A Brief History of Type

A clear and approachable introduction to the 600-year history of this critically important - and too often overlooked - art form.

Type is all around us - in the books we read, the signs that orient us, and across the screens we're glued to. The staggering range of typographic forms that passes over our eyes on a daily basis influences us in subtle ways. Why did diverse typographic forms originate, and what factors influenced their evolution over time?

In ten chronologically-linked stories from the 1400s onwards, A Brief History of Type examines the revolutionary moments in typographic history, including the major players, technological processes, and formal practices relevant to the development of each new type. These compelling narratives offer an accessible entry into an extensive subject and, along with illustrations and extensive resources, a road map for further study. Whether you're a designer looking to better apply type in your studio practice, or simply possess a keen interest in art, writing systems, or cultural history, this book will expand your appreciation of the letters you interact with every day.

Stories include:

- Two French printers at the start of the Italian Renaissance who were the first to use varying font sizes within a page for navigation
- An Italian scribe who combined handwriting style text with inscriptional capitals in the 1450s to create the still-used roman type
- The UK's industrial revolution of the late 1700s and its impact on the development of display type
- How the development of computer code at the end of the twentieth century broke Europe's stranglehold on type foundries and allowed complex scripts like Devanagari and Chinese to be accurately reproduced