Description
Book SynopsisType Specimens introduces readers to the history of typography and printing through a chronological visual tour of the books, posters, and ephemera designed to sell fonts to printers, publishers, and eventually graphic designers. This richly illustrated book guides design educators, advanced design students, design practitioners, and type aficionados through four centuries of visual and trade history, equipping them to contextualize the aesthetics and production of type in a way that is practical, engaging, and relevant to their practice. Fully illustrated throughout with 200 color images of type specimens and related ephemera, the book illuminates the broader history of typography and printing, showing how letterforms and their technologies have evolved over time, inspiring and guiding designers of today.
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Early Broadsides Early broadsides: form and function Pragmatic beginnings - the Ratdolt specimen of 1486 Patterns of circulation Multi-tasking - specimens serving multiple purposes Broadsides: a lasting form
2: Printers’ Manuals Printers' manuals: form and funtion Shaping print culture Establishing shared knowledge and expectations Expanding typographic options Standardizing printing vocabularies Expressing visual styles Evolving tastes Conclusion
3: Foundry Specimen Books Formats and functions Comprehensive documentation Elaborate display Commercial utility Stylistic instruction International circulation Missionary zeal Centers and peripheries Conclusion
4: Industrial Methods and Materials Tools for economizing Saving time, materials and money Standardization of form Organizational redesign - ATF's example Tools for mechanization Reproduction - electrotyping and the pantograph Experiments with machine casting and composition Wood types as "new" tools An American (?) invention Advantages of wood type Advertising at large scale Conclusion
5: Hot Metal Hot metal: how and why Benefits Drawbacks New formats for the specimen Mega-books Loose-leaf binders and supplements 1-line specimens Roles of the specimen Commercial catalogs instruction manuals Display devices for "good" mechanical type Differentiation and cooperation Programmatic world views Conclusion
6: Ephemera New formats Supplements to binder systems Leaflets and brochures Emerging aesthetic trends Revisiting history Defining modernity Networks of circulation Imports, exports and adaptations Cultural specificity and stereotyping Local, specific, and vernacular forms - Cyrillic and Hebrew Conclusion
7: Photographic and Binary Processes Phototype: "inherently superior" "Swift & Exact": how phototypesetting works Typography, dematerialized Attitudes toward technology Inferiority - "the hand is the guide" Innovation - "interesting possibilities" Multiplicity - "for case, matrix, and film" Conclusion - toward a digital future
Postlude: Digital Type, Diverse Futures Bibliography Image Credits Index
