The Birth of Typography
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Previously on Photography For You, I shared with you a video to inform you what exactly typography is. [the link]. Today’s article you will learn a brief history about typography. You now know that typography is what language looks, it’s the art and techniques of type design and you should have an understanding of how it is made. You also know having the right/wrong typeface can make/break your photographs. In that article I also shared 6 websites for you to find free fonts or typefaces. But where exactly did typography come from?
Typography came from the Greek word typos, meaning to strike (did the Greeks walk around with signs saying typos when they wanted a raise from their jobs?). Research has found the first known movable type printing artifact is probably the Phaistos Disc. The Phaistos Disc dates back to 1850BC and 1600 BC.
Let’s think of the luxury we have to day. To go to a website to learn about the birth of typography we are now trained where to strike the keys on a keyboard. If we wanted to make a personal book we design it on Adobe’s software, place the typography on the design using Adobe’s software and have it shipped to Mpix or Xumba in Miami, Florida to be printed. Before the printing press there was a time when the only option was for our books to be designed and written by hand (Ouch!). We must say thank you to Johannes Gutenberg for movable type. His process: A punch made of steel, with a mirrored image of the letter stuck into a piece of softer metal. Molten meal is then poured into this, and you get type. The type is put into a matrix to form the page of text, inked, and then pressed into paper. (I prefer to just hit the key on the keyboard!)
As Art Lovers appreciating typography, we must also thank Claude Garamond. Garamond, the first independent type founder. Garamond, a French gentleman was in fact the first to make type available to printers at an affordable price.
Now you know where exactly type came from and the names of two gentlemen that made it possible to quickly share Typography Thursday’s with you.
On Typography Thursday’s I will be share with you typefaces that I found and liked. I will also be sharing the links where you can download the fonts for free. If you missed the last post with 6 websites I like for free fonts visit, [the link].
