- Give a simple introduction the history of typography
- Introduce the six main classifications of type
- Introduce some famous type faces and their related connotations
- Introduce the metalinguistic function of typography
- Talking about kerning and x-heights
Typography =
Meta-communication
Paralinguistics
Kinesics
Type Classifications:
Humanist | Old Style | Transitional | Modern
Slab Serif (Egyptian) | Sans Serif
Humanist
The Humanist types (sometimes referred to as Venetian) appeared during
the 1460s and 1470s, and were modelled not on the dark gothic scripts
like textura, but on the lighter, more open forms of the Italian humanist writers. The Humanist types were at the same time the first roman types.
Old Style
The Old Style (or Garalde) types start to demonstrate a greater
refinement—to a large extent augmented by the steadily improving skills
of punchcutters. As a consequence the Old Style types are characterised
by greater contrast between thick and thin strokes, and are generally
speaking, sharper in appearance, more refined. You can see this, perhaps
most notably in the serifs: in Old Style types the serifs on the ascenders are more wedge shaped
Transitional
The 17th and 18th centuries introduced new trends in Western typography:
the letters received greater contrast between thick and thin strokes,
bracketed serifs turned into fine almost straight lines, and the
stressing became vertical. William Caslon, Johann Fleischmann, and John
Baskerville made notable contributions to the development of the
so-called transitional Roman typefaces.
Caslon-Bold,
Dustismo Roman Bold,
Sanskrit Roman Bold Italic fonts inherit the best traits of this particular tradition in western typography.
Modern Typeface
Modern fonts are recognizable by their thin, long horizontal serifs, and
clear-cut thick/thin transitions in the strokes. The stress is
vertical, i.e. there is no slant on the letters.
They tend to look very structured and could be considered cold.
Having said that, modern fonts can look really eye-catching and very
elegant at large sizes. They are not suitable for large
amounts of body text, either on the web or in print. When used for body
copy in print, an effect called “dazzling” occurs, the thick lines
become very prominent while the thin lines almost disappear. It’s best
to keep them for headings and sub-headings. You may not use the modern
typeface too often, but as a designer it’s nice to be able to pick out
and recognize font categories.
You probably have a number of
Modern fonts on your computer already. Some examples are Didot, Onyx and
Times Bold. I’ve picked out seven more which are available to download
for free.
http://www.sitepoint.com/the-modern-typeface/
Modern Slab Serif
During the early 19th century, especially in Britain, letter drawers
began creating thicker versions of letterforms common in European
printing during the 18th century, e.g., the types of the Fourniers,
Giambattista Bodoni, or the Didots. These new letter styles began to
appear throughout British society. Artists, artisans, printers, and
typefounders … they all would come to embrace these new ideas. In the
realm of typefounding, these faces came to represent the age of
industrialization, and also the beginnings of advertising. This also
marked the birth hour for typefaces that would be marketed by their
makers for “display” use. Quite common today!
As far as the typefaces go, the first examples seem to have been
all-caps alphabets; faces with lowercase letters would come a bit later.
In the UK, many of these early slab serifs were called “Egyptians,”
even though they had very little to do with Egypt. Enthusiasm in Western
Europe was quite high during this time period; Napoleon and his army
had faced off against the British there, and hieroglyphics were in the
process of decipherment. Perhaps the naming of typefaces as “Egyptian”
had something to do with this popularity.
http://www.linotype.com/3493/introduction.html
Sans Serif Typface
In
typography, a
sans-serif,
sans serif,
san serif or simply
sans typeface is one that does not have the small projecting features called "
serifs" at the end of strokes. The term comes from the French word
sans, meaning "without".
In print, sans-serif fonts are used for headlines rather than for body text.
[1] The
conventional wisdom
holds that serifs help guide the eye along the lines in large blocks of
text. Sans-serifs, however, have acquired considerable acceptance for
body text in
Europe.
Sans-serif fonts have become the
de facto standard for body text on-screen, especially online. This is partly because
interlaced displays may show
twittering
on the fine details of the horizontal serifs. Additionally, the low
resolution of digital displays in general can make fine details like
serifs disappear or appear too large.
Before the term “sans-serif” became standard in English typography, a
number of other terms had been used. One of these outmoded terms for
sans serif was
gothic, which is still used in East Asian typography and sometimes seen in font names like
Century Gothic or
Trade Gothic.
Sans-serif fonts are sometimes, especially in older documents, used as a device for
emphasis, due to their typically blacker
type color.
