Tag Archive: Type History

• David Hebrew: The First Multi-Style Hebrew Typeface Family

  Ismar David was a remarkable type designer who began creating an innovative Hebrew typeface design in the 1930s. The resulting multi-style family contained features that would be considered ground breaking for decades…

• Braille, A Tactile Writing System

  It would take a type designer well acquainted with Braille, the writing system used by the blind and the visually impaired, to arrive at the conclusion that even this centuries-old system of…

• Display Phototype in New York: Folks, Firms and Fonts

  There wasn’t a place on Earth that photocomposition had a greater visual effect than on the New York advertising scene in the mid-20th century. The liberation from the limitations of metal type…

• Trump Mediaeval: The Story of its Creation

  Trump Mediaeval is one of those versatile typefaces that book designers turn to when they want something decidedly different from the usual book types (Garamond et al.). Norbert Krausz tells the story…

• Frederic Warde: New York State of Mind

  The book and type designer Frederic Warde is little more than a phantom in most histories of type, known only for creating the typeface Arrighi, and for being the husband of the…

• The Scribe and the Silhouette

  Rudolf Koch (1876–1934) was an artist-craftsman of tremendous capabilities and one of the great type designers of the twentieth century. As a scribe, he created works in blackletter of such breathtaking energy…

• Of What Consequence, Design?

  This essay is an evaluation of how the Initial Teaching Alphabet was designed. Juliet Shen looks at the history and aesthetics of this curious “alphabet reform” which, amazingly, is still in use…

• Searching for Morris Fuller Benton

  The twentieth century went by with little being written about one of America’s most important type designers. The information on Morris Fuller Benton remained scant, partially because his work stood outside of…

• The Monotype 4-Line System for Setting Mathematics

  The companion piece to Rhatigan’s Three Typefaces for Mathematics, this essay looks closely at the version of the Monotype keyboard and caster used to set mathematics. After years of development in the…

• A Comparative Study of the Development of the Gurmukhi Script (Part 1)

  This dissertation is an excellent introduction to the non-latin script in the Punjab region straddling the border of India and Pakistan. Emma Williams guides the reader through the historical origins and original…