COP1: Chronologies: Type - Production & Distribution

• Definition of Typography
• The art and technique of printing with movable type.
• The composition of printed material from movable type.
• The arrangement and appearance of printed matter.

"Type is what language looks like" - Ellen Lupton, Thinking with type.

"Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form" - Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style.

"The written word endures...the spoken word disappears" - Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death.

• The ancient Egyptians were one of the earliest civilisations to start using symbols as a means of communication through hieroglyphics.
• Mesopotamia (specifically, ancient Sumer) 3200 BCE
• To the west of Mesopotamia were occidental and to the east were oriental speaking countries.
• Trade and Communication - Pictograms lost their early form and became conventional signs. These signs could indicate an object or could be used for their phonetical value.
• One of the most influential finds in 1799 revealed Egyptian, Demotic and Greek text on the Rosetta Stone, which dates back to 196BC

The first true alphabet was the Greek Alphabet, which was adapted from the Phoenician. Latin, the most widely used alphabet today, is a further development of the Greek. 

• the Egyptian ox head symbol was adapted over time time to have the same meaning as the letter A. It went from Egyptian Apis, to Phoenician Aleph, to Greek Alpha to Roman A.
• "true alphabets consistently assign letters to both consonants and vowels on an equal basis"
• when looking at a paragraph of text were the letters in each word are in the wrong place, our brains can still understand what the intended words are that the writer is trying to communicate.

The origins of type and letterforms

• Johannes Gutenberg - 4783. The original first ever printing press was under construction in approximately 1436.
• 1870 - William Foster introduces the Elementary Education Act. This meant for the first time ever people would receive the education that had previously only been given to those of higher class or of the church.