From Gutenberg to Open Type

Draws together the development of type and type design from its inception to the present day, alongside the technical advances of printing. This book looks at the influences that prompted men of letters to apply their minds to mechanical writing and how printing and type production was adopted as a craft, trade, and later a giant industry.

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The purpose of this book is to draw together the development of type and type design from its inception to the present day, alongside the technical advances of printing. Much has been written about type, typographic design, and the history of printing, but usually as separate themes. Type, its manufacture, development, and employment has always been inextricably bound up with the process of putting ink onto paper. Here we take a look at the influences that prompted men of letters to apply their minds to mechanical writing and how printing and type production was adopted as a craft, trade, and later a giant industry. Great cultural, social, and economic changes have taken place over the centuries since Gutenberg and in parallel to these, together with art, architecture and fashion, can be traced the evolution of typeforms and styles of publishing and graphic expression.