IxD 102: Gutenberg & Movable Type – Ciara Fraser’s IXD blog

“What gunpowder did for war, the printing press has done for the mind”

-Wendell Phillips

Before we covered this topic, I knew what a printing press was, but I wasn’t aware of the scale of which it changed the printing and typographic world. One thing that stood out to me from the lecture was the strong sentence that without Gutenberg, interaction design and many design orientated occupations wouldn’t exist, and after my research I have to agree with it.

Eric Spiekermann once said that “type is clothing for words”. They can change how we view and interpret what is being said. For example you wouldn’t use fun and exciting fonts for a funeral or lawyer service, whereas it would suit a kids party hire. This was something I hadn’t realised how big of a role the type played into portraying the information.

Spiekermann is a German typographer, designer and writer and is one of the best-known in the world. He has had a huge influence on contemporary graphic design including his work for Audi, Volkswagen and Bosch. He designed the FF Meta typeface and founded the multidisciplinary design consultancy MetaDesign in Berlin, in 1979, which now has other offices worldwide including in Zurich and San Francisco. Spiekermann has worked alongside some other well-known designers including Neville Brody.

The first invention which brought change in the printing world…

Before there was type, there was printing. It had a major break through after being invented by the Chinese in the 3rd Century. It was here the first example of movable type was used. Before this, books had to be written by hand, so compared to today, there were very little. The first recognised example of movable type is credited to Bi Sheng in 990-1051 AD, a Chinese inventor, who changed the previous technique of engraving characters into one large block, which meant one block could only be used for one book. Bi Sheng’s invention meant that printing became more efficient and a lot easier. Carvings were now on small clay blocks, meaning they could be rearranged rather than carving from scratch. These blocks where then placed onto an iron plate so the ink could be applied and pressed into the paper.

Then in Europe…

While Bi Cheng’s invention saw huge success in ancient China, in Europe a man called Johannes Gutenberg, a revisionary ‘inventor’, used Bi Cheng’s invention to bring the success worldwide.

Johannes Gutenberg (1399-1468) was a German craftsman and inventor who is credited with what is considered to be the history-changing invention of the printing press. It was Gutenberg who introduced printing to Europe. The printing press is a device which allows for the mass production of text. It was during his political exile from Mainz, where he began experimenting with printing while in France. And once he returned to Germany, he had a full functioning printing press, The Gutenberg Press. One significant change was the move from wood to metal blocks in the European version. The power of printing in obvious when you compare it to other inventions. No other travelled throughout Europe at such speed, with there being one book for every five people living in Western Europe. One of the reasons it grew so quickly was the Bible. With the increased speed books could now be printed, it saw more people wanted a personal Bible for themselves. Similar to the press, this printed Bible was called the Gutenberg Bible. Key phrases we use today, like uppercase and lowercase letters come from Gutenberg’s press, simply with how letters were either placed in the uppercase shelving or the lower.

The Rise of Typefaces…

In the 19th century, industrialisation lead to the rise in typefaces. Slab serif is still used today but it was during this industrialisation period that it was designed by British punch cutter and type founder Vincent Figgins. It was released under the name if Antique in 1815, but his most influential design was the Monotype Ionic typeface from 1821. It was using his typeface designs, that the model for many twentieth century newspaper was based off of.

As a result of the industrialisation…

Figgins was the first to design a slab serif typeface and this was followed by a range of other typefaces like serif, sans serif etc. When looking at the different typefaces, it all comes down to changes to some of their properties including, the font weight, width, contrast, x-height, serifs and slabs, geometry, and statics and dynamics.

Looking at typefaces in more detail…

As a result of the numerous properties that can be altered in a type design, it has led to type classifications.

Serif…

This is a small shape that appears at the beginning or end of the stroke on a letter. Serif fonts are classified as, Old-Style serifs (low contrast strokes, diagonal stress, slanted serifs on lowercase), transitional serifs (high contrast strokes, high x-height, vertical stress, bracketed serifs), Didone or neoclassical serifs (very high contrast strokes, vertical stress, ‘ball’ terminal strokes), or slab serifs (heavy serifs, minimal or no bracketing).

Sans Serif…

This is a typeface that doesn’t have any serifs, as Sans translated means without. These type of typefaces can be classified as, Grotesque (low contrast strokes, vertical stress), Humanist (medium contrast strokes, slanted stress), or Geometric (low contrast strokes, vertical stress, circular round forms).

Monospace…

This is any typeface which all the characters on display have the same width.

Handwriting…

These are unconventional typefaces, with a natural and handwritten feel. The forms they can come in are black letter (high contrast, narrow, straight lines and angular curves), script (calligraphic style), and handwriting (replica of handwriting).

Display…

The classification for typefaces only suitable for large sizes.

What would type be if it’s not readable…

Often confused with legibility, the readability of a typeface refers to how easy it is to read. This can be affected by the style of a font. It depends on the letter-spacing, line length, line height, paragraph spacing, and type alignment. These are all things which before I researched into, didn’t realise the importance they held, particularly the paragraph spacing and alignment.

More is needed…

As printing grew in popularity, people needed more options in terms of typefaces to improve the quality of the printing. A few of these include Futura, Gill Sans, and Helvetica. Paul Renner (1878-1956) a German typeface designer is credited with the design of one of the most successful and most-used typefaces of the 20th century in Futura. It is a geometric sans-serif typeface, based off geometric shapes, particularly the circle. Eric Gill (1882-1940) was an English sculptor, typeface designer and printmaker. Gill designed the humanist sans-serif typeface Gill Sans in 1926. It was based on Edward Johnston’s “Underground Alphabet” and aimed to create a design that was both modern and classical. Helvetica is a very serious typeface, but was still very popular among designers. The Neo-grotesque san-serif typeface was designed by Max Miedingers who took inspiration from the 19th century font face Akzidenz-Grotesk. These are just a few of the new typefaces that were created in line with the growth in demand for printing and increase readability.