Listening To Type Making Language Visible

273 Pages·2016·244.956 MB·

by  Alex W. White

Lester Beall Michael Bierut Ed Benguiat Morris Fuller Benton David Berlow
Aaron Burns Will Burtin Tom Carnase David Carson Matthew Carter
Firmin Didot Lou Dorfsman W.A. Dwiggins Robert Estienne Davis Farey
Clause Garamond Eric Gill MIlton Glaser Frederic W. Goudy April Greiman
Gerard Huerta Takenobu Igarashi Nicholas Kis Olaf Leu Zuzana Licko

Listening to Type
Greek source Meaning
Photography “phos” = light light drawing coined in 1834 by Hercules Florence shortly after its invention in the 1820s
Topography “topos” = place place drawing coined in ancient Greece
Stenography “stenos” = narrow constricted writing coined c1595 in England
Iconography “ikon” = likeness pictorial representation coined c1680 as a concentration in the growing area of art history
Biography “bios” = life life writing coined c1690
Lithography “lithos” = stone stone drawing coined c1805 shortly after its invention in 1797 by Alois Senefelder
therefore
Typography “typos” = form (letter)form drawing coined c1620
Listening to Type
Making Language Visible
Alex W. White
A spread from an early 20th-
century type book. For some,
this is a fascinating display
and gets the blood circulating
as powerfully as looking at the
selection in the cases in an ice
cream shop.
© 2016 by Alexander W. White
All rights reserved. Copyright under Berne Copyright
Convention, Universal Copyright Convention, and Pan-
American Copyright Convention. No part of this book
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without prior permission of the publisher.
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Published by Allworth Press
An imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
“Language is not an abstract
307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018
construction of the learned…
Book design, composition, and typography by
but is something arising out
Alexander W. White, New York, NY
of the work, needs, joys,
affections, and tastes of long
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
generations of humanity. Its
White, Alex W.
base is broad and low, close
Listening to Type: The Practical Philosophy of Typogra-
to the ground.” Walt Whitman,
phy / Alex W. White – 2nd Edition
Slang in America
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-62153-535-5
Ebook ISBN 978-1-62153-538-6
1. Type and type-founding
2. Graphic design (Typography)
2. Type and type-founding History 20th century.
3. Graphic design (Typography) History 20th century.
I. Title.
z250.w565 2005
686.2'21dc22
2004026955
Listening to Type
The Art of Making Language Visible
Contents
Preface vi
Introduction 1
Sect 1 Type and Design 7
Chap 1 What is type and where is it found? 9
Chap 2 The language of type 25
Chap 3 Space and type 55
Chap 4 Working type: type with jobs 75
Sect 2 What Readers Want 119
Chap 5 What makes readers respond 121
Chap 6 Readability, then legibility 131
“If you think you are capable
Chap 7 Typographic unity 139
of living without writing, do
not write.” Rainer Maria Rilke
Sect 3 Creativity 151
To which I add, “The same
Chap 8 Fresh vs. familiar 153
goes for designing.”
Chap 9 Type and identity 161
Chap 10 How to evolve type treatments 173
Chap 11 Type and imagery 185
Sect 4 Typography Timeline 199
Chap 12 Handwriting and lettering until 1449 200
Chap 13 Type 1450–1913 208
Chap 14 Type 1914–1945 224
Chap 15 Type 1946–1982 232
Chap 16 Type 1983 onward 240
Appendix: Twenty-six letters evolve over three eras 246
Glossary 248
Bibliography 255
Index 256
Colophon and Credits 260
Contents v
Preface
We have seen the evolution of type from
being professionally prepared and proofread
to just another responsibility among many of
the modern design professional. From 1450
through the early years of the 19th century,
the printer was the typesetter and, quite
often, the type designer as well. From the
early 1800s to the early 1900s, the printer
bought type from a foundry, a specialist who
frequently developed his own technology for
setting the characters. He thereby cornered
* Dwiggins (1880–1956) the market on his particular typefaces, so if
designed 280 books for a printer wanted an additional size or weight
Alfred A. Knopf, illustrated
or posture of type in a family, there was only
some, wrote extensively on
the one place to get it.
design, and developed type-
As the 20th century progressed, offset
faces, seventeen of which were
released by Linotype. Dwiggins lithography was improved to allow a print-
said, “I like to design type. Like ing plate to be made from a photographic
to jiggle type around and see
negative. Because this didn’t require pieces of
what comes out. Like to design
wood and metal to be organized on a wooden
“Quantum potes tantum aude” ornaments. Like paper. Like
chase, offset printing enabled a great deal
or “Whatever your talents, ink on paper. Like bright colors.
use them to their fullest.” Handicapped by clock.” more flexibility in the placement of design ele-
Beatrice Warde’s headstone, ments. Some printers found they enjoyed and
Surrey, England.
were skilled at the organization of materials
in readiness for this new kind of reproduction.
They evolved into “graphic designers,” a term
that was invented in 1922 by William Addi-
son Dwiggins.* These new graphic designers
began expanding the possibilities of printing
and technology. Letterforms and their spacing
became much more plastic: letterforms and
type became flexible and permutable.
In the mid-1980s, the computer became
a companion in designers’ offices. Through-
out the 1990s, the definition of designer
expanded to add the responsibilities of type-
setter, proofreader, and photo retoucher.
The computer has not yet proved to be our
labor-saving device. But it also profoundly
affected designers’ ability to make their own
letterforms, typefaces, and fonts, which in a
way takes us full circle back to the first few
hundred years of printing.
The greatest recent technical changes in
Thanks to Jenson, Griffo, type have taken place in the online sphere.
Arrighi, Garamond, Caslon, These changes happen so quickly it is unwise
Baskerville, Goudy, Tschichold,
to put them in a book because the informa-
Dwiggins, Preissig, and Men-
tion becomes out of date almost immediately.
hart, whose work has inspired
Typography cannot be faked. It is either
me to see beauty and define This book is dedicated in
type’s workability for myself. clear, interpretive of the content, and ap- loving memory of Honzížceek
K Carol Wahler and my fellow propriate to its message, or it is a random (1928–2014).
board members of The Type
treatment that only superficially looks daring
Directors Club, for the oppor-
and current. I am certain there is no Photo-
tunity to deepen my apprecia-
shop filter for instant typographic excellence.
tion of type and typography by
their association, and for ac- Typography can only be mastered one hard
cess to their extraordinary type lesson at a time. It is not for every designer
library. K Tad Crawford, for
because it requires a love for language and a
encouraging this book’s exis-
gift for details. But there are a double handful
tence. K Rocky, for making the
of common sense guidelines that will immedi-
office a much nicer place each
day. K And Eponymous. ately improve everyone’s use of type. I have
tried to put them all in this book.
a
Greenwich CT
Preface vii