The History of Typography

I rewatched The History of Typography and was pleased to realize I'm beginning to understand the language of type. The video is not only visually compelling, but it's filled with information on this history of type classifications, what characteristics each classification possess, and the some examples of fonts to give a full picture snap shot of typography.

Some facts I picked up after watching the movie again:

Blackletter, the first typeface by Guttenberg, looked great when scribed, but had difficulties with legibility when printed. The introduction of Roman Type helped solve this issue. Because it was designed based off of straight lines and regular curves, the clean marks it made made it more legible and appear much lighter in weight compared to Blackletter.

Italics were initially created to save money. By setting type at an angle, it allowed printers to fit more letters on a page. We now use italics for emphasis.

One of my favorite parts of the video was when the comparisons between Old Style, Tranditonal, and Modern were all made within the same frame. It visually depicts the changes in type classifications over time in a concise manner, something that can be difficult to do without losing the attention of someone that doesn't know much about type. When it's shown this way, it becomes easier to understand:
Old Style has thick serifs and low contrast between thick and thin lines
Transitional has thinner serifs and high contrast between thick and thin lines
Modern has very thin serifs and extreme contrast between thick and thin lines

Advertising was a major influencer in type design. As marketing became more important, so did creating eye catching typography. Because of this, typefaces were made taller and bigger so they could be more visible on posters and billboards. This also opened the doors for experimentation in type design. Some were more successful than others, but this also lead to Egyptian typefaces or Slab Serif typefaces.

The last section of the movie touches on the different kinds of sans serif fonts. This was an area I felt pretty knowledgable about since my current project is on Gotham, a geometric sans serif.