History of Typography

First and Second Typeface

Jan 1, 1455

Johannes Gutenburg created the first typeface called D-K Type. It comprised of 202 characters and was used to make the first books in Europe. He also made the second ever typeface, which was comprised of 300 characters. This typeface was used to print the 42-line Bible.

Creation of Roman Type

Feb 3, 1470

Nicholas Jenson created his own original Roman font in Venice 1470. Along side Nicholas, two others created their own tke on the Roman type. Their names were Francesco Griffo (1499) and Erhard Ratdolt (1486). They set the standards for future roman type.

Typography Introduced to France

Oct 9, 1470

it was introduced by German printers Martin Crantz, Michael Freyburger and Ulrich Gering. They set up a printing shop in Paris and printed with mostly gothic types. It wasn't until Josse Bade and Henri Estienne ,who set up their own printing shop, till Paris had seen the Roman type font.

Creation of Italic Type

Oct 9, 1499

Franceso Griffo, commissioned by Manutius, created the first italic type. Letters were slanted and their height was uneven. This style was very influencial and was widely copyed.

Italic Type Improved

Oct 9, 1527

Ludovico Arrighi designed a superior version of the italic type. It had taller roman capitals, a gentler slant angle, taller ascenders and wider separation of lines gave the effect of refined handwriting.

Roman Type in France

Oct 9, 1531

Roman type was introduced by three different people; Robert Estienne, Simon de Colines and Antoine Augereau. They each had their own takes on the roman font. The lower cases of Estienne and Augereaus' fonts were used and copied for 150 years.

Garamond

Oct 9, 1541

Claude Garamond created a sequence of greek fonts for the King Francis I of France. Garamond font is still used to this day.

Fell Types

Oct 9, 1670

Created by Dutch puncutter Dirck Voskens. It had shorter extenders, higher stroke contrast, narrowing of round letters, and flat serifs on the baseline and descenders.

Caslon

Oct 9, 1734

The gun engraver-turned-punchcutter William Caslon spent 14 years creating the stable of typefaces. Caslon type and its imitations were used throughout the expanding British empire.

Baskerville

Oct 9, 1772

Created by John Baskerville, it was a(n) Roman- Itallic type. His designs did not appear to quote any other fonts.