Throughout history, typefaces have been influenced by technological advances, culture shifts, and just general boredom with the state of typography. Up until this point, all written materials were done by hand, and were very costly to purchase.
Guttenburg also created the first typeface, blackletter — it was dark, fairly practical, and intense, but not very legible. It was far more readable than blackletter, and caught on quickly. Today, we use italics as a design detail or for emphasis when writing. The contrasts were more extreme than ever before, and created a very cool, fresh look. It was widely rebuked at the time. This was the start of what we now consider Sans Serif typefaces.
During this time, type exploded, and many, many variations were being created to accommodate advertising. This was a return to minimalism, and many other simplistic typefaces such as Futura surfaced around this time period. Embed this infographic into a website.
While there is no definitive list of the classifications of typefaces, there are seven that are generally recognized: serif, sans serif, script, blackletter, display, monospaced, and symbol or ornamental.
Blackletter typefaces were the first in typeface history, followed by serifs and sans serifs. The first typeface was a Blackletter variety used by Johannes Gutenberg on the first printing press, starting in This typeface design was created to mimic the calligraphic handwriting used by monks to hand-transcribe manuscripts prior to the invention of the printing press.
Typefaces can be described with a few criteria: their classification serif, sans serif , letter shape geometric, condensed , mood formal, casual , suitability for different types of text headlines, body copy , and things like weight thin, bold or style italic, oblique.
The first commercial typeface styles—called Blackletter—were based on handwritten manuscripts created by monks prior to the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in The letterforms closely resembled calligraphy, with complex shapes and ornamentation. Subscription implies consent to our privacy policy. Thank you! Check out your inbox to confirm your invite. Design All Blogs Icon Chevron. Filter by.
View all results. UI Design. Author Cameron Chapman. Books for the Masses Gutenberg recognized that being able to mass-produce books quickly and cheaply was a lucrative prospect. Space-saving Typefaces Blackletter typefaces were the original standard for printing, mainly because they mimicked the handwriting style of the time.
Improving Readability Efficiency was not the only typographic challenge tackled by the first type designers. Large-scale advertising design also brought about the first sans serif typeface. Sans Serif Type Makes Its First Appearance Around the same time as the first slab serif typeface became available, the first sans serif type became commercially available.
Typeface Evolution on the Web The 21st century brought considerable advances in web fonts. Understanding the basics. World-class articles, delivered weekly. Sign Me Up Subscription implies consent to our privacy policy. By clicking Accept Cookies, you agree to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.
Accept Cookies. These included the dynamic Rustic capitals, as well as the unicase uncial, which helped shape the Carolingian minuscule lowercase ovals with their distinctive ascenders and descenders. An increasingly-literate population had a growing appetite for books, leading to some purely functional changes, such as letters becoming less wide in order to accommodate a faster writing style and save resources.
The precise and limited number of alphabetic characters of the first Gutenberg font influenced its success, standing in stark contrast to the millions of possible glyph combinations in East-asian scripts, where woodcarving proved easier. The technique would allow for more characters per line, and in turn, more information per page. They tend to have consistent stress angles, moderate stroke contrast, and generally exhibit a strong connection between the actual glyph forms and the writing tool being used, in this case a broad-nibbed pen.
Italy in the early Renaissance period was a place of technological wonder and conceptual redefinition. Innovative printers like Nicola Jenson designed their work in opposition to the condensed blackletter-inspired type used in Germany, which suffered from poor legibility and cluttered, disorienting layouts. This practice formed from the merger of two separate styles — the Carolingian miniscule with its balanced and wide lowercase letters, and the triumphal and imposing Roman Imperial Capitalis.
Examples: Centaur, Jenson. The next typeface segment is characterized by uniform consistency with a larger contrast, as well as moderate weight and an oblique axis. Its name is a portmanteau of two typography greats and major figures from the Renaissance era — French punchcutter Claude Garamond and Italian publisher Aldus Manutius. Examples: Bembo, Garamond. Historically related to the rational spirit of the Enlightenment period, these fonts had hints of calligraphy but mostly relied on a bigger stroke contrast, stylized shapes with bracketed serifs and round, bulbous terminals.
By this point engraving techniques had become more complex, allowing for bigger contrast and finer details, which interacted well with the prevailing art styles of the time — Baroque and Rococo.
The arrival of copperplate engraving techniques opened the doors to much wider variations in terms of stroke thickness, and as a result many modern typefaces achieved levels of contrast that were previously thought impossible.
Didone takes its name from the Didot and Bodoni type families, which were very popular during the period. Characterized by non-bracketed serifs and very high contrast between thicks and thins, Didone was a direct result of the Classicist ideal for symmetric and minimal shapes that are free of unnecessary details.
The arrival of mechanistic typography coincides with the Industrial Revolution at the beginning of the XIX century. Increased commerce and large-scale improvements in the mechanized printing process post meant that new typefaces were needed to fill the void. The newly-found interest in engaging advertising meant that new fonts were designed with attention-grabbing headlines and irresistible slogans in mind.
A notable presence amidst all the bold experiments from this period Apart from the newspaper typefaces optimized for faster printing, the high interest in engaging advertising sparked the appearance of type for attention-grabbing headlines and irresistible slogans. This experimental period also introduced low-contrast typefaces with equally thick and square slab serifs, along with Ionics, or Clarendons, whose serifs were smoothly bracketed.
The lack of convention for all the terms being used lead to a general confusion around slab serifs, thus generalizing the square unbracketed Egyptian and the bracketed Ionics. By the early 19th century typography had begun to outgrow the possibilities offered solely by serifs, and a new approach towards font design became apparent with the onset of the Industrial Revolution. Newspaper publishers, store owners and official institutions were quick to adapt the new style, which was not only easier to read, but well suited to attention-grabbing headlines and signage.
The evolution of sans-serifs continued during the 20th century, as they became the dominant force in typography. They were preferred by software developers in the s due to the low resolution offered by CRT monitors. Even though serifs have been significantly optimized since then, and contemporary screens have much higher technical capabilities, the sans-serif continues to rule the web.
With their raw appearance, solid geometric design and simple, but memorable letter forms, grotesques made for great display fonts.
In the s a new form of visual expression called the International Typographic Style was developed in Germany, the Netherlands and Russia. Amongst its telltale signs are a preference for clean, minimal forms, an emphasis on readability, and an almost religious belief in the power of objectivity. In the post-war period, prominent designers like Adrian Frutiger and Max Miedinger were advocating for a functionality-driven approach to mass production practices. By increasing and balancing the proportions of the old Grotesque fonts, and then carefully distributing the width and weight, they created a brand new class of fonts.
We have come to call these by the umbrella term Neo-Grotesque, and they have been a commanding force in typography ever since. Hailing from s Germany, the Geometric Sans style is characterized by smooth shapes and a widespread use of geometric forms, including near-perfect counters and an efficient appearance. The period was a hotbed for cultural experimentation, and gave rise to a number of avant-garde movements that wanted to merge crafts across mediums and formats.
The urge to bring functional and simplified creations to the wider public extended into typography as well, where designers were aiming for utilitarian, clutter-free fonts. A year later Paul Renner released Futura, which remains one of the most recognizable geometric sans-serifs even today due to its elegant design and great legibility. The font draws heavily from the proportions of Roman capital inscriptions, and is constructed entirely from basic geometric shapes.
It is used in most modern airplanes, and was the typeface chosen for the commemorative plaque left on the Moon by the Apollo 11 mission in July of While modernists were busy with their reforms, another group was more interested in a softer approach to handwriting and calligraphy.
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