Tag Archive: Type History

• A Comparative Study of the Development of the Gurmukhi Script (Part 2)

  The second part of Emma Williams’ impressive dissertation on the Gurmukhi script continues with a look at the development of the printed character in text typeface designs.

• Three Typefaces for Mathematics

  The most effective typefaces for mathematical notation are those that have been created or adapted especially for it, anticipating both the typographic and the technical issues involved. This extensive dissertation examines the…

• French Type Foundries in the Twentieth Century

  The value of this dissertation lies not only in what it imparts to the reader, but also in its rarity, since relatively little information on the recent history of type in France…

• The Eszett

  Every glyph in a typeface has its history. Some, like the Euro symbol, are mere infants when compared to letters of ancient Phoenician origin. The eszett, that most German of all contemporary…

• Father Truchet, the Typographic Point, the Romain du Roi, and Tilings

  Father Sébastien Truchet (1657–1729) is recognized as a mathematician (especially for “Truchet tilings”); however, very few typographers know that he is the real inventor of the typographic point or even that he…

• Giambattista Bodoni: Biografia

  A concise biography of one of the most prolific type makers and printers of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Here is Bodoni’s life in brief, year by year, in which his…

• The Story of Perpetua

  The story of the Perpetua typeface (and Felicity Italic) is one of ideology, politics, commerce and creativity. The thread which runs through it all is the collaboration between two passionate and headstrong…

• The Experimental Type Designs of William Addison Dwiggins

  A thorough and interesting dissertation about the lesser-known type designs from the man who brought us Electra, Metro, Caledonia and the term “graphic design.” Tiffany Wardle provides us with a brief biography…

• The Golden Age of Hand Lettering in American Advertising

  This article provides readers with a look at the period in early magazine advertising when hand lettering was prevalent. Influential lettering artists/type designers are considered, in particular T. M. Cleland who was…

• Punch Cuts: The Modern Page, 1843

  Through the example of Punch magazine, this article sets a frame for looking at the origins and characteristics of Victorian typography in an art historical and socio-economical context. Nick Shinn examines the…