shapes, and arrangements that marked a transition from an imitation of handwriting to the style that has remained in use throughout subsequent centuries of printing. Jenson also designed Greek-style type and black-letter type.(Britannica). A colophon, the forerunner of the modern title-page, was set by Jenson entirely in capitals with the lines opened up by liberal space. Interestingly, the books of Jenson do not contain the letters J, U and W — “His types were perfect, the print clear and sharp, paper carefully selected, and margins nicely proportioned.”( The Art & Practice of Typography , Gress and Rogers, 1917) (The image on the right is Adobe Jensen Pro typeface)

Aldus Manutius introduced the slanting style of type known as italic, fashioned after the handwriting of Petrarch, an Italian poet. Aldus also reduced the size of books from the large folio, on which the Gutenberg Bible was printed with page size 12 x 17.5 inches, to a more convenient octavo. Aldus was the first to suggest the printing of a polyglot Bible, a Bible with multiple versions. However, the first polyglot work ever printed was a Psalter , the literary work of Augustin Justinian, a Corsican bishop, of eight columns, each a different translation in Genoa, Italy in 1516.

The Frenchman, Christopher Plantin, began to print at Antwerp in 1555. Wikipedia notes — “By 1549, he headed one of the most well-respected publishing houses in Europe. He was responsible for printing a wide range of titles, from Cicero to religious hymnals. While delivering a prestigious commission, he was mistakenly attacked and received an arm wound that prevented him from labouring as a bookbinder and led him to concentrate on typography and printing. By 1555, he had his own print shop and was an accomplished printer. The first book he is known to have printed was La Institutione di una fanciulla nata nobilmente, by Giovanni Michele Bruto, with a French translation. This was soon followed by many other works in French and Latin, which in point of execution rivalled the best printing of his time.” ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christophe_Plantin )

In England, William Caxton was the first to set type in that country in 1477. Caxton set up a press near Westminster Abbey, on the outskirts of London. His first dated book is The Dictes and Sayinges of the Philosophers , 1477. His typefaces copied those of Mansion, who in turn copied Dutch copyists. There are six types associated with Caxton. His Type No. 2, with which he established his press at Westminster, was brought over by him from Bruges, where Colard Mansion worked. The Bitstream Company today has produced a typeface based on Caxton’s letters. While the Puritan Cromwell ruled against all sorts of sculpture and painting, he encouraged printing and literature. John Milton, author of Paradise Lost , 1667, was Latin secretary to Cromwell. In 1657 the sixth and last volume of the London Polyglot Bible , compiled by Brian Walton and printed by Thomas Rovcroft, was produced. An extensive survey of British typesetting and type foundry history can be found in Talbot Reed’s A History of the Old English Letter Foundries with Notes (1887).

Early American typography and printing . Ministers are important to the history of printing and typography. Reverend Jesse Glover, a Puritan minister, was chiefly responsible for a print shop erected at Cambridge in 1638, with printer Stephen Daye as its first printer. The first work produced was The Freeman’s Oath , and the first book was The Book of Psalmes , or the Bay Psalm Book (1640). Pennsylvania became the second English colony where typography was practiced. In 1687 William Bradford printed an almanac at his print shop near Philadelphia. This was a sheet containing the calendar of twelve months, starting with March and ending with February. Bradford was a friend of the Quaker, George Fox, and among the first to emigrate to Pennsylvania in 1682.

James Franklin in 1721 began to print a newspaper, The New England Courant . At that time there was no type foundry or press manufacturing plant in the United States. Promises of financial assistance from England evaporated, and Franklin left England to work as a foreman for Samuel Keimer. Samuel Keimer (1689–1742), originally an English printer and emigrant who came to America, was the original founder of The Pennsylvania Gazette . James Franklin, with a partner, Hugh Meredith, opened a printing office.

One of the first jobs done by the new firm of Franklin and Meredith was forty sheets of the history of the Quakers, set in English pica and long primer. The English pica, now the standard measurement of type in English typography, “owes its name to its use in printing the ordinal of the services of the early Church. It was a table showing the course of the service in the Church in the times of darkness. It was called the “pie” because it was written in letters of black and red. (Reed, A History of the Old English Letter Founderies , 38) The “long primer” was another of the old English type bodies used in liturgical works. Primers in this size of type were printed either in long lines instead of double columns “or that the length of the page was disproportionate to the width, or that they contained the service at full length, or without contraction.” (Reed) France named this typeface after Claude Garamond.

In 1732, Franklin published Poor Richard’s Almanack . For twenty-five years he continued printing the Almanack with nearly ten thousand copies being sold annually. (Gress and Rogers, The Art & Practice of Typography , 71) Caslon typefaces and ornaments were extensively used by Colonial printers. The Roman face cut by Caslon bears a similarity in its capitals to the typefaces used by Thomas Newcomb on the title page of the “Compleat Ambassador.” Caslon’s letters entered a career of honor. He reproduced his type from the French Elzevir types, also known as French Old Style types, which started in 1846 with Louis Perrin's cut of the Lyons capitals, a roman titling font. Caslon’s Roman became the fashionable type for nearly eighty years. Indeed, Baskerville’s letters were inspired by those of Caslon.

Benjamin Franklin was the most successful printer in British America, owning or controlling most of the newspapers in the colonies by 1753. One purchase on October 2, 1729, was The Pennsylvania Gazette from Samuel Keimer.Benjamin got his first taste of the printing business in 1718 at the age of twelve while working at The New England Courant in Boston under his brother James. Young Benjamin was in charge of setting the letters for the printer and selling newspapers door to door, but what he really wanted to do was to write. Later, in January 1748, at age 42, and weeks from the midpoint of his long life, Benjamin Franklin did something highly unusual. He retired. Retirement allowed Franklin to turn his attention to public service and science, serving from 1776 to 1778 on a commission to France to gain French support for American independence. This is how we usually remember Ben Franklin, but printing was his main business for a large part of his life.

Resources

William Skeen, Early Typography (Colombo: Ceylon, 1872) Reprinted by The Project Gutenberg, July 2018.

Harry Graham Carter, A View of Early Typography Up To About 1600 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969)

Francis Vaux, In The Praise of Typography , 1658.

Theodore Low De Vinne, A Treatise on Title Pages , New York, 1902

Edmund G. Gress and Bruce Rogers, The Art & Practice of Typography: A Manual of American Printing, including a brief history up to the twentieth century, with reproductions of the work of early masters of the craft, and a practical discussion and an extensive demonstration of the modern use of typefaces and methods of arrangement (New York: Oswald Publishing, 1917)

Talbot Baines Reed, A History of the Old English Letter Foundries With Notes (London: Elliot Stock, 1887)

Font Master: Frederick W. Goudy

Sat, 06 Jul 2024 21:02:58 GMT

Font Master — Frederick W. Goudy. There is perhaps no other more celebrated font creator than Frederick Goudy, certainly not in the first half of the twentieth century. Goudy provided the type and printing world with a both legible and beautiful typeface. In his master work, Typologia: Studies in Type Design & Type Making, With Comments on the Invention of Typography • The First Types Legibility and Fine Printing (University of California Press, 1940, 1977 Reprint), Goudy says that more than legibility is important — "but this is not enough, for types should be pleasantly readable too, a quality depending somewhat on the ability of the arranger of the letters, as well as partly inherent in the letters themselves." (129–130) He notes that "the proper standard of beauty in types resides, first of all, in their utility, but I believe also that there are secondary esthetic attributes which may be included in their design with no sacrifice of life and vigor and legibility." (77)

What makes type legible and beautiful? "Legibility depends on there things: first, simplicity, that is, a form having no unnecessary parts [not the bastard simplicity of form which is mere crudity of outline]; second, contrast, as shown by marked differences in the weight of the lines composing the individual letters [stems and hairlines], and also as shown in the varying widths of different letters; and third, proportion, each part of a letter having its proper value and relation to the other parts and to other letters—these three things in connection with the aspects of purpose and use." (130) The University of California at Berkeley hired Goudy to design a typeface for them that radiated legibility and beauty, and Goudy carefully crafted the University of California Old Style Regular and Italic. "He described it as particularly intended to be attractive in mass and said that the italic was intended to be "a refined letter, yet not, I hope, one which may be called prudish…some letters are a bit exuberant. As an italic is [mostly used] to emphasize a word…or sometimes merely to give a lighter touch, I have allowed myself to incorporate here and there in my font some forms more or less fanciful." It was finished just before a fire that destroyed Goudy's workshop, engraving machine and plan drawings, and Goudy noted in his book that it was lucky that he had posted off finished work to Monotype to use as a basis for making punches for their hot metal typesetting system, allowing some letters to be redrawn from patterns." (wikipedia) MyFonts.com notes that "i n 1958, Lanston Monotype issued it as Californian. Carol Twombly digitized the roman 30 years later for the University of California; David Berlow revised it for Font Bureau with italic and small caps; Jane Patterson designed the bold."

Goudy designed more than 100 typefaces over the course of fifty years. Initially inspired by the cap lettering on a Renaissance painting, Goudy's own individualistic style shows through — the upward pointing ear of the g, the diamond-shaped dots over the I and j, and the roundish upward swelling of the horizontal strokes at the base of the E and L. (See Samples Below) Wikipedia notes that the modern typeface Berkeley Old Style is the digital representation of the University of California Old Style of 1938. There are marked differences, however, as seen in the comparisons below. "Tony Stan redrew the family for ITC (International Typeface Corporation) in 1983, naming it ITC Berkeley Old Style, Berkeley being the city where the University of California Press is located." (from Myfonts.com)

Goudy's type designs continue to show up, especially in display and advertising venues. The included examples below display the beauty and functionality of Goudy's work.

Making A Pictogram Font

Sat, 08 Jun 2024 18:00:27 GMT

Making A Pictogram Font

In a recent publication by CARE Typography ( CARE Fonts: Selected Pictogram Fonts and Their History , 2024, Lulu Press), I introduced several "dingbat" fonts that we were able to craft, especially for church or non-profit use. They included the Ministry Pics font, the Fanciful Alphabets font, The StoryBook font, the Fairy Tale font, the Hand Tools font and fonts derived from ancient alphabets. We also introduced the Christograph font.

SUBJECT TO SCORN, says the famous typographer, Robert Bringhurst in his description of what are called dingbats. Dingbats are real characters, actually pictograms, like telephones, mail envelopes, crosses, cartographic symbols and so forth. It might seem that dingbats serve little useful purpose. However, in 1994, David Carson of Ray Gun magazine set an interview in Zaph Dingbats, unreadable, but “ironic perhaps that we’re still bringing it up, more than two decades later.” (Nigel French & Hugh D’Andrade, The Type Project Book: Typographic Projects to Sharpen Your Creative Skills & Diversify Your Portfolio (Pearson Education, Inc., 2021), callout on “Icons” on 228)

I happen to like dingbats. They spur my imagination and help me say things or describe things that can’t be fully said in words alone. In his now out of print, Before & After Magazine , editor and creator John McWade talks about the “hidden art in dingbat fonts” — “Dingbats are real pictures and often excellent, but so small they’re commonly overlooked (except by kids, who are expert at spotting small treasures).” (John McWade, “The Hidden Art in Dingbat Fonts,” Before & After Magazine , Vol. 3, No. 5, 1993) He notes that dingbats can be made super size to catch the eye, or made tiny to delight the eye.

Actually creating a font is time consuming and hard work. Things like "The Bump Rule," where drawing points are placed at inflection points, "The Rule of One-Third," which says the distance between a drawing point and its associated Bévier Control Points (BCPs) should be one-third of the length of the curve being drawn, "The Conciseness Rule," where the smallest number of drawing points should be used to create a shape, and "The Orthogonality Rule," where the handles should be perpendicular or at right angles, are highly recommended by Stephen Moye in Fontographer: Type By Design (MIS Press, 1995, 13). Then we must think about removing overlapping points, accurately drawing Bézier curves, eliminating orphan points, hinting, kerning and so forth. All of this goes into creating a font that is clean, well-constructed, easy to the eye and can pass typographical standards. Months of work went into my Greek font I made some time ago for the Christian-based Word Publications. But this blog is not about such complexity.

How do you make a dingbat or pictogram font? Having made several now, using FontLab's Fontographer (I use version 5.2.4 on a Mac mini 2012 running Mac OS 10.14 Mojave. Newer Mac systems must use FontLab 7 or the newer 8) (See Below). There are several important steps. But first, we need to make some definitions and acquaint you with some of the language used in the Fontographer program.

Using Adobe's Garamond Pro font as an. example, the above word "Ship" helps us understand some font or typeface terminology. The letters, or in our case, the pictograms or images, sit on what is called a BASELINE, with the ORIGIN point at the x, y coordinates of (0, 0). The top of the letter or image is called the CAP HEIGHT. If it is a regular font, we would also include the height of the small letters, or the X-HEIGHT, and any ASCENDERS, like the "h" above that protrude above the CAP HEIGHT a bit. We need not worry about these latter definitions with most dingbat fonts.

We do need, however, to acquaint ourselves with Fontographer's guides that are used to place the images or pictograms inside to make the font. This can be seen below.

Each letter, or image in our case, rests inside what is called an EM-SQUARE, which is a rectangular field the size of a capital "M" covering the DESCENDER (below the Baseline) all the way above the CAP HEIGHT to the top of the em-square. Notice in the letter "Q" above, the tail of the "Q" rests beneath the Baseline in the Descender area. To the sides of the letter or image will be the left and right SIDEBEARING, spaced usually evenly from the left and right edges of the letter or image used. Such distances are usually 30-40 units in the Fontographer program, but better seen in eyeballing the left and right sidebearings.

Making the Pictogram Font

STEP ONE — Find suitable, well drawn images, to scan at about 300 dpi (dots per inch). Make the scans ALL THE SAME height, usually about an inch or so in height.

STEP TWO — Scan the original images, making sure the scan is straight.

STEP THREE — Save the scanned images, one at a time, as JPG images.

STEP FOUR — Open the Fontographer program (I use Fontographer 5.2.4). Using the included "Preview" program on all Macintoshes, open the images one at a time and paste them into Fontographer. Assign each scan to whatever glyph you want. Thus, for the "Q" letter, I assigned the scanned image for the "Ash Wednesday" graphic in the Christograph Font.

STEP FIVE — Trace the image. This can be a manual or automatic trace. If the images are clear and clean and scanned well, I use Fontographer's "Auto Trace" tool to trace the scanned images. make sure the principle handles are orthogonal. Use Guides for height so that the images rest on the baseline and are at the same height in the Fontographer em-square. Clean up the traced images using Fontographer's tools for "Clean Up Paths," "Remove Overlap," and "Correct Path Direction" if needed.

STEP SIX — Generate the Pictogram font, using OTF for both Macs and PCs. Print an extensive sample and make corrections, if needed.

Typography Pictorial History

Wed, 15 May 2024 23:32:06 GMT

Typography Pictorial History. Typography has a rich and fascinating history that spans centuries, evolving alongside the development of writing systems, printing technologies, and artistic movements. Throughout this rich history, typography has evolved from a functional necessity to a sophisticated art form, reflecting cultural, technological, and artistic movements. Today, typography continues to play a crucial role in visual communication, shaping the way we perceive and interact with information. Here's an overview of the history of typography.

(3500 BC to 600 BC) The alphabet is old. Very old. The origins of our alphabet and writing systems go back to pictograph writing systems like Egyptian hieroglyphs.

*John Coleman Darnell, an Egyptologist from Yale University, in the 1990s made a discovery that rocked the alphabetic world. Looking for Egyptian relics, he discovered two ancient inscriptions at Wadi El-hol in central Egypt, about 30 miles northwest of ancient Thebes. This ancient road had evidence of inscriptions on the walls of the cliffs lining the roadway. The writings show the alphabet's invention from around 2000 B.C. A fascinating study of his report is found in David Sacks, Letter Perfect: The Marvelous History of Our Alphabet From A to Z .

The Egyptians wrote in hieroglyphics (called "sacred carvings"), using pictograms for letters. Pictures of familiar objects were used to convey sounds and words. The ancient Semites borrowed from these pictograms, so that, for example, the picture of a "head" was called resh , and since the word began with the sound of an "r," they selected that image for the sound. Thus, "R" is the sketch of a head. (*From Blog, "What's In A Name?" Oct 12, 2023)

From these backgrounds, the Phoenicians, descendants of people who lived in ancient Canaan, began writing their language in a 22-letter alphabet, sometime before 1000 B.C. They had inherited these letters from other tribes before them, but had the skill and knowledge to formally write them down. By 900 B.C. the Jews and other Near Eastern peoples copied the letters for their own use. The Greeks then followed about 800 B.C., adapting the letters for their own use.

The Phoenician alphabet begat the Greek which begat the Etruscan, a people who lived in northern Italy. From there, the Roman alphabet and writing were developed. The original Phoenician alphabet had 22 letters, while the Greek alphabet had 26. Interestingly, the Hebrews, another Semitic tribe which populated the Canaanite region under the influence of Joshua's campaign (in the Bible), only khet (j), qof ( q ) , resh ( r ) and shin ( v ) resemble their Phoenician counterparts. The Hebrew writing from right-to-left derives from the Phoenicians.

This New Uncial Display typeface takes inspiration from Uncial Writing. It is an iconic medieval system found in religious manuscripts from 800 BC. The letter designs served as a basis for the development of the Roman alphabet in force in the Western world. New Uncial was born from careful calligraphy , resulting in an opentype display font with clean glyphs, upper and lower case characters, easy to apply and capable of bringing impact to graphic pieces that seek aesthetic appeal. Thanks to Lucas Riedi for sharing this awesome typeface

(600 BC – 1450 AD) The Manuscript Era saw scribes meticulously handwriting manuscripts, using calligraphic scripts like Uncial. In the sixth through tenth centuries, lower case letters (called minuscules) were formed, with modern lettering evolving from the Carolingian scripts. The Emperor Charlemagne used these letters as an educational standard.

**"Early uncial script most likely developed from late rustic capitals . Early forms are characterized by broad single-stroke letters using simple round forms taking advantage of the new parchment and vellum surfaces, as opposed to the angular, multiple-stroke letters, which are more suited for rougher surfaces, such as papyrus . In the oldest examples of uncial, such as the fragment of De bellis macedonicis in the British Library , of the late 1st–early 2nd centuries, all of the letters are disconnected from one another, and word separation is typically not used. Word separation, however, is characteristic of later uncial usage.

As the script evolved over the centuries, the characters became more complex. Specifically, around AD 600, flourishes and exaggerations of the basic strokes began to appear in more manuscripts. Ascenders and descenders were the first major alterations, followed by twists of the tool in the basic stroke and overlapping. By the time the more compact minuscule scripts arose circa AD 800, some of the evolved uncial styles formed the basis for these simplified, smaller scripts." (**From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncial_script )

The Carolingian Minuscule on the right, thanks to J. Pemery (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19018724) develops from strictly capital letters to small lettering.

Illuminated manuscripts, decorated with ornate initials, illustrations and borders were created by gifted and skilled scribes and artists, as samples below illustrate. (See Blog, "Old Bible Typography Versals," April 19, 2024)

(1450 – 1800) The Printing Revolution and new typefaces. Johannes Gutenberg's invention of moveable type printing in the mid-15th century revolutionized book production and typography. Renaissance typefaces by Claude Garamond and Aldus Manutius enhanced typographic principles.

Aldus Manutius was a Venetian scholar, who became a publisher and printer when he founded the Aldine Press in 1495. He introduced personal or pocket editions of the classics in Latin and Greek that all could own, as well as works by contemporaries Pietro Bembo and Erasmus. His typefaces were all designed and cut by the brilliant Francesco Griffo , a punchcutter who created the first roman type cut from study of classical Roman capitals. Type designs based on work used by Aldus Manutius include Bembo and Poliphilus.

The typefaces Garamond produced between 1530 and 1545 are considered the typographical highlight of the 16th century. His fonts have been widely copied and are still produced and in use today. Publications include: "Essai d’un nouveau caractère de fonte pour l’impression de la musique", Paris 1756; "Manuel typographique" (2 vols.), Paris 1764–66. (From TYPOGRAPHY – An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Throughout History by Friedrich Friedl, Nicolaus Ott (Editor), Bernard Stein, published by Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH.)

(1700 – 1900) The Age of Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution highlighted William Caslon (1692–1766), who produced one of the most influential and popular typefaces of the 18th century. New printing technologies, such as the Baskerville type and the Stanhope Press improved print quality. Mechanization of printing processes and the development of new typefaces by Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813) gave us a typeface characterized by its distinctive contrast between thick and thin strokes. William Morris (1834–1896), who led the Arts and Crafts Movement, promoted a return to craftsmanship (See "Golden Type" below) and traditional printing methods through his Kelmscott Press.

(1900 – 1960) The Modernist Era. The Bauhaus school in Germany produced a functional, minimalist approach to typography and design. Key tenets of Bauhaus design include form follows function and less is more. The style is characterized by a lack of ornament and a focus on clean lines that reduce forms to their essential elements. Bauhaus design, art, and architecture often features simple geometric forms such as circles, squares, and triangles. Jan Tschichold (1902–1974), a German typographer and book designer, played a significant role in the modernist movement and the development of functional typography. Eric Gill (1882–1940) was an English sculptor and typeface designer, known for his typefaces of Gill Sans and Perpetua. Sans-serif ("without feet") typefaces like Futura and Helvetica became popular, reflecting the modern aesthetic. Paul Renner (1878–1956) became known for the highly influential face, Futura, in 1927.

(1960–present) The Modern Age saw the development of digital typography and desktop publishing software, like PageMaker (now defunct & replaced by Adobe's InDesign) and QuarkXPress, which transformed the design process and allowed an entirely new cadré of typeface designers into the mix. Hermann Zapf (1918–2015), a German calligrapher, typographer and type designer, became known for typefaces such as Palatino, Optima and a pictogram font, Zapf Dingbats.

Andrew Carter (1937 – ), an American type designer, designed typefaces like Verdana, Georgia and Bell Centennial, which was commissioned by AT&T for the phone books.

The development of OpenType (SEE "Using OpenType Fonts," Blog Sep. 29, 2023) and TrueType font formats allowed for greater typographic control and cross-platform compatibility. Web typography, with the introduction of web-safe fonts and responsive typography techniques allowed expressive and experimental typeface designs.

These typographers and type designers have left an indelible mark on the history of typography, shaping the way we perceive and interact with text through their groundbreaking work and innovative designs.

Old Bible Typography Versals

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 02:19:55 GMT

My wife and I took a trip to Washington, D.C. to the Museum of the Bible. This is an amazing place with collections of Bible history, Bible characters and Bible applications for the interested viewer. We especially toured the fourth floor that contains more than 600 artifacts and 50 media programs introducing us to the Bible's history, from handwritten scrolls to mobile devices.

As a theologian and typographer, I was interested in not merely the history of the printed Word of God, but also how it was printed through the ages. I was especially fascinated by the delicate and intricate versals, those opening letters and flourishes to the printing. I have gathered a number of the versals and cleaned them up using Adobe Photoshop for display.

The pages below contains some of the oldest versals used in Bible typography and printing. They are historically valuable and worth our time and effort in viewing and understanding. Enjoy them!

More About Paper

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 18:51:44 GMT

About Paper

In a blog last year (March 9, 2023) I wrote about “Which paper?” Since that blog I came across an interesting archival copy of National Geographic Magazine (March 1997) on “The Magic of Paper” by Jon R. Luoma.(1) He added to my knowledge about paper, its origins and its lasting qualities, along with modern problems that paper production has raised. This blog is therefore a revision of my original blog on paper.

Importance of Paper

Luoma states, “On paper the lessons of history and the fire of human genius have blazed across space and time—the notes of Mozart, the words of Shakespeare, the sketches of Picasso, the wisdom of Gandhi. Words on paper changed the way people thought. Martin Luther went so far as to call printing ‘God’s highest and extremest act of grace.’” He goes on to note that paper and printing rescued Europe out of the Dark Ages, especially with Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press. (For a summary and pictorial history see Blog on “Typography: A History of Machines, March 12, 2023).

Luoma says that “just 50 years after Johannes Gutenberg invented his printing press in the mid-15 ^th century, more than six million books had been published on law and science, politics and religion, exploration and poetry.” A third of a billion tons of paper are produced each year by paper producers across the world. Indeed, as of 1997, “in the U.S. alone a 170-billion-dollar industry makes enough paper each year for two billion books, 24 billion newspapers, and some 372 billion square feet of corrugated cardboard.”

In modern day printing, a large part of using type correctly, persuasively and aesthetically pleasing depends upon the kind of paper used. You do not print a wedding invitation on any cheap copy paper that you might have at the office copier. You want to submit a resumé and want it to showcase your character and standards. The paper choice is important for this. You want a colorful, playful, shiny paper for a kid’s party. What paper should you use? While many have gone the route of digital printing and digital typography, for Facebook and other social media use, others have seen the continued need to choose the right paper at the right time for the right job. But with the plethora of papers available, which one(s) do I choose?

Origins of Paper

The invention of paper can be traced back to ancient China, where it was first developed (according to AI from ChatGPT) during the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD). Tradition has it that centuries before Gutenberg, Ts’ai Lun created paper from hemp, tree bark, rags and fishnet in AD 105. Prior to this, various materials were used for writing, such as bamboo, silk, and animal skins. However, these materials were expensive and difficult to obtain, so the Chinese began experimenting with other materials.

The earliest known paper was made from mulberry bark, hemp, and rags. The fibers were pounded into a pulp and then pressed and dried into sheets. This process allowed for the production of large quantities of paper at a much lower cost than other writing materials, making paper accessible to a wider range of people.

Luoma notes that long before Gutenberg, “the Chinese invented movable type. They were the first to make paper money, toilet paper and paper books. It was forbidden even to step on a piece of paper with writing on it.” The art of washi, handmade paper, existed, and still does, among the households of many Japanese. Indeed, they have intermingled their faith and lives with paper. The writer and poet, Fu Hsien, noted this about fine paper — “Luxury but at a small price / Matter immaculate and pure in its nature / Embodied in beauty with elegance incarnate / Truly it pleases men of letters.”

The knowledge of paper-making eventually spread to other parts of the world, including the Arab world and Europe. During the Middle Ages, paper mills were established throughout Europe, and paper became an important commodity for trade and commerce. In Gutenberg’s time, printers used paper made of hemp and linen rags, thus ensuring the survival of great works for hundreds of years.

While nonacidic paper is used today in printing, in the 19 ^th century, fiber from trees was cemented together with lignin, which eventually oxidizes, turning the paper brown. This was enhanced by acid sizing added during the production process. This is why books and papers from that era are more and more difficult to find and preserve, and thus the modern need for digital storage and retrieval.

Some Definitions About Paper

Paper Sizes . The standard known U.S. size paper is 8.5 x 11 inches, in either Portrait or Landscape mode. Legal size is 8.5 x 14 inches, used for contracts within legal, real estate and accounting professions. Tabloid or ledger size is 11 x 17 inches, used in offices for diagrams and documentation requiring larger drawings, like architectural and CAD drawings. To many people worldwide, excluding North America and Canada, the most familiar paper size is A4 (a familiar 210 mm x 297 mm). It is commonly used for letters and correspondence in the UK and it is the standard paper size for most home printers. The A4 size paper measures 8.27 x 11.69 inches, only slightly larger than the close equivalent to U.S. letter size 8.5 x 11 inches. Most printers and copiers in this country are preset for letter sized paper.

But paper weight can also be measured in GSM (grammes per square meter), so that fine art papers are usually made in the range of 120 gsm to 850 gsm. Drawing papers are usually 130 gsm and the Snowdon Cartridge papers are 300 gsm. Thicker paper can withstand erasing and mark making. Such paper is ideal for printing processes including etching, silkscreen and offset lithography. Oriental papers tend to be lighter in weight, such as Japanese papers made with long fibers and great strength, often an artisan skill passed from generation to generation. Cover stocks are at the higher end of the weight spectrum and feel like thin cardboard. A ream of paper is 500 sheets, and office paper is usually sold in reams.

Peter Giffen (2) notes that in the United States, the weight of paper stocks is usually done in pounds, which is the actual weight of 500 sheets of the “basis size” of the paper in question. Since the basis size may vary, comparing paper weights can be hard to do. For example, a 28-pound multipurpose paper is probably not the same weight or thickness as a 28-pound premium or cardstock paper. Standard copy paper is rated at 20 pounds and sometimes 24 or 28 pounds. I use 28 pound paper in my color printer for sharper images and no text see-through on the back of a sheet. Copiers use 20 pound paper as the cheapest stock for most office projects and memos and day to day use.

Paper Brightness & Opacity . Brightness refers to the amount of light that reflects off a sheet of paper and opacity refers to whether one can see the writing on the other side of the sheet. One hundred percent opacity (100%) means that no light shines through and zero percent opacity (0%) is see-through tracing paper. Black text tends to stand out on most paper brightness levels, so text documents only need an ordinary level brightness in the 80s and low 90s when measured on a scale of 100. A colorful design or fine-art reproduction may require the highest level of brightness.

Paper Types . There are generally five common paper types — matte, glossy, silk, bond and cardstock. Matte paper stock is generally used for text-heavy leaflets and flyers, with easy to read ink and sharp black and white contrasts. Glossy paper is used often for colorful flyers, leaflets, menus and other projects requiring sharp images. Such paper gives a high quality, professional appearance. Silk paper is soft to the touch and fills magazine pages, portfolios and other high quality printing. Bond paper is the durable traditional stationery paper for documents that you want to last a long time. Cardstock is used for business cards, booklets, leaflets and can stand extra wear and tear and constant use.

Inkjet papers are specially designed to absorb the inks used in the printing process. Laser paper can withstand the heat (from the printer’s fuser) of laser printing. Photo paper can be matte or glossy and is used for printing photographs. Bond paper has a high content of cotton rags or cotton textile fibers in its composition. The name goes back to the late 19th century when such paper was used to print government bonds and other official documents. Bond paper today is often used for stationery, letterhead and drawing paper.

The best archival grade paper(3) is made from 100 percent cotton which gives a strong, acid free material which lasts longest, and is the most resistant to discoloration and deterioration. The interweaving of the fibers gives paper its inherent strength, which is improved by the use of ‘size’, the paper being too absorbent on its own, is prone to disintegrating when too wet.

Saunders Waterford, Somerset papers, Arches and some Fabriano papers, which are all 100 percent cotton, are sized to respond well to water based media. Japanese papers have a subtle beauty all of their own; generally very light weight they are made with long fibres and have great strength. “Acid-free” indicates the paper is made without rosin and alum sizing which would make the paper acidic. Acid-based paper is prone to fade over time and atmospheric conditions. Microscopic impurities on or in the paper can in time create little brown marks, called “foxing.”

Specialty papers can be especially environmentally-friendly due to materials used or how fast they biodegrade. Recycled paper according to the ftc (Federal Trade Commission) is “a paper that only contains 100 percent post-consumer recovery fiber. If less that 100 percent the paper is called recycled-content paper.” Recycled paper can be made from pre-consumer materials, recovered from the leftovers in the manufacturing process, or post-consumer waste, gathered from used newspapers, for instance.

Premium paper has all the top attributes of weight, coating, brightness, opacity and material, making them good for presentations and quality print jobs. Such paper is made from a blend of wood pulp and cotton (usually 75 percent and 25 percent) and has a luxurious feel and is made to last for archival projects. Premium paper is often used for resumés, portfolios, quality reports, business proposals, announcements and high-level presentations. They have great brightness and durable weight.

Midori, or MD paper, is Japanese paper with whisper thin texture. It is lightweight and smooth, yet there is no bleed through for fountain pens. It can be used for notebooks, writing letters, or for calligraphy. Calirefontaine is French classic thick and opaque smooth, lined paper. Classica paper is designed and made in Italy, with a soft, almost fabric-like feel and is used for stationery sets.

Problems With Paper

Environmentalists have long claimed that the paper business denudes forests and pollutes air, land and water by poisons like dioxins as an industrial by product. The truth is, however, that less than 9 percent of the total timber harvest in the U.S. is pulpwood used for paper production. Old manufacturing methods of paper production leaked chemicals into nearby streams and rivers, chemicals that came from bleached pulp with chlorine, reacting to form organochlorines, which eventually work their way into the fatty tissues of fish and other creatures.

Modern industrial methods of paper production use a series of tanks to close the water loop so that harmful chemical discharges into area streams is greatly reduced. Also, other bleaching methods are used to reduce organochlorines dramatically.

Again, Peter Giffen is helpful here — “Sustainable papers come from carefully controlled forests that are replanted and renewed. They meet specific environmental standards, helping users support practices that better protect forests and the environment. Some papers boast an fsc certification. The Forest Stewardship Council is a widely respected not-for-profit organization that seeks to protect the world’s forests by monitoring and improving timber production. The fsc has worked with key players in the lumber industry to inspect and track timber and pulp through production chains, ensuring that woodlands are managed sustainably. Any paper products certified by the fsc are created with sustainable practices.

While some businesses might be hesitant to use recycled paper since its texture and quality can differ slightly from virgin paper brands, fsc-certified products are virtually indistinguishable. Generally speaking, recycled paper costs more than unrecycled paper because there is more demand for the latter, and recycled paper costs more to process.”

Hammermill Papers is an example of a modern paper making company seeking to tackle paper making problems. Back in 1898, five years before the Wright brothers took off at Kitty Hawk, three brothers from Germany founded the Hammermill Paper Company in Erie, Pennsylvania. As immigrant success stories go, the Behrend brothers rank right up there in the history of American business. Especially since, more than 120 years later, Hammermill paper is still being made in America. unlike imported papers, the paper mills that produce Hammermill are strategically located near sustainably-managed forests. That means shorter transportation distances, which lead to less fuel usage, reduced emissions, and a healthier planet. But the biggest benefit of being made in America is this: Hammermill paper helps to preserve American forests. This may sound counter-intuitive, but the claim is a sound one. First, our entire business model depends a sustainable supply of paper fiber from healthy forests. And second, 90 percent of Hammermill paper fiber is sourced from sustainably-managed, privately-owned forestland.(4)

Which Paper Should I Use?

While most offices order and use the cheapest 20-pound copy paper available for almost anything they print and copy, care should govern the choice and use of paper appropriate for the job or task at hand.

Writing paper should be good quality stationary. Use premium paper. Write on white, ivory or cream letter paper. This will give the recipient the feeling of quality and that your letter is of importance to them. If you are not using headed paper, ensure your full address is written in the top right hand corner of the letter.

Notepad paper can’t be too thick or too thin, since flimsy paper tears too easily and thick paper is too bulky. MD paper can be used if bulky space is an issue. Instead, opt for a happy medium with 70 pound opaque notepad paper that offers a smooth writing experience and enough stability to hold up to vigorous note-taking.(5)

The choice of paper for typesetting and printing depends on several factors, including the printing method, the purpose of the printed material, and the desired aesthetic effect. Generally, papers that have a smooth, even surface and good opacity are considered best for typesetting, as they allow for crisp, clear text and images. If you are printing on both sides, front and back, you do not want the type to show through. I regularly use a 28 pound high quality bright paper for layout and printing work.

PaperDirect is a good resource for all kinds of paper (https://www.paperdirect.com).

Notes

1. Jon R. Luoma, The Magic of Paper in National Geographic Archive, March 1997.

2. Peter Giffen in https://www.officedepot.com/l/ideas-center/buying-guides/paper-buying-guide.

3. According to https://www.pegasusart.co.uk/types-of-art-paper.irs.

4. From the Hammermill website at https://www.hammermill.com/blog/hammermill-paper-is-made-and-remade-and-remade-in-america.

5. https://www.psprint.com/resources/notepad-printing-techniques/

Printers' Maxims & Other Notes

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 13:59:54 GMT

Printers Maxims & Other Notes

Printers and typesetters can gain much wisdom from older printers. The Printers’ Handbook of Trade Recipes, Hints & Suggestions Relating to Letterpress and Lithographic Printing, Bookbinding, Stationery, Engraving, Etc. , compiled by Charles Thomas Jacobi, London, 1891, gives what is called “Maxims for Printers.” These maxims and many others have guided the printing trade for many years. They distill the wisdom of centuries of printing and typography. We would do well to heed such advice.

1. It is better to remain idle than to work at a loss.

2. Genius is as rare in printing as in any other art.

3. Legitimate competition is a sign of life and health.

4. Do your work carefully, striving for constant improvement.

5. Follow copy, provided it is good, and never copy anything bad.

6. You cannot be a successful printer if the imprint of care and study is not upon brain and hands.

7. Preserve all specimens of good work that come into your possession, and spend your leisure time in their study.

8. Unless an apprentice is possessed of an ambition and determination to excel, the chances are that he will always be but a poor workman.

9. Skill in business, a well-earned reputation for uniformly superior work, a good financial credit, promptness, honorable and liberal dealing, correct and steady personal and business habits, are absolutely necessary concomitants of success.

10. No matter how good a printer you are, you will learn something every day; and in every job you do for a customer, study how you can improve it next time. Never let a poor or carelessly executed job go out of your office, no matter even if, by mistake in “estimating,” or for any other reason, you may lose money on this particular one.

11. Study the work of first-class printers. A skilled workman has expended time, thought, and labor in its production.

12. It is not the grace or beauty of a single line that produces the result sought. The specimen must be judged as a whole.

13. Never curve a line where it would look better straight.

14. Do not crowd a job to put in a flourish or ornament.

15. Elaborate borders can only be used effectively by first-class workmen.

16. A plain rule border, with a neat corner, is more effective than a display border on a small card.

17. Ornament has to be kept strictly within the stern chasteness of taste, and permits of no extravagance of detail.

18. Ornament should always be subservient to its proper use. Any superfluity or preponderance destroys the proper effect.

19. Better do a good, plain job in black ink and one style of type, than an outrageous combination of fantastic ornaments in the glowing hues of the rainbow.

20. The use of ornaments requires a cultivated taste. They were intended to “light up,” not smother; to give an “airy grace,” not detract; to do away with “monotony,” not make a dreary waste.

Color Blindness

The land, especially during the holiday season, is flooded with abominations of tint and taste, with miserable chromos and calendars that are a disgrace to the art. When will craftsmen learn to avoid the delusions and pitfalls of color, and assert the strict taste embodied in black and white? Zebra-striped and rainbow-illuminated monstrosities will ever be a plague to the inventor, and are worthy only of some demented members of the paste-brush brigade.

Hints on Composition

Understand your take fully before leaving the foreman or copy hook. Time spent in this way is profitably invested. At least read through the outlines of the job. If pamphlet or book-work, the reading of the first page or two will be sufficient. Determine upon display lines. Spelling, style of punctuation, capitalizing and paragraphs, should be according to usage of establishment. If possible, absorb the subject of your take; it will render work more engaging.

The Origin & Use of Italic

The form of Roman now known as Italic was originally called Aldine. The first volume printed in this character had the capitals with their stems upright like those of the current round hand. These first editions were the works of Virgil, printed by Aldus Pius Manutius, in 1512, and it is known that this celebrated printer made use of a manuscript text entirely copied by Francesco Petrarca. Thus, it is said, that Manutius desiring to pay public and reverent homage to the author of the Canzoni, appropriately wished a hanging character cut in imitation of his writing, entrusting the design and the cutting to a skilled artist, one Francesco de Bologna. But the fashion of these editions in cursive italic type lasted only a short time, having been imitated by foreign printers in a careless and illegible manner. The cursive character was at that time known both in Italy and outside of the country under the name of Aldine, but later the title of cursive was given to it from the writing of the Roman Chancellery, called cursiveti seu cancellarii ; a title which in Italy has superseded every other.

Other information on Italics can be found in Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style — “Early italic fonts had only modest slope and were designed to be used with upright roman capitals. There are some beautiful fifteenth-century manuscript italics with no slope whatsoever, and some excellent typographic versions, old and new, that slope as little as 2°or 3°. Yet others slope as much as 20°. Italic and roman lived quite separate lives until the middle of the sixteenth century. Before that date, books were set in either roman or italic, but not in both. In the late Renaissance, typographers began to use the two for different features in the same book. Typically, roman was used for the main text and italic for the preface, headnotes, sidenotes and for verse or block quotations. The custom of combining italic and roman in thesame line, using italic to emphasize individual words and mark classes of information, developed late in the sixteenth century and flowered in the seventeenth.” (Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style (Hartley & Marks, 1992 edition, 54)

Bringhurst goes on to comment on font use — "Don't use a font you don't need. The marriage of type and text requires courtesy to the in-laws, but it does not mean that all of them ought to move in, nor even that all must come to visit. Boldface roman type did not exist until the nineteenth century, and bold italic is even more recent.Generations of good typographers were quite content without such variations. Font manufacturers nevertheless now often sell these extra weights as part of a basic package, thereby encouraging typographers - beginners especially - to use bold roman and italic whether they need them or not." (Bringhurst, 52)

“Some of what a typographer must set, like some of what any musician must play, is simply passage work. Even an edition of Plato or Shakespeare will contain a certain amount of routine text: page numbers,scene numbers, textual notes, the copyright claim, the publisher's name and address, and the hyperbole onthe jacket, not to mention the passage work or background writing that is implicit in the text itself. Butjust as a good musician can make a heart-wrenching ballad from a few banal words and a trivial tune, so thetypographer can make poignant and lovely typography from bibliographical paraphernalia and textual chaff.The ability to do so rests on respect for the text as a whole, and on respect for the letters themselves. Perhaps the rule should read: Give full typographical attention especially to incidental details.” (Robert Bringhurst, 24)

Install Tricks for Double Drives Mac Mini

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 16:22:17 GMT

Install Tricks for Double Drives on a Mac Mini. This Blog references upgrading Mac Mini 2011 to Late 2012 with double drives. If you want a video installation of the drives go to OWC at https://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/mac_mini2012_server_hd/Macmini6-1-nonserver/

OR iFixit at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NORZR0BbZs .

Both installation videos are complete and helpful for the first-timer. But as a Mac Mini user (I have 4 of them with different operating systems), I have found the following procedure helpful and non-detrimental to the delicate ribbon cables inside the Mini. (I have learned through harsh experience how to inadvertently snap off the delicate fan or IR holder on the mother board. And buying an older machine, say on Ebay, can get you a machine with inside fragile parts that tend to snap off when using the video based installation procedures.) So, here you go.

Turn the Mini over and carefully remove the back cover by sliding the white dot on the cover to the white dot on the machine.
Remove the memory chips.
Using a Torx T6 screwdriver remove the fan screws. DO NOT REMOVE THE FAN CONNECTOR FROM THE MOTHER BOARD! Just move it to one side.
Remove the cowling using the T6 screwdriver.
Using a Torx T8 screwdriver remove the hex screws holding the airport metal screen over the drive. DO NOT remove the cable attaching the airport cable to the machine. Set that to one side.
Lift the SATA connectors on the logic board straight up gently.
You should then be able to carefully lift out the hard drive from the Mini. If it seems too tight, then you need to move the logic board back only slightly by taking the screw out from the back of the logic board and then using a Mini pry tool move the logic board back just a bit from where the drives are. (Go to the videos here for this procedure. If you use this procedure then before the next steps you will need to push the logic board back in place after the drives are seated and put the back screw into the logic board.)
Attach the lower drive SATA cable (SEE NOTES below) to the drive that will be the lower drive and gently push it into the generous space, being careful not to impact the fan cable or IR cable or power cable on the logic board. This can be done with a gentle hand and no need to fully remove the logic board and other components as in the video instructions.
Attach the SATA cable to the upper drive you are using and gently place that drive into the upper drive slot.
Attach the SATA cables to the two places on the logic board.
Attach the airport metal screen being careful not to inadvertently unattach the SATA cables from the logic board.
Attach the cowling.
Screw the Fan back into its place.
Place the memory back into the Mini.
Put the back cover on by aligning the white dots and twisting the cover until it snaps into place.

Unless you are constantly moving the Mini, this procedure will save you from either ruining the fan cable or logic board fan cable holder. You will not have to essentially take the Mini apart, put it back together, and hope that all goes well.

I have used this procedure many times and have found it to be an acceptable alternative to the traditional video procedures. If you have any questions please email me at cshanktype@gmail.com.

NOTES:

• If using a Mac OS 10.8.x see https://eshop.macsales.com/blog/15619-special-note-for-adding-an-ssd-to-a-2012-mac-mini/#comment-61641 for necessary cautions.

• SSDs are recommended to replace older hard drives. OWC has a number of options here at macsales.com.

• You still need a Data Double kit for the SATA cables required.

A Bible Typography Manifesto

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 15:36:05 GMT

A Bible Typography Manifesto . The Manifesto Below was crafted by Mark Ward (See BLOG Post "Good Bible Typography" Nov 10, 2021). It says what I have been thinking about as both a theologian and typographer. I will then offer some of my own comments —

"BIBLE TYPOGRAPHY MANIFESTO

https://byfaithweunderstand.com/bible-typography-manifesto/

WHEREAS

typography is a major but often overlooked source of meaning, for good or ill, in any book,
and Bible typography, in particular, has long been shackled by unexamined custom and consumer forces rather than shaped by readers’ best interests,
and chapter and (especially) verse divisions have a comparatively brief history among God’s people,
and prooftexting and other forms of hermeneutical atomism—which are abetted by a versified rather than a paragraphed Bible—are still rife among Christians,
and computers have made good typography easily achievable,
and computers have put extensive Bible study materials literally in the pocket of countless believers,

WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, DO HEREBY CALL UPON ALL BIBLE PUBLISHERS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD TO

limit the number of Bible editions published in two-column formats, and
begin publishing most Bibles in paragraphed, one-column formats.

These two items form the heart of our polite demands—but here are a few more for good measure, specifically directed at American Bible publishers:

Publishers and readers alike must add a fundamental binary category to their thinking about Bible publishing: study editions and readers’ editions. Americans have enough money to have both kinds (and they also typically have access to computer resources for Bible study), so Bibles should cease trying to compromise between these two major categories of Bible usage.
Study Editions should have superscript numerals and letters referring readers to other parts of Scripture and to explanatory material. They should still be set in a single column, but should include as much useful information for the Bible student as possible.
But Readers’ Editions should be free of these intrusions. Readers Editions should, in fact, have nothing but the text, set in paragraphed formatting common to other serious non-fiction. Verse numbers, ideally, would be omitted in these editions. They might possibly go in the margin as an acceptable compromise, and a verse range can certainly be put in the header for each page, but anyone who needs to look up a particular verse can use a study edition or a computer/smart phone. (The Books of the Bible project is a good example of a Reader’s Edition. Update, 2014: Partly as a result of this manifesto , Crossway now offers an ESV Reader’s Edition .)
Within the two categories above, feel free to produce as much useful variation as possible: wide margins, journaling editions, preachers’ Bibles, etc.
Pay attention to typography. Pay actual designers to lay out your Bibles. There are standards for ideal line length, type size, and leading that have been established over the centuries. Lexicon is a exceptionally good typeface for Bible publishing.
Do not try to sell Bibles by including cutesy material that undermines the gravity of the text—or edgy , worldly material that undermines its holiness. Bibles should not look like teen magazines or gift-store kitsch . The medium is part of the message.

We are aware that evangelical Christians will be suspicious of any changes to The Way Things Have Always Been. But it’s time to learn a lesson from Steve Jobs, who didn’t know he was speaking about Bible typography when he said , “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” Jobs has proved that beauty of form actually enhances usefulness of function.

The particular function Readers’ Bibles will serve is keeping the flow of thought going for Bible readers. The paragraphs will break up the thought where the thought itself breaks instead of at fixed intervals (as in our current system), and the single-column format—along with appropriate modern typographic conventions—will say “narrative” or “letter” (etc.) rather than “reference book,” as double-columns do. Treating the Bible like a reference book to the exclusion of Story has been one of the cardinal errors of evangelical interpretation.

As John Frame points out ( DKG , p. 197), not all prooftexting is wrong; but plenty is. And double-column, non-paragraphed Bible text invites it, because it causes readers to think of “verse” as the fundamental unit of scriptural statement. Witness the evangelical predilection to include logical connectors when quoting a verse, despite the fact that they are unnecessary and confusing when quoted alone : “But God commendeth His love toward us… ( Rom 5:8 ).” Unversified text would invite readers to think of familiar verses as parts of paragraphs and overall discourses.

We, the undersigned, commend some publishers, especially Crossway Bibles and Cambridge Bibles, for their sense of creativity and beauty in Bible typography. These have also led the way (along with companies like R. L. Allan ) in innovative use of new and old materials for beautiful, flexible, and lasting Bible covers—and in printing methods which allow, for example, rich color on thin Bible paper.

THE UNDERSIGNED

MARK LEE WARD, JR., B.A. Bible/Art, M.A. Bible, Ph.D. New Testament
DUSTIN BATTLES, B.A., M.A., M.Div.
ANDREW DAVID NASELLI , B.A., M.A., Ph.D. ²
BRIAN CURTIS COLLINS , B.A., M.A., M.Div., Ph.D. Theology

Comment on this page to become one of the undersigned.

Update (03/07/2012): The manifesto review committee now believes one line in the initial language to be unjustifiably intemperate (even though the whole format is tongue-in-cheek): “Immediately cease publishing Bibles in two-column formats.” Two-column formats do allow for smaller Bibles to be printed, and there may be other specialized reasons for having them. However, it is still the opinion of the committee that their predominance is unfortunate and unnecessary.

Update (10/25/2013): The manifesto has been heard !

Update (7/24/2014): A groundswell is building ."

My comments . There are several areas of concern I have always had in Bible typography and understanding. The first is the verse-by-verse atomistic reading, preaching, commenting and study that follow verse divisions and separates single ideas without giving full credence to context. Too many sermons, articles, books and study guides have been written and given without adequate consideration of the whole Bible context of a verse or thought. The Bible is the history of God's redemption of his people, and it is supposed to flow and develop and be read as a developing story until the end of the Book in Revelation. That is unfortunately rarely done, even with seminary trained and schooled church people.

The second note is the lack of due typographic standards in the setting and printing of the biblical text. Proper typographical line length, type size, leading, and typefaces that have been established over the centuries of good typography are ignored and shuttled to the side for what is supposedly dramatic and consumer driven. Clean lines and readable, legible and clear text are sometimes missing in printed Bibles. This does not have to be so, given the wealth of good typographers and typographic standards we have available. Use them. Obey them.

The third note is to get away from the cutsy, market driven Bible printing and distribution craze that has infected our churches and ministries — "that undermines the gravity of the text—or edgy , worldly material that undermines its holiness. Bibles should not look like teen magazines or gift-store kitsch . The medium is part of the message." This says it well. Children's and youth Bibles and teen editions and cute women's Bibles and supposedly tough "men's" versions litter the marketplace. Stop! This is God's Word that we are talking about, not some dime-store novel to play with and adapt at a whim. The argument for "relevancy" grows quite thin here.

I am a signatory to this Manifesto. Will you join me?

A New Church/Ministry Font

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 23:54:15 GMT

A New Ministry/Church Font . CARE Typography is pleased to release a new church/ministry font for use by non-profits and churches as well as ministry venues. This font is FREE to all such ministries.

The Ministry Picts Font was adapted from Pictograms found in The Image Book: 2,500 Visual and Verbal Images To Clip and Use During the Church Year (C.I. Publishing, 1993). This image book was originally designed for image copying and use by church and ministry organizations. Developed thirty years ago for copying images for newsletter and other church uses, we found a number of Pictograms that can be updated and adapted for use by religious organizations. While no doubt dated, these Pictograms can add spice to your newsletters and church articles. Think of them as "retro" images.

Some of the Pictograms offered in the Image Book are suitable for font development. We have used Fontographer 5 after cleaning up the images and making them suitable for typeface use. Since these Pictograms are now in font form, they can be sized and used most anywhere in church and ministry publications without concern for readability or clarity. CARE Typography recommends sizing at 100 points or higher for quality use.

You can secure your copy of the font by emailing CARE Typography at cshanktype@gmail.com. Enjoy them!

The StoryBook Font & Fairy Tale Font

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 20:20:10 GMT

Introducing the StoryBook and Fairy Tale Fonts. I like reading old books with fanciful crafted title caps (called "versals" in the typographic world). They remind me of days gone by when a children's book, full of illustrations of well-know children's tales and Mother Goose stories, captured the attention of children and adults alike (See Illustration Below). What happened to those old, fun-loving illustrations and typefaces of long ago? Many would say they have outlived their time and usefulness. I disagree and have set about designing two new typefaces, called StoryBook and FairyTale, which seek to get us back to these fantastic old books and illustrations.

Using a flowery old-fashioned border in the StoryBook Font, I have set capital letters against a backdrop of well-known nursery rhyme illustrations. These fanciful caps can be set as opening letters to a children's book or series of children's stories. I have attempted to find either public domain illustrations and then make outlines of the main characters using Adobe InDesign and Photoshop tools, or have purchased resources for fair use in such background designs.

In the Fairy Tale Font, which has specialized characters, I have mostly utilized the fine work of others and adapted such work to scannable pieces from which I could create a suitable font. You will have to be the judge of the final product. I am very interested in your evaluations and comments.

There are three iterations of the StoryBook font — StorybookSerif, StoryBookSansSerif, and StoryBookBackgrounds. The Serif font version uses letters adapted from the open source Libre Baskerville font. The SansSerif version uses Sans Serif open source font. The Backgrounds version has no inset font in the background diagrams. It also has a page where the font diagrams have been transformed into outline versions, thus allowing the user to employ the background in a variety of ways. One such variation is to use an outline font placed over the backgrounds to give the user more "storybook" like appeal.

The StoryBook font is a collection of capitals along with some illustrations that can be utilized in a children's book. The Fairy Tale Font are illustrative pieces that can be used in texts or displays. I have also included in the Fairy Tale Font additional explanatory pages of the origins and use of the font. Samples of the fonts, used in well-known nursery and children's rhymes throughout the ages, are below. If you are interested in using the fonts, contact CARE Typography at cshanktype@gmail.com, for securing them.

Work or Craft?

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 19:43:52 GMT

Work or Craft?

Is Typography and Printing “Work” or A “Craft”?

I recently read an interesting and provocative chapter in the book by Dorothy Sayers, Letters to a Diminished Church: Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine . The chapter, “Why Work?” promotes work “not as a drudgery to be undergone for the purpose of making money, but as a way of life in which the nature of man should find its proper exercise and delight and so fulfill itself to the glory of God.” She goes on to say that “We should ask of an enterprise, not ‘will it pay?’ but ‘is it good?’; of a man, not ‘what does he make?’ but ‘what is his work worth?’; of goods, not ‘can we induce people to buy them?’ but ‘are they useful things well made?’; of employment, not ‘how much a week?’ but ‘will it exercise my faculties to the utmost?’”

This got me thinking about typography and the printing profession. Are they “work” or, as Roger Bringhurst says, “Typography is the craft of human language with a durable visual form . . . its heartwood is calligraphy — the dance, on a tiny stage, of the living speaking hand — and its roots reach into living soil, though its branches may be hung each year with new machines. So long as the root lives, typography remains a source of true delight, true knowledge, true surprise.” ( The Elements of Typographic Style , 11)

Such expressive descriptions of typography and the printing profession defies the historical and tedious work of typesetters and printers throughout the years. In the early years of printing, compositors and presswork became separated and almost at odds with each other. Compositors believed “their reading skills and proficiency in Latin and Greek made them superior to pressmen who presumably had been selected for their physical strength, a necessary requirement in the laborious operation of the hand presses.” (Alexander Lawson, “Thoughts on the Typo Workplace,” Electronic Publishing , 1994)

He notes that “working conditions for compositors so employed approached the horrendous — long hours of work, from five in the morning to eight at night, lighting by candle and noisome lanterns, and the discomfort of 6-point type.” (Lawson) He quotes a letter written to the Typographic Journal in 1894 by the wife of a newspaper comp on the harsh conditions her husband had to labor — “I do believe that the morning newspaper, set by weary, sweating, half-blinded, nerve exhausted humans, who are driven to the saloon to recuperate by temporary exhilaration, and to early graves by soul and body enervating toil in unwholesome, ill-ventilated, stinking, over heated composing rooms is a greater curse to humanity than the much dreaded [Linotype] machine can ever be.” The mortality rate of TB among printers of the period was double that of the community as a whole, with alcoholism an acute problem.

Of course, life itself was hard and harsh in those days with sweat shops and young children employed without adequate safety standards and unbelievably bad working conditions. Yet, Lawson says “we can be thankful to those old-timers who gradually, albeit painfully, brought about a workplace more amenable to health and prosperity.” Such “work” seems a long distance from the “craft” of typesetting and typography in general. Today, our problems are mostly orthopedic problems because of ill-designed seating or unhealthy computer-generated vision issues.

This brings us to the central issue raised by Sayers — Do we work to live or live to work? Have we indeed forgotten that secular work is sacred work, and that quality of work, work worth doing and in which we can take pride has been replaced by consumerism and the unhealthy desire for more and more stuff? From the point of view of both a seminary trained professional minister and an amateur typographer, this is a crucial question for every printer and every typographer.

There are relatively few professionally satisfied typographers and happy printers. I know a few. But I also know the drive to produce, produce, produce and to make more money all the time. The New York Times mantra, “All the news that is fit to print,” can be easily morphed into “All the news that will produce more money and more power.” Indeed, what is “fit to print” becomes “what will the market bear and want.” Mega-print houses can be driven to produce what will sell, instead of printing carefully crafted typographical pieces that will bring few monetary rewards. Do we live to print or print to live? Do I craft and set type to live or live to craft and set type?

The problem is losing the craft of typography and printing to the pressure-driven business world of producing what will sell and make a profit. This is an age-old problem, of course, but I would ask my typography and printing friends for their answer — Do I do what I do to live, or do I live to do what I do? Sayers notes the fruits of living through World War 2 — “We have had to learn the bitter lesson that in all the world there are only two sources of real wealth: the fruit of the earth and the labor of men; and to estimate work not by the money it brings to the producer, but by the worth of the thing that is made.”

Want To Sell Your Book?

Sat, 25 Nov 2023 19:52:53 GMT

Want To Sell Your Book? Like some other POD (Print-On-Demand) or self-publishing projects, there are a number of considerations to take into account for selling your finely crafted or meticulously accomplished work. I have used a Kittl-based video* for this BLOG because it outlines so much of the basics for any self-published sale. There are, of course, other professionally written articles and online helps for publishing as well. I find the following points to be basic and helpful.

Be careful of what is called the "race to the bottom." That is, pricing your work so low that you barely cover the costs, let alone make a profit on your work. One Kittl advisor notes that "You shouldn't deprive someone the opportunity to pay more for a product if they can." (Luna Vega) People are not merely looking for a bargain. They often are looking for something that they know is worth their money and investment. And they are willing to pay what not merely the market suggests, but also what it is worth to them. Having this business sense or savvy is important so that you do not undersell yourself or your book or product.

Understand ALL the costs involved. Book and project publishing requires much more than what someone may suspect. Let me use my own publishing ventures as an example. I use Adobe InDesign, which is a wonderful layout and design tool, but it costs me, in round figures, about $58 per month for a subscription. And, you cannot use this product without a paid subscription, unlike the old days of software development where you could outright buy a program and use it without a monthly cost or fee. Microsoft also sells their MS Word, PowerPoint and other programs for a monthly fee. Again, gone are the days when you could just purchase Microsoft office, say, and be done with it. To use their products on modern computers and modern software programming, you will need to update older MS software to accommodate the new computer hardware or software. Unless you buy or use an older computer and ignore Microsoft's updates.

Production and selling fees need to be considered . They include the charges a publisher, like Lulu in my case, will charge for their printing of a book or calendar or study guide. Consequently, they will "force" you to sell your book at their minimum pricing, which is usually far higher than the base publishing price they bill you. Added to this is your "time spent" cost for your project. You might not think this is a real cost, but all the time and effort and hours you have spent on a project should be considered in some tangible way. Then, there are always shipping fees and taxes that are charged by anyone you use to publish your work. So, in addition to my InDesign and Microsoft monthly subscription fees, I need to pay a yearly fee to host this website, which I use to advertise any project or book. And I need to pay for the domain fee and costs. Of course, many people, like myself, decide to "eat" such essentials and think they can still make money on their book or project.

Market and advertising fees and costs need to be added to any project. I use PayPal for the collection of funds, but they charge a seller's fee for every sale I make. While a small percentage, it is enough to cut into any profit margin you may want. Etsy and Shopify and ECWID and other vendors charge a fee for selling your stuff. You need to count that into the final cost of your book or project.

Research the market for your book or project . See what others are charging for a book of your chosen topic. You will need to find out what people are willing to pay for such a book or work. Consequently, I have designed some basic pictograph fonts I use regularly. However, similar fonts sell either cheaply or are given away online for just a notation of the author. This is due to the fact that the alphabet is not copyrightable, as are many images in the public domain. Unless you are a top-notch font designer working for a company like Adobe, you cannot make much money, if at all, for your font designs.

Will people buy your "brand?" Do they know who you are and trust you enough to spend their money on your book or project? This is always the problem with start-up authors and lesser known people. You might get lucky and somehow tweak an interest on Facebook or another social media program and end up selling mega amounts of your book. That rarely happens. I have been invited to go on book tours and book signing events, but I would have to pay for these events upfront, with precious little sales at the end of the day. That would be a loss to me. SO, I have friends and acquaintances that buy my books or projects. Even with major and known names advertising your work, selling is still hard and uncertain.

Understand what the market will bear. I sell PageMaker-to-InDesign conversion services. I have found that my base charge of $15 per file, though it may seem extreme to some, is what the current market will bear. I have converted old PageMaker files to newer InDesign files from across the world. No one has complained about the charge per file, knowing that I am one of a very few typographers that can actually do the conversion. I own all of the out of print previous PageMaker software in all its iterations and have the computer equipment on which to use this software. What will the market pay for what you are selling?

What is your overall goal? I cannot make a living selling what I sell. I understand that and am willing to collect what many would call extra or discretionary income from what I publish and perform. I have always had a full-time job or profession and have written and published books and projects out of my brand as CARE Typography for the sheer enjoyment and challenge of such projects. I barely make enough to pay for all the subscription fees and cost of operation. That may seem like a losing proposition to many. But that is my choice. If you want to actually make money on your publications or projects, you need to do a whole lot of market research and invest enough upfront money to see a return down the road.

Publish or sell for the sheer joy of the project and experience. This is what I have ended up doing. Whether or not something I have done "takes off," or no one buys what I have written or done, I have enjoyed the process. Maybe that is the real bottom line.

(* See the POD Pricing Video on YouTube produced by Kittl at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrxahpuMr1I )

A New Tool Font

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 18:50:03 GMT

A New Tool Font. CARE Typography is pleased to announce a new pictogram font, the HandTools Font. This is a font for Macs, Windows and Linux machines crafted in the Open Type (otf) format. While there are many illustrations of hand tools available for image uploads, this font provides some of the more basic hand tools used by a carpenter or construction crew. My father was a finish carpenter and used probably all of these tools at one time or another. The font is black on white and can be used in ads, flyers, articles, news clippings, and so forth. The fact that it is a font allows the user the flexibility to use the font in large sizes, as well as regular text sizes, without losing sharpness of detail.

The HandTools font is available for purchase on this website, either as a single font, or it can be combined with other recently crafted pictogram fonts by CARE Typography. We hope you will like the font!

Ancient Alphabets

Sat, 28 Oct 2023 15:13:12 GMT

Ancient Alphabets . How did our alphabet come to exist? Much of what we know about the alphabet comes from Middle Eastern and Egyptian sources. In my previous BLOG ("What's In A Name?") I investigated the creation of the alphabet and how our modern letters were formed. Again, I refer the interested reader and researcher to the excellent work by David Sacks, Letter Perfect: The Marvelous History of Our Alphabet from A to Z , available at Amazon.com. This particular blog offers readers and historical users the opportunity to see and download several ancient alphabetic fonts that history has uncovered.

It should be noted that in the computer world, Google fonts has produced several ancient fonts, only in Unicode offerings. They are Noto Sans Cuneiform, Noto Sans Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Noto Sans Ugaritic, Noto Sans Old Persian and Noto Sans Imperial Aramaic. These are extensive fonts with hundreds or even thousands of characters in Unicode format. What that means is that finding a particular pictogram or etching (what ancient fonts look like) for a particular letter is next to impossible, unless one knows the exact letter font coding. They are also open source fonts, available for use and reconstitution.

Using a reliable historical source, we can match letters or numbers to font glyphs. Consequently, what CARE Typography has been able to do is to recreate some of these ancient fonts that match the alphabet's capital lettering. Thus, in the Noto Sans font for Egyptian Hieroglyphs when you type the letter "A" you get back "A," not the Egyptian Hieroglyph for "A." The same holds true for the other Noto Sans fonts. We were able to reformulate some of the ancient fonts so that "A," for instance, gives you the correct ancient letter or pictogram. Note the diagrams below.

EgyptHiero. This is the reconstituted Noto Sans Egyptian Hieroglyph only for the capital letters of our alphabet. A bit of history here. Egyptian hieroglyphics were used for writing the Egyptian language from about 3000 BC until 400 AD. Symbols resembling hieroglyphs had been used by artisans in the region since 4000 BC, but with no ascertainable linguistic content. The first hieroglyphs were used for making inscriptions on buildings and tombs. Later they came to be used to decorate jewelry, record events on papyrus and to put a royal or divine signature, called a cartouche on an item. The Egyptian hieroglyphic system of writing consisted of both phonetic symbols and pictographs. There were about 30 symbols representing single consonants.

UgariticCuneform. This is the reconstituted Noto Sans Ugaritic font only for the capital letters of our alphabet. Ugaritic is a historical Middle Eastern abjad , written left-to-right. Was used in today’s Syria in 1500-1300 BC for the Ugaritic language, and also for Hurrian. Has 30 letters that visually resemble cuneiform. The Ugaritic script was used from about 1500-1300 BC to write the Ugaritic language, spoken in modern-day Syria. It was also occasionally used for writing documents in the Hurrian language. Visually, the script resembled Cuneiform, with each letter written as one of a combination of short, linear wedges.

OldPersianA. This is the reconstituted Noto Sans Old Persian font, again only for the capital letters of our alphabet. Old Persian cuneiform was the main script for writing the Old Persian language from 525-330 BC. Visually it resembles Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform; most of the letters are arrangements of between two and five horizontal, vertical or angle-shaped wedges. However, there appears to be no derivational relationship between the sound-to-symbol mapping of individual letters in the two scripts, nor has any other script been found which links the forms of the scripts. For this reason, Old Persian cuneiform is generally believed to have been an independent invention.

Electronic Publishing

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 17:38:59 GMT

Electronic Publishing (E-Publishing) . Having come of age in the early 2000s, electronic publishing provides the writer a means to publish their work online without having to go through the task of print design. First appearing in the 1980s in the form of plain text emails sent to a subscriber via a mailing list, the first e-journal appeared in 1994. In the years 1985–1995, a revolution took place in the printing world from analog to digital printing with CD-ROMs and PDFs. E-Publishing has become faster, cheaper and allows many people across the world to have instant access to books and articles, as well as multimedia presentations. While many people still prefer the feel and look of a printed book, electronic books are growing in popularity.

Common Electronic Publishing formats are EPUB, PDF, HTML and TXT . (See Chart Below) The Kindle Reader for Amazon also has its own proprietary format, called KPF. Kindle Package Format (KPF) is the successor to their old MOBI format. Both are proprietary formats created by KDP and specifically meant for displaying ebooks on Kindle devices. The KPF file is built when you use Kindle Create, another proprietary tool for formatting ebooks specifically for sale in Kindles stores. More broad distribution of electronic publishing materials need EPUB or PDF formatting.

EPUB is the open standard format developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). It is specifically designed for e-books and is widely supported by e-readers, tablets and smartphones. It is a responsive format, meaning that the text adjusts itself to fit the screen of the device being used. EPUB supports interactive features such as videos, animations and hyperlinks. It is an ideal format for e-books that contain multimedia content. Also, the content can be updated in real time, allowing users to have an up-to-date document without having to download a new book. EPUB, however, has certain inflexible strictures for font use, cover design, and table of contents (TOC) that need to be obeyed for EPUB publication. The formatting can be challenging and requires a significant investment of time and resources.

The PDF format is a file format system developed by Adobe Systems in the 1990s. It is a very popular format that preserves the formatting of the original document, including images, fonts and layout. PDF files can be read on almost any device, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones. It has the advantage next to printed materials of being WYSWYG, or what you see is what you get, in terms of visual compatibility with the original text. PDF is popularly used for textbooks, business reports and where a lot of specialty fonts and images are employed. EPUB is the better format if the content is primarily distributed through e-readers. If the content, however, is on various platforms, including desktop computers and mobile devices, PDF is the better choice.

The HTML format is a markup language used to create web pages. HTML files can be used to create e-books that can be read on a variety of devices using a web browser. It is the format offered by Adobe InDesign on their Digital Publishing menu, giving a web address to the file created through InDesign. I have created calendars using this format that I have offered online to anyone interested. (See the BLOG on Calendars for 2024)

The TXT format is a simple text file format that can be used for e-books. TXT files do not support formatting or multimedia content and are often used for public domain books that have been digitized. TXT files can be read on almost any device using a text editor or e-reader app.

EPUB Design Basics (using Lulu.com) — Lulu suggests using a word processor, like Microsoft Word or Google Docs, for creating e-books. Just like designing a printed book, the first step is to finish writing and editing the book. Here, don’t forget to proofread, or better, have someone else, proofread the final book. Don’t worry about formatting, metadata, or the cover design until you have finalized the book’s contents.

Give emphasis to the typography of your book , blowing up the title to an exaggerated size, and setting the text in a highly contrasting color to the background. Make sure the typeface is clear and easy to read, and conveys the genre of your book instantly. When you’re creating a fixed layout EPUB be sure to choose a highly legible font and make the font size and leading (space between baselines) generous. (See the type samples below for some help)

Thanks to Microsoft Word’s style-based formatting, you can let Word do most of the work for you for an EPUB approved file. Using the standardized headings in Word, Heading 1 style is for the book title, Heading 2 style is for the chapter titles, and the content is the body or Normal style in Microsoft Word.

Never use the “Enter” key to create extra white space. Reflowable books, like EPUBs, do not have a page size. They show content based on your reader’s screen size. Multiple line breaks may make your text appear not as intended on different devices.

Images need to be appropriately sized in JPEG or PNG format. No single image can be greater than 3.2 million pixels (total pixels = length in pixels x width in pixels). Indeed, Apple will not accept EPUB files that contain individual images greater than 5.6 million pixels. They need to be clear, high-quality and complete. They must be clearly readable and saved in RGB color format. (See BLOG on “All About Color.”)

Table of Contents (TOC) is required for EPUBs, but not your usual printed contents with page numbers. Get rid of those. Use Microsoft’s heading styles to define what appears in your table of contents.

Hyperlinks need to be checked to make sure they work properly.

Front & Back Matter. The Front matter to the book includes a title page, copyright page, dedication and preface. Back matter can include an about the author page, glossary, and bibliography. Use an ISBN either your own or free from Lulu without any spaces between the numbers. These are to be added to the main text of the book before formatting for EPUB. The copyright page comes after the title page in an EPUB. It must have accurate metadata and look something like this:

Published by YOUR NAME/COMPANY NAME

ISBN 1234567891012

Cover Design — The file must contain front cover image only (spine and back cover images will be rejected). The color must be RGB. Cover image must be a flat, 2D image and sized correctly: 612 x 792 pixels and 72–300 pixels per inch resolution. Any references to pricing cannot be included. No advertisements or hyperlinks or mention on possible included elements, like CDs. The cover text must be English, using a standard Latin character set. The cover content cannot infringe upon another publisher’s or artist’s copyright on the same cover.

Some other notes from Lulu.com include — No truncated text and no overlapping of text and images. EPUB files with interactive elements are not accepted by Lulu. EPUB files with fillable areas (like fill-in-the-blanks) are not accepted. Illegal content is not accepted, including public domain content or repurposed Project Gutenberg content. Advertisements or prices are not allowed in EPUB content. Links to online retailers or booksellers are not allowed.

My takeaways — While the cost of a book as an EPUB instead of a print paperback or hardback is certainly low, the disadvantages for me as a specialty typographer, with articles and books that illustrate many different fonts, special characters, and settings are enormous. I definitely choose the PDF route, even with Lulu.com, and the print book options. Moreover, they distribute the book over a wide swath of booksellers and commercial sites, like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Copyright Do's and Don't's

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 23:30:46 GMT

Copyright Do's & Don't's. "The Congress shall have Power ... To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Tımes to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." (U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8). Lawyer Sara Hawkins* notes that copyright laws are here to encourage the right of creation to authors, rather than to simply deny its use by other people. However, there is a delicate balance to be struck between the creator's rights and the public interest. How do we keep the rights of authors and yet let others use it?

Copyrights are granted to protect original works of authors, whether it be in literary, written, dramatic, artistic, musical or certain other types of works. Copyrights attach to something once it is created, by a snap of the camera, or the pen of an author, or the sound bites of a musical group. You do not have to file special paperwork for copyright rights, as is the case for trademarks and patents. Thus, by applying the copyright symbol ( ©) I have printed and published a number of books and typographic articles and fonts without any special paperwork from the government. The copyright owner can (1) reproduce the copyrighted work; (2) display and publish it publicly; and (3) prepare derivative works based on the copyrighted work.

Copyrights do not apply to works in the public domain, words, names, slogans or short phrases (those may have protection in trademark law); blank forms; works that are not original; and government works. Ideas, procedures, processes, systems, method of operation, concepts, principles or discoveries are not copyrightable. Thus, the ALPHABET, for example, is not copyrightable. "The copyright in an architectural work that has been constructed does not include the right to prevent the making, distributing, or public display of pictures, paintings, photographs, or other pictorial representations of the work, if the building in which the work is embodied is located in or ordinarily visible from a public place."(Section 120a) In other words, pictorial representations are permitted of copyrighted works, if the work is located in a public place where everyone and anyone can see it. I have a photo of a bronze statue of Ben Franklin and the printing press, which is located on the grounds of the Masonic Village in Elizabethtown, PA. That photo is allowed under copyright laws.

Copyrights are long-lasting — "Copyright in a work created on or after January 1, 1978, subsists from its creation and, except as provided by the following subsections, endures for a term consisting of the life of the author and 70 years after the author’s death." (Section 302a) Also, "In the case of an anonymous work, a pseudonymous work, or a work made for hire, the copyright endures for a term of 95 years from the year of its first publication, or a term of 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever expires first." Copying of a work includes printing, photocopying and similar methods of mechanical duplication. It is not permissible to reproduce copyrighted materials without the written authorization of the copyright holder unless it qualifies under the copyright law's doctrine of "fair use."

How do I legally use a copyrighted work? There are two ways currently available — Get written permission from the creator for its use, or use it perhaps under what is called the "Fair Use" doctrine. Sara Hawkins again says, "The purpose of the Fair Use Doctrine is to allow for limited and reasonable uses as long as the use does not interfere with owners' rights or impede their right to do with the work as they wish." Fair Use is found in USC Section 107 of the Copyright Laws. It depends on four factors — (1) The purpose of use of the copyrighted material. Fair use of copyrighted works, as stated in US copyright law, “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.” If you are doing a research paper, for instance, you are allowed to quote a copyrighted source, for comment or critique without permission from the original copyright holder. The rules of etiquette require usually footnoting such use. Also, this does not mean, however, that all nonprofit education and noncommercial uses are fair and all commercial uses are not fair; instead, courts will balance the purpose and character of the use against the other factors below.

(2) The second test in "Fair Use" cases concerns the nature of the copyrighted work. Using a more creative or imaginative work (novel, music, movie) would probably not support a Fair Use claim, than a use of a more technical article or a news item. Also, "transformative" uses that adapt the work to something that is decidedly new, with a further purpose or different character, and do not substitute for the original use of the work, can fall under the Fair Use doctrine.

(3) The third test is the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole. If the amount borrowed or used is relatively small in relation to the whole work, this favors a Fair Use finding by the courts. But if the portion used is at the "heart" of a work, this factor will likely weigh against a finding of fair use even if that portion was otherwise a very small amount.

(4) The fourth test for Fair Use is t he effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. So, as Matthew Goings notes: "An unofficial Seinfeld trivia game would not be not fair use because it could or would affect an official game even though none existed." ( https://copyrightalliance.org/faqs/what-is-fair-use/ ) He says that "Courts evaluate fair use claims on a case-bycase basis, and the outcome of any given case depends on a fact-specific inquiry. This means that there is no formula to ensure that a predetermined percentage or amount of a work—or specific number of words, lines, pages, copies—may be used without permission."

What about AI generated materials and copyright laws? Talk about a thorny issue. Right now, in the courts, there are lawsuits pending against big time AI players such as GitHub and Microsoft and Open AI seeking to see whether or not AI created materials are subject to copyright violations and piracy on a level not seen since the Napster violations in the 1990s. Getty Images have filed a suit against Stable Diffusion, an AI art developing tool, claiming that its images are too close to the real thing and thus violate copyright laws. This is far from "Fair Use" standards. The Clarkson Law Firm has two class action suits against OpenAI and Google claiming that AI "stole" copyrighted materials from their creators.** Moreover, the U.S. Copyright office has ruled that AI cannot be considered an "author," since only a person can be an author.

At present, this is an open-ended issue, and the courts and Congress will have to argue it out. Suffice it to say at this juncture, that using AI to re-create an illustration or an entire book may involve copyright breaches. Be careful in using the technology to bypass coded laws.

What does all of this mean for the typographer or printer or publisher? I would suggest several avenues of using copyrighted materials.

Seek permission for its use. This is always the best and most honorable course of action. You may have to contact the publisher, who then in turn may contact the writer. I did this for a study guide I wrote on a book from Oxford Press in England on the life and work of Jonathan Edwards, the great early American theologian in New England. While it was only a study guide with excerpts on which to comment, and for church study and use exclusively, the Press required a contractural engagement that lasted for one year with a limited number of copies that could be printed and made available, even for religious study and use. It would have cost me $500 for twelve copies for a year. I declined and went another route with some of the material.
Use legitimate free sources for photos and images . I use dreamstime.com in their free portfolios for the background photos and images for a number of book covers I have crafted. There are other legitimate sources in iStock, for instance. Licensing uses and rules apply to most of these freebies. And give credit for where credit is due, even for the freebies.
Use your own work and photos . I know this requires substantial time and effort, but it is usually the right thing to do. I put together a historical calendar of the Lancaster PA area using photos I personally took.
Use the old "buyer beware" adage here . Are you willing to risk your site being taken down, or getting a cease and desist letter, a bill or actually being sued through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which can be very, very costly. People actually make a living on book royalties and selling or licensing their work. Poaching their work for pleasure or profit is unacceptable.

(I would also recommend a lawyer firm with which I have worked in the Lancaster, PA area. Please note this article from them at https://gkh.com/protecting-copyrights-vs-protecting-trademarks/ )

(*Sara Hawkins, Copyright Fair Use and How It Works for Online Images, https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/copyright-fair-use-and-how-it-works-for-online-images/ )

(** Lucie Růžičková , Ai and Copyright: The Legal Landscape, https://blog.apify.com/ai-copyright/#:~:text=In%20general%2C%20the%20answer%20to%20%22Can%20AI-generated%20content,only%20a%20person%20can%20be%20considered%20an%20author.)

Kern, Kern, Kern

Sat, 21 Oct 2023 21:32:35 GMT

The Importance of Kerning. Do you recall the song, "Turn, Turn, Turn" written by Pete Seeger in 1959 and sung by The Byrds? Perhaps not, depending on your age and music likes and dislikes, but another "song" for typographers is "Kern, Kern, Kern," initially written by Gene Gable in Publish magazine in December 1993. He advances the cause of kerning type for a smooth and even look, especially at very large sizes of font use in advertising and posters.

First things first, however. Perhaps you know there is an invisible space between characters, an invisible box. In original days of printing presses, typographers would look at this space and, if too much space occurred between letters, they would cut notches in wooden blocks to help letters fit together more evenly and aesthetically. As typesetting advanced into phototypesetting, the space around each character would be altered by moving a prism along a track. From this practice, we get tracking of type.

Sometimes the difference between kerning and tracking of type is not known. Tracking involves the spacing between all characters in a given section of text or headline. Tracking affects the overall "color" or character density within a given block of text. Tracking is also know as "letterspacing," and refers to the visual "looseness" or "tightness" of text in a block. Kerning , on the other hand, refers to pairs of letters that are supposed to fit together in a pleasing way. Awkward looking gaps between letters, at whatever point size, are to be dealt with by "kerning" letters. In the old days of printing presses, typographers would fix this problem by cutting notches in the wooden blocks to help the letters fit closer together in a more visually pleasing way.

Kerning is a subjective art . Not enough, perhaps, is said about this aspect of pairs of letters and how they look to observers. How you "see" something has to be taken into account in talking about kerning. Does this look like enough space? Does it look like too much? Are the letters too tight or too loose? You need both readability and legibility , with legibility referring to the finer details of typography. Readability refers to a reader being able to absorb the body of your text. You need to watch out for certain letter combinations, like the slanted letters, A, K, V, W, Y, letters with arms or cross strokes: F, L, T, and letter combinations: W or V + A (any order); T or F + a lowercase vowel or a period or comma. The Adriatic font below shows how such combinations can look bad, even with a decent formed font design.

Lower case letters need special attention, as well, with two straight letters needing the most space, a straight and a round letter needing less space and two round letters even less space. While the letters viewed on their own may look evenly spaced, it is the letter combinations that tell if proper kerning has taken place. Point sizes of letters need special attention, with larger sizes in posters, or ads, or logos needing manual kerning. Kerning mistakes will be glaring while working with large, highly visible letters. Special attention needs to be given to text that is tightly spaced, especially in combinations like "r" plus "n," where they may indeed run together.

Use kerning strategically . While most major typographers offer from a minimum of 4oo pairs to over 1,000 pairs, there are actually over 30,000 possible letter combinations that could concern the typographer. Expert type has been set by people with outstanding kerning skills and meticulous care. Thus, Sumner Stone from Adobe suggests that some typographers overdo tightness. Use H and O as reference characters, both a flat and a curved edge. Best yet, use a well-designed typeface, such as the Arno Pro face shown in the example below. Take the font x-height into account for readability, with the knowledge that typefaces with large x-heights are generally more readable at smaller sizes. get creative with manual kerning in posters and logos. Take FedEx, for instance, with negative space between the letters forming the well-known arrow of the company.

Some suggestions for proper kerning would be: (1) Get a good layout program like Adobe InDesign for special type projects use. Microsoft Word simply does not cut it here; (2) Use commercially produced fonts made by reputable typographic companies, like Adobe; (3) Break down your work, especially larger pieces, like posters, into two letter pairs to spot where adjustments need to be made; (4) Get outside input and comment on your type designs and the use. See what others see; (5) Turn your work upside down and note the spaces between the letters for a different, maybe more revealing look; (6) Print your work out in different sizes and adjust kerning where needed; (7) Be careful of capital letters followed by punctuation or small letters, especially with a serif font; (8) Practice kerning using an online tool such as Kern Type .

Adobe writers note that "Practice and exposure are the key ingredients to fine-tuning your kerning expertise. Now that you have these tips and tricks in your back pocket, it’s time for you to put your kerning know-how into practice." (https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/design/discover/kerning.html—Contributors Madeline DeCotes , Nick Escobar , Robin Casey )

Helvetica's Better Substitutes

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 16:06:07 GMT

Helvetica's Better Substitutes. In the July/August 1995 edition of Adobe Magazine , Robin Williams, a noted typographer, says Helvetica, though immensely popular in the 60s and 70s, became passé. Like the beehive hairdo, Helvetica is continuously used but creates a tired and dated look. He says, "Just because it's on your computer doesn't mean you have to use it. The greatest single thing you could do for your publications is to invest in another sans serif ("without feet") face, one with a strong, bold black version in its family. As with all trends, Helvetica will someday be back in style—in about two hundred years."

He gives in another article some alternatives to Helvetica — ITC Franklin Gothic, Futura, Gill Sans and ITC Stone Sans as examples. And Daniel Will Harris in "Add Impact to Type" in the magazine Technique , March/April 1994 issue, suggests a wide range of alternatives to Helvetica — Agfa Roti's Sans, Avenue, Eras, Formata, Franklin Gothic, Frutiger, Gill Sans, ITC Goudy Sans, Lucida Sans, Optima, Shannon or Univers.

However, I find in hometown newspapers all over, the tired and dated, and boring, use of Helvetica persists. In my hometown, a local printer, well-known and established for many years, uses Helvetica for ads that not only do not stand out, but fail in modern typographical terms. I am sure the rationale for Helvetica's use is that this is the typeface they have used for ages, is the most convenient, is the fastest to use on a compressed time factor, and no one has ever complained. However, there are typographical alternatives to Helvetica, even in a rather traditionally based hometown, that would give better results. I note them below with a copy of a typical ad.

I fully understand that busy print shops and overworked staff, and perhaps not very well trained in modern typographical practices, simply default to Helvetica. But I believe we can all do better. Note the alternatives below and some information on the alternative typefaces used.

Hour Glass Creation

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 01:33:18 GMT

Hour Glass Creation. Have you ever found something that challenged your creativity and skill? In typography such things exist all the time. In leafing through old ad booklets for the now defunct Adobe Minion Multiple Master Font (See Blogs on "More About Fonts" and "The Journey of Digital Type"), I found a challenging hour glass design with type expertly set within the hour glass to look like time slowly draining from top to bottom. That inspired me to see if I could do something similar with Adobe InDesign, which I love to use for all sorts of projects.

The challenge was to create an interior using only type that seems to be trickling down, as time is seen slowly moving down the hour glass. Since I am a Christian typographer, author and pastor, this was also an opportunity to pull from the Bible's perspective of time slowly drawing to a conclusion from the book of Revelation in the Bible. I chose Revelation 20 as the text to use inside the hour glass. I am certain that more professional illustrators and type setters can do a better job. But this is what I created using the tools and training in InDesign over the years.

Enjoy — and dive into your next type challenge!

Creating Fillable Forms

Sun, 15 Oct 2023 19:15:53 GMT

Creating Fillable Forms — Everyone uses a form, whether it is a doctor's form, or an insurance form, or a credit form or a school registration form. Form creating is both an art and science. You want a form to be readable, convey the required information and be understandable. We also want forms, if they are online, to be fillable, with fields that invite the applicant to simply click and type in the information requested. Three programs that I use to create forms are the Adobe InDesign layout program, Acrobat, and Google Forms. Each has their strengths and weaknesses.

InDesign Form Making — InDesign provides a path in the program for creating forms in their Button and Forms library. This is found in Windows > Interactive > Buttons and Forms which has form elements that you can use in designing your form. You can add simple form elements such as text fields, radio buttons, check boxes or signatures. You can also add actions to submit the form by email or print.

Solid strokes and fills to the form fields, on/off hover states for buttons, check boxes and radio buttons can be added. You can specify font and font sizes in text input fields. You can then export this simple form to Adobe Acrobat for additional editing. See Adobe's Help Index on forms for more information.

What is not told is that you must actually create the form and then add the buttons and field boxes and so forth. Here a very helpful tool is to use InDesign Form Templates , which professional designers have provided for our use. These are beautifully constructed forms that can be opened in Adobe Illustrator and used in programs like InDesign. I have included four downloaded forms below to show you the capabilities of such designed elements.

The advantages of using a high end program like InDesign are many for form creation. Like any other professional layout program, InDesign has all the bells and whistles that you need to design a form of your liking. Its myriad font selections, color selections, design elements and so forth will help you create an attractive and eye-catching form that is unlike many of the standard line forms you have seen. Many people also use Adobe Illustrator for form creation as well. The Form templates offered by Brand Packs are visually compelling and created for everything from registration forms to medical forms. Note the examples below.

The disadvantages are also to be noted. InDesign and the Forms Templates are not cheap. The InDesign program itself comes usually as part of the package of Creative Cloud from Adobe and costs over $50 per month for a subscription, which is the only way the current InDesign program is available. You cannot buy a current stand-alone InDesign program. The last stand alone program was in the CS series, InDesign CS 6, which is not available from Adobe any more. Form Templates created for Adobe Creative Cloud are also available for a price, brand packs.com offer seventeen outstanding InDesign compatible forms. They are available in the Adobe Stock program for a monthly fee of $30 – $200 per month, which includes not merely forms but all of the Adobe assets. One time users can retrieve five professionally made forms for $50 up to 150 forms and other assets for whopping price of $1,200. This fee is in addition to the regular Creative Cloud program fee. Additionally, extra type styles which may not be available from Adobe or in the default program can be costly, since using these fonts come with licenses for which often you pay a fee.

Acrobat Forms — One of the most used programs for creating forms is Adobe Acrobat. Editable PDF forms are available using Acrobat to securely secure data from customers and clients, vendors and more. Using Acrobat's "tool bar," fillable form fields, text fields, drop down menus, checkboxes and signature fields are available. You can either download a paper form from your scanner or from a file on your computer. Acrobat then adds fillable form fields which you can then distribute. (See Sample Below)

The steps are fairly easy —

Open Acrobat:
Click on the “Tools” tab and select “Prepare Form.”
Select a file or scan a document:
Acrobat will automatically analyze your document and add form fields.
Add new form fields:
Use the top toolbar and adjust the layout using tools in the right pane.
Save your fillable PDF:
You can also share it with others or click Distribute to collect responses automatically.

See https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/create-form.html for more help.

However, unlike InDesign's or Illustrator's many layout elements, Acrobat depends on forms that have been already created for those professional touches.

Google Forms — Certainly, one of the easiest and cheapest way to create and use a form is through Google Forms, available at forms.google.com or your Google Drive. Many users have Google Drive enabled on their computers. There are a few Form Templates offered. (See Illustration below).

Step 1: Go to forms.google.com or Google Drive.
Step 2: Select a template.
Step 3: Change the title of your form.
Step 4: Adjust questions and answers.
Step 5: Customize the Google Form theme.
Step 6: Preview your form.

Google notes that you can add a header image and customize the color scheme and fonts used. Google offers this advice — "When you're done, simply click the Send button, and choose to send it via email (either a link to the form or the entire form embedded in an email), copy a link to share manually, or embed the form as HTML on your site. When the responses start trickling in, you can see them in a list of aggregated data or individually, along with a collection of charts appropriate to the question type. If you're a spreadsheet wizard, you can take this data to Google Sheets and look for deeper connections there.

In addition to that Sheets integration, you can also pre-fill a form to save your respondents some time, collaborate with others on your form, and browse a collection of add-ons on the Google Workspace Marketplace. Bonus: if your respondents are Google users, their progress will be saved on any given form for a month, so they can click away and come back to it later." (https://support.google.com/docs/answer/6281888?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop#zippy=%2Ccreate-a-form-from-google-drive)

Takeaways . As an avid InDesign user and typographer I tend toward using that platform for designing and using forms. Just to note that many of my colleagues use Adobe Illustrator, and that is all fine. I like the creative freedom, the outstanding visual appeal possible and the end results seen and appreciated. I understand, however, the cost may be prohibitive for some, and busy office professionals may simply want a quick and easy form for their company. Google Forms cannot be beat with Adobe Acrobat coming in a close second. Take a look at the included forms below to get some ideas. If you would like CARE Typography to design your next form, let us know at cshanktype@gmail.com . We would be happy to quote you a price and offer a quick no-hassle turnaround.

What's In A Name?

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 19:24:39 GMT

What's In A Name? Do you remember memorizing your ABCs with the "Alphabet Song" — "ABCDEFG / HIJKLMNOP / QRSTUV / WXYZ / Now I said my ABCs / What do you think of me?/" Our entire life has been framed by the alphabet. For those of us in the typography or typesetting business, the alphabet is our bread-and-butter. Those of us who design fonts and tweak layouts and redesign business logos are, may I say, in love with the alphabet and all that it conveys. But even if you are only slightly interested in history and the alphabet, have you ever wondered where your name came from? Not your surname, which you can find on sites such as ancestry.com, but your NAME, that which people casually call you. My name is "Carl," and I have wondered where those letters came from in the history of letter forms and cultural associations.

Alphabet History The Alphabet is old. Very old. John Coleman Darnell, an Egyptologist from Yale University, in the 1990s made a discovery that rocked the alphabetic world. Looking for Egyptian relics, he discovered two ancient inscriptions at Wadi El-hol in central Egypt, about 30 miles northwest of ancient Thebes. This ancient road had evidence of inscriptions on the walls of the cliffs lining the roadway. The writings show the alphabet's invention from around 2000 B.C. A fascinating study of his report is found in David Sacks, Letter Perfect: The Marvelous History of Our Alphabet From A to Z .

Beyond the Phoenicians — The Phoenician alphabet begat the Greek which begat the Etruscan, a people who lived in northern Italy. From there, the Roman alphabet and writing were developed. The Phoenician alphabet had 22 letters, while the Greek alphabet had 26. Interestingly, the Hebrews, another Semitic tribe which populated the Canaanite region under the influence of Joshua's campaign (in the Bible), only khet ( j ) , qof ( q ) , resh ( r ) and shin ( v ) resemble their Phoenician counterparts. The Hebrew writing from right-to-left derives from the Phoenicians.

Modern letter forms have their immediate heritage in Roman inscriptions from around 50–120 A.D. The digital version called Trajan, created by Carol Twombly in 1989 for Adobe, reveals some of these Latin forms. In the sixth through tenth centuries, lower case letters (called minuscules) were formed, with modern lettering evolving from the Carolingian scripts. The Emperor Charlemagne used these letters as an educational standard. The Charlemagne font, created by Carol Twombly again, can be seen in the Latin lettering in the sample above. Italics then came into being in the form of cursive script developed in Rome and Florence.

Researching My Name — So, with all this information, and more, I investigated the letterforms that make up my name, CARL. The examples below show that tracing. If you would like more information on tracing your own name, buy a copy of David Sacks, Letter Perfect: The Marvelous History of Our Alphabet from A to Z , available at Amazon.com.

Using Open Type Fonts

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 17:52:57 GMT

Using Open Type Fonts*

Most modern fonts are what we call "Open Type" fonts (See my Blog Post "More About Fonts"). The advantages of Open Type fonts are mainly fourfold — (1) they have a larger glyph limit (usually about 65,000 glyphs). This is an advance over the traditional 256 glyphs in a standard Type 1 or TrueType font. (2) They are cross platform fonts, thus able to be used in both Mac and Windows applications. (3) They offer support for both PostScript Type 1 and True Type outlines. (4) They support advanced typographic features. More on this later.

Open Type fonts can contain many thousands of characters and multiple alphabets, such as Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic; or kanji, kana, and romaji for Japanese use). OpenType fonts can also include typographic refinements such as true small caps, different styles of figures, and extensive sets of ligatures and alternates, as well as complete sets of accented characters and diacritical marks. Different applications have differing levels of support for all the OpenType features.However, not all programs can support all Open Type features, as shown by the Windows fraction 3/16 in Microsoft Word in the Windows font Book Antiqua Sample below.

Open Type options built into advanced programs, such as Adobe InDesign and Photoshop CC include several features, that can be turned on in the "Character" menu under InDesign (See Sample Below) —

Ligatures — Ligatures are typographic combinations of two or more letters into a single character (See Sample Below). There are three types of Ligatures, Standard, Discretionary and Historical. You are most likely familiar with Standard Ligatures, such as the combination of "f" plus "l" in fl or "f" plus "f" plus "i" in ffi. Discretionary ligatures are decorative in nature, adding a unique visual element to text that does not affect its readability nor functionality (See Sample Below). Historical Ligatures maintain old-fashioned letter combinations, used for centuries by typographers, such as the combination œ ("o" plus "e") seen in medieval manuscripts. Actually, this lexical ligature is called an "ethel" and typographically required for deliberate archaism and for academically correct quotation from older English sources, as well as in some French phrases, such as hors d'œuvre.

Contextual Alternates — Contextual alternates are ligatures that are applied to individual characters based on the letters around them (their context). Contextual alternates can also be applied to entire words in certain contexts, for example, words frequently used in titles (such as "of" and "the"). When contextual alternates are enabled for a font, they are used instead of the standard ligatures in those contexts defined by the font designer. In Microsoft Word, contextual alternates can be found in the Open Type Features group, "Advanced" tab, on the "Font" dialogue.

Discretionary Ligatures — Discretionary ligatures are designed to be ornamental and not specifically designed for readability. They are not common in use. Texts usually borrow some of their elements as accents.

Swashes — (See Example Below) A swash is a typographical flourish, such as an exaggerated serif, terminal, tail, entry stroke, etc., on a glyph. The use of swash characters dates back to at least the 16th century, as they can be seen in Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi's La Operina, which is dated 1522.

Stylistic Alternates — Stylistic alternates, or simply "alternates," usually placed in one of the stylistic set features ( ss01 - ss20 ), are usually simple one-to-one substitutions (no context) and, of course off, by default. The user can enable them.

Titling Alternates — These are specially-designed capitals that are intended for display usage. Titling characters differ from their text counterparts in that their scale, proportion and design details have been altered to look best at larger sizes.

Ordinals — In common (rather than mathematical) usage, ordinals are superscripted letters following a number, such as in 1st, 2nd and 3rd. They are used in other languages as well, for example, the Spanish and Portuguese "a" and "o" ordinals. (See Sample Below)

Fractions — Fractions can be divided into three categories–basic, extended and arbitrary. Basic fractions are ¼, ½ and ¾, and are standard in many fonts in all formats. Extended fractions are found in many, but not all, OpenType fonts, and usually include 1/8, 3/8, 5/8, 7/8, and sometimes 1/3 and 2/3. Arbitrary fractions include anything and everything else, such as 18/256. (See Sample Below and my Blog on "About Well Defined Fractions")

Choosing Glyphs

A glyph is a single representation of a character . Every font has a Unicode character map that links (abstract) character IDs with how to display that character, using the default glyphs. A single character can have multiple glyphs ( alternates ), and a single glyph can represent multiple characters ( ligatures ). (See Sample Below)

Open Type in Microsoft Word

Those who use Microsoft Word will note that Word has limited Open Type support and uses. What are generally available, if the font in question has them, are Stylistic Alternates, Contextual Alternates and Standard and Discretionary Ligatures. Thus, the fl ligature, for example, can be accessed in Word (See Example Below). If the Open Type font has fractions that go beyond the normal fractional glyphs, they will also be available in Word documents. Most likely, however, fractions that are real typographic fractions are limited in Word usage.

To access these features in Word, (1) Select your text and go to to Format > Font and select the Advanced tab. (2) For Stylistic Alternates, click on the dropdown menu under “Stylistic Sets” and choose one of the sets. Keep in mind that not all fonts will have 20 stylistic sets. (3) To enable contextual alternates, check the box toward the bottom. Ligatures — If you click on the dropdown beside Ligatures you’ll be able to choose from Standard ligatures, Historical and Discretionary, and so forth. (See Sample Below)

To access Open Type glyphs in other text programs, you have to use what is called PUA Unicode-mapping. Unicode has been around for several decades, but it didn’t come into the limelight until 2000 when Adobe and Microsoft jointly adopted Unicode for font encoding. Today, Unicode is the default character encoding for nearly all computer technologies.Unicode is a common character set that is supported on the Windows, Apple, and Unix platforms. It assigns a unique number (called a code point) to each character of the world’s major languages, plus mathematical symbols, common decorative symbols like checkboxes, diacritical marks, punctuation, and other characters. Unicode supports more than 900,000 code points which means it can handle more than 900,000 characters or glyphs. That’s a huge increase from legacy TrueType and PostScript fonts which had only 256 code points.

Consequently, using Unicode, a typist can access characters such as true prime (U 2032), double prime (U 2033) and true quotes. For Windows users, (1) Open the Windows Character Map App ; (2) Set the Font to the desired one in the list; (3) At the bottom, check [ ] Advanced View; (4) Set “Group by:” to Unicode Subrange; (5) At the bottom of the list, select “Private Use Characters." You can also use a glyph finder app like "PopChar" ( https://ergonis.com/popchar $29.99)

For Mac users, (1) Open the FontBook app; (2) To copy characters, go to Preview / View > Repertoire; (3) Select and copy (CMD + C) the desired character; (4) You can then paste (CMD + V) the character(s) into the text field of your open program (such as Microsoft Word.) Or, you can use an app, like PopChar or Ultra Character Map ( https://x04studios.com/ultracharactermap.html $9.99 for Mac)

The point is that Open Type has a myriad range of use and features open to the general and specialized user of open type fonts. Enjoy getting to know and use them in your documents!

(*Much of this article and the back splash for this blog are adapted from the Creative Market blog, https://support.creativemarket.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037478813-Using-Fonts-with-Special-Features-OpenType-#opentype) Swiss Army knife is from SkyVectors.

Calendars for 2024

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 13:06:05 GMT

Calendars for 2024. Everyone needs a calendar, and CARE Typography has produced two new 2024 Calendars. Each Calendar has the recognized national holidays cited with a graphic. They are both available in a FREE digital edition AND a beautiful color printed wall calendar edition.

The 2023-2024 Historic Lancaster Calendar is a sixteen-month Calendar with a modern photo supplied by area photographers and historic places noted on the side of the calendar days. This is a Calendar for Lancaster County, PA history buffs as well as those interested in Lancaster County places and sights.

The 2024 Promises of God Calendar is a twelve-month 2024 Calendar with specific verses from Scripture citing the promises of God for Christians. The large graphics have been designed using Kittl templates. Each month is a reminder of God's gracious promises to his people. It is also available as a FREE digital calendar as well as a beautiful color printed wall calendar.

The printed color wall calendar editions can be purchased from the Bookstore at www.lulu.com under the name "Carl Shank." Prices are given in the Ad below.

We invite you to purchase both for your home or office!

Type for Text

Fri, 23 Jun 2023 18:25:45 GMT

Type for Text. What type do you use for regular text, such as in books, articles, reports, proposals and the like? A number of typographers and writers throughout history have settled on actually a few few faces that make it to the top of the list for typing regular text. I have noted them and written about them in the graphics below. Some very favorite type for text faces include Adobe Caslon, Adobe Garamond, Janson Text, and Times New Roman, all of which have been faithfully used throughout the history of book making. Designed by Robert Slimbach, Arno Pro is also a favorite face of mine that I have used in a number of books I have written. I find the face inviting, clear, very readable and legible and dense enough and comfortable enough for any reader.

Myfonts.com notes this about the Arno font — "Named after the Florentine river which runs through the heart of the Italian Renaissance, Arno draws on the warmth and readability of early humanist typefaces of the 15th and 16th centuries. While inspired by the past, Arno is distinctly contemporary in both appearance and function. Designed by Adobe Principal Designer Robert Slimbach, Arno is a meticulously-crafted face in the tradition of early Venetian and Aldine book typefaces. Embodying themes Slimbach has explored in typefaces such as Minion and Brioso, Arno represents a distillation of his design ideals and a refinement of his craft. As a multi-featured OpenType family, with the most extensive Latin-based glyph complement Adobe has yet offered, Arno offers extensive pan-European language support, including Cyrillic and polytonic Greek. The family also offers such typographic niceties as five optical size ranges, extensive swash italic sets, and small capitals for all covered languages."

What makes a font a good and highly usable text font? John McWade in his expertly written and illustrated Before & After Magazine series, said it well — "The hallmarks of good text type are legibility and readability . Legibility refers to clarity; it's how readily one letter can be distinguished from all others. Readability refers to how well letters interact to compose words, sentences and paragraphs. When evaluating the choices,, your operative word is medium ." (John McWade, Before & After , Vol. 4. No. 3. 1994) Medium fonts include fonts with medium x-height, that is the height of a lowercase letter of a typeface, fonts with medium height-to-width ratio in the individual letters, that is, letters that do not look distorted or weirdly shaped, and fonts with some variability in stroke weights that distinguish each letter from its neighbors. The latter description leads us away from too uniform geometric sans-serif styles and beautiful, super thin strokes of some modern styles of fonts.

The fonts I have chosen, with help from McWade and others, are great text fonts. They show up well in text heavy applications. I have included some of the history of the font in the ones chosen below. In addition to the faces mentioned above, I have included Stone Serif, a relatively modern face, and Bembo, a stylish face for some jobs. Use these time tested fonts for your heavy text work, and you will not be disappointed.

Decluttering A Layout

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 20:34:07 GMT

How do you go about decluttering or revamping a busy image? The image below was a local ad for a hardware store emphasizing lawn work equipment. The type should be easy to read and the graphics and fonts used should enhance the theme of the ad. I find the original ad "clunky" and hard to decipher what is really important. Is it the hardware store? Is it the lawn equipment? Is it the emphasis on servicing the local communities for quite some time?

One major problem is using fonts that are sized incorrectly for the ad to stand out to the viewer. The remade ad uses a family of fonts, namely Avenir Next Condensed in various styles. Using the same font clarifies and highlights rather than obscures the message of the flyer. While the revamped flyer is limited to one major font style, you can generally use as many as three fonts in a publication to keep it from being cluttered. Because of the variety of font styles in the Avenir Next family, we can have both display fonts and text fonts from the same basic font family.

About those graphics. The graphics chosen to illustrate lawn equipment are scattered, not sharp and stand in contention with the companies advertised — Toro, Echo, Husqvarna and Troy-Bilt. Are we supposed to focus on the companies or the products of these companies? That is unclear. The Hostetter logo is indeed central to the ad, but the hours of operation are not emphasized. I suppose the yellow marker used is suppose to highlight those times as well as long standing service to the community.

The point in a display ad such as this one is to increase readability and invite the reader to investigate what is being offered. The revamped ad does this in a clean and clear way.

A Kittl Remake

Wed, 17 May 2023 19:01:53 GMT

A Kittl Remake . One of the claims of the graphical design program, Kittl, is that it saves loads of time and performs admirably well and is easy to navigate. It especially does well with Victorian art, so it claims. I took an idea from The Type Project Book by Nigel French & Hugh D'Andrade in Victorian art and sought to duplicate what I could in Kittl. The results are below. Some explanatory notes are in order.

First, I could have used Adobe Illustrator (which crafted the original piece in The Type Project Book ), but I wanted to see how well and how superbly the Kittl program handled the sample piece. I also wanted to see how long it would take me to actually craft the piece in Kittl. While I appreciated the Kittl ease of use, I had to import a lot of the typefaces and elements into the Kittl program to complete the project, and even then there was not a one-to-one match. What Kittl did was allowed me to warp the type easily and quickly, but the real challenges came with the fills and shading requirements. I still was not able to exactly duplicate the Illustrator crafted piece in The Type Project Book. And, it took me a lot of time and effort to actually complete the project in Kittl.

I had to import the typefaces, P22 Victorian Swash, Gothic and Belford. They were not available in Kittl. I also had to import the flowers used in the original project, since they were not exactly available in Kittl. More than that, I had to copy and re-fill the elements used for the flowers from the vintage ornaments package from the Heritage Type Co. What Kittle did do for me is eliminate any background to the imported elements and allow me to vectorize them and then re-color them to match the red colors of the project.

The ornamental swashes were taken directly from Kittl's library, which is fairly extensive, but not exactly like the original ornamentations. All in all I believe the final product looks Victorian and images the original project in The Type Project Book . However, the ability to do in Adobe Illustrator still outshines Kittl in preciseness and adaptability. This result mirrors what I found in an earlier blog ("Digitizing the Past") – closeness but not exact duplication.

See the results below.

Fancy Drop Caps

Sat, 13 May 2023 20:02:19 GMT

Fancy Drop Caps. Drop caps, or technically, versals, are larger letters that mark the start of a major text block. They are often larger than the surrounding text and visibly show off the start of a major textual work. Typographers use drop caps, often for fun and visual appeal, to show off their skill and visual intuition. Drop caps herald back to letterpress and scribal tradition, with many of them coming from calligraphy.

The practice of using drop caps dates back to the medieval times when scribes would embellish the first letter of a manuscript to make it stand out and emphasize its importance. In the early days of printing, drop caps were used primarily for their aesthetic value. Printers would carve elaborate woodcut or metal typefaces to create intricate and ornate drop caps that would catch the reader's eye and add visual interest to the page. Drop caps were often used in religious texts, where they were seen as a way to honor the divine word.

Over time, drop caps became more standardized and simpler in design, but they continued to be used as a way to add visual interest and hierarchy to the page. They were commonly used in books, newspapers, and magazines to indicate the beginning of a new section or chapter, or to draw attention to a particularly important paragraph or quote. In the digital age, drop caps have remained popular and are used in a wide range of documents, including books, magazines, newsletters, and websites. While digital drop caps lack the intricate detail and texture of their printed counterparts, they can still be effective in adding visual interest and emphasis.

Adobe has a new program for creating text based images, called Adobe Firefly (beta). The final display below is a sampling of text made into complex images using this new program. It is an exciting program for graphic artists and designers and even typographers looking for eye-catching display.

I have included below some fancy drop caps and how they might be used in a text opening. Enjoy!

New Font Offerings

Thu, 11 May 2023 19:45:33 GMT

Introducing the Christograph Font & FancifulAlphabets Font. CARE Typography is pleased to announce two new font offerings, especially for use in churches and ministries—the Christograph Font and the FancifulAlphabets Font. These are pictograph fonts, designed from pictograms courtesy of The Image Book: 2,500 Visual and Verbal Images to Clip and Use During the Church Year (C.I. Publishing, 1993). The pictograms used have been cleanly drawn and sized to fit a normal sized font display. There are 83 pictograms in the Christograph font that occupy font glyphs. They cover the church year adequately and can be used in a variety of newsletter and display materials. These fonts are true Open Type Postscript fonts, the kind preferred by Adobe systems.

The FancifulAlphabets Font is a decorative capital letter font, from A to Z, suitable for fancy text introductions or stand alone old time graphics. One of the nice things about having such fancy lettering in a font family is that they can be sized to fit most any text or advertising use, especially in the larger sizes.

The fonts are free to all churches and ministries. To secure your copy of the fonts, send an email to CARE Typography at cshanktype@gmail.com. The fonts are copyrighted by CARE Typography and can be used only by permission from the creator.

We believe these fonts can be helpful to many!

New Book Offer!

Sat, 06 May 2023 20:03:17 GMT

New Book Offer! Just released — Typography: Articles on Understanding & Using Type . Two editions are available — standard black-and-white version and a beautiful premium color version of the book. These books are a compilation of the Blogs offered on this site over the years. They are now in printed form for your use and reference. Please see the ads below for content, description and pricing. We are overjoyed at being able to offer them to you.

To Order, go to our STORE page. Thank you for your interest and investment!

Modern Resumé Makeover

Tue, 02 May 2023 01:29:30 GMT

A Modern Resumé Makeover . With companies laying off workers and hundreds, even thousands, of qualified and eager workers looking for jobs, a resumé is a must. But what kind of resumé? Obviously, Indeed.com and other sites offer digitally made resumés, and that may seem adequate for many job seekers. However, some companies and hiring managers, especially in the design arts, are looking for comps, for well-crafted designs, for portfolios of what the would-be worker is offering.

In the first diagram below, a standard (older style) resumé is offered. It has the necessary information, perhaps lacking an "objective" or "goal," but contains the relevant information employers and recruitment managers are searching for. It is sufficient, but tired, boring, unattractive and usually gets in the scrap heap with perhaps a passing glance. Those recruiters who do a six-second scan (the standard time) usually do what is called a "F-Scan" of the resumé. If something strikes his or her attention then the resumé is placed on a smaller pile for consideration.

However, to assure a more than six-second look, a well-crafted, personable styled, typologically interesting resumé can command some extra attention from job recruiters,, especially in the design and typesetting or printing business. This is offered in the second diagram and then "How We Did It" is in the Third. Take a look. CARE Typography can design a noteworthy resumé for you. Give us a call or send an email with your old resumé and watch the magic happen.

Art Nouveau Layout

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 15:14:46 GMT

Art Nouveau* was an international art movement that emerged at the end of the 19th century and reached its peak between 1890 and 1910. It was a reaction against the traditional academic art of the time, which was seen as too rigid and formulaic, and sought to create a new style that was more organic, expressive, and individualistic.

The design crafted below is an example of art nouveau. You either like it or hate it.

*From ChatGPT an AI site.

How They Handle Typography: Survey of Canva, Kittl and Express

Tue, 18 Apr 2023 20:19:21 GMT

How They Handle Typography: Survey of Canva, Kittl, and Adobe Express

How do some of the major quick illustration programs handle typographic challenges? First, a disclaimer. This is not an exhaustive survey of Canva, Kittl or Adobe Express. However, since I have used these three programs in illustrative purposes, I wanted to find out how they might handle a typographic challenge, namely the banner of a 1901 Calendar. I have worked with this Calendar on a separate blog ("Digitizing the Past") and you can find important information there about the Calendar's source and creators. I have also worked to some extent on Adobe Express, Kittl and more recently Canva. All three have their purposes and strengths and weaknesses in comparison with one another. This blog is not about that comparison.

I wondered how these three programs would deal with a typographic challenge presented by this old 1901 Calendar. It would only be fair to say that none of the programs, nor my professional Adobe InDesign program, was up to the challenge, since the typeface used on the Calendar was not to be found anywhere (it might be closest related to Legal Brief JNL Regular, but that's a stretch). It was most likely hand drawn letters (I would invite my readers to state and show otherwise), especially noting the elongated bottom serif on the "E" of the banner and the "R."

Some general comments in using Express, Kittl and Canva might be in order in terms of typography. First, they are not precise typographic programs. They are mostly used and have been created for non-designers to be able to draft pleasing and eye catching illustrations and designs, especially for POD tasks (Printing On Demand). Kittl especially provides some nice Victorian art and design venues for an older look. Canva has the greatest image factory with thousands of images and designs at your fingertips. Adobe Express allows Creative Cloud members such as I am to quickly draw or design something not using Photoshop's or Illustrator's many features and steep learning curves. And Premium membership is free for Creative Cloud subscribers.

Kittl, and to a lesser extent, Canva, allows the typographer to play with type in a creative and fun way. In Kittl you can twist, rotate, skewer, shade and do other special effects on type that would require much time and work in the classic design programs, like Illustrator, Photoshop and the older Freehand. I have a number of issues of that wonderful design magazine, Before & After , by John McWade, now out of print, that delighted illustrators and type designers like I am for a number of years. These three programs are quick-draw, down-and-dirty, if I may use that phrase, programs that are sight oriented with little to no measurement or precision. What looks good or nice or playful or whatever is what they give you. Precise typesetting tools and measurements are not there, such as technical letterspacing. Small caps are often missing on the glyphs presented in the programs, though they do have many of the glyphs of a regular typeface. But, they would say that m ore technical programs are what are to be used by professional typesetters and layout designers, especially for typesetting.

I have provided below the Calendar challenges and what I discovered these programs, along with my trusty Adobe InDesign program, can provide. I am not an expert user of Canva, or Kittl, or Express, and I am certain that tweaking is possible with these illustration programs. You can judge for yourself. What I finally had to do to give typographic justice to the banner in the 1901 Calendar was to actually craft a typeface from the letters provided on the calendar using Fontographer.

Canva (above) and Kittl (right)

Why We Need More Than A Spell Checker

Sat, 25 Mar 2023 01:25:52 GMT

Why we need more than a spellchecker. Spell checkers are great. They help us in busy offices doing busy tasks everyday. EXCEPT they cannot correct errors of statement or errors of typography. Grant Weisbrot of New York City h as noted that "it is impossible to efficiently proofread without a knowledge of typesetting and printing procedures." ( "The Typographic Eye: Proofreading," Electronic Publishing , May 13, 1994) He gives some examples of errors of statements — spelling when letters are missing, like "he" for "the;" spelling in a piece published in Britain, like "color" for "colour;" using a correctly spelled word in a wrong way, like 20 carat gold ( carat is a diamond weight, karat is an alloy of gold, caret is an insertion mark, and carrot is a vegetable); awkward sentence structure, incorrect or inconsistent capitalization; and errors of fact, like the kangaroos of Tibet.

Then there are errors of typography, like primes (' ") for apostrophes or quotes (See Below), or quotes used for inch marks, double-hyphens (--) for an em-dash (—), fractional mistakes (See my Blog on Fractions), kerning that is on or off, word spacing that is inconsistent, unbalanced centered copy, allowing widows, orphans, ladders or rivers (See Below), wrong sized bullets, subscript or superscript failures (NIKE (TM) instead of NIKE™), two spaces after a sentence ending instead of just one space (a common typist mistake), asterisks to represent bullets, using the letter "l" for the number 1, capital O for the digit 0, and misnumbered pages.

In saying all of this, I read a letter submitted to the Typographical Journal of 1894 of the desperate conditions of a friend of a newspaper comp. She notes — "I do believe that the morning newspaper, set by weary, sweating, half-blinded, nerve exhausted humans, who are driven to the saloon to recuperate by temporary exhilaration, and to early graves by soul and body enervating toil in unwholesome, ill-ventilated, stinking, over-heated composing rooms, a greater curse to humanity than the much dreaded machine [the coming Linotype machine] can ever be. May the morning newspaper set by human hands soon die, I say." (Alexander Lawson, Thoughts on the Typo Workplace, Electronic Publishing , January 7, 1994) We have come a long way from those days, but I wonder what we have given up for speed and so-called efficiency.

It's Greek To Me!

Sat, 18 Mar 2023 19:16:41 GMT

It's Greek to Me! (or in the actual ancient Greek language, είναι ελληνικό για μένα!) Having successfully navigated the Greek Koiné (Koiné refers to the Ancient Greek of the New Testament Bible) classes in seminary and using that knowledge in my pastoral and theological life, it is perhaps time to talk about Greek text. I found Robert Bringhurst's ( The Elements of Typographic Style , Hartley & Marks, Version 3.1, 2005) coverage of Greek fonts fascinating and noteworthy.

Bringhurst points to three important classes of Greek type, that have been with us since the fifteenth century — the orthotic , the cursive and the chancery script variations. Orthotic Greek is analogous to roman, with upright letters. Cursive Greek is like our italic faces. Chancery Greek are more elaborate forms of the cursive. Bringhurst says that "[the orthotic] is the oldest form of Greek type, first seen in the partial alphabets cut by Peter Schaeffer the Elder at Mainz and by Konrad Sweynheym at Subiaco, near Rome, in 1465. It is also the style of the first full-fledged and polytonic [using two or more breathing and diacritic marks] Greek type, cut by Nicolas Jenson at Venice in 1471." ( Elements , p. 274) He notes that the "most widely used modern version is the New Hellenic type designed by Victor Scholderer in London in 1927." (Ibid)

Cursive Greek type appeared as a chancery script by Francesco Griffo in 1502 and lasted two hundred years. Bringhurst again notes that "chancery Greeks were cut by many artists from Garamond to Cason, but Neoclassical and Romantic designers . . . all returned to simpler cursive forms . . . in the English speaking world the cursive Greek most often seen is the one designed in 1806 by Richard Porson." This face has been the "standard Greek face for the Oxford Classical Texts for over a century." ( Elements , pp. 274, 278)

"Most Greek faces are like the Renaissance italics: upright, formal capitals [ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ] married to a flowing, often sloping, lower case." ( Elements , p. 275) He also notes that Greek faces are often used alone or as supplementary faces intermixed with standard roman faces. Perhaps the most widely known Greek face is the Symbol font that was issued by Apple in the Laserwriter in the 1980s — "Symbol (often written as Σψμβολ in typeface) is one of the four standard fonts available on all PostScript -based printers, starting with Apple 's original LaserWriter (1985). It contains a complete unaccented Greek alphabet (upper and lower case) and a selection of commonly used mathematical symbols. Insofar as it fits into any standard classification, it is a serif font designed in the style of Times New Roman . Due to its non-standard character set, lack of diacritical characters, and type design inappropriate for continuous text, Symbol cannot easily be used for setting Greek language text, though it has been used for that purpose in the absence of proper Greek fonts. Its primary purpose is to typeset mathematical expressions." (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Symbol_(typeface) )

True Greek fonts, like those used in Bible texts and classroom settings, often come from Linguist's Software . This company has been making Greek fonts for quite a while, first starting with the SuperGreek and SSuperGreek fonts supplied by that firm. They have produced a number of Greek fonts used in the United Bible Society's texts over the years. A survey of some of their font choices is in the second illustration below.

1 Font sample #1 has been taken from the Accordance Software program (NA28 Greek NT) from Oaktree Software ( www.accordancebible.com ). This complete Greek New Testament is based on the NA28 (Nestle-Aland, 28th Edition). The text is identical to the NA28 in all aspects except it does not include critical apparatus marks, available in NA28-T.

2 Font Sample #2 is from The Greek New Testament, Fourth Revised Edition, 1993, using Linguist's Software SuperGreek and SSuperGreek fonts.Note the different epsilon from the other font samples. This would be a reworking, I believe, of the Richard Porson font initially issued by Monotype in 1912 and then by Linguist's Software group in their LaserGreek set.

3 Font Sample #3 is from the Minion Pro font characters. Note the swash tilde above the alpha character ( a ). Minion is a contemporary type family created by Robert Slimbach and released by Adobe Originals.

4 Font Sample #4 is from Gills Sans Nova font, originally designed in the 1950s by Monotype draftsmen, namely by "Monotype Studio designer George Ryan, who expands the much-loved Gill Sans family from 18 to 43 fonts and features a coordinated range of roman and condensed designs. The Gill Sans Nova typeface family is part of the new Eric Gill Series, drawing on Monotype's heritage to remaster and expand and revitalize Eric Gill's body of work, with more weights, more characters and more lanquages to meet a wide range of design requirements." (From fonts.com )

5 Font Sample #5 is the Helvetica Neue font's rendering of the Greek text. What is interesting is that this is a sans-serif rendering of the Greek font and an expansion on the classic Helvetica typeface. Neue Helvetica World fonts enable the setting of pan-European languages, in addition to Arabic, Armenian, Cyrillic, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Thai and Vietnamese.

6 Font Sample #6 is from t he Times New Roman front, again an expansion from the original Times font family.

The sample Greek fonts on the right are all from Linguist's Software . They describe the font selections this way —

1 " GraecaUBS , a light text font similar to Rahlf’s Septuaginta font. The italic style matches the style of the regular text of the UBS Greek New Testament, 1st through 3rd editions, and was created at their request for future editions. GraecaUBS is provided in plain, bold, italic, and bold-italic styles.

2 GreekSans II , a Helvetica®- (Arial®-) style sans serif Greek font with classical accents and letters. It is provided in plain, bold, italic, and bold-italic styles.

3 Hellenica , a new font optimized for classical Greek with similarities in style to the SymbolGreek® font found in the original LaserGreek product.

4 OdysseaUBS, the font style of the bold text in the UBS Greek New Testament, 1st through 3rd editions.

5 Payne , an Attic-style Greek typeface. Payne is provided in plain, bold, italic, and bold-italic styles.

6 TeubnerLSC , like TeubnerLS, but with a crescent moon-shaped circumflex. It is provided in plain and bold."

Type Terms

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 23:33:55 GMT

Type and Printing Terminology. When I was employed in a very busy print shop outside of Washington, D.C. customers would come into the shop asking for printing help and advice. Usually, the conversation would go something like this — "I need some invitations to a party I am hosting. What do you recommend?" I would respond by asking what kind of party and who is invited, trying to get some idea as to the type of invitation that would be appropriate. Sometimes I would pull out a sample book of invitations for the customer to peruse.

When I would ask what kind of type they would want, the conversation would continue — "Oh, I don't know. Something that will grab their attention, maybe big type with an illustration or picture." Or, if it was a pamphlet they wanted printed, they would say, "Just make it easy to read." They knew little to nothing about typefaces and fonts or display type and leading and those things typesetters and printers almost take for granted. They did not know the language or enough about printing and typography to guide the conversation or answer a few leading questions. Or, they would produce a piece they received somewhere and ask if we could imitate that in our set up and printing. As I would seek to explain what was involved, there would be a deer-in-the-headlights kind of interaction that would take place. Big, small, medium size, looks nice, easy to read at a distance, similar to what I saw downtown — these would be their guiding hints.

Certainly, everyone needs a bit of education as to typography and printing language. And this not only for those of us in the business, but for inquiring customers and consumers of printed pieces as well. There are good type and printing glossary guides available.* Here's a sampling of what might be helpful the next time you go to the printshop for some help.

* https://www.canva.com/learn/typography-terms/ . https://www.monotype.com/resources/z-typographic-terms . Glossary of Typesetting Terms (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing), Univ ersity of Chicago Press, 2008.

Making The Right Chart

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 01:13:38 GMT

Making the Right Chart. With more than forty (40) chart types out there and the chart making capabilities of Microsoft in either Excel or Word or PowerPoint, some basic guidance would be helpful from a typographical standpoint. Charts and graphs are mostly used in presentations, be they slides or paper proposals. However, they can be confusing, boring and generally uninviting or unclear to the audience. There are a few always used charts, and some chart types that should be used, but are ignored or neglected. Let's take a look at a few and some suggestions.*

The Bar Chart

This chart is commonly used to plot categorical data, show trends or patterns, or demonstrate nominal data. The chart on the right is from what is called a natural church development analysis, a measurement of eight factors that make up a healthy church anywhere. Note the shaded bar to indicate what they call a "minimum factor" which the church needs to seriously consider for health and continued growth and development. The numerical values are added to the bars to give precision to the chart.

The Pie Chart

The pie chart is used to show relative proportions and percentages of an entire dataset. It can be used up to six categories and used when the data is nomial not ordinal. Variations can be used on the pie chart to help it stand out in your presentations. Note the cut slices to the charts on the left. Also, note the money symbol used in the bottom pie chart since the charts are demonstrating company monetary income, and again the pie piece to the left. The pieces in the chart below need proper identification since they are not color coded. When using a pie chart, consider creating a separate slide with a stacked bar chart showing the component parts.

The Line Chart

Line charts are used to indicate continuous data that changes over time. If the data is too big for a bar chart, use a line chart. Line charts visualize trends rather than exact values, though the chart on the right has data points included for the years indicated below. The point of the chart is to visualize attendance changes in this church over a five year period, beginning with where they are now as contrasted to five years ago. A line chart should have no more than four lines to keep it easy to read.

A Scatter Chart

A scatter chart is used to show correlation and clustering in big datasets. It is often used when the order of points is not essential. In the chart to the left, the three data points are normally not enough to use in a scatter chart, though this example is from Microsoft itself.

A Bubble Chart

A bubble chart is primarily used to depict and show relationships between numeric variables. They are a great tool to establish the relationship between variables and examine relationships between key business indicators, such as cost, value and risk. A bubble chart is a variation of a scatter chart in which the data points are replaced with bubbles, and an additional dimension of the data is represented in the size of the bubbles. Just like a scatter chart, a bubble chart does not use a category axis – both horizontal and vertical axes are value axes.

A Polar Chart

A Polar chart is used to plot data points as described by their distance from the center of a circle (radius) and their relative angle in degrees from a reference point. This example is from a staff retreat where personalities were measured and plotted to see how they correlated with one another and the overall mix of staff in the company. In this particular case, the company's motto ("make the impossible possible") is going to prove difficult. Most of the top leaders are "beavers" which mean they are processors, while two leaders are "persuaders." There are no "lions," and they have to depend on the persuaders to move the company forward, while the beavers are naturally cautious and are the company's "doers."

Area Chart

An area chart is used to portray part-to-whole relationships. You can see the volume of your data, not just the relation to time. An area chart is based on a line chart, with the area between the line and the x-axis colored to illustrate volume. This sample is a stacked area chart.

Flow Chart

A Flow Chart is a diagram that shows the relationships and steps involved in the development of a process. Often special symbols and colors are used to represent specific kinds of processes. This flow chart on the right derived in LucidChart shows how a support request is handled by the company. There is usually a "yes" or "no" option which then leads to other options. Note the different colors and symbol forms used.

A Mekko Chart

A Mekko chart (also known as a Marimekko chart or mosaic plot) is a two-dimensional stacked chart where the chart column width usually represents the dollar amount or relative size of a market segment while the chart column height breaks down each segment, revealing the key players as well as their respective company shares. The graph provides a detailed overview of the target market for different car makes , all in one place which is why it has been used for decades by strategy consultants.

Chart Take Offs

Rather than just dull charts with numbers on the x and y axes, consider dressing up your basic charts with typographical and graphical flair. Consider the wonderful charts and graphs made in USA Today, as well as a telling sports chart below made by DisplayR. They demonstrate what can be done with a chart to make it eye-catching and interesting to even children in a classroom.

Most of these charts are available on the Microsoft platforms. They can also be made in a layout program like Adobe's InDesign. Specialized programs like DisplayR and Lucid Chart as well as Jan V. White's Using Charts and Graphs (R.R. Bowker Co., NY, 1984) can help make the chart making process less daunting. Knowing when and how to use them effectively is important in visualizing what you want people to take away from a presentation.

*A number of these descriptions adapted from Sara A. Metwalli, https://towardsdatascience.com/data-visualization-101-how-to-choose-a-chart-type-9b8830e558d6 , Sep 7, 2020, as well as MacWorld , April 1988 and Windows Magazine , Winter 1995, by Irfan Salim.

Typography: A History of Machines

Sun, 12 Mar 2023 19:10:09 GMT

Typography: A History of Machines . Several years ago, Alexander Lawson wrote a series of articles on the history of typographic machines and typography, Typographic Journey—Craft to Computer ( Typeworld , July 1, 1992 – September 2, 1992). He did a masterful job of outlining the major eras of typographic printing equipment. I was inspired to draft a pictorial history from those articles, noted in the graphic below.

Rather than merely a look back at the machinery and utility of typography, Lawson as well as many other typographers, and printers, for that matter, look upon typography and printing as a "fine art" — "Is it any wonder . . . if the printer, or lover of printing, who is sensitively alert to all this multi-form variability of the apparently inelastic and static medium, should wax enthusiastic over it, and claim for it a place among the fine arts?" (Will Bradley, "Is Printing A Fine Art?") Starting with Johann Gutenberg and working his way through the centuries and developments of printing and printers, Lawson with a taste for the art as well as the science of printing and typography, traces the major hallmarks of the machines that actually produced the printed page.

Printing for the masses actually began with Gutenberg in 1455 with his 42-line Bible. The sketch used in the graphical representation below comes from the free stock hosted by Dreamstime — " This sculpture of Johannes Gutenberg was made by David Angers in 1839 and was unveiled June 24, 1840. It can be seen in Strasbourg, where Gutenberg lived between 1434 and 1444, after being exiled from Mainz. At this time, he had already begun to work on his printing press, although trying to keep his projects secret as much as was possible. The inscription on the page he is holding reads: And light was ma de. ( 92145700 © CCOimages | Dreamstime.com )" Lawson notes that rather than Gutenberg inventing printing, he merely mechanized it — "In fact, he should be credited with the origination of interchangeable parts with his concept of single type letters." (Lawson, July 1, 1992) Gutenberg studiously followed his scribal predecessors in printing the Bible for popular use.

With the Foundrinier paper making machine in 1803 came the taste for and development of typographic machines, printing presses, capable of printing newspapers, like The Times of London in 1814. Printing plates followed allowing printers to mass produce thousands of copies in the lates 1800s. The Mergenthaler (called the "Merg") was a keyboard operated input machine and Linotype began their historic operation.

Interestingly, in the history of typesetting and printing, I came into the scene when the IBM Electric Ball strike-on typesetting was the rage. I worked for a small printing outfit in the Sterling, VA area that had a couple of these strike-on machines clacking away on a daily, and sometimes a 24/7 basis. We did ads and posters and especially Christian-based books, all typeset on the IBM. However, the larger display print had in the early days to be hand-set from scratch on letters that took many hours of careful labor.

We moved to the Itek Phototypesetting machine which produced display type that the printer could then make a camera-ready layout for the press. We never quite moved beyond the IBM machines and the Itek since the business went under at that time. However, I learned a lot about fast turnaround typesetting and printing. I got my hands dirty, literally, as I learned the ropes.

My next typesetting stint occurred in Schenectady, NY where in 1984 I bought an Apple Laserwriter that could take computer generated type and print at a then amazing 300 dpi (dots per inch). My Apple computers ranged from the entry level Macintosh 128K to the SE to the Classic to the PowerMac to the iMac to the Mac Cube to the Mac Mini (various iterations) to the present day Mac Studio M1. Originally designed for personal and home use, the creation of PageMaker layout program allowed people like myself to start layout and typesetting businesses that rivaled our IBM business computers. Apple computers just got faster, better, and software programming developed so that Mac-made software was also made for the IBM PC.

To see the development of typesetting machines is a rush for me. I hope you can join me in my love for the "fine art" of typography and its machines.

Which Paper?

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 21:54:02 GMT

Which Paper? A large part of using type correctly, persuasively and aesthetically pleasing depends upon the kind of paper used. You do not print a wedding invitation on any cheap copy paper that you might have at the office copier. Or, you want to submit a resumé and want it to showcase your character and standards. The paper choice is important for this. Or, you want a colorful, playful, shiny paper for a kid's party. What paper should you use? While many have gone the route of digital printing and digital typography, for Facebook and other social media use, others have seen the continued need to choose the right paper at the right time for the right job. But with the plethora of papers available, which one(s) do I choose?

Some Definitions about Paper

Paper Sizes. The standard known U.S. size paper is 8.5 x 11 inches, in either Portrait or Landscape mode. Legal size is 8.5 x 14 inches, used for contracts within legal, real estate and accounting professions. Tabloid or ledger size is 11 x 17 inches, used in offices for diagrams and documentation requiring larger drawings, like architectural and CAD drawings. To many people wordwide, excluding North America and Canada, the most familiar paper size size is A4 (a familiar 210mm x 297mm). It is commonly used for letters and correspondence in the UK and it is the standard paper size for most home printers. The A4 size paper measures 8.27 x 11.69 inches, only slightly larger than the close equivalent to U.S letter size 8.5 x 11 inches. Most printers and copiers in this country are preset for letter sized paper.

Paper Weight & Thickness. Paper weight and thickness reveal the sturdiness and often opaqueness of the stock, with weightier paper providing more durability than a thin weighted paper stock. Paper is measured in points, where one point equals .001 inch, so that 10 point paper is .01 inches thick, 30 point is .03 inches and so forth. But paper weight can also be measured in GSM (grammes per square meter), so that fine art papers are usually made in the range of 120gsm to 850 gsm. Drawing papers are usually 130gsm and the Snowdon Cartridge papers are 300gsm. Thicker paper can withstand erasing and mark making. Such paper is ideal for printing processes including etching, silkscreen and offset lithography. Oriental papers tend to be lighter in weight, such as Japanese papers made with long fibers and great strength, often an artisan skill passed from generation to generation. Cover stocks are at the higher end of the weight spectrum and feel like thin cardboard. A REAM of paper is 500 sheets, and office paper is usually sold in reams.

Peter Giffen ( https://www.officedepot.com/l/ideas-center/buying-guides/paper-buying-guide ) notes that i n the United States, the weight of paper stocks is usually done in pounds, which is the actual weight of 500 sheets of the “basis size” of the paper in question. Since the basis size may vary, comparing paper weights can be hard to do. For example, a 28-pound multipurpose paper is probably not the same weight or thickness as a 28-pound premium or cardstock paper. Standard copy paper is rated at 20 pounds and sometimes 24 or 28 pounds. I use 28 pound paper in my color printer for sharper images and no text see-through on the back of a sheet. Copiers use 20 pound paper as the cheapest stock for most office projects and memos and day to day use.

Paper Brightness & Opacity. Brightness refers to the amount of light that reflects off a sheet of paper and opacity refers to whether one can see the writing on the other side of the sheet. One hundred percent opacity (100%) means that no light shines through and zero percent opacity (0%) is see-through tracing paper. Black text tends to stand out on most paper brightness levels, so text documents only need an ordinary level brightness in the 80s and low 90s when measured on a scale of 100. A colorful design or fine-art reproduction may require the highest level of brightness.

Paper Types. There are generally five common paper types — matte, glossy, silk, bond and cardstock. Matte paper stock is generally used for text-heavy leaflets and flyers, with easy to read ink and sharp black and white contrasts. Glossy paper is used often for colorful flyers, leaflets, menus and other projects requiring sharp images. Such paper gives a high quality, professional appearance. Silk paper is soft to the touch and fills magazine pages, portfolios and other high quality printing. Bond paper is the durable traditional stationery paper for documents that you want to last a long time. Cardstock is used for business cards, booklets, leaflets and can stand extra wear and tear and constant use.

Inkjet papers are specially designed to absorb the inks used in the printing process. Laser paper can withstand the heat (from the printer's fuser) of laser printing. Photo paper can be matte or glossy and is used for printing photographs. Bond paper has a high content of cotton rags or cotton textile fibers in its composition. The name goes back to the late 19th century when such paper was used to print government bonds and other official documents. Bond paper today is often used for stationery, letterhead and drawing paper.

The best archival grade paper (according to https://www.pegasusart.co.uk/types-of-art-paper.irs ) is made from 100% cotton which gives a strong, acid free material which lasts longest, and is the most resistant to discolouration and deterioration. The interweaving of the fibres gives paper its inherent strength which is improved by the use of 'size', the paper being too absorbent on its own, prone to disintegrating when too wet. Saunders Waterford, Somerset papers, Arches and some Fabriano papers, which are all 100% cotton, are sized to respond well to water based media. Japanese papers have a subtle beauty all of their own; generally very light weight they are made with long fibres and have great strength. "Acid-free" indicates the paper is made without rosin and alum sizing which would make the paper acidic. Acid-based paper is prone to fade over time and atmospheric conditions.Microscopic impurities on or in the paper can in time create little brown marks, called "foxing."

Specialty papers can be especially environmentally-friendly due to materials used or how fast they biodegrade.Recycled paper according to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is "a paper that only contains 100% post-consumer recovery fiber. If less that 100% the paper is called recycled-content paper." Recycled paper can be made from pre-consumer materials, recovered from the leftovers in the manufacturing process , or post-consumer waste, gathered from used newspapers, for instance.

Again, Peter Giffen is helpful here — " Sustainable papers come from carefully controlled forests that are replanted and renewed. They meet specific environmental standards, helping users support practices that better protect forests and the environment. Some papers boast an FSC certification. The Forest Stewardship Council is a widely respected not-for-profit organization that seeks to protect the world’s forests by monitoring and improving timber production. The FSC has worked with key players in the lumber industry to inspect and track timber and pulp through production chains, ensuring that woodlands are managed sustainably. Any paper products certified by the FSC are created with sustainable practices.

While some businesses might be hesitant to use recycled paper since its texture and quality can differ slightly from virgin paper brands, FSC-certified products are virtually indistinguishable. Generally speaking, recycled paper costs more than unrecycled paper because there is more demand for the latter, and recycled paper costs more to process."

Premium paper has all the top attributes of weight, coating, brightness, opacity and material, making them good for presentations and quality print jobs. Such p aper is made from a blend of wood pulp and cotton (usually 75% and 25%) and has a luxurious feel and is made to last for archival projects. Premium paper is often used for resumés, portfolios, quality reports, business proposals, announcements and high-level presentations. They have great brightness and durable weight.

Midori , or MD paper, is Japanese paper with whisper thin texture. It is lightweight and smooth, yet there is no bleed through for fountain pens. It can be used for notebooks, writing letters, or for calligraphy. Calirefontaine is French classic thick and opaque smooth, lined paper. Classica paper is designed and made in Italy, with a soft, almost fabric-like feel and is used for stationery sets.

Paper History (from ChatGPT, an AI Artificial Intelligence site).

The invention of paper can be traced back to ancient China, where it was first developed during the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD). Prior to this, various materials were used for writing, such as bamboo, silk, and animal skins. However, these materials were expensive and difficult to obtain, so the Chinese began experimenting with other materials.

In the 19th century, the invention of the Fourdrinier machine revolutionized paper-making. This machine allowed for the continuous production of paper, and it became the standard method of paper-making worldwide. Today, paper is produced in various grades, from high-quality writing paper to newsprint and packaging materials.

The history of paper is one of constant innovation and improvement. Today, paper is an essential material for communication, education, and commerce, and it continues to play a vital role in our daily lives. However, as the world becomes more environmentally conscious, there is a growing trend toward using sustainable materials and reducing paper waste.

Modern Paper Producers include —

Mohawk Fine Papers — Mohawk is a leading paper maker based in the United States that produces a wide range of papers for various applications, including printing, packaging, and stationery. They are committed to sustainability and have received numerous awards for their environmental initiatives.

G.F Smith — G.F Smith is a UK-based paper maker that specializes in producing high-end papers for the design and print industries. They have a reputation for innovation and quality, and their papers are used by many leading designers and artists.

Fedrigoni — Fedrigoni is an Italian paper maker that produces a wide range of papers for printing, packaging, and other applications. They are known for their commitment to sustainability and have received several awards for their environmental initiatives.

Neenah Paper — Neenah is a US-based paper maker that produces a range of papers for printing, packaging, and specialty applications. They have a strong commitment to sustainability and have received several certifications for their environmental practices.

Arjowiggins — Arjowiggins is a French paper maker that produces a wide range of papers for various applications, including printing, packaging, and stationery. They have a long history of producing high-quality paper and have received several awards for their sustainability initiatives.

Hammermill — Back in 1898, five years before the Wright brothers took off at Kitty Hawk, three brothers from Germany founded the Hammermill Paper Company in Erie, Pennsylvania. As immigrant success stories go, the Behrend brothers rank right up there in the history of American business. Especially since, more than 120 years later, Hammermill paper is still being made in America. unlike imported papers, the paper mills that produce Hammermill are strategically located near sustainably-managed forests. That means shorter transportation distances, which lead to less fuel usage, reduced emissions, and a healthier planet. But the biggest benefit of being made in America is this: Hammermill paper helps to preserve American forests. This may sound counter-intuitive, but the claim is a sound one. First, our entire business model depends a sustainable supply of paper fiber from healthy forests. And second, 90% of Hammermill paper fiber is sourced from sustainably-managed, privately-owned forestland. (From the Hammermill website at https://www.hammermill.com/blog/hammermill-paper-is-made-and-remade-and-remade-in-america)

A good source for buying various papers is PaperDirect ( https://www.paperdirect.com/digital-catalog ).

Takeaways would be to always use good quality stationary and write on white, ivory or cream letter paper. This will give the recipient the feeling of quality and that your letter is of importance to them. If you are not using headed paper, ensure your full address is written in the top right hand corner of the letter. Notepad paper can't be too thick or too thin, since flimsy paper tears too easily and thick paper is too bulky. Instead, opt for a happy medium with 70-pound opaque notepad paper that offers a smooth writing experience and enough stability to hold up to vigorous note-taking. ( https://www.psprint.com/resources/notepad-printing-techniques/ ) The choice of paper for typesetting depends on several factors, including the printing method, the purpose of the printed material, and the desired aesthetic effect. Generally, papers that have a smooth, even surface and good opacity are considered best for typesetting, as they allow for crisp, clear text and images.

Typography History on AI

Thu, 23 Feb 2023 20:49:15 GMT

Typography and Artificial Intelligence

A new way to retrieve information about most any topic, including typography, is offered through AI – artificial intelligence. More precisely, through ChatGPT , which allows the user to ask a question to an AI generated interface, a user can freely investigate topics that once took hours of painstaking research. Two models I have used, one which is free to the user ( openai.com ) and another service ( ai-pr o , which costs about $20 per month but is much more sophisticated) allow the user to get decent and mostly accurate information about most any topic. I typed into the chat box "history of typography" and "modern typography" and received the following AI generated answers :

"Typography is an artform that has evolved since the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. Its evolution has been driven by the technological advancements in typesetting and printing. During the 15th and 16th centuries, type design was largely influenced by the Gothic style. This style featured the use of slab serifs, intricate patterns, and large decorative flourishes. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, new typefaces emerged based on the Romanesque style, a style of lettering developed by Italian priests in the Vatican as a response to the Gothic style. This style is more simplified and is often used in book typesetting today. The late 19th century saw the emergence of the Art Deco style, which featured strong contrast and geometric typefaces. This style was the source of most of the typefaces used throughout the twentieth century. The mid-twentieth century was an important period in typography, as it was during this time that the sans-serif style began to increase its prevalence. Sans-serif fonts such as Helvetica, Futura, and Arial became popular, largely replacing the Art Deco typefaces of earlier decades. Today, typography has become a specialized artform. It is used in almost every aspect of visual arts and design and continues to evolve as new technologies emerge. Computers and digital printing have allowed typographers to create intricate and complex typefaces and forms unlike anything seen before. Computers have also changed the way that typefaces are delivered, allowing designers to manipulate them in a variety of ways to create visual effects and combinations."

"The history of typography is a story of technological progress and aesthetic trends. It begins in the 15th century with the invention of the printing press and the spread of movable type. In this period, traditional calligraphic letterforms were adapted for print, leading to a variety of typefaces with elaborate serifs, ornaments and flourishes. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the typewriter and the photograph led to increased speed in typesetting, and the industrial revolution brought with it a fascination for the mechanized application of type. Late 19th and 20th century saw revolutions in type design with the appearance of sans-serif typefaces and the development of new technologies such as linotype and phototypesetting. These new technologies gave typographers more control over the design of typefaces and increased the speed of typesetting and printing. New typefaces designed in the last decades of the 20th century, such as Helvetica, Univers and Frutiger, are still widely used today. The early 21st century saw an explosion of digital technology, with the birth of desktop publishing, the World Wide Web, and digital font applications. This digital revolution made typefaces more widely available, and ushered in a new era of typographic exploration. Fonts that were once only available to professional designers and printers are now at the fingertips of everyone with a computer and an internet connection. As the digital age continues to evolve, typography will surely continue its fascinating journey."

When I asked the AI Chat about "modern typography," I got the following response: "Modern typography is the practice of arranging and designing type in a way that is aesthetically pleasing and enhances the readability and legibility of written language. It emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century as a response to the changing technological and cultural landscape of the time, particularly the rise of industrialization, mass media, and global communication.

Some of the most important writers and inventors of modern typography include:

Jan Tschichold: A German typographer and designer who played a significant role in the development of modern typography. He was a proponent of asymmetrical typography and advocated for the use of sans-serif fonts in printed materials.

Eric Gill: A British sculptor, typeface designer, and printmaker who is best known for his typeface designs, including Gill Sans and Perpetua. He was a leading figure in the Arts and Crafts movement and his work had a significant influence on modern typography.

Paul Renner: A German typographer and typeface designer who is best known for creating the iconic Futura typeface. Futura became one of the most popular and widely used typefaces of the 20th century and had a significant impact on modern typography.

Adrian Frutiger: A Swiss typeface designer who created some of the most widely used typefaces of the 20th century, including Univers, Frutiger, and Avenir. His work was characterized by a focus on clarity, legibility, and simplicity.

Herb Lubalin: An American graphic designer and typographer who is best known for his work on magazines such as Avant Garde and Eros. He was a pioneer of expressive typography and used type as a visual element in his designs.

These and other writers and inventors of modern typography have had a profound influence on the field of graphic design and continue to inspire new generations of designers today."

A couple of things to note. First, these answers are quite general, but mostly accurate for generalized information. They fail to elucidate what standard typographical texts say about typography. They give summary statements. You can drill down in the Chat and ask more specific questions and the AI will usually cooperate, but this is different than reading a typographical history book on the subject. However, the AI Chat does give enough information, as a starting point, to the study of typography.

Try it out for yourself!

A Type Tool For You

Tue, 21 Feb 2023 13:48:56 GMT

A Type Tool and An Offer

I remember the "good old days" of type and typesetting and layout tools mailed to you by different companies. I still have many of those type spec tools in my layout drawer. I have constructed a Type Tool for your use and enjoyment. It has been a labor of love, constructing the inch ruler, centimeter ruler and pica & point rulers. These have been done from hand by using standard measuring tools. I also put on a fractional equivalency chart, a useful dingbats reference, and an inside pull slider giving some samples of popular font choices and amazing ampersands.

I am including the construction method of this Tool below for your use and fun. You will need a program that can produce an 11 x 8.5 image and download the PDF from here . I am also offering through our Store the Type Tool and a thumb drive of all the blogs I have posted up to this date. They are catalogued using Adobe InDesign's program, employing the Minion Pro font and Formata Bold as well. Quite a bit of work went into these instruments of typography and graphic design tools, so I hope you are able to order and use them freely. They are copyrighted, so please do not remake them as your own.

Most of all, enjoy!

Making Good PowerPoint Presentations

Sat, 11 Feb 2023 14:24:53 GMT

How do you make good, eye-catching, informative and interesting PowerPoint™ presentations? Busy office people generally use either too much of a good thing (like templates) or too little and bore their audiences. Or, they see PowerPoint as the sum of all things and fail to give enough information for an accurate study or diagnosis of a project. The image below is an example of good information, but arranged in a boring and unattractive and clunky manner.

The slide on the left has problems. First, it gives too much data for one slide. The very first rule of PowerPoint (PP) is to make each slide clean and simple and uncluttered. There is too much here for one slide. Then, the font used (office Helvetica) is too bland and uninteresting. There is no differentiation between the title font and the content. There is not enough "white space" on the slide since everything is crowded in on it. And the size of the text is too small to read at a distance.

Note in the redone PP slides above, there is sufficient interest, clarity and an uncluttered feel. There is a distinction between the header font (here Formata Bold) and the text font (here ITC Stone Serif). They are large enough to read at a convenient distance. Indeed, this slide does not contain everything the original had, but then you use multiple slides. I like the black-on-white slide better than the white-on-black, but the point is clarity, simplicity and directness in a black and white format. Note also we dodge the standard bullet (•) in favor of what is called a "dingbat" (from Zaph Dingbat font). This adds interest. In addition, the company logo is on each slide, reminding the viewer of the source of the presentation. But what about colors?

Here we use a convenient colorful Microsoft PP Template. But note the washed out yellow on red background, which is never a good choice. And the small and insignificant same type used for the subtitle. Also, the alignment is off with "Making A Good Presentation" too close to the white line at the top. A better choice recommended by the template itself is below.

The choice of fonts used is better and the template is more interesting. I still think the subtitle is still too small for distance viewers. Here let me point out that there are a multitude of templates on Microsoft PowerPoint™ that are available, but most users have no idea how to use them and what to use of them in a presentation. Consequently, a too gaudy template choice is often used for a simple presentation and can be distracting to the audience. People pay attention to the bells and whistles of the template choice rather than the information being presented. What about motion graphics and animations on a slide?

This is the opening slide to an orientation for new staff to an architectural firm. In a day of animations and video snaps, this might be seen as an acceptable and "cute" way to begin the new staff orientation. However, it also may seem rather childish and unprofessional. The key here in PP is to use those animation elements and video snapshots carefully and professionally, not detracting from the business. This might be more appropriate to a children's classroom presentation or a fun get-together.

The free Lottie Animation is from Thomas Kiguru.

USING GRAPHICS & VISUALS

Using abstract concepts, like flow charts or complex ideas and data, custom illustrations can help create consistency and communication value with your audience. Make sure the graphics fit the image of the company. Do not use grainy, pixelated, low-resolution images or clip art in your presentations. (From Camille del Rosario, Design Pickle, "How To Improve PowerPoint Presentations: 15 Proven Tips)

CHARTS & GRAPHS. The key here in providing a compelling PP presentation is to lead the way. Point your audience to where you want them to be and to get your message across to them. Make the headline big and bold and set off the categories so that they are clear and readable. Then, make sure that what's important to you gets across to them. In the chart and graphic below, part of a PP church health presentation, the dull Excel stats are made into a viewable and attractive bar chart or graphic. The eight qualities tested through surveys are listed on the left of the bar chart. The lines are given to the church to indicate where they fall within universal health guidelines, the "red" line being the minimum health line, the "yellow" line the median health line, and the "green" line the best health mark for a growing and healthy church or congregation. The "purple"line is this church's average health for August 2021, with the dotted "black" line the average church health in the Northeast part of America in this time period. At a glance, this church can see where they fall on universal church health markers. The green bar indicates their healthiest factor, while the red bar, called the "minimum factor" in church health terms, indicates where work is needed. Note the background graphic used on the slide to indicate the source of the information analyzed (NCDAmerica).

Digitizing the Past

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 20:22:39 GMT

I subscribe to what is called Internet Archive ( archive.org ). The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, they provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, people with print disabilities, and the general public. Their mission is to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge. They boast a growing library of 735 billion webpages, 41 million books and texts, 14.7 million audio recordings, 8.4 million videos, 4.4. million images and 890,000 software programs. It is an amazing resource for older, out-of-date, archival works and records.

Recently, they posted old turn-of-the-century calendars as we enter 2023 ourselves. I took two of the public domain calendars, one published in 1893 and the other in 1901, and sought to digitize them, not just take a picture of it and post it, like the Archive does, but rather recreate them using modern digital means. I am no expert at this, but I did the best to retain the overall sense of the artwork and texting. I used a combination of Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, and Tobias Saul's Kittl ( kittl.com ) for the work. The faded patterns remain and the work took several days of playing around with settings and cut-and-paste and tweaking the color schemes and so forth. The results are below.

Enjoy the remade 1893 and 1901 calendar covers!

ORIGINAL 1901 CALENDAR COVER

Calendar for the year 1901 (Toronto art league)

by Toronto art league

Publication date: 189?

Publisher: Toronto Art Students League, Musson Book Co

Collection: Queens University Toronto

Digitizing sponsor: Ontario Council of University Libraries & Member Libraries

With verses by some of the Canadian writers of verse, and drawings by members of the Toronto art students' league

This is the redone digitized cover. While not exactly the same as the 1901 edition, I tried to stay true to the overall colors and fanciful artwork.

The lettering was especially challenging. I used Garamond Premier Pro, Bold Caption for the text. I used the "create outline" function of InDesign on the text to then enhance the capital "E" lower serif to match the original drawing text.

The background art work was done in the very excellent graphics program provided by Kittl and tweaked in InDesign. The background color was matched to the original, with clouds added and then sun with rays that had to be drawn individually and rotated in place. It is certainly clearer than in the original and I could have tweaked it more to make it fade more into the background.

This is the newly redone 1901 Calendar front. The vines and flowers were copied and newly colored in Photoshop. The rest of the artwork was done in Kittl with the import of the revised Adobe Garamond Bold from Fontographer for the elongated "R" and "E."

Note the clarity and sharpness of the newly minted image.

Ninety-three: a calendar for the year of our Lord MDCCCXCIlI; with verses by some of the Canadian writers of verse and drawings by members of the Toronto Art Students' League

By: Toronto Art Students' League

Published: 1893

Collections: Dorothy H. Hoover Library - Ontario College of Art & Design

The publication contains the latin moto: "Non clamor sed amor" which translates as "Not clamour, but love" which is a line by Tommaso da Celano (13th century)

Courtesy: Internet Archive

This is the digitized 1893 Calendar. I used Photoshop to capture the interior artwork and coloring, and Kittl to print out the distorted "ninety-three" and add the Victorian flourishes. Text is Bellefair Regular. Note the flourishes are not exactly like the original.

InDesign vs Kittl

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 23:33:13 GMT

InDesign vs Kittl

InDesign vs Kittl. Perhaps this is an unfair contest right from the start. Adobe's InDesign is a well-crafted layout program with expert features for type crafting and setting. It is my go-to program for professional layout jobs. Kittl is a graphics program available on the internet for free, though to unlock its many templates and graphic powers, a monthly ($15 for Pro users) or yearly fee ($120 for Pro users) is necessary.

Kittl ( www.kittl.co m), built by Tobias Saul, allows real time advanced text editing with built in text manipulation features, like shadows and easy to use text slanting, rise, text on a circle or an angle and textual distortion features. Its claim to fame is the m ultitude of template styles available to the user, especially the fancy vector ornament library, shapes and banners and texture collections built into the program. It is easy to use and manipulate and change elements and colors and then export your finished product to a JPG or PGN file (or PDF for Pro users) or post your creation on many social platform s. It advances WYSWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) to a whole new level, and for many users — it is FREE!

Adobe InDesign, of course, is part of Adobe's Creative Cloud offerings, and available by subscription to users. The subscription price is substantial per year, but you get a number of professionally designed layout and graphical programs, like InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and many others. It is heralded and used by many graphical and video editing professionals worldwide, including myself. The training curve for InDesign and other such programs is also substantial, but well worth the time and effort for professional uses.

I have included a comparison of a poster I did for a client in both InDesign and then an adaptation in the Kittl program. Both look acceptable for use and possible publication, though I did not attempt to publish the Kittl design. I still like the preciseness of InDesign over Kittl, and I noted that my personal type font (CARE Font) looks grainy in the Kittl mock-up contrasted to the InDesign poster. However, for Victorian swirls and ornamentation, Kittl has many advantages over the traditional Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop programming and steps necessary.

Mac Mini M1 OR Studio?

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 22:02:13 GMT

Through the modern years, Mac Mini's have kept their shape and design — with a width and depth of 7.7 inches and 1.4 inch height. The newest Mini M1 weighs 2.6 pounds and fits nicely beside my desktop monitor.

The new Mac Studio has either the M1 Max chip or the M1 Ultra chip driving the computing power. The M1 Max chip is a 10-core CPU with 8 performance cores and 2 efficiency cores, with a 24-core GPU and 16-core Neural engine. The M1 Ultra chip has a 20-core CPU, a 48-core GPU and a 32-core Neural engine. What all of this means is that this beast is FAST — especially at video rendering and production.

Mac Studio typical speed test.

With the Apple release of the new Mac Studio in 2022, users who have relied on Mac Mini's on their desktop are left with the question of which one to use for them. Both machines use the newer M1 chip in their architecture, giving a notable speed boost to everything from ordinary computer use to layout and design with Adobe products. I have used numerous Mac Mini's through the years, from the humble 2005 PowerPC model through the Intel models in the mid-2000s all the way to the latest Mac mini M1 released in 2020.

The back of the Mini M1 has two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports. with two USB-A ports, a HDMI port and a Gigabit Ethernet port (configurable to 10Gb Ethernet). A 3.5 mm headphone jack is included. Of course, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are built in, along with a built-in speaker. This Mac can support up to two displays, one with up to 6K resolution and another with up to 4K resolution. This is a powerful machine for its size and stature!

Although it's height is bigger than a Mini (3.7 inches), it is still 7.7 inches by 7.7 inches in width and depth. The biggest seen difference here is in the multitude of ports on the back and front of the Studio. There are four Thunderbolt 4 ports (up to 40 Gb/s), a Display port, two USB-A ports (or USB 4 and USB 3.1) a HDMI port, a 10 Gb Ethernet port and a 3.5 headphone jack port. The front of the M1 Max Studio has two USB-C ports and a SDXC card slot. What the Mini M1 lacks in ports, often needing external help in getting extra ports, the Mac Studio has them all built-in.

Mac Mini M1 typical speed test.

The Mac Studio outpaces the Mac Mini M1, as it should. Of course, others have done more extensive speed tests (find them on YouTube). The speed differential in normal computer work is not that great.

The Mac Mini M1 is a lot cheaper ($699 to $899 retail) than the Mac Studio ($1,999 to $3,999 retail) and its power is quite adequate for most normal computer tasks. The Mac Studio is a pro-sumer computer, less than a professional Mac Pro computer ($5,999 to $6,499 retail), an in-between computer for those wanting multiple displays and faster video editing capabilities or a multitude of high memory use programs simultaneously open. The 8 Gb or even 16 Gb memory option for the Mac Mini pushes the limits of memory use for memory-hogging programs. Notably, a super fitted Mac Mini computer costs about the same as a base line Mac Studio.

Which of these two smaller fitting desktop computers should you buy? It all depends on your use of them and the programming you use on them. I like the faster Mac Studio with its built-in 32 – 64 Gb memory options contrasted to the 8 – 16 Gb memory options on the Mini M1. I also like the multiple ports on the Mac Studio, if you can afford it.

About Being An Author

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 14:17:31 GMT

So, you want to write a book!? There are many good websites and instructional aids for authoring.* Having written now over twenty non-fiction, mostly biblical and theological books, that have been used in a number of churches and with a number of training venues for church leaders, I have learned a few things about writing that I can share with you.

Read through a good style manual. Style manuals, like the Franklin Covey Style Guide for Business and Technical Communication has invaluable information on grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and rules that some of us learned in composition classes, but others have not. Some examples are: (1) Use ‘its” as a possessive and “it’s” as a contraction for “it is;” (2) Use adjectives and adverbs wisely and correctly — “The car engine sounded rough” (not roughly), using an adjective not an adverb; (3) Make sure the verb of the sentence agrees in number with the subject, “Elements of trigonometry are contained in The Elements of Trigonometry , which is difficult for many.” (“The Elements of Trigonometry” is the title of the book and this requires a singular verb form;) (4) Use only the “s” to form the plural after letters, signs, symbols, figures and acronyms and abbreviations, unless an apostrophe is necessary for clarity — 1990s not 1990’s, the Smiths, not the Smith’s, the A’s have it (rather than the As have it); (5) Use concise, active sentences rather than passive, weak and ineffective ones — “Smith’s report contained numerous errors” rather than, “The report cited by Smith was filled with numerous errors.”

Write like you speak. That is, be careful of obtuse, long and confusing sentences. It is unfortunate that academicians have never learned this lesson, and their reports and writings are often too wordy and unduly complicated. This is especially true in the theological treatises and papers I have read throughout my career. What can be said in a few crisp sentences are often encased in long paragraphs which beg the issue or question at hand.

Be culturally and bias-aware in your writing . Signs of discrimination by race, creed, sex, age or national origin are actually legal issues, not just offensive or poor writing. Thus, “The Native-American woman in our office, Sally, now nearly 65, missed her deadline today,” is not merely in poor taste. It is irrelevant, unfair and likely illegal. It would be more direct and honest to say, “Sally missed her deadline today.” Treat others as you would want to be treated in your writing. Be careful of cliché phrases, such as “girls” for grown women, or “boys” for grown men in a company or office. A wrong phrase could end you up in court, even cost your reputation and certainly your pocketbook. “Stewardess” is “flight attendant,” “manpower” is now “work force,” and “chairman” is now “chair, or chairperson.” Use plural pronouns to refer back to “everyone” or “someone,” as in, “Someone left their pencil at the table.” And, certainly refrain from using hybrid forms in your writing, such as “s/he” or “he/she” or “hisorher.”

Learn to rewrite and rewrite again . After a paragraph, have some friends read it out loud to you. Does it make sense? Is it understandable, clear and cogent? Are the sentences too long? Can you say what you want to say in a better way? Can you eliminate wordy sentences or extraneous comments? Writing is part art, part science, part common sense.

Have your writing proofread . The Covey Guide lists several strategies† — (1) Check format. Does the document look good—with uniform spacing, heading styles, lists? Are emphasis techniques (boldface, italics, etc. ) consistently applied? [I would strongly recommend that you let a typographer properly typeset your writing using proven typesetting techniques.] (2) Check content. Is the information correct? Are figures like meeting times, dollar amounts and percentages correct? (3) Check for errors. Using your spell-checker helps, but will not point out a mistaken “their” for “there.” Question every capitalization, punctuation, word division. Question every number and add up figures to make sure sums are accurate. (4) Read the document in different ways, like reading it backwards, to catch errors you can easily miss, or reading it aloud, to slow down and catch errors, or have others read sections at a time.

There are professional firms that can help you make you a better writer. Use them, if the writing or subject is important enough. You can also use a self-publishing service, like Lulu ( lulu.com ) for some of these services. You must always have them print a proof-copy before they will place it on their site for purchase or have it advertised on Amazon or other marketing companies. This allows you to change and revise and modify where necessary.

Use a graphic designer or professional service for the cover design . Again, self-printing services like Lulu provide cover designers (for a fee) if you need them. And, of course, printing companies will help you in the design and production efforts here.

Above all, enjoy the process! Writing for most of us is a side-job or hobby, not our main profession or job. If and when it gets grueling, take a break, leave it for a while, come back to it later, even much later. Your future and life do not depend upon this book or article. I learned in Christian ministry that to prepare a good sermon for a Sunday morning service takes several rewrites and many changes until the final message. So, I would make a basic outline of the message at the beginning of the week, dream about it, make several changes and scratch out notes on a notepad or computer word processor throughout the week. Then I would put it all together with the changes and things I must leave out for a 30-minute message at the end of the week. And then pray real hard for God to do what the preacher or teacher cannot do in communicating the message!

*I use the Chicago Manual of Style (https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/) and the Franklin Covey Style Guide (Salt Lake, Utah: Franklin Covey, 1985, 1997, 1999) in this blog.

†Covey, 72.

Using Those Special Keyboard Options

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Sat, 08 Oct 2022 18:03:46 GMT

Have you ever wondered what those special characters are that you can access on a standard keyboard? Or, how you can use them in a document or layout or program? Robert Bringhurst in The Elements of Typographic Style (Hartley & Marks, 1992) provides some needed background and definition to these special characters we know are there, but often are never used in regular work. The chart below gives you the character, the Macintos h keystroke, and the description of what the character is and how to use it appropriately. Enjoy!

A Helpful Font Chart

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 19:45:45 GMT

There happen to be a number of ways to classify fonts. Some of them make more sense to me than others, though I would hasten to point out I am no professional typographer. Robert Bringhurst in his masterful book, The Elements of Typographic Style , Hartley & Marks, 1992 edition, chooses categories consequent with historical periods of fine art, thus, Scribal or Carolingian, Renaissance, Mannerist, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical, Romantic, Realist, Geometric Modernism, Expressionist, Elegiac Post-Modernism, Geometric Post-Modernism.(1) Thomas Phinney's classifications taught in most design schools include: Old Style, Transitional, Modern, Slab Serif (or Egyptian), fat faces, wood type, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, synthesis, and grunge.(2) David Bergsland, from which I adapted the following chart and its descriptors, reduces the families to: Serif, Sans-Serif, Script and Decorative. Again, that is not all there is to the many fonts out there, but it is a good start.

The chart below gives a graphic representation of Bergsland's system of classification, along with some of my additional notes. Enjoy!

(1) Bergsland, David. Practical Font Design With FontLab 5 (pp. 217). Radiqx Press. Kindle Edition. (2) Ibid, p. 219.

About Ordinary Type

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 19:22:39 GMT

About Ordinary Type. The type you use everyday is important to your documents. You want legible type that is readable for all kinds of correspondence and reports. We usually give little thought to such type, just trusting our computers to spit out the right look. However, that is often not enough.

Once limited to a few “staples,” users now have thousands of fonts from which to choose. But, who really cares about what typeface is used? You do! Is the type I use “what is pleasing to the eye” (aesthetics/form), or is it simply an issue of “what gets the job done” (mechanics/function)? That’s very often the question.

But, do we care about type? Every time we say, “That’s really nice!” about a wedding invitation, or “This is so clear to read!” about an ad or a flyer, or “That must be really sophisticated!” about a magazine cover, we indicate our care about type. On the other hand, when we squint to read an important announcement, or simply don’t read newspapers or ads due to poor composition, or too many typo’s, we are saying that we care about type. We, consciously or unconsciously, use “bigger” and “bolder” type for signs and directions.

Why? Because we care about legibility. We want the message that our type conveys to get across to those who read it. We want “playful” type for those youth announcements, or children’s functions, or athletic games. While we use either manually paste-in graphics from an art supplier, or computer-generated graphics placed into the text through a page layout program, we show our care about type when we stop to consider what typeface goes with this graphic.

We care about type because we also like to experiment and try a new challenge. So, we spend a few dollars and buy one or two of the many font packs made available to the Mac or Windows user. Then, as many professional typographers quickly point out, we tend to overuse and misuse and do all kinds of “wrong” things with fonts and font combinations. But, we like to experiment with type anyway.

Why should you care about type? Simply because when choosing a typeface, you must consider both character and legibility. Character has to do with the overall personality or mood a typeface projects. Legibility has to do with how easy or difficult it is to recognize each word in a particular typeface. Readability deals with the relative ease with which you can read a printed page. Overall appearance of the page involves how your type is arranged and how the page is designed. Page layout knowledge will help you in the overall “look” of your bulletin or newsletter. Typeface, or font, knowledge will help you better communicate the message you want the reader to receive.

Yes, we want to “get the job done.” We may not want to invest the time or money involved in typographical training. We may not have the slightest inclination to do so. I believe an intelligent and studied use of type choices available to the Macintosh or Windows computer user today can help us achieve that end.

Note the included font sheets below. They will help you understand the type we use everyday and some other type knowledge. I am indebted in these charts to a number of typographers and other articles -- Stephen Coles, The Anatomy of Type: A Graphic Guide to 100 Typefaces , Kindle Edition; Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style (Hartley & Marks, 1992); Philip Brady, Using Type Right: 121 Basic N0-Nonsense Rules for Working With Type (Northlight, 1998); Stephen Moye, Fontographer: Type By Design (MIS Press, 1995); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvetica; https://www.caseyprinting.com/blog/2013/typography/times-new-roman-the-newspaper-font; Allan Haley (15 September 1992). Typographic Milestones . John Wiley & Sons. p. 106; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantin_(typeface); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arial )

The Finer Points of Typography

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 18:00:58 GMT

Little Known or Observed Typographic Standards*

In his masterful typographic work ( The Elements of Typographic Style ), Robert Bringhurst talks about typography as an art form with certain rules — "The typographer must analyze and reveal the inner order of the text, as a musician must reveal the inner order of the music he performs. But the reader, like the listener, should in retrospect be able to close her eyes and see what lies inside the words she has been reading. The typographic performance must reveal, not replace, the inner composition. Typographers, like other artists and craftsmen—musicians, composers and authors as well— must as a rule do their work and disappear." (p. 21) Typefaces must be chosen with "sensitivity and intelligence." If there is a rule, it should read — "Give full typographic attention especially to incidental details." (p. 24) Hence, the need for the finer points of typography.

Horizontal and Vertical Space. Horizontal spacing is measured by typographers in ems , with one em a horizontal distance equal to the type size used. What we want on a page of type is an "evenness of color," meaning the density of the page is consistent to the eye. We do not want text squished together, nor do we want large gaps between words in a sentence, especially in justified type. Some page layout programs, like Adobe's InDesign, offer page layout controls that help even out the type we see on a page. Legibility, logical order and evenness of color are the aim. A commonly accepted rule of thumb is that anything from 45 to 75 characters per line is a satisfactory length of line for a single-column page in a serifed text face. Bringhurst says that the "66-character line (counting both letters and spaces) is widely regarded as ideal." (p. 26) A working minimum for justified text is the 40-character line. He says in his colorful way, "justified lines averaging less than 38 or 40 characters will lead to white acne or pig bristles: a rash of erratic and splotchy word spaces or an epidemic of hyphenation." (p. 27) The lead or opening paragraph is usually set flush left, with no tabbed indent. The following paragraphs are set indented one-em in their first line. Use single word space between sentences (not the old typewriter double space!). Little to no space is to be found in strings of initials — H.C. Shank or J.H.M. Wilson —with a normal word space following the last period.

And here's where the finer points of typography enter into the picture. Sequences of capitals and small caps need to be letterspaced, usually five to ten percent of the type size. So, UNESCO and CIA and USO should be in small caps and spaced apart (See Example 1 & Abbreviations below). Digital fonts with a proper layout program, such as Adobe InDesign (and older PageMaker), allow for such adjustments. However, commonly used page programs, such as Microsoft Word, for instance, do not provide such detail of type layout.

Leading is the vertical distance between lines of type. Thus, 10/12 means 10 point type with a leading of two points. That means the distance from the baseline of line one to the baseline of line two is twelve points. No leading would be 10/10 type, for instance, and negative leading, like in some headlines and advertising copy, could be 24/16, as long as the ascenders of the face (like d and l) and the descenders (like j and g) don't collide (See Example 2). Again, the desire is for both legibility and pleasurable reading.

Quotations . Quotations can be either direct or indirect. Direct quotations need "quotation marks." Actually, not the straight marks seen in this blog, but real curved quotation marks from the font used. (See Example 3) If the quotation is a longer one, they may be indented from both the left and right margins to set them apart from the regular text. Or, they can be set in smaller type or a change in typeface, such as italic, for instance. So, block quotations might run 10/12 italic or 9/12 roman, if the main text is set 10/12 roman. Bringhurst and others propose a visible break between the main text and the block quotation, usually a blank line between the text and the quote at the beginning and the end of the quote, with some leading calculations to bring the text back into phase. (See Example 4)

Verse quotations from poetry or songs are usually set indented or centered on the longest line, set flush left and ragged right. (See Example 5)

Hyphenations . Hyphenations are generally unwelcome in running text. However, without some hyphenating, word spaces drift apart and the color of the text block looks splotchy or downright bad. So, here's the well-worn rules of hyphenation — (1) Leave at least two characters of a hyphenated word behind and at least three forward, like sus-tainable but not final-ly; (2) avoid stub ends of hyphenated words as the last line of a paragraph; (3) Don't use more than three consecutive hyphenated lines; (4) Avoid hyphenating proper names, if at all possible; and (5) hyphenate according to the conventions of the language (Bringhurst, p. 40). Use a "hard space" or "no-break space" for numerical or mathematical expressions, like 10.4 cm, where a hard space is used between the 4 and the cm. Too many unnecessary hyphenations mean that the sentence or paragraph needs rewritten. Again, serve the needs of the text in using hyphenations.

Footnotes . In academic papers and other scientific writings, footnotes are often used. Footnotes are indicated in the text of a document by raised Arabic numerals (superscripts) or by certain common symbols. The traditional order of symbol usage is * † ‡ § but what is recommended and easier to read are numerals. Use full-size numbers in the actual footnotes. The days of footnoting at the bottom of pages, except maybe in doctoral academic theses, have been replaced by putting all footnotes either at the end of the book or the end of the chapter. They are called endnotes.Footnotes are either 9 or 10 point. They can contain information that is more than just a citation if needed to explain in more detail something referenced in the main text, but could be distracting to the main thought. The Chicago Style Manual suggests formats for footnotes. (See Example 6)

Abbreviations . Don't use abbreviations unless used in conjunction with a number — "The board is several feet (not ft) long." "The board is 5 ft." Do not begin a sentence with abbreviations, except for common conventions, like Mr., Mrs. — "Oxygen is used in the operating room." Not, "O2 is used in the operating room." Use a single period when an abbreviation ends a sentence — "They were made in the U.S.A." (not U.S.A..) Avoid the symbolic form of abbreviations in regular text — "I use 20 percent alcohol." Not, "I use 20% alcohol." In the midst of normal text, use spaced small caps for abbreviations. (See Example 1 ) A good listing of abbreviations can be found in the Franklin Covey Style Guide (Salt Lake City, UT: Franklin Covey Co.), 1994, 1999. (Available on CD disk as well)

*Adapted from Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style (Vancouver: Hartley & Marks Pubishers, 1992 edition and Franklin Covey Style Guide (Salt lake, UT: Franklin Covey Co., 1994, 1999 and Chicago Style Manual online, https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html .

All About Hard Drives

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 14:56:49 GMT

All About Hard Drives. A Primer. What is a hard drive and why do you need it? In every computer there is a storage space, called a hard drive. The main hard drive of your computer stores the operating system for your computer as well as files of data, photos, videos, and other work and play and home files. Most drives have matured over the years through technology, by getting smaller, lighter, more efficient and durable, in many cases, their basic operating structure has also radically changed. There are four basic hard drives — PATA (IDE) drives, SATA drives, SSD drives and NVMe drives.

PATA drive . Also known as IDE or EIDE drives, these are the older drives that used to run especially desktop computers.The initials "ATA" stand for Advanced Technology Attachment and PATA means Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment. These were mostly designed by Western Digital. Western Digital, Seagate and other familiar names are on them. They come in two sizes, a 3.5 inch drive and a 2.5 inch drive for laptops. Actually, the 3.5 inch is dimensionally, 4 x 5.75 x 1, but the innards are 3.5 in across. The drive has a spinning platter inside with an electronic needle that moves across the platter as you are writing and reading data from your computer. It looks like a CD (remember those?) These drives have on the outside mostly a 40-pin connector with an additional 6 or 8 dual pin combination to tell the computer if the drive is a "master" or a "slave" to another drive on the computer. (See Example Below). As you can imagine, as data is written on the drive platter, the data can become scattered or "fragmented," and often for faster drive access and use, we need to "defragment" them. They are generally the slowest of all drives, reading and writing at up to 100 or 133 MB per second, which may seem fast, but is fairly slow according to modern standards. The larger the drive, the slower the access.

SATA drive. These are the daughter of PATA drives and is what are used in most computers today. They are faster than PATA drives, and can read and write up to 16 GB per second, as contrasted with up to 133 MB per second with PATA. SATA attachment cables are also longer than the maximum 18 inch cable with PATA and therefore can be placed within the computer frame at a more convenient place. SATA offers two connection points, one to the drive and the other to the motherboard of the computer. Again, data is written to a moving platter and therefore can become fragmented over time. They are generally less expensive than the drives that followed them. SATA drives can be purchased in large storage sizes. (See Examples Below)

SSD drive . SSD stands for Solid State Drive. These drives have no moving parts and all data is stored on non-volatile memory chips. These drive can be anywhere from 120 GB to over 2 GB in size. These drives are the preferable 2.5 inch drives found in laptops and since they have no moving parts can withstand shocks much better. They are more expensive, perhaps two to four times as much as regular SATA drives. The connection is still a SATA connection to your computer. (See Examples Below)

NVMe drive . Released in 2013, NVMe drives (Non-Volatile Memory Express) are usually attached to a PCI Express (PCIe) slot on the main board of your computer. They are incredibly fast drives with read and write speeds of 32 GB per second and upwards. They are mostly used for gaming and high resolution video editing on the computer. They are very expensive and used for high end work. (See Examples Below)

Certificates & Awards

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Sat, 10 Sep 2022 19:53:44 GMT

Designing Certificates and Awards

Everyone likes to be recognized for a job well done or for a special milestone accomplished. We can do this, in part, through certificates and award papers that are then framed and given to the recipient. However, there is not much thought through design given to the standard certificate. Preprinted certificate papers with fancy border designs help, but the typesetting and layout in the heart of the certificate often lacks power or pizzazz. In Example one below, I redid a certificate given to me by an employer, NCDAmerica, which is a church health consulting firm in Michigan. I have been licensed through them since 1998 and specialize in church consultations in the Northeast. You will note how I redid the layout and design below.

Certificates usually have eight or nine standard elements — (1) Name of presenter; (2) Title; (3) Name of recipient; (4) Reason for the presentation; (5) Term of membership or certification (if applicable); (6)Date presented; (7) Signatures of presenter or presenter's agent; (8) Presenter's logo or seal; and (9) Presenter's city and state. Chuck Green in John McWade's excellent Before & After magazine (Vol. 4, No. 4 / 1995) gives ample clues as to content and design of certificates and awards. I have designed some certificates for NCDAmerica, a church health consulting firm, originally in Germany and based in several countries. Note the examples below.

Slashes & Dashes

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 19:12:12 GMT

Slashes & Dashes. In old typewriter days, we used a stoke (-) for a hyphen and a double stroke (--) for a dash. Those days are gone. The typewriter has given way to computer keyboards and word or layout programs. And so, it is appropriate that we discuss the three commonly used dashes in the computer and layout world — the em-dash , the en-dash , the hyphen . There are other kinds of dashes, such as the subtraction dash , which may or may not be the same length as the en-dash, and the figure dash (equal to the width of a standard numeral).

The shortest in length of the three, the hyphen is used to divide words that break at end of lines, or to connect compound words, such as non-believer. It is easily found on the keyboard to the right of the numeral zero. The longest of the three, the em-dash (— [Shift + option + - on a Mac]) is used in sentences that involve a break in thought or action, such as "There were the days—actually seeming longer than most—that tried men's souls."

The mid-sized en-dash is often used to indicate a range of values or a span of time or numerical quantities, such as 9–5 or Wednesday–Friday, similar to using the words "to" or "from." However, a figure dash may be more pleasing to the eye in numerical quantities. (See Sample Below) Bringhurst notes — "The hyphen is too short to serve this function, and in some faces the en dash (which is traditionally prescribed) appears too long. A three-to-em (M/3) dash is often the best choice. Three-to-em dashes are missing from many type fonts, but they are easily made on digital equipment, by condensing or shortening an en dash.") (Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, Hartley & Marks, 1992, 78)

Normally, there is no space break between the beginning and the end of an em-dash. However, in some quarters, it is thought that a small space or even a regular space at the beginning and end of an em-dash makes the text more readable and flows better. And others prefer to use en-dashes instead of the longer em-dashes in a book or document. The key is always consistency of use, whatever dashes are used with whatever spacing. Whatever we do, we need to avoid the double hyphen approach (--) when seeking to use a dash in a sentence or phrase. The old typewriter days are gone and should be gone in our writing and typesetting.

All About Color

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Mon, 05 Sep 2022 00:49:39 GMT

All About Color . In modern typography and printing, the use of color, once thought too expensive, is now commonplace. Color laser printers are found in many offices, churches and certainly printer shops. Not many people, however, understand the science of color and how we get colored images and scans to the printed page. So, while I am certainly no expert in color technology, here are a few definitions and pointers in color printing.

DPI vs LPI. Let's start at the beginning. Every laser printer has a DPI, or dots per inch, that it places on a sheet of paper. Many older laser printers are rated at least at 300 DPI, with many more today at 600 DPI and above. What is DPI? Dots Per Inch (DPI) is literally a measurement of the maximum number of dots any printer has access to per inch. The dots reference the unit in which all printers and computers are measured, namely, binary code. As such, each dot is either off or on. These dots make up a grid pattern which can only print in black and white. There are no colors or shades of colors (such as grey). The higher the DPI the "smoother" the print looks to the human eye.

LPI, or Lines per Inch , is a measurement of the number of rounded dots that are in an inch. LPI is also known as a screen , and is given its name because each rounded dot has a centre point that’s created in varying sizes. The LPI is directly related to the DPI which is directly related to resolution. Depending on the resolution, one may acquire a picture that seems ‘grainier’ than others – that is, pixilated. For instance, to get a dot that actually appears round rather than square, or pixilated, one must have a DPI of at least 600. A glossy magazine is usually printed with an LPI of 150; as it relates to DPI, which means that the resolution was 2400 DPI or higher. 53 LPI is typical of an office laser. Newspapers are about 90 LPI.

Halftones . We use halftones to print tints. This uniform field of small dots lets paper show through. The more paper that shows through, the lighter the tint. The bigger the spots, the darker the tint. A halftone is measured in lines per inch (LPI). The more lines per inch, the finer the halftone (See Sample Below). To camouflage the rows of spots, a halftone is printed at an angle. If we printed a black halftone at 0 degrees we would see the rows of dots. So printing at an angle tricks our eyes so that we do not realize we are seeing rows and columns of dots at all. Now we are ready to talk about color .

About Color . Color exists as an effect of light. The white light from say the sun is made up of a rainbow of impulses that our brain interprets as colors. All the colors of the rainbow, when added up, make a white light. They are called primary additive colors. (See "All About Color" below.) Computer monitors use three primary colors —Red, Green and Blue—otherwise know as RGB. Since the colors of objects are really white light minus the waves absorbed by the object, they are called primary subtractive colors, otherwise knows as printing colors, or CMYK colors—Cyan, made up of blue and green, Magenta, made up of blue and red, Yellow, made up of red and green. (See "All About Color" below). The K color is actually Black, usually added to give strength and body to a printed picture or image.

Color separations are used for each of the four process colors by a professional lithographic printer. The final result of a color separation is four sheets of film, one for each of the process colors. The films are then used to create the four plates of a process-color printing press.

Going back to halftone angles. Black, the most visible, is printed at a 45 degree angle, Cyan at a 75 degree angle, Magenta at a 15 degree angle, and Yellow at a 0 degree angle. Four halftones are superimposed on each other. To minimize any interference patterns (called "moirés") the halftones are angled 30 degrees apart, yielding a tight, nondistracting compilation. Technological improvements now create microdots that don't use any angles at all. The spots now fall side by side, not atop one another and fit so neatly together that the viewer is unaware spots even exist in their image or photo.

Read More: Difference Between DPI and LPI | Difference Between http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-dpi-and-lpi/#ixzz7dy33lfNT . I am indebted to Jan V. White as well for his "Understanding Color Separations." See his book, Color For Impact. Also Mix & Match: Designer's Colors, Quarto Publishing, 1990. Also, credit to John McWade, Before & After, Vol 4, No. 2, 1994.

Which Character, Which Key?

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Sun, 04 Sep 2022 23:35:17 GMT

A Handy Guide for Macintosh & Windows

Which computer key goes with which character? Some layout programs offer pop up Glyphs which display the characters of the fonts you are using. Others not so. Here are Key Charts you can download and print on your desktop for easy reference.

Page Composition

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 20:10:37 GMT

Guidelines for Good Layout*

If you ever read any of these disclosure and privacy agreements that you agree to, although written in plain English, they are dense and difficult to fathom.Even if they are on the internet and if given to you in paper form, they give a visual impression that can render a subscriber or applicant frustrated, suspicious and defensive. Take a look at the sample on the top below. To be honest, most of the time we simply don't bother to read the agreements. The problems come when we have an issue with the service or product that requires us to search through these massive and poorly composed pieces.

In real life, we use gestures, body language, tonal changes, and emotive elements that allow the message to get across accurately yet kindly to those who agree to the terms stated. This is done with composition and changes in type style, spacing, weight and size. It might be argued that such agreements and notices are written the way they are to save space or paper or internet usage. However, if we REALLY want the customer or subscriber to read these agreements, there is another and better way to go. This is the composition seen on the bottom below.

Type makes the message visible. The sample text is divided into conversation size pieces. Several techniques are used: (1) an obvious and strong header and beginning; (2) clear topic markers; (3) bold section markers that are easily identified; (4) visual shifts in direction using italicized type. What's changed? Text size and leading are the same (10/12) but everything else is new:

Wide margins. White space is often unused and underrated in such publications. Wide margins, according to John McWade (from which I borrowed and adapted this piece of page composition) are like "fresh linen; they set an open, inviting table." Margins are set at 1 inch all around with 1.5 inches on the left, in case the customer wants to do a three-holed punch and put them in a permanent binder (remember those?).

Medium length lines. They are the easiest to read and usually go about 5o characters or so per line.

Typographic contrasts. Two type families are used here. Select a bold sans-serif (without feet) font for the vivid flags that point to each section. Here I am using a font called Formata, but any strong bold font will do. This conveys the authority of prominence without shouting (all CAPS type) or closing with the subheads. Notice that the numbers are also gone in these headers. The text is still Times New Roman. Italics are used to change your emphasis or tone of voice. Set each section apart from the rest using eye-pleasing space between the headers and textual elements.

*Adapted from "Guidelines for Good Layout," John McWade, Before & After , Vol. 4, No. 3, 1994, p. 7

All About Logos

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Thu, 01 Sep 2022 23:25:38 GMT

I like and resonate with what John McWade said to us novice designers in the magazine he founded and edited, "Before & After," in the 1990s — "Learn typography. In my years of reviewing the portfolios of college graduates, I've seen most consistently a weakness in handling type. Type is the voice of the printed word, and your greatest tool. Learn it well. If you're learning on your own I suggest you study the typography in major magazines. Pay attention to the ads. Watch for type selection, size, spacing, position on the page, relationship to other type, contrasts and so forth. Duplicate what you see." (Before & After, Vol. 4. No. 6, 1995) His most ardent desire was for us to practice craftsmanship, which he reflected in the pages of these issues of Before & After. If you can get hold of them, prize them, study them and reflect on the craftsmanship in them.

He left nothing to sloppiness or a truncated view of typography. In his remarks about logos , he wrote — "In graphic design parlance, the word marks properly refers to the broad group of designs that are used as corporate signatures. Marks without type are called symbols , but symbols used to communicate (like in traffic signs and on restroom doors) are really pictographs . When marks are wholly typographic, they can be either lettermarks , which are usually initials or abbreviations, or logos , which may be entire words or the company name. When symbols and logos are used together, they are referred to as combination marks . And when any of the above are registered and protected by law, they are referred to as trademarks ." (Before & After, , Vol. 5, No. 3, 1996, p. 5)

You can see some of these logos below in the sample.

Grids, Type and the Golden Ratio

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 20:39:46 GMT

What does the Golden Ratio Have to Do With Type and Layout?

One of the wonders of how to shape a page in layout work and typesetting has to do with what is called The Golden Ratio. This is a mathematical and organic ratio of 1:1.618... found inherent in simple geometric figures, like the equilateral triangle, the square, the regular pentagon [See Example 1 Below], hexagon and octagon. Not only are these dimensions pleasing to the human eye and sense, they are found universally in many aspects of nature, like the the pine cone, sunflower, hurricanes, seashells and even the human brain [See Example 2 Below]. Robert Bringhurst in his masterful The Elements of Typographic Style notes that the Golden Ratio and other proportions "occur repeatedly in nature, and pages that embody them recur in manuscripts and books from Renaissance Europe, Táng and Sòng Dynasty China, early Egypt, pre-Columbian Mexico and Ancient Rome. It seems that the beauty of these proportions is more than a matter of regional taste or immediate fashion. . . Working and playing with them is a way of developing good typographical instinct, and they serve as useful references in analyzing old designs and calculating new ones." (p. 130)

Typographers have been using the Golden Mean and Golden Ratio, therefore, for centuries. Laying out a page with such a proportion is not merely good typography but resonates with our brains and our inner sense of proportion in the universe. Indeed, "a 2019 study from John Hopkins University compared 100 human skulls. The Nasioniac arc connects the tip of the nasal bone to the inion, a small bump on the back of the skull, and the Bregma is a curve on the top of the skull that follows a similar path that a headband would. In all of the 100 skulls researchers studied, they found that the bisection of these points creates two arcs whose distances exhibit the Golden Ratio." (Louise Holway, "The Golden Ratio: Myth or Magic of Mathematics," Nu Sci Magazine: Northeastern University's Student Run Science Magazine , April 22, 2021) In other words, our brains are "hard wired" to notice this ratio universally, certainly in page layout projects.

Forming grids on pages that are pleasing to the eye should take such proportions as the Golden Ratio into account. Note the Examples below for such a layout. To be sure, modern magazine layouts are not slavishly tied to such proportions, but our aesthetic sensibilities often demand them and we can see things as "off" in page layouts without them.

Font Management in Mac

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 20:50:00 GMT

If you are like many users, you will soon be overwhelmed by the wealth and number of fonts in your font system folder. This is where a Font Management tool comes in handy. Such a tool helps you organize, specify and use a limited number of fonts for specific projects. It also helps to identify font conflicts, badly designed or corrupted fonts or fonts that simply do not work anymore.

SUITCASE. A premier font management tool is Suitcase Fusion ( www.extensis.com ). This tool has served font and design professionals over the years with expert and solid font management. The modern name is "Suitcase Fusion," version 22.x. This tool helps the user to install Adobe fonts directly into the Extensis files, auto-activates fonts in Adobe's Creative Cloud, drag and drop fonts into Affinity Designer, Photo and Publisher on the PC. It finds and compares fonts on the list view. The modern iteration works on the newer Macs M1. There is a free trial offered.

Older Mac Systems

As my readers know, I use a number of older Macintosh systems for archived software use. Extensis Suitcase Version 10 is what I use on these systems as well. Suitcase Strip puts font management on the Control Strip of Mac OS 9, and a "Collect for Output" function allows users to send their fonts with the projects to a printer. Suitcase on these older machines requires a PowerPC processor, OS 8.6 or newer and 32MB of RAM. The program also includes LemkeSoft's FontBook, a font preview utility (See below.)

The downside is working with Adobe's Type Manager (ATM). ATM Deluxe does not work in Mac OS 9.2.2 with Suitcase. However, ATM Light 4.6.2 or 4.6.2a is necessary for smooth font previews, since Suitcase has no smoothing option. Adobe Type Manager (ATM) Light is a system software component that automatically generates high-quality screen font bitmaps from the PostScript outlines in Type 1 or OpenType format. ATM Light was discontinued in 2005, but Adobe still makes it available for customers who require it for older operating systems. With ATM Light, you can scale your fonts on legacy systems without the characters appearing jagged, and you can also enable "font smoothing," which further improves the appearance of your fonts onscreen by using your computer monitor's color palette to intelligently improve the rendering of characters. ATM Light also allows you to print PostScript fonts on non-PostScript printers. You may have to hunt and search for ATM Light version 4.6.2, but a good place to start is Macintosh Garden ( macintoshgarden.org ) and Macintosh Repository ( macintosh repository.org ). See the examples below.

Reviving a G4 on a PowerPC Mac Mini

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 20:32:58 GMT

Installing and Using Mac OS 9 on a PowerPC Mac Mini

One of the services CARE Typography offers is the translation of older Adobe PageMaker files to newer InDesign files. What I have used in the past is a series of programs downloaded on a Mac Mini PowerPC with system Mac OS X 10.4.11. I open the PageMaker file in the Classic (OS 9) mode on that system, usually save it as a PageMaker 6.5 file and then port that file into an InDesign CS 6 program on another Mini. And then translate that into a modern InDesign file. While all of this is not that time consuming, it is tedious.

I then found a program by Ross Darker ( http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=4365.0 ) that would allow me to install a Mac OS 9.2.2 system on my PowerPC Mac Mini. After spending about a week on downloading files, partitioning the drive on the Mac Mini and seeking to install the Mac OS 9 system onto a partition on my hard drive there, and becoming frustrated with the Mac defaulting to the OS X 10.4.11 system and the cursor hanging on the OS 9 screen multiple times, I finally found a way to install and use Mac OS 9.2.2 on my Mac Mini PowerPC.

Why do all of this work? It saves me loads of time and effort. The PageMaker programs are made for OS 9 and I can use InDesign 2.0 (an older InDesign iteration) to transfer the files and then open them up in a newer InDesign format. The point is that this process is seamless and FAST!! My OS 9 on my PowerPC Mac Mini is blazingly fast and efficient. This is how I did it. . .

I used CarbonCloner ( https://bombich.com ) to migrate my OS 10.4.11 drive to an external Firewire drive. This freed up the drive on my Mac Mini so that I could install the OS 9 on it without any other files. It also allowed me to automatically open up Mac OS 9 on the Mini when I turn the computer on. (The files I migrated to an external Firewire hard drive show up on the OS 9 Finder as another drive, fully accessible to me because of the Firewire connection to the Mac.) Then, if you want to follow suit . . .
Download and install Ross Darker's Mac OS 9.2.2 version 9 for Mac mini G4 with TOAST/ISO Image. Note that you need to open this using a file expander (Stuffit at https://www.stuffit.com ) and then write the file on a CD so that you can install via a CD disk onto the Mini drive. (Details below)
Download and install usable Mac OS 9 programs from Macintosh Garden or older program disks you own and have available. (I downloaded my PageMaker programs onto the OS 9 system as well as a number of others that I use quite regularly. I also downloaded InDesign 2.0 onto the OS 9 drive.)
Tweak the OS 9 final system, making sure all the programs you have installed work flawlessly and well. This is an important step, since some programs require installation of a number of other OS 9 programs before their installation. This is sometimes a trial-and-error process and can be time consuming until you get it right. (An instance of this is the necessary installation of font files for some programs through Adobe ATM Manager. I would recommend this instead of Suitcase. Those fonts may need translated into Postscript One font files so that they are readable in the OS 9 system.)
Voilå! You have a fully functioning and FAST Mac OS 9 system on your PowerPC Mac Mini.**

About the OS 9 Install . . .

A bootable install CD of Mac OS 9.2.2 for the Mac mini G4

Thanks to RossDarker for his "Mac mini G4 Mac OS 9.2 (V9)" CD image. Thanks also to ELN for the custom Mac OS ROM used in this, and darthnVader for the custom ATI Graphics Drivers.

How to use: Burn the image to CD-R, insert disc into a Mac mini DVD drive, hold the "C" key down as you boot up the mini. When you see the Mac smiley face arrive you can release the "C" key. Read the important brief on board instructions and run the installer, then post-install items. This install CD image is intended for use in Mac mini 1.25, 1.33, 1.42, 1.5 GHz, G4 models only.

Compatibility: Architecture: PPC PPC (Carbonized)

NOTES

There are two versions of Drive Setup included in the CD's Utilities folder; v1.9.2 and v2.0.7 (the latter without a version number in its file name). Drive Setup v1.9.2 is the utility you must use if you want to format FireWire disks, newer versions of Drive Setup will not format FW drives. Drive Setup 2.0.7 is the better choice to use if you intend to reformat Mac mini's internal HD.

Sound is only available via the audio output jack. That is, the Sound Control Panel does not work (no System beeps). You will need to use external headphones or speakers for audio playback plugged into the jack. (This is due to the fact that you are installing into a "Power Mac G4 Cube" which has no sound in its architecture.)

The Apple System Profiler will report the model name as a "Power Mac G4 Cube". This is due to the custom ROM used by the installed OS. (SEE Image Below)

This install CD is (mostly) exactly what you get if you install the Universal Mac OS 9.2.2 disk. So there are no frills, you will need to add your own apps and nice touches to improve what's here. For example, QuickTime 5 and CarbonLib 1.5 are installed and you may want to update those (or not).

**(Interesting what Everyman.com lists as the "fastest" Mac to run OS 9 — "You are not alone in your desire to continue to use MacOS 9 applications. There probably are others who also are interested in the idea of having a pure MacOS 9 system for dedicated "legacy" use. The short answer to your question is that the Power Macintosh G4/1.25 DP "Mirrored Drive Doors" is the fastest stock Mac capable of booting in MacOS 9." However, with Mac OS 9 loaded onto my G4 Mac Mini, this setup proves faster, with 1.417 MHz processor.)

IMAGES

What Font?

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 20:08:55 GMT

Your editor or supervisor wants you to duplicate a font used in a piece he or she has seen in print or on the web. It looks like an interesting font, but how do you know what it is and how do you find out what font it is? There are a number of ways to go about font identification, as shown in the graphic below. What should be said up front is that in any of these methods you will receive a range of fonts from which to choose. The more font parameters you give one of these programs, the better match you will have.

Calendar 2023

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Sat, 13 Nov 2021 16:42:02 GMT

Calendar 2023. This is a FREE offer from CARE Typography and Carl Shank Consulting. 11 x 8.5 desk or wall calendar with holidays. We will send it to you via email for a PDF or Online Version. Simply send a request to cshanktype@gmail.com. Enjoy!

Good Bible Typography

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 21:24:02 GMT

Good Bible Typography. In a recent issue of Bible Study Magazine (November–December 2021), Mark Ward, editor, provided a well written and visual article "A Revolution in Bible Design: Meet the People Who Designed Your Bible." In that piece he reviewed the work of Bible designers and crafts people who design today's versions of the Bible, noting the typeface designs used and paper quality. In fact, in a YouTube segment, Mark has an entire talk on Bible typography well worth your time ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu4t9FKn9M4 ).

He quotes Dan Farrell, VP of Design Crossway (who publishes many modern Bibles, especially the ESV version today) on the best Bible font — "Bram de Does created two of the finest typefaces ever designed when he developed Trinité and Lexicon for Enschedé in the late 80s and early 90s. Lexicon is especially well suited to Bible design because of its option for shorter ascenders and descenders, its tall x-height, and its readability at small sizes. It has a calligraphic elegance without being delicate. For these reasons, I think it's a timeless typeface that will continue to be highly effective in Bible typesettings many decades from now." Indeed, a Google search for the type used in Bible today lists Lexicon as the most used Bible typeface with masterful Trinité N°2 Roman used in the ESV edition published by Crossway. (See Sample 1 Below)

There are a multitude of de Does Lexicon fonts available at various weights — two main groups: Lexicon No.1 and Lexicon No.2. Lexicon No.1 has short stems (ascenders and descenders); Lexicon No.2 has 'normal' stems. Both groups share the same widths thus making it possible to change fonts without reflowing text. Each main group contains 12 weight variants, six upright weights (A to F) and six italic weights (A to F), where A is the regular weight and F the boldest weight. These are expensive, asking over $4,000 for the complete set, and over $2,000 for set No. 1 or No. 2. (See Sample 2 Below).

Why is Bible typography important? The older KJV (King James Version) two-column Bibles often used by congregants were ill-designed, hard to read at small sizes, and each verse a separate paragraph with verse numbers and other markers interrupting the flow of the textual thought. They were not reader-friendly Bibles, and they often separated biblical thoughts and gave unfortunate fuel to "biblicism," that is, quoting verses and thoughts out of context. Atomistic quoting of single verses became the trend of preachers and well-intentioned Bible study leaders. Contexts were ignored, and through bad typography verses were clumped together in an unfortunate manner. Mark Ward offers some notable examples and instances of this in his YouTube talk.

More Italics

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 18:35:26 GMT

More italics. Rather than the standard fare of italic faces or fonts from the major companies, these faces below represent the creativity and work of a number of independent typographers. They are all available for your layout use from CARE Typography. Enjoy them!

Peace Bird & Paper Airplane

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 15:15:05 GMT

Origami ( 折り紙 , Japanese pronunciation: [oɾiɡami] or [oɾiꜜɡami] , from ori meaning "folding", and kami meaning "paper" (kami changes to gami due to rendaku )) is the art of paper folding, which is often associated with Japanese culture. In modern usage, the word "origami" is used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is to transform a flat square sheet of paper into a finished sculpture through folding and sculpting techniques. Modern origami practitioners generally discourage the use of cuts, glue, or markings on the paper. Origami folders often use the Japanese word kirigami to refer to designs which use cuts. (Wikipedia reference)

Two designs are offered below. One is the traditional Christmas Peace Dove and the other is a paper airplane model, first offered by Chuck Green in Before & After , Vol. 5 No. 2, 1996. The magazine is out of print, but it had cool stuff. Enjoy!

Posters (2)

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Sun, 24 Oct 2021 23:25:14 GMT

Posters with color elements. To add spice to the office or workplace or church these posters are larger (20 x 28 inches) and are suitable for framing and display. The sayings are either typical business slogans or popular incentives for workers and customers alike. These posters below have been designed and output in Adobe InDesign page layout software. Most of the fonts used are available either for free or minimal cost. The CARE Font is a specially designed font by the author. Enjoy!

Posters (1)

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Sat, 23 Oct 2021 15:57:33 GMT

Posters. They inhabit office and cubicle walls in many businesses, churches, schools and other places where people work, play and gather. The classic black and white business basics posters are still popular with many. They carry time tested slogans and incentives (sometimes even warnings!) urging people to excellence and productivity where they labor. They are available to purchase, or you can have places like VistaPrint create them for you, or you can use the free templates on Canva for their creation. Notice the samples below for typesetting hints and layouts.

CARE Font Remake

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 20:07:12 GMT

The CARE Font has had additions and a major remake. Take a look below at the new front construct. CARE can make a font for you as well. Simply fill out the contact form and tell us your needs.

Lovely Scripts

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 00:39:53 GMT

Scripts are used in many settings. There are numerous sample scripts available from CARE Typography for your use. See the samples below. For a full range of available script faces, please go to https://tinyurl.com/sj8zepd4

Newsletter Layout Basics

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Thu, 14 Oct 2021 17:18:32 GMT

What makes up a good newsletter? There are both CONTENT and LAYOUT issues to consider.

CONTENT . Make the newsletter concise, readable, active by using strong verbs, scannable, up-to-date, people oriented, and economical. Make it regular, weekly if possible. "Scannable" means easy to read and see main pieces of information. Tie broader interests into the lives of local people. This is especially important if you reference, in a church newsletter, for instance, denominational or national news and views. Include short snippets by others in your group of readers. Advertise links to well-researched and important information for your readers. Include an occasional literary piece or arts piece to cultivate creative interchange and add vitality and dimension to your newsletter. Every so often use special interest pieces. Make sure the source of the newsletter is clear and readable, including name, address, date, staff. Do not plagiarize — give credit to where credit is due.

LAYOUT . Have a distinctive and well-designed logo. Hire a graphic artist if needed for a professional logo look. Make sure the newsletter has "visual vitality" — good paper stock, quality reproduction, eye-catching headlines, plenty of white space and graphic elements to break up long text. Other type considerations would be —

(1) Choose the right typeface . Don't be limited to Times Roman, Helvetica and ghastly Courier. Try Palatino, Century, Lucida and Stone Informal. Book faces would include Garamond, Caslon 540, Galliard and Baskerville. (See Example 1 below) Choose a face legible in small sizes. Whatever you choose, be careful of fanciful, grotesque, weird and strange faces for most of the newsletter. "Extreme features—thick strokes, very thin strokes, tall and narrow forms, short and squatty forms, slanted characters, fancy serifs, swashes—anything that calls attention to itself lowers the readability of the face, because you notice the letterforms, rather than the message." (Robin Williams, "Improving Readability," Technique , August 1995). What you want is readability, cleanness, and communication.

(2) Size type to fit . This means appropriate size of type and line spacing. Strive for lines between 50 and 70 characters. Another way to say this would be from 8 to 11 words or wide enough to accommodate 2 1/2 lowercase alphabets of the typeface chosen. People read groups of words at a time, so be careful of too few or too many words on a line. Do not double-space between the end of sentences (an old practice on typewriters—remember those?!) For a piece too long, hyphenate lines setting them ragged right, or cut some text. For a piece too short, remove hyphenations, break long paragraphs into shorter ones, or narrow the column widths. The general rule for leading is 20 percent of type size, so 2 points of leading for 10-point type, making a total of 12 points from one baseline to the next. However, some faces require more leading for readability. Since we read in phrases, avoid uneven letter and word spacing, or too close or too far apart spacing. Kerning and tracking controls on page layout programs like PageMaker often need tweaked. (See Example 2 below) Whatever looks right is important here.

(3) Use display type for headlines . Do not use all capital letters. A mix of upper and lower case letters gives more readability and pleasure in headline reading. Generally, avoid ALL CAPS even for headlines. Leave conjunctions such as and, in , and the , lowercase. There are many display faces available, but I would say choose a display face that goes with the text used in the piece. Sans serif faces (without "feet") are often good display faces, but again be careful of gaudiness. And use your computer program's kerning function (space between letters) to create visual acceptability —

WORKING TOOLS or Working Tools (Formata Bold font),

but not WORKING TOOLS (unless it is a Halloween piece!)

Also, end lines at logical stopping points —

Today it will be sunny with periods

of rain and spotty showers Not this — but rather this —

Today it will be sunny

with periods of rain

and spotty showers

Trademark or copyright symbols should be a smaller type size than the font and move the symbol so that its top aligns with the top of the text. (Example 3 below)

(4) Replace typewriter-type quotations and other marks with the font's built in marks . (Example 4 below) Jim Heid from Macworld also rightly advises "avoid gimmicky font styles such as shadow and outline. Also think twice about using the small-caps option that many programs provide. . . . avoid superimposing type over a gray-shaded background." ( Macworld , June 1989) (Example 5 below)

End Marks

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Sun, 10 Oct 2021 18:25:22 GMT

End Marks are used in magazines and articles, especially when the article is spread over a number of pages along with other articles or ads or images. They tell a reader when that particular article ends. The End Marks Samples above are from three different publications. The upper left is from an article by Kathleen Tinkel in Publish Magazine , March 1991. Upper right is from an instructional article on making fractions in PageMaker (4.0) in Aldus Magazine , July/August 1991. The bottom is from an article by Jim Heid in Macworld , June 1989. Each end point is different and each distinctive.

How are they made? Usually an image is scanned into a font developer program, like Fontographer, and placed in a character slot. It is then made into a glyph, a separate letter, if you will, in the font or in another font. This allows the writer or editor to conveniently and neatly place the end mark without having to shrink the main image and then somehow maneuver it into the end of a paragraph. See the diagram below as to how an end mark can be made.

About Well-Defined Fractions

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Sat, 09 Oct 2021 17:36:26 GMT

Fractions

We all use them, especially in texts that reference recipes or construction of some kind. If we don't use the words, like one-half, three-eighths, and so forth, we stick them into all kinds of writings — however they look. So, using a typical program like Microsoft Word, if the fraction we want is contained in the typical 256 character description of the font, Word will usually automatically and successfully put the font in the text so that it looks like it belongs, like the illustration below. But fractions that go outside the bounds of the normal character set of the font we are using create problems in how to type them into our document so that they look good and naturally belong. Workarounds are limited. Some ways to construct and use fractions in documents are given in the insert above. However, these are constructed in layout programs, like Adobe InDesign which are not normally used in typical day to day letters and publications.

Rather than purchasing a subscription to Creative Cloud from Adobe to download and use a program like InDesign ( Adobe Creative Cloud ) what should we do? We could find a free or minimal cost font that is mostly made up of fractions, like Fraction Free Fonts or settle for a less than suitable word translation in running texts, like five-thirtysixths (instead of 5/36). The fraction Free font will most likely not reflect the typeface you are using. That may be acceptable in a recipe listing where the fraction stands outside the line of text, but it will not look professional at all. Another solution would be to use a font that has plenty of fonts already built-in. And still another (perhaps better) solution would be to contract out a font designer, like CARE Typography, to develop or enhance your preferred typeface with fractions you use. This latter solution is usually costly and takes time to develop.

Why Care About Type In Your Church?

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 01:37:09 GMT

Form or function? Is the type I use for church bulletins, newsletters and announcements a matter of "what is pleasing to the eye" (aesthetics/form) or is it simply an issue of “what gets the job done” (mechanics/function)? That’s very often the question, not only on theological or church growth issues, but also for church-oriented computer users when choosing a typeface for a particular job.

Most church bulletins, news-letters, correspondence and other written documentation seem fairly “bland” and straightforward in terms of the kinds of typefaces used to produce them. Many people, we think, don’t even pay too much attention to them. But, do we care about type? Every time we say, “That’s really nice!” about a wedding invitation, or “This is so clear to read!” about an ad or a flyer, or “That must be really sophisticated!” about a magazine cover, we indicate our care about type. On the other hand, when we squint to read an important announcement, or simply don’t read our church bulletin due to poor composition, or too many typo’s, we are saying that we care about type. We, consciously or unconsciously, use “bigger” and “bolder” type for signs and directions. Why? Because we care about legibility. We want the message that our type conveys to get across to those who read it.

We want “playful” type for those youth announcements, or children’s functions, or church volleyball game. Using either manually paste-in graphics from a church art supplier, or computer-generated graphics placed into the text through a page layout program, we show our care about type when we stop to consider what typeface goes with this graphic. We care about type because many of our churches are becoming “seeker-sensitive.” That means we are seeking, through differing “mediums,” like what the church prints, to convey clearly and effectively the “message” of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Since many people outside the church care about what they see, and hear, and read, we want to produce excellent promotional pieces and bulletins that “stand-out” and church correspondence that grabs their attention. Churches that still produce older typewriter generated bulletins run off by a stencil on the Rex Rotary (what's that?!) or older duplicator are becoming the focus of church cartoons and not considered a serious option in the twenty-first century.

Why should you care about type? Simply because when choosing a typeface, you must consider both character and legibility . Character has to do with the overall personality or mood a typeface projects. Legibility has to do with how easy or difficult it is to recognize each word in a particular typeface. Readability deals with the relative ease with which you can read a printed page. Overall appearance of the page involves how your type is arranged and how the page is designed. Page layout knowledge will help you in the overall “look” of your bulletin or newsletter. Typeface, or font, knowledge will help you better communicate the message you want the reader to receive.

Note the different character projected by the following fonts:

Character — legible, newsy, mod ern

Character or Character — display, highlights, imposing, strong

Character — playful

Character — script, invitations

Character — youthful, informal

Yes, we want to “get the job done.” We may not want to invest the time or money involved in typographical training. We may not have the slightest inclination to do so. But the Scriptures command us in whatever we do to “do all to the glory of God.” I believe an intelligent and studied use of type choices available to the Macintosh or Windows com-puter user today can help us achieve that end.

The Journey of Digital Type

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Sun, 13 Jun 2021 13:00:24 GMT

It all started with Gutenberg. Johannes Gutenberg’s 42–line Bible unleashed a typesetting revolution transforming movable type into today’s digitized computer formats. The printing press, Gutenberg, and the Bible have all played a primary role in the type you see everyday. As a matter of fact, Gutenberg could be credited with the printing "reformation." Movable type, that is, individual pieces of type for each letter, had been used by the Chinese, Koreans and Japanese. Yet, Johannes Gutenberg’s work stands out in both art and printing history as the first exquisitely, practically produced print job.

Type styles the reflected the scribal penchant for bold, heavy script letters. As art and technology grew together, the “modern” style developed with serifs and contrasting thick and thin strokes, such as seen in Adobe's Caslon Pro font — ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 . With the nineteenth century, and the Industrial Revolution, Ottmar Mergenthaler’s Linotype (1886) introduced mechanical typesetting through the use of a keyboard control device. More styles of type followed for the growing business of mercantile advertising. Most of these typefaces followed the “serif” style, but the Bauhaus Design School in Germany, as well as the Art Deco style, ga ve us “sans serif” faces, such as the ever popular Helvetica. Designed by Max Miedinger in 1956 — ABCDEFGHIJKLMabcdefghijklm1234567890 . Helvetica can be seen on road and street signs. It was later included as one of the first Apple LaserWriter fonts.

Individual letters of type striking paper through an inked ribbon took hold as the typewriter flooded the business market. But, the letters were monospaced, uninteresting, and unequalled to the printed page. In seeing the importance of typefaces as communication, IBM introduced the IBM Executive typewriter in 1954. Now the office typist could use special fonts and even true proportional spacing. The copy also looked much better than the traditional typewritten efforts.

Another step toward professional typesetting came in 1961 when IBM came up with the Selectric and a variety of interchangeable type balls. The IBM Selectric Composer became the typesetter of choice. Text was typed onto a magnetic roll of tape and the roll was then placed in the Composer, a key pressed and there it was—justified, book-like text that looked really sharp! But, the font choices were severely limited and the Composer only produced certain limited sizes of type. Headlines and other display faces had to be set differently.

Through the efforts of Rene Higonnet and Louis Moyroud in 1949, their machine, the Photon, helped push typesetting toward photocomposition. This electronic method of setting type directly on light sensitive paper started the “cold” typesetting revolution. Faster and more flexible than all previous technologies, photocomposition freed typesetters from the physical limitations imposed by hot-metal type processes.

Digital phototypesetters introduced in 1972 projected letterforms onto a CRT (cathode ray tube). This type image was then flashed onto photosensitive paper. Soon the electron beam was turned on a drum generating an electrostatic charge. Toner particles, attracted to the charged areas, were fused onto paper by heat. Dry typesetting had begun, and the laser printer was born.

Apple Computer, in its development of the Macintosh computer in the early 80’s, also introduced the Apple LaserWriter™ and the LaserWriter Plus. Using a new tech-nology called “Postscript,” licensed from Adobe Systems, a built-in font description language in the Laser-Writer’s ROM (read-only memory) converted screen fonts on the computer screen, through a mathematical process, to 300 dpi (dots-per-inch) output.

Users wanted, and soon got, true WYSIWYG (pronounced wizzy-wig— what-you-see-is-what-you-get) operating environments. With the advent of Adobe’s ATM (Adobe Type Manager™), and Apple’s TrueType fonts, the on screen font “jaggies” were replaced by the outline representation of the font, so that the screen faithfully represented the final printed output. Fonts could be “downloaded” per job to the Post-script printer, even if the printer did not have the specified fonts inherent in its ROM files.

Apple’s System 7.x and Windows 3.1x included several TrueType fonts that were installed with the system software. What a journey to digitized type—and it’s not over, as indicated in other blogs on this site.

Choosing & Combining Type

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 15:33:35 GMT

How To Choose the Right Type for the Right Job

In his masterful book about typography, Robert Bringhurst wisely says — "The best type for a book about bicycle racing will be, first of all, an inherently good type. Second, it will be a good type for books, which is to say, a good type for comfortable long-distance reading. Third, it will be a type sympathetic to the theme. It will probably be lean, strong and swift; perhaps it will also be Italian. But it is unlikely to be carrying excess ornament or freight, and unlikely to be indulging in a masquerade." (The Elements of Typographic Style , 91). Jan White echoes this sentiment about choosing type in How To Spec Type — "There is no such thing as 'right' or 'correct' use of type. There is only vivid and eloquent effectiveness, or numbing and misleading ineffectiveness." (10) Consequently, a math textbook will use a different typeface than a slogan on a can of soda or a bottle of wine.

White suggest the following questions for the would-be use of a typeface in any context — [1] Does the way the type is handled in a specific circumstance fulfill its purpose? [2] Is it doing the job efficiently? [3] Is the message coming through clearly and vividly? is the message jumping off the page into the reader's mind crispy and memorably? (10) He goes on to say that "good typography is transparent, like blister-packaging — exposing the content inside and letting it speak for itself." He agrees with Bringhurst about the use of type ornaments — "too often typography is used like gift wrapping, in the hope that cosmetic prettification will make the package seem more desirable." (10) So then, "good typography links the verbal with the visual to produce arresting results. Good typography clarifies. It articulates. It elucidates. It expresses meaning ." (11) Many would-be editors and writers and office personnel try too hard when it comes to setting type. With the thousands of possible typefaces that are on the market today, produced by would-be typographers, playing with digital type producing programs, many people can get overwhelmed and confused and frustrated by what typeface to use. So, here's some suggestions.

Be careful of a poorly designed typeface . Such a font is missing what should constitute a font family — regular or book, italic, bold, bold italic, ligatures, small caps, text figures, diacritics and important analphabetics. If you don't know what these are, and are content with the standard regular, italic, bold and bold italic then use them in an ordinary way, not trying to be cute or extravagant with them. An example would be Times New Roman —

This is a standard Times Roman.

This is a standard Times Roman Italic.

This is a standard Times Bold.

This is a standard Times Bold Italic.

Even here, "Boldface romans, however, are a nineteenth-century invention. Bold Italic is even more recent, and it is hard to find a successful version designed before 1950. Bold romans and italics have been added retroactively to many earlier faces, but they are often simply parodies of the original designs." (Bringhurst, 99) He would suggest avoiding Garamond and Baskerville, both popular faces available on many systems. Instead, use Robert Slimbach's Utopia font family (See sample below. Note especially the bold small "g" in the Times Roman as contrasted with the small "g" in Utopia.)

Use font variations within the font family. A well-designed font has a number of weights from which to choose for optimum use. So, the font Utopia has Utopia Caption, Regular, Subhead, Display, and the Semibold similar instances as well as the Bold instances. A Utopia Black face is also included. Such variations allow visual interest and adaptability. Here are the weights of the web font Alegreya —

Alegreya Normal

Alegreya Medium

Alegreya Bold

Alegreya Bolder

Alegreya Boldest

Use contrasting sans serif headliners with serif text fonts. But be careful to do some well-defined matching here. Sans serif ("without feet") fonts need to have a similar inner structure to the serif text face used. Thus, Formata Bold in small amounts goes with many text fonts —

Formata Bold with Minion OR with Georgia OR with even Times Roman.

All of this may seem tedious and too time consuming with which to bother. After all, most people do not look at type the way a trained typographer would. But there are obvious overused and overdone font combinations that not only do not please the eye but are simply atrocious. A little care here can mean a great deal to a pleasing report, book or paper.

Do's and Don't's in Using Type

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 20:06:02 GMT

From The Elements of Typographic Style

In the world of precise and well-defined typography, there is probably no more useful and thorough work than Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style. Although casual writers and office personnel pay little attention to such things, glaring examples of misused typefaces and writing can be found everywhere. A cure to such ignorance and oversight can be found in this 255 page masterpiece on what characters to use when and how. One commentator notes that "it may be hard to imagine that one could write 600 words about the 'lowly' hyphen, but Bringhurst does so, and makes reading it interesting." (Harry Edwards, Review of Bringhurst, March-April, 1993 in Aldus Magazine )

The key to excellent and well-defined typography is Bringhurst's principle that "Typography exists to honor content." Chapters on "Rhythm and Proportion," "Harmony and Counterpoint, "Shaping the Page" and so forth give time honored attention to what most casual writers ignore and of which they are unaware. Some examples and some words of advice can enhance and make your writing and posts and newsletters much more readable and professional.

Example #1 — The Widow and Orphan. Orphans are created when you have isolated lines of multi-line paragraphs ending a page. "The stub ends left when paragraphs end on the first line of a page are called widows." (41) Giving such lines at least one additional line or by exporting or importing single lines from the preceding or following spreads can avoid widows and complement forlorn isolated lines at the end of a page. This typographic rule is broken unabashedly and incessantly by even many well-trained journalists and newspapers. Spending more time rewriting the text so that orphans and widows don't exist is the solution, though it may be time-consuming to quick turnaround jobs.

Example #2 — The use of AM, am, PM, pm, or A.M. or P.M. or a.m. or p.m. and such should be discontinued . Instead, spaced small caps should be used as in 42 bc and ad 200 or 3:00 pm or 9:00 am . But regular caps are used for JFK or H.C. Shank, and note there is no space between the H. and the C. (And there should be a small space between the small caps that cannot be written in this digital post, but see the examples below.) Bringhurst points out that "The better digital foundries now offer a wide selection of fonts with text figures and small caps. These are often sold separately [but not soon anymore due to Adobe's new typeface developments — See last post] and involve extra expense, but they are essential to good typography. It is better to have one good face with all its parts, including text figures and small caps, than fifty faces without." (45)

Example #3 — The use of slanted italics instead of true italics, or digitized bold for true bold. Cheaper faces, and often sans serif faces, have what are called "slanted" figures for italics, such as Arial Italic, which is just a slanted face instead of true italics. So, for instance, you will see text emphasized like this , when the typeface used should be emphasized like this . The difference is amazing and outstanding. Again, this requires a font with true italics included in the font itself, rather than a digitized slant produced by electronic means. Such constraints should also be used for true Bold instead of just digitized bold in font use. So, for instance, the Brisco Pro Typeface uses Brisco Pro Regular , Brisco Pro Light , Brisco Pro Italic , Brisco Pro Bold and Bold Italic , Brisco Pro SemiBold , SemiBold Italic , and Brisco Pro Medium and Medium Italic . Again, one may wonder why this is important. It is where function defines form in typography. If I want something to stand out, I might use an Ultra Bold font, like Gill Sans Ultra Bold , instead of regular Gil Sans Bold . See the difference?! An Ultra Bold font, however, is an extra face usually not available in the regular four-face series of regular, italic, bold and bold italic.

Example #4 — The use of overlapping letters rather than normally accepted ligatures . Modern typesetting and even modern word processors have ably given writers what are called ligatures — the proper combination of letters in words like f plus f, and f plus i, and f plus l, and f plus f plus i, and f plus f plus l. Most fonts include such ligature automatically, but if they do not, you can have overlapping and confusing letters giving different meanings to different words. Bringhurst mentions that "in Turkish, i with a dot and i without, are two different letters. A typeface whose lowercase f disguises the difference between the two forms of i is therefore, for Turkish, an unacceptable design." (48) See example below.

Example #5 — Drop Caps, Fleurons and Opening Paragraphs . At chapter beginnings, drop caps are often used to introduce and draw the reader into the text — "But the most traditional method of marking the start of the text, inherited from ancient scribal practice, is a large initial capital or versal ." (61) They can be indented, centered, or flush left with the rest of the text. They can hang in the left margin. "They can be set in the same face as the text or in something outlandishly different." (61) Or in older texts a "fleuron" or typographical ornament can be used to draw attention to the text — such as sdhj (International Font). Sometimes they are in a different color than the regular text, such as traditional red — sdhj . Bringhurst provides a page of examples (62) of various titling and drop caps. Care Typography has a specialized set of typographical ornaments, especially designed for churches and ministries. See sample below. Page layout programs, like Adobe's InDesign, provide a convenient and trouble free way to use drop caps or titling caps in an opening paragraph.

Additionally, often the opening sentence or a few words will be set in small caps to once again set off the opening remarks from the rest of the paragraph. In any case, the first paragraph under a title or heading is set flush left rather than indented, as following paragraphs usually are.

More About Fonts

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 16:59:07 GMT

Font Technicals

(Updated July 2021)

Postscript Type 1 Fonts

Historically, Adobe introduced what are called Postscript Type 1 fonts. The diagram above (and quoted comments here) are from https://www.adobe.com/products/type/opentype.html discussing the transition from old Type 1 fonts to new OpenType fonts. In 1984, when I began using Macintoshes and Laserwriters, Adobe was the premier place to secure Postscript Type 1 fonts. They were carefully crafted from the most well-known font foundries in the world. They represented the best in front formation and font delivery. Of course, many more designers and thousands more fonts came along the way.They offered fonts and font programs that took the jagged screen fonts on the early computers and "smoothed" them for better sight on the screen. They included what were called "printer fonts" that translated the font dynamics from the computer screen to a laserwriter printer that could print at 300 dpi (dots per inch). This was phenomenal at the time, getting printed pages that began to look like professionally designed and printed professionally set pages like that you would find in a book.

The set of characters in each font was generally limited to 256 characters. Therefore, to have a wider or thicker character, a new font had to be added to the font "family." Typically, there were four basic fonts to a family — book or regular, italic, bold and bold italic. Added to these basic four could be an ultra bold or extra black bold and small caps along with a condensed form of the font. Variations abounded, but there was one font for each basic variation. Adobe introduced MultipleMasters, such as Minion MultipleMasters, where smaller variations in font designs were included for different uses in different scenarios — "Called "Opticals," these variations have been optimized for use at specific point sizes. Although the exact intended sizes vary by family, the general size ranges include: caption (6-8 point), regular (9-13 point), subhead (14-24 point) and display (25-72 point)."

If you wanted a PC version of the same font, you had to translate the font characters to a PFB and a TTF version to use on a PC computer. True Type (TT) was then developed that gave one version of the font that worked on both Macs and PCs. Font management programs were then designed by Adobe and others, such as Adobe Type Manager (ATM) and ATM Deluxe and the Suitcase for managing and organizing the many fonts that became available.

OpenType

"Any OpenType font uses a single font file for all of its outline, metric, and bitmap data, making file management simpler. In addition, the same font file works on Macintosh and Windows computers. As a result, OpenType lets you move font files back and forth between platforms with noticeable improvement in cross-platform portability for any documents that use type." Contrasted with 256 character fonts, OpenType fonts can now have 65,000 characters, making them highly desirable for font creators and users — "which allows a single font file to contain many nonstandard glyphs, such as old-style figures, true small capitals, fractions, swashes, superiors, inferiors, titling letters, contextual and stylistic alternates, and a full range of ligatures." OpenType fonts work seamlessly on both Macs and PCs and no translation from one platform to another is needed. In fact, Adobe has translated all of its fonts to an OpenType format with the .otf marking them as such, such as Minion.otf.

As Adobe points out, "Central to a discussion of OpenType feature support lies the distinction between characters and glyphs. Characters are the code points assigned by the Unicode standard, which represent the smallest semantic units of language, such as letters. Glyphs are the specific forms that those characters can take. One character may correspond to several glyphs; the lowercase "a," a small cap "a" and an alternate swash lowercase "a" are all the same character, but they are three separate glyphs. One glyph can also represent multiple characters, as in the case of the "ffi" ligature, which corresponds to a sequence of three characters: f, f and i."

"OpenType layout features can be used to position or substitute glyphs. For any character, there is a default glyph and positioning behavior. The application of layout features to one or more characters may change the positioning, or substitute a different glyph. For example, the application of the small capitals feature to the "a" would substitute the small cap "a" glyph for the usual lowercase "a" glyph. To access alternate glyphs in an OpenType Pro font, an application provides a user interface that allows end users to apply OpenType layout features to text. Applications that don't support Unicode or advanced OpenType layout features can still access the basic glyph sets of OpenType Pro fonts, which are analogous to the glyph sets in today's PostScript Type 1 fonts."

OpenType fonts also better facilitate foreign and complex languages with their many glyph variations and needs.

Adobe will discontinue use of Postscript Type 1 fonts in the near future.An important and informative article can be found in the recent issue of Macworld— "Adobe is Dropping Postscript Type 1 Font Support—Be prepared for the change," by Glenn Fleishman, Macworld , July 2021.

Translating Postscript Type 1 to OpenType

Thankfully, there are professional font creation programs, such as Fontographer and FontLab, that can translate older Postscript Type 1 fonts to newer OpenType fonts. They only caveat is that you must have the permission or license to either do such translations or purchase the newer OpenType fonts from their original font foundries. Use of Adobe OpenType fonts is available with subscription use of Creative Cloud programs from Adobe. Thousands of fonts are available through this monthly service.

Font Facts

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 19:49:38 GMT

All About Type

1. SERIF – (in TYPE above) “feet” in French; a small finishing stroke to a letter form that crosses roughly perpendicular to the stroke. Serif type is preferred in text, or “body,” copy because it is more readable in longer sections of type. This is because the letter forms are more distinguishable, and the eye naturally follows the horizontal strokes of the letter forms.

2. SANS SERIF – (in STYLE above) “without feet” in French; a font without serifs. Helvetica is an example of a “sans serif” font. Sans serif type is more legible and often preferred in headlines or what is called “display” copy. It’s uniform strokes help the face to stand out.

3. POINT SIZE – the height of the type body, including the ascenders (cf. 8 ) and the descenders (cf. 6) and extending to a fixed depth below the descenders. In modern desktop publishing, one point equals 1⁄72 inch.This sample is set in 90 point type.

4. X-HEIGHT – the height of lowercase letters without ascenders or descenders, like the “e” measured from the baseline (cf. 5 ) to the mean line (cf. 9), or top of such letters. X-height becomes important when choosing a typeface, or font, for a particular column width. Wider columns use type with greater x-height, while narrow columns generally require a typeface with a smaller x-height.

5. BASELINE – an imaginary horizontal line on which the font letters forms rest. Note that for font design purposes, some letter forms, like the "o" fall slightly below the baseline.

6. DESCENDER – the portion of letters like “g,” “j,” “p,” “q,” and “y” that extends below the baseline. It is usually less than the height of an ascender.

7. ITALICS – type that slants to the right, used to set off quotes, book titles and special phrases. Some fonts have what are called “true” italics (like the “e” in TYPE), while others have “oblique” or merely slanted letters (like the “e” in STYLE). Sans serif (cf. 2) in STYLE) letter forms usually have “obliques” for italics.

8. ASCENDER – the portion of a lowercase letter that extends above the mean line (cf. 9).

9. MEAN LINE – the imaginary line at the top of lowercase letters without ascenders or descenders, like the “e” measured from the baseline (cf. 7 ). SEE x-height 4.

10. DINGBATS – small decorative marks, bullets, boxes, or symbols that make up a specialty font; once known as “printer’s flowers.” Here the dingbat is from the typeface known as Zapf Dingbats. Dingbats add “spice” to ads and even some kinds of text copy.

Converting PageMaker to InDesign

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 19:18:52 GMT

How to Convert PageMaker Files to InDesign Files

To some users with legacy PageMaker files, converting them to Adobe InDesign files has been a challenge. Adobe Systems Incorporated stopped shipping or updating PageMaker files for a number of years. They moved on to InDesign programming and layout. Aldus PageMaker 3 for Macintosh and Windows was shipped in 1988. Aldus PageMaker 4 for Macintosh was released in 1990, with the Windows version in 1991, and offered new word-processing capabilities, expanded typographic controls, and enhanced features for handling long documents.

Aldus PageMaker 5.0 was released in January 1993. Aldus was purchased by Adobe Systems who took over the upgrades and further enhancements. Adobe PageMaker 6.0 was released in 1995, and Adobe PageMaker 6.5 was released in 1996.

Support for versions 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, and 6.5 is no longer offered through the official Adobe support system. This poses substantial problems for users who have works authored in these legacy versions.

The final version made available is PageMaker 7.0, released in 2001, though updates have been released for the two supported platforms since.

The Macintosh version runs only in Mac OS 9 or earlier; there is no native support for Mac OS X, and it does not run at all on Intel-based Macs. It does not run well under Classic, and Adobe recommends that customers use an older Macintosh capable of booting into Mac OS 9. The Windows version supports Windows XP and a few other Windows versions.

As Adobe migrated users to its new InDesign format released in 2001, versions 1 through CS6 had their fair share of adoption issues and compatibility problems. Newer versions of InDesign can read older InDesign versions, but they are not backwards compatible. InDesign CS6 can read only PageMaker 6.5 files. Consequently, users who now have InDesign CC series cannot read older PageMaker files at all. Thus, the need for this service.

What We Can Do For You

PageMaker 3 – 5 to InDesign ($1 5 per file) (Macintosh)

Specify the InDesign format to what you want to transfer your files. We offer InDesign CS – CS6 and InDesign CC. To transfer these older PM files to newer InDesign files (InDesign CS6 and beyond) requires first transferring them to PageMaker 6.5 files. Our goal is to keep your formatting and fonts in place. If we cannot do this, we will let you know before the transfer takes place.

PageMaker 6.x to InDesign ($1 5 per file) (Macintosh)

Specify the InDesign format to what you want to transfer your files. We offer InDesign CS – CS6 and InDesign CC. Our goal is to keep your formatting and fonts in place. If we cannot do this, we will let you know before the transfer takes place.

PageMaker 6.5 or 7 to InDesign CS ($1 5 per file) (Windows)

We also offer a Windows based transfer system for PageMaker 6 or later files to InDesign CS.

We own the legal rights to the use of this software. All of the software used has a valid Adobe serial number. We have been using this software since its inception to the Macintosh or Windows platforms.

7 Layout Tips

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 17:45:32 GMT

7 Layout Tips for Your Next Piece

How do I produce a newsletter that is inviting, eye-catching and easy to read? What are the time-honored rules of layout and design that will help me? This is a vast topic, to be sure, but here are seven (7) basic rules to give attention to for you to "look good" in print and digital media.

Know where you are going . Have a good understanding of the goals and purpose of your piece. What do you want to accomplish through this piece? Here, "form" follows "function." Roger Parker in his Looking Good In Print notes: "There should be a logical reason for the way you employ every graphic tool. That tool should relate to the idea it expresses as well as the environment in which the final product will appear." (p. 4)

Place the right fonts and graphics well . There are time-honored rules for mixing and using different fonts, or typefaces, in a piece. Most print pieces use a serif (with "feet") font for the main text and a sans-serif (without "feet") font for headlines. This rule has been used successfully for ages, but digital use has relaxed the rules somewhat. The issue here is readability. What should stand out, stands out, and what should be read for information is clear. Clarity, organization and simplicity should rule.

Guide the reader through your piece . "The design of that map [a reading roadmap] should follow the readers' natural tendency to read an advertisement or publication from upper left to lower right." (p. 6)

Use plenty of what is called "white space." Don't try to crowd into a piece all that can or even should be said. Separate headings from text, points from one another, and use sufficient white space to separate graphics from textual elements. If it looks "crowded" it probably is crowded.

Don't try to "show off" in your piece. This is not "art for art's sake" or to show your ability to mix colors and fonts and graphics or to display your talents. This is to get the point across in the most direct and pleasing way possible.

Pay attention to spelling and grammar . Probably the most overlooked and underrated truth about many newsletters is that they ignore proper spelling and the right use of grammatical constructs. Buy a "style manual" and consult it for proper sentence, paragraph and topical styles, especially if you footnote something. By the way — be especially careful of plagiarizing. This is unfortunately a major "sin" in church and ministry communications. Give credit to where credit is due.

Use spell checkers and layout helps . Microsoft and Adobe and many other publishers have publishing helps and advice which you should give attention to and use and adapt for your needs.

Hopefully, these introductory points will help your publications shine!

Successful Layout & Design

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Responding to AI and Digital Babylon

Type Details Matter: Typos & Fractions

Free Fonts: A Deal or Trouble?

More On The Greek Font

Newest Decorative Font: Nabel Dado

Historical Literary Fonts: The Fell Fonts

Nothing New Under the Sun: A Look At Current Typographic Trends

AI & Typography: A Christian-Theistic Look

Variable Fonts: An Introduction

Advances in Typography: Late Twentieth to Twenty-First Centuries A Historical Sketch (Part 3)

Advances in Typography: Twentieth Century A Historical Sketch (Part 2)

Advances in Typography: Twentieth Century (Part 1)

Advances in Typography: A Historical Sketch (Part 2)

Advances in Typography (1500–1900): A Historical Sketch (Part 1)

Type After Gutenberg: A Historical Sketch

Theology of Type (3): The Twentieth Century (Part 2)

Theology of Type (3): The Twentieth Century (Part 1)

Theology of Type (2): Gutenberg to Early 1900s

Theology of Type (1): Printers Marks Expanded

Calligraphy & Typography

Early German Typography (Part 2)

Early German Typography (Part 1)

Art Nouveau Typography

Ornamental Gothics

More Fournier

A Cross Inspired Typeface

Slab Serif Font History

Pen-Lettering History

Digitizing Faust

Typography and Religion in the De Stijl Movement

Font Restoration Mechanics

Wide Is Beautiful

Italics

Sketch & Hand Drawn Lettering

Four Old Playful Fancy Fonts

Blackletter Type & Universities

Seven Revived Fonts

Early American Printing & Type Foundries

Pierre-Simon Fournier

Art In The Alphabet: What AI Cannot Give Us

Lewis F. Day's Summary

Reviving Old Fonts

﻿

An Art Nouveau Font

Historic Font Sets

Classic Caps

Numbers in Typography

Typographic Signposts

All About Ampersands

About Sans Serif Fonts

Dignified Courier

Helvetica's Journey

Early Printing & Typography: An Extended Early History

Font Master: Frederick W. Goudy

Making A Pictogram Font

Typography Pictorial History

Old Bible Typography Versals

More About Paper

Printers' Maxims & Other Notes

Install Tricks for Double Drives Mac Mini

A Bible Typography Manifesto

A New Church/Ministry Font

The StoryBook Font & Fairy Tale Font

Work or Craft?

Want To Sell Your Book?

A New Tool Font

Ancient Alphabets

Electronic Publishing

Copyright Do's and Don't's

Kern, Kern, Kern

Helvetica's Better Substitutes

Hour Glass Creation

Creating Fillable Forms

What's In A Name?

Using Open Type Fonts

Calendars for 2024

Type for Text

Decluttering A Layout