Typography

Typography is the art and technique of setting written subject matter in type using a combination of fonts, font size, line length, leading (line spacing) and individual and overall letter spacing. more...

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Typography is performed by typesetters, compositors, typographers, graphic artists, art directors, clerical workers, lay users and children. Until the Digital Age typography was a specialized occupation. Digitization opened up typography to lay users and new generations of visual designers.

Etymology & Scope

Typography (from the Greek words τύπος type = \"to strike\" \"That by which something is symbolized or figured...\" and γραφία graphia = to write).

In contemporary use, the practice and study of typography is very broad, covering all aspects of letter design and application, including typesetting & typeface design; handwriting & calligraphy; graffiti; inscriptional & architectural lettering; poster design and other large scale lettering (signage, billboards); business communications & promotional collateral; advertising; wordmarks & typographic logos (logotypes), and kinetic typography in motion picture films and television.

Since digitization the range of type's applications has become more eclectic, appearing on apparel (clothing), web pages, and as a component of industrial design—type resides on household appliances, LCD mobile phone screens, car vehicle instrument panels, hand-held video games, pens and wristwatches.

Typographic images generally follow a format of four principles, using repetition, contrast, proximity, and alignment.

History

Origins of the letter punch

The practice of printing multiple copies of symbols or glyphs with a master type punch made of hard metal developed around 3000 B.C. with the appearance of currency in ancient Sumer. Bars or ingots of precious metal were imprinted with a distinctive stamp; the act of imprinting the ingots certified them as currency by the power of formality embodied by the type image. These metal coin punch types were the precursors of letter punches later adapted to printing with moveable metal type.

By 650 B.C the ancient Greeks were using larger diameter punches to imprint small \"page\" images onto coins and tokens. Cylinder seals were a related form of early typography capable of printing small \"pages\" of a distinctive design in cameo on wax or clay—a forerunner of rotogravure printing used by wealthy individuals to seal and certify documents.

The artists who made the first coin punches were in effect the first typographers and type designers. Their designs—including glyphs and words—were stylized with a degree of skill that could not be mistaken for common handy-work—they were specific types (forms), designed to be reproduced ad infinitum. Unlike the first typefaces used to print books in the 15th century, these types were neither combined or printed with ink on paper, but were nonetheless \"published\" in metal—a more durable medium—and survived in substantial numbers. As the portable face of ruling authority, coins were a compact form of standardized knowledge issued in large editions, making them an early mass medium that helped civilization spread throughout the Mediterranean world of antiquity.

Read more at Wikipedia.org