Typography
The art and technique of arranging type for legibility and appeal.
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line spacing, letter spacing, and spaces between pairs of letters. The term typography is also applied to the style, arrangement, and appearance of the letters, numbers, and symbols created by the process. Type design is a closely related craft, sometimes considered part of typography; most typographers do not design typefaces, and some type designers do not consider themselves typographers. Typography also may be used as an ornamental and decorative device, unrelated to the communication of information.
- field
- Art and technique of arranging type
- known_for
- Making written language legible, readable, and appealing; movable type; typeface design; experimental typography
- etymology
- From Greek týpos 'type' + -graphía 'writing'
- earliest_evidence
- Second millennium BC brick stamps in Uruk and Larsa
Lore & Background
Typography traces its origins to the first punches and dies used to make seals and currency in ancient times. Uneven spacing of impressions on brick stamps from Mesopotamian cities of Uruk and Larsa, dating from the second millennium BC, may be evidence of type, wherein reuse of identical characters created cuneiform text. Babylonian cylinder seals were used to roll impressions on wet clay.
Reader's Guide
Wang Zhen pioneered wooden movable type, though repeated printing wore character faces down. Metal movable type was first invented in Korea during the Goryeo, c. His lead-based alloy suited printing so well it is still used today. Gutenberg's technical breakthrough started the Printing Revolution; the first book printed with lead-based movable type was the Gutenberg Bible. In the twentieth century, computers simplified typeface design, allowing hundreds of thousands of unique typefaces.
Did You Know?
- The word typography derives from Greek roots týpos 'type' and -graphía 'writing'.
- Bi Sheng invented movable type from ceramic materials during the eleventh-century Song dynasty in China.
- The term 'International Typographic Style' is used in relation to the international graphics of the 1920s–1930s.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Typography?
Typography is the craft of arranging written characters so that text becomes legible, readable, and visually appealing. It covers decisions about typeface choice, point size, line length, line and letter spacing, and the overall look of the letters, numbers, and symbols on a page.
What are the earliest known examples of Typography?
The oldest surviving evidence points to brick stamps found in the ancient cities of Uruk and Larsa, dating to the second millennium BC. These marks represent some of the first instances of arranging type for practical communication.
What does Typography actually involve in practice?
A typographer selects typefaces, sets point sizes, determines line lengths and spacing, and fine-tunes the gaps between individual letters and letter pairs to achieve a desired visual effect. The term also broadly covers the style and appearance of the resulting characters and symbols.
How is Typography different from Type Design?
Type design is the craft of creating the letterforms themselves, whereas typography is the arrangement of already-existing typefaces into readable, attractive layouts. Many typographers work exclusively with existing typefaces, and some type designers do not consider themselves typographers.
Where does the word 'Typography' come from?
The term is built from the Greek word týpos, meaning 'type' or 'imprint,' combined with the suffix -graphía, meaning 'writing.' Together they essentially describe the act of writing through the use of type.
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