EARLIER DEVELOPMENTS

First alphabet - greatly simplified system of writing using ideograms to represent all 22 consonants (1300 BC)

http://www.wam.umd.
edu/~rfradkin/latin.html

First punctuation - found on Moabite stone (875 BCE)

Uncials - round letters easy to write with a pen

1/2 uncials - first ascenders and descenders (lowercase) forerunner of miniscule

Carolingian Miniscule - 2nd phase of handwriting; evolved into humanistic hand (1400 CE)

Most info on this page found in the book The Complete Typographer, Christopher Perfect. Little Brown and Company, 1992

Type Faces

Humanist - Early Roman Types (1460/70s) based on humanistic handwriting with the addition of serrifs to the lowercase letters; from these types the term Roman is derived sample

Old Style - Italy Has a diagonal bias, not much contrast, bracketed serrifs; a deliberate movement away from type copied from human hand, this one responded to the printing process by being more finely cut, more open and highly legible (1450) - France Garamond makes one with a more even letter fit (1530-85 Golden Age of French Typography) - Netherlands due to church related exodus out of France, Netherlands became typography hot spot; Dutch Old Style - sharply cut letters, greater contrast between thick and thin strokes (end of 16th century) England - Caslon cut his type which had a strong Dutch influence (all types previously imported into england due to trade laws) but more vertical emphasis and contrast (18th century)

Transitional - (early 17th century) more vertical bias, little more contrast; Name adopted later to describe the connection between Old Style and Modern. Baskerville, resurrected in early 20th century

Modern - (late 17th century) abrupt contrast between the strokes of thick and thin letters, vertical stress and hairline, straight unbracketed serrifs; the invention of the engraving tool enabled delicate letterforms to be cut, and smoother paper made it possible to print them successfully

Fat Faces - display types made by fattening the thick letter strokes, reducing the weights of serrifs, and cutting them in larger paper sizes; primary benifit was noticibility in an era of typographic overkill (1800-1850)

Square, or slab serrif - had unbracketed serrifs which were the same thickness as the stem of the letter giving them a monotone and mechanical look that exemplified the spirit of the new industrial age (1817-present)

Sans Serrif or Gothic- (Optima, Helvetica or Caslon, Goudy) a monoline type - all the strokes are of the same thickness (earliest 1816, grew in use in 1830s)

Decorative / Novelty - handwritten manuscripts that predate the invention of movable type are the original source of many decorative typefaces (earliest 1690) spawned the character level attributes we use today - inline, outline, reversed, condensed, expanded, as well as distorted, shaded, floriated. (1800-1850s)