On the Development of Letterpress Typefaces

The Shift From Hand Calligraphy to Strict Geometry

Jul 28, 2009

The earliest typefaces were made to be almost indistinguishable from hand calligraphy, while "modern" type attempts to sever the connection to handwriting entirely.

Letterpress printing uses the system known as "moveable type," in which each letter of the alphabet is a separate metal or wood block. Type is "set," or arranged in words and sentences, then inked and printed onto paper using a press. Type can be cut individually, letter-by-letter, but when many, many copies of each letter are needed for even a simple document, cutting each one by becomes too tedious to make it worthwhile. This is one reason that hand-copying of texts was a regular practice for hundreds of years.

Fortunately, in the 14th century Johann Gutenberg came up with a clever mould system by which many copies of each character could be cast from a single hand-cut die (Chappell 48). Gutenberg cast his type from lead, which melts at a conveniently low temperature, but with the addition of antimony and tin is hard enough to use several times before needing to be melted down and re-cast (Chappell 47).

Typefaces as Calligraphy

The earliest typefaces mimicked hand calligraphy so closely that they were almost indistinguishable (Chappell 46; Grabhorn 227), which may have helped printed book gain acceptance in a world used to the books laboriously copied by scribes. Early printed books look very much like manuscripts, and were even provided with hand-painted miniatures and hand-lettered rubrics--the only easily-spotted difference is that the printed books had identical letters throughout (Scholderer Plate I).

In Germany, type continued to look much like calligraphy until surprisingly recently (Wikipedia “History”). Open an old German book in a library, and you are likely to find it filled with dense blackletter type. However, many printers and punchcutters (who doubled as type designers back then) realized that metal type could be simplified and made more readable. The humanist influence in Italy, which had quickly become the centre of printing, also ensured the development of more structured typefaces (McMurtrie 197).

Old Style and Carolingian Typefaces

"Old style" type, based on the text used in Roman inscriptions (itself based on the principles of Euclidean geometry) soon replaced more calligraphic type styles. The miniscule lettering of Carolingian scribes was used as the model for lower-case characters to use alongside the Roman capitals. Throughout the centuries, type was further developed, but always maintained its tie to the original handwritten models in its elegant serifs and thick-thin strokes (Wikipedia "History").

Modern Typefaces and Geometry

In the 17th and 18th centuries, such type designers as William Caslon and John Baskerville began to develop more modern types (McMurtrie 378), but it was not until Giambattista Bodoni and the Didot family (most notably Fermin Didot) that the connection to handwriting was fully severed (though it can be argued that it is impossible to truly divorce type from the writing from which it developed) by a strict reliance on geometry (McMurtrie 383-9).

References

Chappell, Warren. A Short History of the Printed Word. Boston: Nonpareil Books, 1970.

Grabhorn, Edwin. “The Fine Art of Printing.” In Books and Printing: A Treasury for Typophiles. Revised edition. Ed. Paul A. Bennett. Cleveland and New York: Forum, 1963. Pages 226-232.

McMurtrie, Douglas C. The Book: The Story of Printing & Bookmaking. 1943. New York: Dorset, 1989.

Scholderer, Victor. Johann Gutenberg: Inventor of Printing. London: The British Museum, 1963.

The copyright of the article On the Development of Letterpress Typefaces in Fonts/Typography is owned by Nicole Silvester. Permission to republish On the Development of Letterpress Typefaces in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.