Chapter 7 - Typographic Technology.
According to our book, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution really started with the invention of typography. I am not entirely sure if I believe this wholeheartedly, but I can see where the book is coming from and I agree with the reference. Typographic design has been in close relations with the evolution of technology, because as technology develops, the ability to create more kinds of type and produce them faster increases as well.
The first method of setting type that I would like to discuss is hand composition. This method is similar to the method used by Gutenberg when he invented movable type in 1450. A little side note (and also part of the reason why I chose to write about this specific method), I actually played Gutenberg in a play in fifth grade. In this play, we had a traditional chase containing type locked up and ready for printing. I actually got to talk about this invention and discuss its importance to our world today. For hundreds of years, hand composition was accomplished by assembling individual pieces of type into lines. Type was set letter by letter, line by line, until the desired setting was achieved. When necessary for the design, additional spaces were created in the line by inserting metal spacing material between words. Could you imagine have to do this? Actually sitting down to make a whole page of type by putting little pieces of lead into a chase one line at a time. Considering the technology we have now, I honestly think I would have gone crazy. Hand composition was tedious and time consuming, and was replaced by the invention of Linotype and Monotype machines. Although hand composition is not used as a practical means of producing type, it has been revived in recent years as an art form.
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