Typography

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 (leading), and letter-spacing (tracking), and adjusting the space between pairs of letters (kerning). 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 a decorative device, unrelated to communication of information.

Typography is performed by typesetters, compositors, typographers, graphic designers, art directors, manga artists, comic book artists, graffiti artists, and anyone else who arranges type for a product. Until the Digital Age, typography was a specialized occupation. Digitization opened up typography to new generations of previously unrelated designers and lay users, and David Jury, head of graphic design at Colchester Institute in England, states that "typography is now something everybody does."

History

The history of typography starts with the invention of movable type in East Asia and the printing press in Europe. Movable type was invented by Bi Sheng around 1040 AD, which made printing possible. The printing press was invented by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century, which made the mass production of books affordable and much more efficient.

Types of Typography

There are many different types of typography, including:

• Body type is used for the main text in a printed work.
• Display type is used for headlines and other large type.
• Script type imitates handwriting.
• Decorative type is used for decoration and not for reading.

See also

• Typeface
• Font
• Graphic design
• Printing press
• Movable type

References

Typography Resources
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