Stephanie Tatoiu - Chapter 7 Reflection

Chapter 7 Reflection: Typographic Technology

This chapter revolved around the idea of typographic technology, and how the invention of typography has been called the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. It explains that typographic design has been closely attached to how technology has evolved over the years. The limitations of typesetting systems have produced constraints on typographers. I enjoyed this chapter because I didn’t expect that typography underwent such a long, complicated history of different machines that slowly made it easier to make typography. It started with simply using hand composition, where a person would assemble individual pieces of type into lines. The typographer had to set the type in letter by letter, and line by line. This must have been extremely tedious and difficult to do, especially when writing multiple lines.

When hand composition was replaced with the invention of the Linotype though, things became much easier. I was amazed by how enormous and complex the Linotype machine was. Manually entering in letters and lines was obviously a huge hassle and people needed an easier way to put type together. The machine was important because it was the first step toward automated typography. More machines followed after the Linotype. Afterwards came the Monotype, which was efficient for setting type because it was easier to make corrections for individual letters; a typographer wouldn’t have to change complete lines just to fix a mistake. Then, the Ludlow was created, which was used to display type for headlines and other purposes that needed large typefaces. In 1950, keyboard phototypesetters were created, which were much flexible and fast, compared to hot-metal typesetting machines. All these machines finally led to arranging type in a digital computer, which set and processed type as speeds that people never knew were possible. Digital typesetting technology is constantly improving and evolving. It changed how people looked at typographic communication. Each typographic process had its own place in technology’s evolution, and without each new innovation, typography would have been very different today.