AN INTRODUCTION TO: TYPOGRAPHY The Public is an activist design studio specializing in changing the world. This zine, a part of our Creative Resistance How-to Series, is designed to make our skill sets accessible to the communities with whom we work. We encourage you to copy, share, and adapt it to fit your needs as you change the world for the better, and to share your work with us along the way. Special thanks to Tings Chak, for developing this zine on behalf of The Public. For more information, please visit thepublicstudio.ca. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/. CONTENTS Introduction 4 The power of typography 5 The “history” of typography 6 Type classifications 7 Technology and typography 8 Writing 8 Engraving 9 Printing 9 Typing 10 Computing 11 Type across scales 12 The letter 12 The word 12 The text 12 The anatomy of type 14 Parts of a page 16 How to use type 18 Accessibility 18 Combining typefaces 20 Don’t be racist 23 Radical typography 24 Resources 27 Websites 27 Books 27 Miscellaneous 27 Font sources/foundries 27 Worksheet 28 Glossary 30 Introduction Typography (“form” + “writing” in Typography Greek) is the art and technique of designing, modifying, and expresses arranging type (letters and characters). Typography is a feelings, conveys craft that involves typesetters, meanings, compositers, typographers, graphic designers, calligraphers, creates contrasts, grafitti artists, comic book artists, highlights ideas, and anyone who arranges type to create something. and adds visual Typography is an essential interests to the element to graphic design—it content that expresses feelings, conveys meanings, creates contrast, you’re designing. highlights ideas, and adds visual interest to the content that you’re designing. This guide will help you think about type more critically and use it more effectively! H tt P://100 T YPES. co M/100 T YPES. co M. TI MEL IN E.H T ML - 4 - THE POWER OF TYPOGRAPHY Most people interact with typography in a passive way, seeing type as a series of letters, numbers, and symbols in default settings on your computer programs (like Microsoft Word) and on the internet. Arial, Times New Roman, Impact, Courier New, and yes, the unfortunate Comic Sans, are casually used and consumed with little thought as to what they mean and what they convey. Type has meaning depending on the context that you it is used. For example, Garamond symbolizes the power and rule of a 16th century French monarch, the original blackletter font became associated with fascism when it was co-opted by the Nazi regime, and the “Chop Suey” type, developed in the United States, speaks to a history of racism (that still exists today!). Type also has feelings and moods! Try to match the typefaces below with the emotions convey: DIN 1451 Std assertive assertive Georgia cute cute Fargo Faro conservativeconservative Blue Lines comical comical Learning Curve athletic athletic Edwardian Script playful playful geogram elegant elegant Ravie Regular creative creative Komika Axis technical technical - 5 - THE “HISTORy” of TYPOGRAPHY Disclaimer: This zine is a The “History” of typography that very incomplete guide to is told often only refers to the the history, design, and use history of Latin-based typography of typogaphy. It is made (languages that came from Europe, from the perspective of e.g. Spanish, French, English, etc.). the English language and Non-Latin type is often lumped the Latin/Roman alphabet into the “ethnic” category. This (which are the letters we Eurocentric perspective ignores are using here). thousands of years of typographic developments in other parts of the How to use this zine: We world, particularly the global South have tried to use written (Latin America, Africa, and Asia). and visual explanations for every section. Words Latin-based type spread through highlighted in italics are colonization to all parts of terms that explained in the the world. Languages were glossary at the end of the “Romanized,” meaning that zine. Images are all sourced the Latin alphabet replaced the from WikiCommons unless original characters used in a otherwise specified. language. As an example, the Romanized Thai letter “ฦๅ” is “lue.” Adding to this, English has become the dominant language of the world (or lingua franca) through the spread of capitalism, DID YOU KNOW? media, culture, etc. In Vietnam, after the Romanization of Vietnamese by the French colonizers in the early 20th century, there DID YOU KNOW? has been a recent revival The numerals (1, 2, 3) that of Chũ’ Nôm (or 字喃), the we use along with the previous script (original Latin alphabet (A, B, C) are and newly made Chinese Arabic, rather than the actual characters) that represented “Roman” numerals (I, IV, X). Vietnamese sounds. - 6 - TYPE CLASSIFICATIONS A typeface is a designed set of Though there are no definitive numbers, characters, and symbols categories of typefaces, there is with shared characteristics, also a basic system for classification known as a font family. Each for Latin-based scripts, developed typeface is a collection of fonts in the 19th century by French that share design elements, for designer Maximilien Vox. This example, the typeface Courier commonly used system is the Vox ATypl standardized in the 1950s, New includes the fonts: Courier which divides typefaces into 11 New Bold, Courier New Italic, and Courier New classes. Here are some of the Bold Italic. common classifications: Humanist (15th c.): The first Slab Serif (19th c.): A bold, blunt, Latin letterform based on classical and angular typeface with block calligraphy. It represents elegance, serifs first used in advertising. history, fragility, and craft. .JPG iaction F I SS A L C Transitional (mid-18th c.): Sharp Geometric (20th c.): Typefaces & high contrast (thick & thin lines), are around geometric shapes, e.g. M/2012/04/ co considered shocking at the time. perfect triangles and circles. ESS. R P ORD LES.W I M2012.F ANCT M Modern/Didone (late-18th c.): Transitional (20th c.): Sans serif itt L A Extreme contrast between thick Y (without serifs), uniform, and A and thin lines, with fine serifs (the upright typefaces, e.g. the well- P://M tt small lines at the ends of a letter). known Helvetica (1957). H - 7 - Technology and Typography Typography, in addition to the design and arrangement of type, is closely linked with the printed FUN FACT page. Unlike lettering, handwriting, Developed in 7th C, or graffiti, which is about creating Kufic is the oldest letterforms, typography requires calligraphic form of a system that can reproduce and Arabic scripts, popularly repeatedly use those letterforms. used in manuscripts As Dutch typographer Gerrit for the following 300 Noordzij said, typography is years (though Iraq’s “writing with prefabricated letters.” contemporary national This section explores the tools and flag uses a kufic script). technologies used in producing type, drawing from related histories of writing, engraving, printing, typing, and computing. Writing with prefabricated letters. WRITING FUN FACT The basic elements of typography Blackletter is the first developed alongside the earliest Latin-based typeface. It writing systems, from pictographic was designed to mimic and ideographic to phonetic Italian calligraphy in and alphabetic systems. Writing medieval manuscripts. systems spread with the invention of paper, which is often attributed to Ts’ai Lin in 105CE China. Before pulp-based paper, many writing surfaces had been widely used for millennia, including plant- (papyrus) and animal-based (parchment) materials. - 8 - ENGRAVING PRINTING Modern typography comes from We are usually told that a history of hand engraving, Gutenburg invented the printing from ancient seals, currency, press in 1436. But, we aren’t told to headstones. Early examples that this is only true from an of engravings that could be European perspective. 400 years reproduced date back to 2nd earlier, the first recorded moveable century Buddhist scriptures type system made of wood was carved into stone (originally for created in China, and a metal preservation). Paper was placed version was invented in Korea onto the stone and charcoal was in 1230CE. As we talked about rubbed creating a print of white earlier, the history of typography is text on black background. Until usually coming from a European moveable type was invented, the perspective, so parallel and reproduction of texts relied on the preceding histories like this are laborious process of engraving often unacknowledged. Moveable characters in reverse (black text type (using metal and casting on white paper) for woodblock methods to create a type block printing. for each character) revolutionized and created what we now know as “typography.” Historically, the typesetter also cut their own FUN FACT typefaces, set the type, designed the page, and printed the pages. In 768CE, a Japanese Buddhist embarked on the first recorded experiment =00229 for mass circulation, L disseminating 1 million H/?R IC E/ prayers prints in 6 years. TUR L CU G/ OR . co ES UN P://WWW. tt H - 9 - HttP://DIGitaL.LIB.WASHINGton.EDU/FINDINGAIDS/PERMALINK/INTErnationaLTYPOGRAPHICALUNION5370/ TYPING in typewriter of the The invention a personalized created 1860s the pressing, letter with relationship common becoming the quickly personal and professional for tool of the The role communication. replacing largely emerged, typist craftsperson. type the FUN FACT The International Union was Typographic first national labour the US founded union in the to (expanded in 1852 and Canada in 1869 became “International”), one of the and was women to include first They also were members. push for in the important 8-hour workday. the - 10 - - 10 FUN FACT COMPUTING The standard QWERTY The rise of personalized keyboard layout was computers in the 1980s established by Sholes & fundamentally changed the role Glidden in 1874, based on of the type specialist.