Typography- Gutenberg and Moveable Type

Typography is essential for conveying meaning or atmosphere, the typeface the information is being conveyed in must coordinate with the nature of the information, in order for the audience to be interested or persuaded.

I found the history of Gutenberg to be highly interesting, as it was an example of technology being advanced to new heights as it is used for new ideas, being the synergy of letter printing of the Chinese dynasties, with the printing press. I was also interested by how this invention completely overhauled European society at the time, allowing the common folk means to learn to read, and have access to religious text, without the need of the church relaying and often falsifying it.

I did some extra research on this, and found out that the invention of the Gutenberg press is considered by many historians to be the start of the European Age of Enlightenment, ending the medieval period. The regions of Germany were also the centre of the Holy Roman Empire, the dominant power of Western Europe, and the geographical and political importance of the nation allowed Gutenberg’s invention to spread quickly throughout Europe.

Anatomy of type

One of the most useful topics of this week’s lecture, in my opinion was the anatomy of a typeface, and a lesson I have taken from this lecture is to ensure elements such as letter spacing, line and paragraph heights are finely tuned to suit the typeface, weight and purpose of the text, for the appropriate readability.

I spent some time this week also researching various typefaces, such as Garamond, Helvetica, Proxima Nova, and Futura, to start my research for the first project. I also created some initial sketches for the project. This research is compiled in the Type Specimen Screen project page.